
Kai Tak – “Flood The Harbour”
Similar artists: Tamaryn, There’s Talk
Genre: Post-Punk, Gothic / Dark Wave, Shoegaze
Dreams can be a wonderful thing – an escape for people looking to find shelter from the pace of the modern world or to live out the fantasies that reality cannot accommodate. Dreams can also be a terrifying thing – a hell created in one’s own mind that’s not easily escapable. Strangest still, for all of us who have not acquired the skills of lucid dreaming, there’s little that we can do to decide what we are going to get.
For the most part, dreams follow our subtle obsessions, the things that our mind notices time and time again. These are patterns that, often, we don’t actively know we are picking up on. People obsessed with structure tend to blend this into their dreams, and those who always notice chaos will do the same. It’s strange, but not unheard of, to have people who are obsessed with both these things.
Kai Tak’s “Flood The Harbour” has a distinctive dream-like vibe, a kind of fantasy about a world coming together and falling apart over and over again. The song is powered by an ethereal musical arrangement and vocals that carry a distinctive tinge of melancholy and regret. Most interestingly, nothing about this sounds forced. It all seems to have been created through a kind of trance-like state, a dream about the world as it might become.
Shaky – Earthquake
Similar artists: The Clash
Genre: Post-Punk, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
Rock musicians, like boxers, are none to make incredible claims. If it’s a really good quote, it will get plastered all over the papers and online sites. But, one day, there’ll be no escape, and they’ll need to step into a ring and prove their claims. If those were greatly exaggerated, the loss would feel all the more painful, and critics would have an open shot.
The Clash once claimed to be the only band that matters. That sounded great to everyone expect to Sex Pistols and all the other bands with more musical ability than Joe Strummer and his mates. But then The Clash took their own words seriously and started adopting sounds from every genre that they heard. They brought in reggae, rap, and jazz. They grew as musicians and they made their choices work.
Shaky’s “Earthquake” is written with a similar kind of beautiful arrogance as The Clash, as well as with an ear out for a good hook that, at first, sounds like it wouldn’t belong in a rock song. It’s the kind of tune that Strummer might have considered for “Combat Rock,” the sound of world music turned into pop-friendly rock about inevitable revolution. And it’s a mighty great find!