
Nighdrator – Frigid
Similar artists: MSPAINT, Skinman, Cherished, Chelsea Wolfe, Emma Ruth Rundle
Genre: Stoner Rock, Shoegaze
The world is often a terrible place. And what’s worst, the world won’t even care for our suffering. This is the place where Nighdrator’s music begins.
Pop music has accumulated quite an archive. Nearly every topic has at least a few famous songs that were written about it. Nearly all of them are accessible with a mouse click. Any mood, theme, or even choice of instrumentation is widely available to us. Do all of these deserve songs to be written about them?
The answer is that some might deserve further investigation than others. For example, it’s the darkness and depression that most functional people manage to keep at arm’s length that makes for a fascinating topic. Sadly, the vast majority of people who pick up an electric guitar and try to channel their emotions through it have no idea how to approach this territory.
Nightrador sound like a band that has given colossal chunks of time to meditating about cold, harsh climates, as can be heard on “Frigid.” It’s an uncompromisingly large, loud, nasty sound, the kind that feels made out of a pure need for self-expression rather than a bid for fame. And, best of all, the pummeling noise makes Nightrador sound like the kind of people who know what they’re talking about, not mere silly Apocalypse-season planners.
salamander – xylem
Similar artists: Swirlies, SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE, Horse Jumper of Love, Stereolab
Genre: Shoegaze, Lo-fi Rock, Indie Rock
salamander recognize the saddening thinning out of bands that create mysterious, hypnotic musical presentations. The band offers to help.
You should never strive to meet your rock heroes. Not if they’re any good. You’re better off choosing heroes from entirely different fields and trying to meet them. Your favorite writer will be as clever and morose as you expect them to be. A great public speaker might hit you with a good quote if you ever bump into them at a gas station. And actors should know how to turn on the charm regardless of the setting in which they encounter them.
Rock musicians, however, are a strange bunch. Sure, the new brand of rockstars knows how to play nicely. If you ever meet them, some will invite you over to sip fresh lemonade, while others will jump on the opportunity to make up stories of terrible debauchery. But both are lies. The great rockstars are the ones that would either try to shoot you or get you involved in something just as dangerous.
salamander’s “xylem” is purposely designed to sound like the music made by a strange cult. That may not be factually accurate. But it is what we used to think that the very best rockstars used to do. The sound “xylem” is slow, hypnotic. It’s the kind of maneuvering that attempts to get the listeners as disconnected from the outside world as possible. And I, for one, would like to believe the band.