Taleen Kali – Aepex
For the most part, the great songwriters of old were workers in song. They provided just as much as they were tasked with delivering, cared about deadlines, and were keen to never antagonise their patrons, or the people who only got to hear the music on special occasions.
Would they score any hits if suddenly brought back to life in the modern age? Or, would they simply carry on doing what they did, or worse, start driving an Uber cab once they realise that in this economy, this might be the better choice? After all, not everyone has the same sense of romance about music-making as Taleen Kali.
It’s likely that the truth is that classical composers wouldn’t thrive in today’s environment, but just be a bit annoyed by the whole hassle of it. They’d soon find out that creating compelling modern works involves a lot of driving to dark clubs, plenty of listening to music from unfamiliar places, and a fair deal of learning new tricks.
There’s a good amount of exuberance captured in Taleen Kali’s “Aepex”, and don’t let the song’s adherence to dark-wave and gothic rock-styled sounds distract you from it. Kali may create music that will, primarily, be appreciated by people dancing slowly in dimly lit underground clubs on the weekend. But “Aepex” cleverly takes inspiration from Middle-Eastern sounds, 90s alternative-rock, as well as gothic classics. Not many would even consider putting in this amount of work for a thing of tortured beauty.
Mad Kelly – thank god
Ignorance really is sometimes bliss, especially when it helps you to ignore trends. What would the world of music be like today had nu-metal, grunge or emo never lost out to each, first, and then to a bunch of other, more commercially-driven music genres?
And why should anyone care about the relative lack of bands representing these genres from the charts of the past couple of decades? Mad Kelly, just like the kids who discovered these sorts of sounds because of TikTok and Instagram reels, has no reason to care what a music company exec thinks.
In fact, an effort to reimagine the present might be needed. Who knows if nu-metal and alt-rock bands would have reinvented pop music had they remained the dominant force? What is abundantly clear, however, is that those genres would find more appropriate material for the troubled, unsettling times in which we live.
Mad Kelly’s “thank god” is constructed using big, angry guitar riffs. It’s sung with emotion and with a commitment to not shy away from dark thoughts and angry feelings. And it cleverly incorporates the DJ culture elements of 2000s rock into a modern way. What would’ve happened had nu-metal not been dethroned? The likes of Mad Kelly dare to dream of what might’ve been.
