So much music is readily available now that it’s just as easy to miss out on new music as it is to discover it. This regular series aims to help remedy that by recommending five superb releases in hip hop, metal, punk, indie and the avant-garde that likely flew under the radar of many. Whether you’re feeling overwhelmed by the amount of music the internet allows access to or simply looking for something new that has not been buzzed about, allow these lists to make choosing what to listen to an easier process.
Diploid : “Is God Up There?”
Out of seemingly nowhere, up-and-coming Australian hardcore outfit Diploid has released one of the most adventurous and genre-bending albums this year. While “Is God Up There?” may be a punk record at its core, the distorted and caustic guitars take after black metal and post-hardcore, the vocals are influenced by screamo, and the manic pacing is more similar to grindcore than anything else. A furious ball of chaos raging under thick lo-fi production, “Is God Up There?” shows that DIY music can still produce fresh and creative ideas in 2016.
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Bambu: “Prey for the Devil”
Political hip-hop is a waning sub-genre nowadays due in part to its overt seriousness, understandably grim tone and loyalty to golden age-style production. Enter Bambu, a Los Angeles-based rapper who has developed his own method of making conscious hip-hop appealing in the current rap landscape. The MC’s latest offering “Prey for the Devil” is densely packed with heavy political subject matter, but Bambu manages to lighten the mood by opting for a playfully boastful and rhythmic flow rather than the intensity of his contemporaries. Furthermore, Bambu’s effortless delivery over both jazzy boom bap beats and trap-flavored bangers gives the album a nice balance of vintage and modern vibes.
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Daniel Lanois : “Goodbye to Language”
Although the solo work of Daniel Lanois has focused on his talents in the acoustic and rootsy as a singer/songwriter, his production endeavors have always revealed a strong interest in ambient soundscapes. With his latest experiment, “Goodbye to Language,” Lanois has found a way to merge these two once-disparate eras of his career into something wholly unique and original. The album is a collection of euphoric ambient pieces made completely with lap steel guitars. Lush, meditative, and expansive, these songs bring to mind post-rock with an added Southern twang, or perhaps the score to a psychedelic Western. If one were to coin a term, this might just be the first ever ‘country drone’ album.
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Colosso: “Obnoxious”
Starting out as a one-man band, Colosso has grown into a five-piece metal act over the years. The band’s sophomore album, “Obnoxious,” is a perfect example of how greater numbers lead to a greater array of influences. While previous releases have shown a lack of focus, “Obnoxious” finds the band sounding more driven while still remaining as inspired as ever. Colosso has now committed to being a ruthless and savage death metal band. Each riff produces a deafening crunch that could shatter concrete, and even with all of these searing rhythms the band still finds surprising ways to experiment, such as the completely out of left field ambient techno song “Seven Space Collisions.”
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Ian Sweet: “Shapeshifter”
On the rise from Los Angeles, Ian Sweet’s debut record “Shapeshifter” establishes the trio as a group to watch in the indie pop scene. Though it shares many elements in common with a glut of indie rock bands such as fuzzy production, garage aesthetic and squeaky vocals of, in their case, frontwoman Jillian Medford, these aspects are presented in a way that is unlike any band of their ilk. These tracks take the style of cutesy jangle pop and slow it down to the pace of slowcore and shoegaze; even incorporating some noisy crescendos for good measure. Combine that with the aching nostalgia and melancholic introspection of Midwest emo and the resulting sound is intoxicatingly washed out and sunbaked, like old summer polaroids.
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Alexander Beebe can be reached at [email protected].
