Mostly Frogs – Grape Vape
Music genres rarely exist anymore and the opportunity for a veteran of a particular scene to start yelling at a younger disciple for not adhering wholeheartedly to the recommended list of approved bands does not exist anymore.
Music nowadays can be, on occasion, bewildering, frightening and, most often than not, incredibly funny. A lot of musical projects resemble one of those big-budget comedies that Hollywood throws at the world whenever their biggest stars have too much time on their hands. “Let’s get the Hemsowrth brothers and Adam Sandler disguise themselves as cowboys trying to sneak into North Korea.”
But we expect all of that. We demand that our music be a little fucked up. It started out with Captain Beefheart writing absurd compositions on his piano, and the flame was kept burning by every single garage band that just wanted to “jam out, man!”
Mostly Frogs keep the dream alive. The project is as much a jam band as it is an opportunity for wise, experienced musicians to stroke their chin hair. “Grape Vape” is so messed up, in fact, that it even manages to integrate reggae grooves at some point before venturing back into bone-shattering virtuoso alt-rock. It’s the kind of world that Flea and Les Claypool have worked their whole careers to leave behind for the young ones. That world is still being built one jam at a time by the likes of Mostly Frogs.
Carlos Atlantis – Total empati
Artists are people who wake up, if lucky, in their beds, furniture that’s placed firmly in the real world, and they spend the rest of their waking hours dreaming up worlds that don’t exist and trying to get others to move into them.
And, in an era obsessed, once again, with efficiency, with superficiality, and with the responsibilities of modern man, artists may turn out to be more valuable than ever. With everyone looking to escape and not enough tickets being sold, it’s up to someone to dream up some new destinations.
Most artists, unapologetically, advertise escapism. Carlos Atlantis are a band that does it, and so do the dream-pop and psych-rock groups that inspired them. But what’s wrong with that? And who’s to say that when you finally wake up, reality won’t seem more appealing than it ever did?
Carlos Atlantis’ “Total empati” is a song covered in doubts and hopefulness. However, in truth, it’s the sound of it and the production used across it that tell you the most about the band and its intentions. Carlos Atlantis makes music for dreamers who still ache for great escapes, fantastic adventures, and for good company willing to listen to their stories once they return. Carlos Atlantis is the sound of modern optimism, the hope that once you wake up in your bed tomorrow, the world will cease to be the same.
