MikroBrute – Stress
Acoustic guitars still get sold by the boatloads. People are still paid to get and tune pianos. And, if you run a quick internet search, you’re bound to locate a social club that meets every Friday to read out loud song lyrics to each other.
Don’t worry! Nothing that was ever truly part of popular culture ever goes away entirely. However, you’ll have to admit that finding artists who use acoustic guitars, piano ballads and touching lyrics to sing songs about the world hasn’t exactly been in fashion for a long time.
MikroBrute delights in this, and so do other artists who have taken a look around, analysed the needs of modern audiences and provided them with the tense sounds and robotic sounds that, for the most part, perfectly soundtrack the modern world’s anxieties.
MikroBrute’s “Stress” sounds like walking down into an underground hosting a cool party where every single guest is dressed in black. Is it modern music? Yes, and no. This could just as well be electronica made during the 1990s. But across these decades, these sounds perfectly captured what most of us feel like. We’re pushed to the limit, looking for an escape, and ready to dance it all off until the fears no longer have any power over us.
KRAMON – Change
At the end of the day, every single time that a songwriter pens a tune, their intention must match the characteristics of the music. There’s no escape from that. Write something as grandiose as “Bohemian Rhapsody” and make it about morning cereal, and audiences will laugh. Write something as direct as “Blitzkrieg Bop” and intend to have it be about the plight of the modern working man, and nobody will notice.
What artists like KRAMON understand is where to put their weight in order to create the emotional impact. They also understand that this is no longer the era of bands of musicians all playing at the same time. How could you have done this in the past? Can you imagine a heavy metal band where the guitarist only plays on the choruses, the drummer only plays the verses, and the singer whispers most of the song? That would’ve been great, but how would you have convinced the musicians to do it?
KRAMON’s single “Change” more than anything shows a remarkable understanding of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to the attention of modern audiences. This is all due to the extensive experience of the songwriter and to a natural flair. The soulfulness of the music is emphasised by working on the dynamics of this electro folk-pop arrangement, just as if KRAMON’s instrumentals were being programmed using loopers and the knack to launch the right track at the right time. “Change” is a cleverly pieced-together song.
