wavepool – Tiny Cowboy
Pop culture can’t help but reflect the desires, obsessions and angst of the society in which it is created. How could it do something different? It’d be like asking someone who’s never heard Japanese before to try to speak it fluently on the fly.
And maybe it’s because all of us fear loneliness so much that we’ve used modern technology to help us avoid having a moment to ourselves ever again. We’ve done it so well that we can hardly ever hear the sound of our own thoughts. But maybe there was something to it.
Maybe those people that you see in old movies sitting around record players or gazing at the sky had something going for themselves. wavepool certainly thinks so, as the band investigates the connection between serenity and loneliness.
“Tiny Cowboy,” the lush, dreamy, shoegaze song by this Rouen group, feels very much like a dream that goes on forever and in which you’re alone. Just as in the video that accompanies the single, the music makes you feel like you’re in the pilot seat and that you’re all alone. How does that make you feel, and why do you fear it so much? wavepool’s music and a few moments of keeping to yourself might help you to answer that.
Samt Martin – Herz aus Holz
Music tends to bring out the very best of what a culture has to offer. It’s no wonder that it’s the songs that are the highlight of every single event, honouring the customs, traditions, and folklore of a particular place and its people.
But the Gods, in their infinite wisdom, have spread out gifts differently, but in a balanced manner. Yes, it’s true that gorgeous songs of love and care exist in just about any language. But then there’s German… Samt Martin’s beautiful composition might force us to reconsider this ancient wisdom.
For you see, it is said that while Germany is the miraculous economic force of Europe and, most likely, its most advanced country in a wide variety of ways, you wouldn’t want a German singer trying to sing your child lullabies.
Samt Martin delivers a lovely, hazy performance with the forest ballad of “Herz aus Holz.” And in doing so, the group challenges the very notion of the language the singer uses and the culture it represents. This is a tender, sweet song where the words fit the warmth of the music nicely. And if we can create gentle lullabies using German of all things, who knows what else humans can create?
