Talking Violet – Delusional
Chances are that while you were hunting for the greatest guitar players of the past decades, you’ve been missing out on a few great ones. See, while some of the ones inspired by Edward van Halen’s guitar gymnastics were struggling to learn to play Eruption-style solos, others were teaching themselves to make their instruments sound like waves crashing down on a beach.
For these musicians, the instruments were merely a tool to create brand new walls of sound. Their goal was not to show off but rather to engulf their audience into cascading ripples of sounds. Much of this may have started with Kevin Shields’ vision for a new direction for modern psychedelia. However, the use of colour and the sheer sense of purpose of shoegaze has grown over recent decades.
Talking Violet’s Delusional is a prime example. If the original hosts of shoegaze groups may have opted for esoteric lyrics and subject matter, the Canadians opt to reveal themselves at their most vulnerable. And, for those looking to get their dream-pop fix, there’s also a colossal construction of intricate guitar sounds to delve into. In doing so, Talking Violet find an excellent balance between the personally meaningful and the abstract.
Griffith James & Tennis – Market and Black
Childhood memories bless or haunt us every day in our would-be adult lives. Most of us don’t even know it, and instead, blame our misfortune or praise our luck on our own cleverness. It only makes sense that we would do that. Most of these memories aren’t really in focus.
Brief glimpses of them appear from time to time, usually provoked by some mysterious element that stirs them up. That’s, maybe, one of the reasons why people choose to undergo analysis and have these important past events be revealed to them. Others use self-expression as a tool to open themselves up to the past.
Griffith James’s debut single Market and Black, and the expressive accompanying video, are a hallucinatory look at the past. Both the song and the visuals play like a movie being shown in a remote part of the artist’s overworked imagination. The indie-pop tune is given a powerful nudge by the graceful singing of Tennis’ Alaina Moore. Market and Black is self-analysis and diagnosis through music creation. The result is just as fascinating for those looking on to James’ work.
