MOSHIMOSHI — ANIME THEME

⌾ LISTEN TO ANIME THEME BY MOSHIMOSHI ⌾

---

A dynamic pendulum keeps time in 'Anime Theme', swinging between math rock-laden slabs of stabbing, syncopated guitar, bass and drums, and the portions where distorted guitars send out a wave after wave of sweeping fuzz. Gently jagged, no harshness in the fast-paced but digestible acrobatics of the melodies here, the track races along very much like a high-octane anime theme.

Finnish band Moshimoshi summon the sensibilities of early-2000s post-hardcore and the emotivity of emo, complete with punk-flavoured drums and throaty, screaming vocals. Warped by their own force, these screams blend with the guitar, becoming a part of the overdriven medley, providing an extra albeit shattered melody to the proceedings. It bounces, pops with precision, fizzes with energy.

---

• 🔔 'Anime Theme' is taken from Moshimoshi's upcoming album GREEN, scheduled for release on 28th April.

---

📠
☟ Moshimoshi Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ spotify ⚘ instagram

---

RYAN PLAYGROUND — BETTER OFF ALONE

⌾ LISTEN TO RYAN PLAYGROUND, BETTER OFF ALONE ⌾

---

---

'Better Off Alone' by Alice Deejay lends itself to being covered in some way, whether it's Mark Redito giving it a tropical rework or if it's a nightcore flip by Crapface (real artist name). It's impossibly iconic and instantly recognisable, both in its of-a-certain era (1998) aesthetics and in its simple, titular vocal refrain and melody: "Do you think you're better off alone?"

The question is asked in such a haunting, slow and repetitive way that it's almost impossible not to be caught up in a daydreaming moment, feeling the melancholy of the vocal. The fact that it's in the second person immediately puts the listener at the receiving end of the interrogation: You, no matter where you read it, is always you (yes, you). It's relative, and relatable.

The choice of how the question is being asked may have been one of picking what fit best, of course, but the interesting thing is that it's not simply "Are you better off alone?" That's a simpler question. Prefacing the question with "Do you think—" automatically elicits a shift to pondering in the one being asked. It forces consideration.

Not only that, but in using the colloquialism "better off", the comparative "better" begs a thing, a situation, which may have been worse — by however many degrees — than being "alone", i.e. together, but perhaps not ideally together. In the unspoken unknown that lingers in the moments before the iconic refrain calls out, there is the feeling of abandonment, a pair divided, and the repeating enquiry is necessarily stacked with emotion.

When we get to the "Talk to me... Oh, talk to me" it becomes clear that we're hearing something like one side of a phone conversation. And it also becomes clear that, in the pleading imperatives and the wordless, tuneful "oo-ooo-oo" that punctuates them, the prior question has gone unanswered, heartbreakingly so.

Needless to say, what was a hit at the time, and which could easily be seen as a simple dancefloor song by a europop group in what is very much a bygone era, has in fact stewed and simmered these past 22 years, fusing its feeling into the memories of all that have heard it. And that's why it's a great song to cover, whatever way you look at it.

Genevieve Ryan Martel aka RYAN Playground brings a decidedly different feel to the song, in her hands it becomes an icy, emo-tinged cover, guitar in glittering arpeggios that summon Brand New at their most downcast sparkling atop a frosty whisper of ambient synth; deep below, a far-off rumble provides not only the bass, but a sense of vague disaster. The vocals, crisp and wonderfully falling into the snowy soundscape, eventually fade, as does the track as a whole, thus ending a version of the original was woven with a similar sense of loss and heartache.

---

• 🔔 Montreal artist RYAN Playground's version of 'Better Off Alone' can be streamed and downloaded on her Bandcamp, along with another Alice Deejay cover, 'I Can See (See It In Your Eyes)'. Both of them make up a two-track release For The Ones Who Need Guitars Anyway; in light of her use of guitars in the covers, it's a pun on the original album that both songs appeared on, Who Needs Guitars Anyway? (2000).

---

---

📠
☟ RYAN Playground Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram ⚘ spotify

---

---

🐣 LIL PEEP — BENZ TRUCK (ГЕЛИК)

The menace of the crunching bass and the downtrodden guitar, the slapdash strumming leading into a graveyard of sound that looms like something poised to pounce but never does—it's that ever-present threat of sound, melancholy on the edge of negative action, which gives 'Benz Truck (гелик)' its brooding atmosphere, a gothic gloom that is charged with potential energy yet which seems to shrink and wallow in grief. It does both. Producer smokeasac attaches a disjointed drum machine the dirge, thin gasping snares crack whilst kicks gloop and thud, subtle hi-hats ticking slow and sometimes tripling up like origami assault rifles takata-takata-takata just adding to the hype of the track, the electricity of it that you'd swear didn't exist here if it weren't as palpable and downright tangible as it is.

Slurring mumbling darkly with downcast confidence is Lil Peep, whose laid-back rap flows slow like spilled apple sauce, delivered with laissez-faire aplomb and a mellow fierceness. He casually delineates his situation whereby he has obtained money and success, enough for "iced out teeth on an iced out whip / with the limousine tints, you can suck my dick." He goes on to pre-empt accusations of sell-out that seem to come with the attainment of fame – "who you wanna hate now? pretty soon you gonna hate me" – as well as boldly stating: "all the money that I make now / I'll never let it change me." His tone, something like a drugged Jesse Lacey would sing over the top of something Brand New might play if they injected beats into their hard emo sound, is soaked with reverb, and conjures a persona at once calm and collected, less emo crying and commiserations, more stoic control of life.

---

• 🔔 The track is taken from Lil Peep's album Come Over When You're Sober, set to drop at some point soon I guess. You can purchase, stream and/or download 'Benz Truck (гелик)' via this lil link here.
• 🔔 The Russian word гелик in the title refers to the exact type of Benz truck he's talking about: G-Class—the word, read as something like "gelik" in English, and let's assume it's a slang term, throws up images of black boxy cars on Google.
• 🔔 The video for the track was directed by Get Mezzy (also editor), SUS BOY, and Wiggy. It was animated by Chadwickmak and Connor Moy.

---

---

📠
☟ smokeasac Internet Presence ☟
soundcloud ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram

☟ Lil Peep Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ youtube ⚘ instagram ⚘ wikipedia

---

---

🐣 DOWNHAUL — HOW THINGS WORKED OUT

A story told in an intricate web of lyricism, weaving guitars, gymnastic bass and skilfully skittering drums, 'How Things Worked Out' arrives from Downhaul, a band from Greensboro, North Carolina. "So now we've got even less to show for all these years of whatever we haven't been"—the track speaks of something that was, now slightly faded in the light of present day, confessional, observational, rambling and revelling in minor but memorable details. From the very start, after a string of distorted chords and drumbeating, this is apparent: "I took your phonecall in my parents' unfinished basement."

When it's not effusing melodies math-rock-style fretboard-somersaulting, the guitar is warm, with just a little bit of grit from fuzzy distortion; in this latter way, in singular chord sweeps, it works with the slow jangle of the bass and calm smartly tuned drums to cushion sad lines like, "Well no one in my life now would even recognise your name," whilst at the same time the space afforded by these calm sections allows for the lyrics to hit bullseyes. At other times the lyrics are not necessarily sad but recognisably awkward and funny, as in "I drive an extra two-and-a-half miles east just to avoid the bank where your mom works, and I know it's total vanity to assume she had even the slightest clue as to who I am but that's all I got."

A tale of love gained, misplaced, and kindled as a set of memories and awkward constraints of movement and meeting, with all the embarrassment and half-obsession that the modern age affords, this is a post-post-breakup anthem in the form of a message never sent, strewn over the surface of this dynamic, rhythmic, melodic sea of sound.

---

• 🔔 Did you like that as much as we did? If so, you'll be probably happy to learn that it comes from Downhaul's very recent four-track EP, About Leaving. Featuring three more songs, it's an extension of the sound of 'How Things Worked Out': calculated guitars, crackling distortion, jostling drums and all the everyday colloquial poetics you could ask for. You can listen and/or purchase for $1 or more at their Bandcamp.

---

---

📠
☟ Downhaul Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ instagram

---

---

SAINT PEPSI UNHAPPY [VIDEO]

Wow it's here. And I never thought it would get here. Or, at least, I never thought there would be such a thing as an "Official Music Video" for one of Saint Pepsi's songs, but it's happened. It's rather incredible, really, that this song 'Unhappy' has gone as crazy as it has. It's not because I thought it was a bad song and was like, "how could THIS do well?" it's just a very different kind of song which I am very glad has done well.

I already wrote about the actual song itself when it 'came out', well, before it came out officially but it was floating around somewhere anyway so I thought whatever. The reason it was waiting in the shadows for because it was due to be premiered on The Fader - what a way for an underground internet (undernet?) artist to be heard by a much wider audience. But basically: a sped up sample of an acoustic lament about the end of summer from a late 90s emo band set to candy-shimmering synths and attitudinal trap beats. Who would've thought it would work? On paper, it's totally huh wtf. But in practice, it's actually omg wow.

The video is below. It is directed by Alexander Girav and there are also a lot of other people involved, the names of whom you can check out if you go to the actual page of the video on YouTube. For now, sit back, enjoy the bittersweet, nouveau-nostalgia of this track with the added visual bonus of a rather charming, blossoming new relationship that forgets everyone else to have fun together.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Like SAINT PEPSI on Facebook
Listen to SAINT PEPSI on Soundcloud
Hear more SAINT PEPSI on bandcamp
Follow SAINT PEPSI on Twitter
Check SAINT PEPSI on Tumblr

SAINT PEPSI UNHAPPY

Here is a song that I was supposed to write about like last week but Saint Pepsi (aka Ryan DeRobertis) decided to take it down soon after he'd put it up. It's called 'Unhappy' and I think must refer to end of summer. That's an assumption based both on the time of year it is currently - the end of summer - and the fact that the main hooks in his song come from an altered sample of a song called 'The Summer Ends' by an emo (yeah emo) band called American Football, who were around from 1997-2000.

And well well well. Firstly, how genuine to have sampled a song that isn't a hot pop hit, something of the moment, but something that was probably totally in Saint Pepsi's ears at some point or another in his life. That's a really nice touch. And from that you can I suppose infer that he's completely making the music that he wants to make, with no constraints, no box, no label (certainly not that of vaporwave), instead going totally on what he wants to do.

In this instance, the slow guitar arpeggios and unassuming percussion in the original become faster and get summarily glitched-out, along with vocals that are now nicely chipmunked, but not in a bad way - high vocals can of course go one of two ways, and this one has come out ok.

Alongside the magic of this sample - the strange nostalgia from a song I've never heard from a band I never knew effusing from its now-altered state - there's now chunks of smooth bass and a hip hop/I-guess-trap beat, in which much revelry seems to be had with producing joyful flourishes on the snare and hi-hat, making it a very energetic beat indeed. Some synth finds its way in there somehow, after the midsection of the song.

On the surface of things, setting a sample of an emo song to a down-south-flavoured hip hop beat is theoretical madness. Imagine that working. Well, it has, in this instance. It's worked very well. It's a multicoloured shower of candy, trap turned on its head, emo's frown turned upside down - yet in the midst of this subversion, there is emotion. Whether it's happy or sad is up to how you're hearing it, I suppose.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Like SAINT PEPSI on Facebook
Listen to SAINT PEPSI on Soundcloud
Hear more SAINT PEPSI on bandcamp
Follow SAINT PEPSI on Twitter
Check SAINT PEPSI on Tumblr

Learn about American Football on Wikipedia