Crawford Smith – Seen
Nintendocore, dungeon synth, vaporwave. When we’ll look back at the cultural significance of the past ten years, we may just see it as a time when the internet made music become very specific about its influences. Meme-driven and with a network of weirdos just waiting for the latest in strange sounds and shows, these represent avantgarde music for modern times.
The difference between these artists and say Throbbing Gristle’s walls of pummeling, steelmills with a beat sound is that the tongue-in-cheek, inside joke potential of these genres makes them potentially palatable to audiences across the world. No more do these artists have to face the seemingly impossible task of explaining just what it is they do to a music label exec. The internet is their own distribution channel.
With that in mind, I hope you’re ready for Twin-Peaks-core, as I have affectionately begun referring to Crawford Smith’s Seen. With its video and 50s crooner sound, Seen could squeeze easily into practically any season of David Lynch’s bizarre, surreal masterpiece. Pretty, yet unsettling, Smith has already learned that the best way to make something scary is to play everything straight, or, at least as much as you can when singing in a tiny pink room flanked by dancers wearing lobster cardigans.
Purple Witch of Culver – Malibu’s Passing
I’ve always been intrigued by people who manage to recall their dreams and describe them in great detail. There’s always something terribly exciting, or down right scandalous going on in them. It’s far superior, usually, from what their actual life is like.
I listen to these stories with envy and a bit of distrust. A great majority of the dreams that I am able to recall are simply confusing. Characters float in and out of them. Sure, they do things, but nothing spectacular. I find myself in locations that I don’t quite care for, nor do I hate. It feels like someone trying to make a low-budget picture with a William S. Burroughs short-story at its core.
That’s the reason why I found Purple Witch of Culver’s Malibu’s Passing absolutely charming. Yes, it’s a very well-built song. It reminds me of something off Dark Side of The Moon. However, it hardly makes an effort to piece elements together in a coherent fashion. It sounds like switching through various people’s thoughts like going through the radio dial. For all these reasons, it might just be the best music to play ahead of going to bed. It may not improve the quality of your dreams, but it just might give them an appropriate background.
