Obsessed with this video:
Under Byen is a Danish post rock band with something like 11 members. Translated, their name means "Under the City," fitting for their otherworldly sound, which is ironically produced using fairly traditional instruments like piano and strings. Absent is any sort of guitar and minimal digital sampling. Beautiful.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Salem
Ugh, so I totally should have written about this band a week and a half ago when the time was totally apropos (I feel the need to "sleep on" my music, or something). Instead, I'm writing about Salem's King Night well over a week post-Halloween. Oh well, it's still a great album.
So this band is highly electro, with hardly a human sound to be found on the entire thing. It's all time-warped beats, Gothic-style chants, down-revved raps, and skittery samples. I knew I loved this music from the first listen...I heard it on the radio and remembered the band's name, only to find I had noted them on a sticky note months before. Salem is at the forefront of a Chillwave sub-genre (thanks pretentious Indie rock) sometimes called Witch House, Ghostwave, or Reapgaze...I get a huge kick out of these names, by the way.
I tried to understand what it was that caught my immediate attention regarding bands that have this very distinctive sound, and came to the conclusion that I'm reminded of dreaming. Kind of like those flying or paralysis dreams where you can't seem to control your movements and everything seems oddly slowed-down. That's how I'd describe Salem's creepy sound.
A little more research, by way of SiruisXMU and the NY Times, I gained some insight into the fittingly dark origins of this sub-genre. DJ Screw was a hip-hop pioneer of the "chop and screw" style of record spinning at clubs back in the 90's. He'd spin a record at a pace so sluggish, it resembled the liquid consistency of prescription-grade cough syrup, which was, and continues to be, a popular mode of intoxication for many hip-hop clubbers. DJ Screw ended up dying ten years ago of a Codeine overdose, but the influence of his sound is more present than ever (read this great article to see what I'm talking about: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/arts/music/07witch.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&emc=eta1).
Listen to a few Salem tracks here:
"King Night"
"Trapdoor"
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