October 2025 - Music and Sex and Being With People
Albums
maya ongaku - Electronic Phantoms
I’m a sucker for vintage synths, and this album has lots of them.
There’s something romantic about the idea of an ambient synth band from Enoshima, a sleepy little island off the coast of Japan that’s known primarily for its Buddhist statues and hot springs (and they definitely run with it). Ambient as it is, the album has an underlying tension. It’s hard to imagine myself actually meditating or doing serious contemplation to this, but frequently put it on for a long drive, or in the earliest moments of trying to drag myself out of bed after a nap.
They’ve done some pretty interesting writing about life on tour, especially the US leg vs the European leg. It really drives home how difficult this life can be, especially when they report at the end that their total take at the end of the US tour was $1,357.80. They don’t seem upset about it, though. In fact, it seems like they regard being in the black as a major triumph. Which is fair - when I went to see them in Boston, I hadn’t clocked that outside of this album they’re basically an experimental jazz band. I’m not super familiar with the economics of experimental jazz, but I have to imagine that the profits tend to be thin.
In a way, I’m not surprised that they repeatedly talk about taking inspiration from Kikagaku Moyo. They definitely have a similar sound, and the timing is about right for them to regard Kikagaku Moyo as elders. They even opened for them once, and (according to an interview) only made their first album because Kikagaku Moyo told them to. They seem to take inspiration not only in their music, but also as role models for how to live a life on tour. In another way, I’m very surprised because Kikagaku Moyo is the only other Japanese band that sounds like this that I’ve written about before.
Deep Sea Diver - Billboard Heart
Jessica Dobson of Deep Sea Diver has an enviable resume, having performed with Beck, Conor Oberst, Spoon, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and The Shins, just to name a few. Despite that, her catalog has a pretty consistent indie sound like you’d expect out of a grunge/garage rock band from Seattle (minus the yarling). This album sees her stretching her legs a little, especially with the straight-up rock track “Emergency,” which is my fav. I’m struggling to find interesting interviews with her. It seems like mostly people just want to talk about her influences (see above) and about Seattle (see above). I don’t really find those things particularly interesting to write about unless there’s an interesting take on it. If you want to read about Pike’s Place, go read Gary Bray’s Chowder Thing, you know? Anyway, the album is great, and if you’re into it you might also want to check out Deep Sea Diver’s breakout album Impossible Weight.
Addict Ameba - Caosmosi
Addict Ameba is a difficult band to write about, at least from the perspective of some random dude in Boston who doesn’t speak Italian. Here are the things I can tell you:
They’re a loose collective of musicians based in Milan.
This album includes 11 musicians.
The opening track is a collaboration with Joshua Idehen, a poet/vocalist you might know from Sons of Kemet and The Comet is Coming.
The album title is inspired by French philosopher Félix Guattari's (1930-1992) final book, "Chaosmosis," which celebrates the infinite possibilities that creativity and disorder bring. I haven’t read it.
Uh… that’s it. My favorite track is the title track, “Caosmosi”. Afrobeat!
Circuit des Yeux - Halo on the Inside
Within the first two seconds of this album, it’s apparent that Haley Fohr has something to say. You’d better if you’re going to sing like that. And she does. A lot of things.
Reading interviews with her is a bit like talking to a really smart person on shrooms. I don’t think it’s because she really is like a smart person on shrooms, just that it’s difficult for an interviewer to edit into an easy package. Within a few hundred words, she touches on trauma, Greek mythology, existentialism, the end of the Anthropocene era on Earth, and, when talking about this album specifically, raw sexuality. Normally a writer’s problem is that an artist doesn’t have enough to say, but once in a while they have too damn much.
The “raw sexuality” I mentioned might come as a bit of a surprise. There’s clearly a persona happening here, which often suggests an intellectual distance between the artist and their subject, but the album cover is an allusion to Pan, and in her own words, “It really encapsulates how I feel being a woman. We all have sexual needs and desires.” “Pan is debaucherous; he plays, and he drinks, and he has this flute. Melody and sex are like his main themes, and there was a lot of that in my life at that time: levity through music and sex and being with people.” As a side-note, someday I want to describe someone as sexy by saying “and he has this flute.”
If you didn’t see the sexuality in this album right away (I didn’t), you could try listening to her back catalog. Compared to the complicated composition of -io or Reaching for Indigo, Halo on the Inside is sweaty, raw, and in-your-face. Prior to this album, she was known for bringing an orchestra on tour and playing 12-string guitar solos. I’m sure there are people out there who find 12-string guitar sexy, but the connection isn’t obvious to me. This album is just thumping synths and her voice.
As a counterpoint, it’s interesting to listen to her other project, Jackie Lynn. It’s much less stark. Almost dance music, almost folk, but the connection between the two projects is pretty clear, if only for the distinctive sound of her voice.
Gary Air - s/t
The theme of this blog post seems to be “difficult bands to write about.”
This is me repping a local Boston artist. There are no album reviews or interviews for me to work from, and I don’t know him personally, so I’m a bit out to sea. I just happened to notice that he was playing at The Rockwell in Davis Square. He sounds a bit like Paul Simon. That’s what I’ve got. If enough of you go listen to his album, maybe someone will interview him, and then I’ll have more to say about the next one. It would only take about 100x the total readership of this blog, but hey, anything could happen!
Tracks
6ix, Joey Valence & Brae, Felix!, buddy, KYLE, Blu - Raw
I love Joey Valence & Brae, but I haven’t generally thought of them as fantastic rappers, per se. It’s more that they’re incredible performers and a whole vibe. This track, though, sees them stretching their wings a little.
This track comes from the 6ix album, Homebody. 6ix is mostly known for his collaborations with Logic, including the Grammy-winning “1-800-273-8255.” I hate that fucking song, but it is famous. Homebody is a parade of collaborations, including Juicy J, Clint., Blu, Khalid, TK Rhodes, and of course Logic. As such, it’s a little hit or miss, but there are some standouts, for sure.
Andruss - Frikitona
Of all the 10k or so subgenres of house music, Latin house is one of the ones I know least, but when it hits it hits big. Contemporary Latin music is starting to become a little more visible with the rise of J Balvin and Bad Bunny, so I hope that we’ll start to see more of it in the coming years. To my ear, this track fits a little uncomfortably under the “house” umbrella term, but I think if you throw the word “tech” in there it works. Anyway, “frikitona” translates roughly as “freaky girl” or “easy girl,” which I probably should have assumed to begin with.
Karen Dió - Sick Ride
It must be so weird to be a musician. Here you are, a Brazilian feminist punk musician and you find yourself on tour with Limp fucking Bizkit. I guess you can’t say no.
We’re catching Karen Dió early in her solo career. There’s no album yet, but a few good singles make me optimistic. She claims that this track is absolutely nothing like her other work, and while I can’t really agree with that entirely, it’s definitely a different take on punk music. There’s a lot more 2000’s influence and a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor.
The Young Gods - Appear Disappear
Much like house music, industrial has a complicated history, full of offshoots, innovations, embrace of new instruments then eschewing them then embracing them again, and a million subgenres including but not limited to dark ambient, EBM, neofolk, power noise, electro-industrial, industrial metal, martial industrial, industrial hip-hop, industrial dance, futurepop and industrial techno (I copy-pasted this list from Wikipedia for convenience. I’m working for free, ok?). We won’t get into the confusion of iconography in which people put swastikas on everything ironically, then other people put swastikas on everything un-ironically, then other people were kind of ambiguous about it. As far as I can tell, The Young Gods stayed out of all that.
These guys fit squarely into the category of industrial rock, which is what it sounds like - samplers, synthesizers, but also guitars. Think Skinny Puppy, KMFDM, and later, Nine Inch Nails. The Young Gods go back to 1985, and this 2025 album still totally kicks ass. It may appear later in an ALBUMS section of this blog. Or perhaps disappear. Not sure.
Graveyard, Goat - Ship of Fools
No, not that “Ship of Fools,” although I love it, or this one, and I hate it,
No, this is a collaboration between Graveyard (best known for “The Siren” - also about boats) and Goat (best known for - I guess - “Let It Burn,” although I’m having a difficult time identifying a single track that people might know).
Both of these retro-rock bands are from Sweden (surprise surprise). Graveyard tends to be fairly straight-ahead, where Goat is a little more psychedelic and complicated in their approach. To my taste, Goat’s best work might be Requiem, from 2016.
Kula Shaker - Charge of the Light Brigade
Sticking with psych rock for a moment, Kula Shaker was one of the few bands keeping the sound alive in the 90s, and even though they’re clearly a rock band, they’re frequently thrown in with brit-pop, presumably because they’re British. Their debut album, K, totally kicks ass.
“Charge of the Light Brigade” is, of course, a reference to the Tennyson poem of the same name. The poem commemorates a disastrous and futile charge into enemy fire during the Crimean War. I think Tennyson would have also included “heroic” in that description, but idk, I guess Tennyson and I can agree to disagree. Presumably, this song is using it as a melancholic call to political action even if it’s futile. That’s a sentiment I can get behind, but hopefully there are fewer guns involved.
Grandmas House - From the Gods
The influences of “From the Gods” are pretty clear, but wrapping it all up in punk music is pretty cool. There’s no album yet, and before you ask, no there’s no apostrophe.
Doves - Cold Dreaming
I can never keep all these bird bands straight. Which one do I like again? Was it Doves? Swans? Geese? Pigeon? All of them? None of them? All of them sometimes? None of them sometimes?
Doves, from what I remember, is kind of a garage band with some electronic influence, but honestly, I could be wrong. Anyway, this track is pretty good.
A Projection - Darwin’s Eden
We’re back in Sweden again, this time for some dark wave. According to their official blurb, they started out trying to be a punk band and accidentally made this. Whoops! Oh, well.
Blossoms - What Can I Say After I’m Sorry?
Sometimes I wonder if my musical taste can be summarized as “warbly vocal effects.” This one is a little further afield within that extremely narrow criteria, since it has a little bit of funkiness in the bassline.
Gizmo Varillas - Follow the Sun
I wish I were better at the game of identifying brass instruments without seeing them. I think this one is a trumpet?
Gizmo Varillas is a bit tropicalia, and while I can’t say I love all of his catalog, he has some pretty undeniable tracks, such as 2016’s “Gotta Getaway” from the album El Dorado, which has a cover featuring a cartoon man swimming in psychedelic cheese.
Kae Tempest - I Stand on the Line
This album, Self Titled, comes shortly after he came out as a trans man earlier this year, and serves as a declaration of his confidence and defiance. He first came to my attention in 2019 with the release of The Books of Traps and Lessons, which was essentially a spoken word album that used the electronic beats as a background for his melancholic, beautiful, challenging poetry. This one is more of a straight-ahead hip-hop album, but I think that as a sound it captures his purpose quite a lot better than his previous sound.
Sam Sauvage - Les Gens Qui Dansent (j’adore)
Can you believe that voice came out of this guy? To be fair, I guess even Serge Gainsbourg was a baby face at one time. I kind of had to mention Gainsbourg because Sauvage is often cited as a modern torchbearer of chanson, a French tradition of poetry set to music stretching back to medieval times. Um… I guess it’s changed a lot since then, but to be fair, so has hip-hop.
VOWWS - Under the World
I love this Reddit thread asking the essential question “Are VOWWS industry plants?” I won’t comment on the rise of YouTube/TikTok as an avenue for artists to achieve prominence. There’s both too much and too little to say about that for this humble blog, but I’m happy to tell you that she’s a close friend of Poppy, which makes her ok by me.
Mark Pritchard, Thom Yorke - Gangsters
I could have chosen virtually any song from this collaboration album, Tall Tales, but my second choice was “A Fake in a Faker’s World” and I just couldn’t see myself recommending 8 minutes of this, as weird and beautiful as it is.
Baxter Dury, JGRRY - Allbarone
(sic) on the spelling of “Allbarone.” I’m not exactly sure what to make of it, unless it’s just supposed to be about the vapidness of rich people who ski. It has a bit of the energy of Jarv… Is’s Beyond the Pale, which treads the line between hilarious poetry and beautiful poetry.
If I’m honest, by the end of this song I’m pretty tired of hearing JGRREY say the word “texts” like that, but I still groove to it.
Kyrill, Redford - Mondeou
Keeping boots-and-cats fresh is tough. There’s an awful lot of house music out there, so anything you can do to give it a little life and spontaneity is a good idea. In this case, harmonica and groovy piano line.
feeble little horse - This Is Real
One thing I try to do with this blog is at least call out music that I know is great, even if I don’t exactly “like” it. feeble little horse definitely falls into that category. Man is it weird! And loud. And kinda too much. And abrasive, but not in a way that I’m into.
But - it’s weird and it’s good. I see it. Their album Girl With Fish is their best, but “This Is Real” works a little better for me personally.
Jimmy Whoo - Basic Instinct
Where have I heard this track before? Have I actually heard it 5 billion times, or is it just “one of these” songs, like how sometimes you look at a super tall guy in a club who has a man-bun and eyes like he’s not sure if he recognizes you and think “shit do I know that guy?”
Meditation Tunnel - Fire Fly (Red Axes Remix)
I love arpeggiators. I also love Caribou’s 2010 track, “Sun” so this should work too.
This EP, Glittering Jewel, has a number of good tracks on it, but this remix made me bob my head most, so this is the one I picked.