LUC – Glow
Genre: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
There are a few things that made the drum machines superior to any drummer one might hope to employ. First of all, they play with incredible precision the parts that a normal drummer would get bored of and start to complicate for no reason. Secondly, they don’t ask for food or money. Thirdly, they don’t complain.
Classic rock, the genre that prized screamed, bluesy vocals and towering guitar solos above everything else, allowed everyone the chance to dance. The rhythmic pattern of the music was loose enough, and so the moves that accompanied it could be as well. Funk and disco played the dancefloor like Sergent drilling new recruits.
LUC’s Glow picks up on those traits and delivers a neo-noir disco number. This is dance music made for people who never break a sweat, smile, or have to run to the bathroom to fix their hair. It’s sexy, mathematical precision. It’s robotic, yet mysterious. LUC touches on something vital for our modern age, the soulful and soulless, with this single.
Arswain – Flat Time
Genre: Experimental Electronic, Synthwave
There’s only so much of a good thing that one can have. Whether we prefer to admit it, or not, there are limits to how much we can do the things we would normally like, and continue to enjoy them. Put differently, our brains will only accommodate so much excitement in one go. That’s one of the reasons why people who have suffered from addiction for a long time, find the mental strain of recovery to be the toughest part of getting better.
If you’re a music fan this might ring true. Hearing your favourite band every single day is difficult after all. Hearing music featuring choruses, verses and hooks are difficult after a while. Even, hearing people speak gets terribly taxing after some time. The mind needs familiarity, but it also needs tranquillity. In many ways, ambient music, like the kind that was pioneered by Brian Eno, is a requirement, particularly, for long-serving fans of popular music.
Not all ambient is created equal, of course. The very best artists work as architects with things that immediately act upon the temperature of human emotion. Arswain’s Flat Time is one of those tracks. This is an ambitious journey through the bone marrow of a city. It’s the music that comes off the walls and the sidewalks. It’s not always pretty, but it sure helps point the way North.
