Chestnut – The Original Wolfman
Similar artists: Cat Power, Kim Gordon, Angel Olsen,
Genre: Dream Pop, Alternative Rock
Goth music used to make people outside of the scene stare in wide-eyed amazement at the parade of black-clothed people who were on the scene. It sounded and looked like the most extreme modern art form of its kind, bar performance artists hurting themselves as part of an exhibit.
But things have changed. In an era dominated by a constant flow of negative news, goth music may just be the most peaceful genre. Not just that, but the people making this kind of music appear as some kind of visionary peaceniks. While the rest of the world seems to be hellbent on burning itself out, the goth inhabits an almost meditative space.
Chestnut’s The Original Wolfman nocturnal sound may be just right for Halloween, but it also serves to provide a calming effect. After all, the monsters that you can see aren’t really monsters at all, and the danger that is to be expected at any second is one for which one can prepare. Furthermore, the darkness that this kind of music always implies or summons feels like a blessing with so much that ought not to be shown instead.
soundcloud.com/user-353669583/the-original-wolfman
Gitkin – Whaya
Similar artists: Kit Sebastian, Khruangbin, Orions Belte, Babe Rainbow
Genre: Surf Rock, Psychedelic Rock
The only things that are truly exotic nowadays are the ones that have the potential to mess with your brain. Music is one of the few things still capable of eliciting such reactions. This is not only a compliment of music’s transformative powers but also to the way in which technology has blurred borders between people.
In doing so, however, it has also made faraway places a little… unexciting. Why, in the early 1980s, Joe Jackson could boast about sitting on a beach in Bali or about smoking a pipe in Casablanca and it would all seem so exotic? I dare even take a guess and say that the line about avocado juice aiding people in helping them live forever also landed. But, what about now when all these things can be seen and experienced by many people in developed countries?
There are still ways to gaze at mysterious paradises, as Gitkin’s Whaya beautifully shows. This is music that takes what you think you know and what you certainly do not know and throws blue-colored spring water over everything. Its music is short on descriptions but that, nonetheless, seems to suggest the original exploratory journeys towards unknown lands. There are still places to discover, and music remains one of the best tools in those searches.
