
Nantokanaru – Emotional Damage Wreckage
Genre: Hard Rock, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
Similar artists: Faith No More, A Perfect Circle, Korn
No other set of artists has a more volatile audience to have to appease than metalheads. After all, if you’re going to a metal show, you know what you’re getting. And this is the judgment on which most fans of the genre create their expectations.
Just like a DJ is supposed to get the party started and hold off spinning songs that tell the audience just how blue they are feeling. Similarly, metal bands are supposed to give the audience an excellent sonic kicking, not take them through a history of their deepest emotions.
The troubles are, of course, firstly, that metal musicians are people too. Usually dorks. Many see the humor in playing this kind of music, and they can’t be bothered to act through all of the time.
The second problem is that, usually, they are more competent at playing their instruments than the vast majority of musicians. They’ve had to diligently, boringly study their craft. So, the prospect of playing the standard metal riffs simply does not appeal to them.
Bands like Faith No More thrived from deflating the expectation of their typical metalhead fan bases. The Czech Republic’s Nantokanaru’s Emotional Damage Wreckage seeks complete artistic freedom. This isn’t prog-metal, albeit it is played with similar precision, but rather strange, quirky, even humorous metal played with a lot of strength. It is designed to overwhelm, to fight against the standard, and, yes, to showcase the band members’ virtuoso leanings. There’s nothing wrong with showing folks how well you can play or making them laugh unless you like Frank Zappa.
Well Well Well – Palm Springs
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Lo-fi Rock, Indie Pop
Similar artists: Mattson 2, Toro y Moi, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Ariel Pink
The thing about modern pop music is that it can always surprise you. And this is part of the reason why we all keep going back to the well for more. Of course, the majority of times that you interact with pop music, you are surprised by how bad, shallow, and predictable the sounds are. But, just because there is a chance that you will experience something magical, you return.
It’s exciting for just the same reasons when a musician steps into a recording studio. Or, as it often is these days, there’s a sense of elation when they approach their computers. Ever since the late 1960s, when studios began being used as an instrument in themselves, musicians realized that they could significantly enhance their work in this way. The studio also provided the artists with an unstable X-factor.
It’s hard to imagine what Well Well Well’s Palm Springs sounds like played on an acoustic guitar in a bedroom, but thankfully you don’t need to do that. The musicians have taken the livery of firing up all of the tricks of the modern recording studio to give this a lush, summery production. The easy flow of the track suggests gentle psychedelia and days filled with sunshine, but it’s the sheen of the production that really makes this special.