Altre di B – Green tea tiramisù
It’s hard to get scared or intimidated by anyone making popular music nowadays. The boogie-men of old have either worn out their shtick or have been cancelled altogether by a world unwilling to look past their antics.
If you were among the ones easily intimidated by the ability to write and perform highly complex music that existed on the very fringes of rock, there’s little reason to feel anxious by them when hundreds of kids post videos of themselves shredding on the guitar or playing the most complex rhythms. Being a virtuoso ain’t what it used to be when we have proof of thousands being able to pull off those tricks.
The ones that I’m still scared and slightly in awe of are the musicians that are able to make music that sounds both distant and personal. The arrangement and the guitar tone of Italy’s Altre di B is in line with the unapproachable, angular sounds of groups like Parquet Courts, but the lyrics to Green tea tiramisù read just like an entry in someone’s diary. I’m still scared and excited about bands with tremendous playing abilities and an almost complete interest in the latest musical trends.
Temple Garden – Redshift
I’ve formulated a theory about the success of podcasts, and I am sorry to say I’ve known this all along but was just too lazy to create my own podcast back when the opportunity presented itself.
Here it goes. People love radio. Well, they love classic radio where the broadcast wasn’t constantly interrupted by advertisements, by over-enthusiastic radio hosts, and by the same run of pop songs. Folks love hearing the old radio hour just as they love looking into the flames of a campfire.
Temple Garden look to have felt the same when they got to work on a concept album about old Sc-Fi radio productions. Redshift is the first single, and in keeping with the tradition of writing a concept album that can be disassembled into stand-alone singles, have created a poppy, memorable number.
