Here's the weekly #OPM digest ! A one-stop guide to #music selections from 8 Fediverse #Musicians . It's a great place to get some #BandcampFriday selections, or maybe find a new favorite artist.
As always, you can find a permanent archive of these, with slightly longer writeups, at my blog. The permalink for this week's is here:
Our first #filk submission – basically folk music with a science fiction, fantasy or horror focus. And it’s not bad! This is, at its heart, just folk music – the songs I listened to weren’t even all that obviously “filky.” The songs here are simple arrangements of acoustic guitar and vocals. The voice here is warm and inviting, with a straightforward delivery. The guitar playing is focused, eschewing fireworks for solid play.
“Those Pearls…” is an absolute barnstormer of a #progressive/tech #house track, full of squiggly #acid lines, clever sound design (e.g. a train recording turned into a riser) and relentless energy. The drums hit hard, the energy is over the top and it's all in tribute to the creator’s dog Rita Frankie, who recently passed. Pour one out for Rita, turn it up and get moving.
Notable guitarist Randy Resnick (not even going to try to summarize his musical history, but a quick search will reveal a considerable pedigree) offers up exactly what it says on the tin: an eclectic and quirky mix of short tunes, both instrumentals and songs, in a variety of genres. #Jazz, #blues, #rock and #funk are all name-checked and that covers most of it, but there’s lot of subtlety, and incredible quality, here.
@etherdiver MANY thanks for this. One of my many faults is not staying in a lane. Or my lane is too many lanes! Quirky tries to assemble stuff that pretty much doesn't fully fit. A rap that isn't a rap (Simulation), etc.
Hell yeah, a death #metal tune about #vampires! I know that’s all some of you even need to hear, for good or for ill, but stick with me for a moment. The vocals lean into the gargled-glass school of metal growls (sometimes dismissed as “Cookie Monster vocals”); the guitars chug, soar and howl as needed. The drums are programmed but they get the job done just fine. A fun dip into the heavy side of the pool.
Two tracks of deeply weird #IDM. “Speedrome” is chonky, muscular and groovy; slightly reminiscent of old-school Junkie XL. “Penance” leans into the more ambient side of the coin, with lots of shifting, warm timbres and minimal rhythmic elements. Pretty, but also just weird and atonal enough to leave you a bit unsettled.
#Lofi#downtempo track that offers what sounds like a real bass guitar, some absolutely snappy drums and a gorgeous lead synth/string line, along with some chilled out e piano chords to tie it all together. Goes a little hard to work as the kind of background music that gets bundled up into those “lofi beats to study to” compilations, but it’s all the better for it.
Fuzzy, #lofi#downtempo that feels like it wants to grow up to be a #DeepHouse track (albeit a deeply weird one): all that’s missing is the kick drum and a groovy bassline. Hard hitting drum sounds, minimal pads and a garbled, filtered vocal chop are the main ingredients, and for the #gearheads, it might be interesting to hear this was all done on a #Digitakt.
Gorgeous sounds and infectious rhythms. An absolutely irresistible synth arpeggio drives the heart of the track, but it is well and ably supported by soaring string pads, washes of filtered synth and percolating rhythmic elements. Pretty and inviting, and somewhat reminiscent of classic Yellow Magic Orchestra and other early ‘80s #synth pioneers.
That's it for this week! Remember, you can find expanded versions of all of these (and their permanent home for later reference, not to mention additional writeups from previous weeks!) here:
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