Travel Plans x Kendra Morris – Fade Out
The worst thing one can do with a life is to be wasteful. Talented artists whose brains are bursting open with ideas can easily fall into this trap. A million ideas fight for their attention at any time. It’s not easy to choose just one. It’s not easy to decide to give more love to one than the other. But unless these ideas are adopted and truly cared for, they may just disappear.
There’s a certain brand of electronic dance music of the late 1990s that caused many to dance the night or dream the mornings away. It was a blend of electronic dance music, urban R&B and dream pop. Somewhere along the lines, the DJs putting together these productions gave up on them and, for the most part, switched to the most bombastic sounds. It’s all a great shame.
Travel Plans x Kendra Morris go back to those gently trippy times with “Fade Out.” This is not an attempt at reviving 90s DJ culture or bringing back old sounds from the past to the present. Nah, this is just an honest attempt at creating one of the most soothing sounds that you’re bound to hear all Summer long. This on weekend mornings is my recommendation, and treating yourself to a smooth, relaxed Summer might do you a world of good.
Death And The Maiden – Waratah
Alternative music is supposed to be a brotherly/sisterly guild where reason prevails. But I’m sorry to report that, just like in any other club, there’s a good deal of discrimination that exists. We all hear about the great, independent record labels from London and New York. There are books about the avant-rock artists from Germany, and even Japan. But that’s mostly because the music critics and movie makers and the companies they work for are from those places.
You don’t hear enough about “The Dunedin Sound” or Flying Nun Records, both from New Zealand. Still, if enough New Zealanders were tasked ith writing the history fo alternative music, you’d certainly hear of bands like The Verlaines, The Clean or The Chills, as having innovated rock in the same way that Sex Pistols or Patti Smith did.
Death And The Maiden is a band from Dunedin and honours the local music scene by naming themselves after one of the best songs by The Verlaines. What they do pick up from their predecessors is a willingness to make rock music in a way that is wrong and own up to it. By not making the moves you’d expect, the band ends up with a strange, original sound on their single “Waratah.” It’s music that sounds intimate, mysterious, and trip-hop-inspired. The dreams of Dunedin have not faded, but they have changed. That’s good news for everyone!
