neu – わらって(waratte)
The Enlightenment figures, I’m sure, will be happy to know that some of their dreams have come true. Chief among them is the fact that the world is now connected, and people, for the most part, have a greater understanding of each other regardless of the physical distance between them. You should instantly find common ground while speaking to someone from the other side of the world.
It’s great that we are an interconnected, global unit. But it is also nice to acknowledge that things are still done differently in one place from another. That’s enough to make travelling or learning about the world exciting. That’s enough to understand that people are, indeed, different and that specialization still exists. Rock music cannot possibly stray from these rules.
Math rock, in many ways, has replaced progressive rock as a music genre. There are bands who operate within it from across the world. But nobody can seemingly do it more convincingly than Japanese bands. neu’s “わらって(waratte)” is not just a perfect example of this, but a song that can serve as your demonstration the next time that someone asks you what math rock is all about.
The song is beautifully melodic yet as rigid as a large block of stone. It features well-sung, strong melodies, but there’s an air of detachment to everything. Above all, it involves a tremendous amount of skill, but one that is brought to the service of the song itself. One can’t help but assume that the Japanese have an advantage over everyone when it comes to these things.
Mason van Kraayenburg – Lynx (ft. Plural)
Why can’t we just share a moment together? That’s a thought that many modern people have, but seemingly nobody is operating in the music industry. Songs are getting shorter, and the attention span of the people meant to appreciate them shrinks. This may sound like no big deal, but it’s something that keeps spreading the feeling that the world is moving quicker, that nothing lasts, that nobody is able to catch their breath.
Of course, the progressive rock bands of the 1970s, which ruled over the charts briefly but with an iron fist, took things too far. They would play songs that ran the length of half of an album. But there was something to be said about getting thousands of people in an arena and getting them to experience one single piece of music for such a length of time. It was, really, a collective meditation using guitars.
Mason van Kraayenburg and Plural believe in taking your time, exploring your surroundings, and using this philosophy for the song “Lynx.” It’s a lengthy song that flows slowly and that may be best appreciated should you decide to lie down on a soft surface and close your eyes. It’s not music to take in quickly and then replace with something completely different. In fact, “Lynx” is part of an ambitious project that includes no less than 88 compositions, each representing one of the constellations. We should all get a chance to take a breather and share a moment together. As with the majority of other things, music is here to help us with our needs.
