ALTOPALO — MUD

⌾ LISTEN TO ALTOPALO, MUD ⌾

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Backdropped by a collage of an instrumental, 'Mud' by New York outfit altopalo spins a story of everyday actions woven through with the turmoil of a mind stuck in the midst of cyclical thoughts. The mundanity is real from the first line: "once a day or almost every day I put my clothes away in drawers, check off a chore." It's already rooted in relatable realness.

It's a song of two parts. Pockmarked by soft ping-pong ball synths in the first parts — the soundtrack to going through the motions — the domesticity of the sound is cut with knives of metallic distortion. The chorus refrain "stuck in the mud all night while the brain rain pours" illuminating the downbeat mood of the track. Scattered drums patter like incessant thoughts.

Broken up by a wordless scrawl of vocordered noises denoted by the lyrics "awf efjjjf iiewl" on their SoundCloud page, the second part soars into a realisation of emotion with trailing guitars and a haze of synth softening proceedings as the lyrics take a decidedly nihilistic tone: "you're stuck in the mud don't fight what's the effort for."

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• 🔔 'Mud' by arrives courtesy of Samedi Records. You can stream or download it from their Bandcamp and listen at your leisure.

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☟ altopalo Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 CLARA LA SAN — STRANGERS

Though not the best example of UK producer and singer Clara La San's incredible debut mixtape Good Mourning, its penultimate track 'Strangers' is the one that's got a video treatment. Why is it not a good representation of the mixtape as a whole? Because 'Strangers' is possibly the track that stands out the most; mainly the 2/4 timing, the marching swing rhythm of the beat and the juddering electro pulsing below everything give it a sense of jaunty electronica, a sense of dum-de-dum which is not found anywhere else on Good Mourning.

The track does however showcase the vocals of Clara La San, curling low-key R&B lines as singalongable as any '90s R&B act you can think of; it also shows off the atmosphere that she creates, being an adept as she is at tones and textures, piercing the target in its middle at the confluence of warmth and ice, lo-fi and precision. In particular, the intro and outro send out soft synths like twisting clouds, javelins of sound that siren and scathe: a downtrodden though upward-looking exposition. For listeners less concerned with the leftfield, 'Strangers' is a fair and digestible establishing shot of Good Mourning. Simultaneously, the innate humdrum feel of the beat could be a purposeful illustration of the inexorable depression that, for some, comes with going through the motions and the cyclical nature of the everyday.

However, there are tracks on the mixtape that convey this feeling more effectively, and without the relative clutter and jolly bounce which feels somewhat alien to the experience as a whole, tracks like the modern lovesong of 'Gravity', the brooding pop homage that is 'Feel Good'¹ and the scene-setting futurist explosion of opening track 'Rivers', to name just a few where rhythm takes on a different, dynamic guise to what is standard and where synths clang and shudder and where minimalism matters.

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¹ The chorus of 'Feel Good' ≈ the chorus in Shalamar's 1982 classic 'I Can Make You Feel Good'

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• 🔔 Good Mourning can be variously streamed and downloaded via your favourite online service.
• 🔔 The video for 'Strangers' was conceived by Parisien director Kevin Elamrani-Lince, and features Clara herself on monochrome urban-industrial backdrops, the sort of grit and overcast skies that feel suitable for the sound conjured in the mournful yet upbeat sound of this track.
• 🔔 Previously Clara La San has been known for a few feature-spots, for instance lending her vocals to Manchester musicmaker TD Nasty's 'Where U Wanna Be', among others.

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☟ Clara La San Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ official site ⚘ instagram

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🐣 OH MY MUU — WORTHY

There is something beautifully sad about this song—even before you learn of its origins, which makes it sadder still, there is an air of farewellness to it, the slumping gentle feeling of the plucked synth that weaves through, the poignant space left between each resonation: the emotion behind it rather than the melody itself, which itself is wistful in its slow cheeriness, like bright blurry eyed melancholy. And the title: 'Worthy'. It hits the heart, combining with the music – the frustrated whispering glitch of percussion, the close intimate feeling of the beat, the warmth and welling-up of the thicker synth and bass, the watery outdoors samples symbolic of life and living – to summon this small heroic hope in the downtrodden swirl of depression.

But in 'Worthy' its creator, LA-based producer James Im aka oh my muu, is not only building this emotive and inspirational soundscape in and of itself; rather it has been created as a tribute to Kim Jong-hyun, the K-pop star who committed suicide on 18th December 2017. As such the song takes on a whole different persona, and becomes bigger than it is: especially when it is imbued as it is with Jonghyun's spirit—a sample from the singer's 2015 song 'I'm Sorry' crackles throughout, broken and decayed, as if heard from an unknown elsewhere, uncovered by you personally amidst digital debris; a truly touching, intense element of the track that feels instantly timeless; a sweet swansong.

After more soft, playful synth, the track ends on a crescendo of fluttering grainy synth chords atop columns of bass, like tears and pain mingling with determination; or, having felt devoured by despair, it's the shock of having someone tell you, "it's ok, you are worthy." Catharsis and letting go.

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• 🔔 More excellent production from oh my muu over on his SoundCloud.

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☟ oh my muu Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 ISSERLEY — PRIVILEGE

The crunch of it, the frustrated clenched fists broil of it, the distorted decay of it all and veiled with a haunted corridor of wobbling ambient sounds to create this negative miasma clouding over the robust solidity of the mechanical swampsome sounds at the foundation, the emptiness that this track summons is vast and uncompromising. Sydney-based artist Isserley returns as the formidable force that we saw in 'Advent', her seemingly small childlike voice poised as it swoops disjointedly around the room, a glinting tone like a silvery flash in the dark, growling walls of synth bass fuzzing and pushing on your spirit, helping the musicmaker to illustrate the blocky angst at the heart of 'Privilege'.

"Sadness doesn't discriminate at all," Isserley writes in a message to yes/no, "and it always angers me when people assume that if you have money or a certain superficial quality, that life is inherently perfect."

Throughout the song she slurs in slow measured lines, monotone for the most part and sometimes dipping down to a low mutter, a drugged vacant quality as the languishing speaker attempts to tell themselves they have a secret weapon in privilege—the classic overcompensation of an unhappy soul. Isserley explains further: "The song is essentially a collage of miscellaneous misanthropy, nihilism and sarcasm directed towards the attitude that just because some people don't suffer the same problem as you, they're not suffering at all."

Indeed it begins, "I sit here waiting for the end of my suffering…" and the lyrics later ask, "But how can I be something, when I am surrounded by people who make me feel nothing?" — always the scuttled abrasive beat, the bruising calamitous synth, the soundtrack to dying inside.

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• 🔔 'Privilege' is part of a new cycle of songs by Isserley—will or won't there be a new release? Either way if you like this go check her 2016 album Messes on Bandcamp.

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☟ Isserley Internet Presence ☟
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DAEMON – HOW TO FIND SATISFACTION IN DAILY LIFE

Mmmmm it's a question that a lot of people ponder. How do you find satisfaction in daily life? Where does satisfaction come from? Really we should be satisfied by the mere fact we are alive and experiencing some semblance of daily life. In reality, that's different. We're not all happy. Often it is the very fact of daily life and its mundane repetitions, its monochrome routine, it's this that is the source of trouble for many. To live is to struggle. How much you struggle depends on how strong your mind is.

This question was raised by the title of this particular track right here. It is called 'how to find satisfaction in daily life' and it's by a musicmaker called Jaci Rodriguez or probably more easily identifiable as Daemon. I was originally attracted to this slice of sound owing to the tone of its lightly echoing glassy chords, which give this track its foundation of melancholy, but there's more to it – think of the dynamically chopped up breakbeats-style drums, the plonking synth signifying the despairing exhausted parts of your mind, the zapping high-register synth melody repeating throughout like a floating feather of hope.

It resounds with a thousand repetitions of a thousand days, the same alarm clock sound every morning, snippets of suicidal early mornings, of fatigue-worn evenings, days marking the space between the upper reaches of a slowly swinging pendulum, life and all its energies and ambitions flashing in your brain as everyday reality smothers you. I imagine these endless immutable awakenings as the beat gallops ahead, leaving melodies hanging in the air, the drifting sadness of those chords lingering, thickening with each passing day. But there is hope, in a kind of insane way, a wild hope that things will change even though you are doing the same thing every day…

Wow way to get negative, sorry about that. In conclusion: How to find satisfaction in daily life? Weed and lots of it. No, not really, it's whatever works for you.

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• This comes from the aptly titled sad day loops an album released by Daemon on freewheeling, otaku-flavoured netlabel Mecha Yuri. It's good, and self-descrbied as "songs about money and weed." You can get it on a name-your-price basis from Bandcamp.

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☟ Daemon Social Media Presence ☟
SoundCloud • Twitter

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