Fantømex – Gaslight
Genre: Post-Punk, Alternative Rock
Similar artists: At the drive-in, mewithoutYou, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
It’s harder to walk the straight line drawn on a map than to go out on a mission of discovery and carve out your own path. This is a motto by which the majority of pop artists lead their lives. There are courses, books, and even software meant to analyze previously written hits and deliver a formula as accurately as possible about how to copy them.
And so, when some bands bring all of their energy, their quirks, and their strange fantasies to their music, the effect is incredibly powerful. This doesn’t guarantee that music fans will react positively to their efforts. After all, revolutions of every kind require some time before they can be appreciated. However, at the very least, they do show the rest of the world what it is that they could be doing and far they could be taking their work.
Fantømex’s Gaslight is music that does not adhere to any set of rules but is rather inspired by the intensity and inquisitive nature of some of the best bands that have come before them. The instrumental sounds like the jazz played as hardcore of At The Drive-In, and the strange, almost spiritual vocals bring to mind poets that take a stab at making rock music. While setting off for uncharted territory might be on the mind of the band members of Fantømex, it is their confidence with which they venture out that will also serve as an inspiration for the bands that will come after them.
Sam Rowan – You Never Thought
Genre: Post-Punk, Shoegaze, Psychedelic Rock
As I was growing up, the debate about the need to use “real instruments” was still a very popular one. It had to be this way. After all, some of the best-selling artists still paid their debt to the dead rockstars of the 1960s.
Not knowing how to play an instrument or how to use electronic musical equipment, the rationale seemed to make sense to me. Old-timers argued that computers made music by themselves. Their belief in a primitive version of AI is almost touching.
Of course, as it turns out, those busying themselves with playing guitar licks were the ones who showed their limitations first. Each new generation had its version of the blues-rock pioneers, each one more meaningless than the last.
Electronic dance music, however, often seemed borderless in its scope. Sam Rowan’s You Never Thought, with its repetitive grooves, hints at incredible possibilities. It’s dance music obsessed with shapeless perfection. It’s like a loop that always seems to sound slightly different.
