The "Slowed + Reverb" Wave Is Still Going Strong
The "Slowed + Reverb" Wave Is Still Going Strong
Introducing Candyfloss, loving The Banshees of Inisherin, *really* loving Elden Ring, not loving Caroline Polachek, and more
Well hello there. This is Brady Gerber, and welcome to the OPE! newsletter. It’s Monday, March 6th, 2023.
This week on OPE!
“Apparently slow music set to looped anime—like violent knock-off cartoons or the whispers and clicking tongues of ASMR—is well-shaped to fit some previously unknown keyhole in the minds of viewers and the algorithms that recommend them content.”
This week, I blogged about the ongoing slowed + reverb wave that still has a passionate following among sad teens (and adults) on YouTube. It’s one of my favorite music corners of the Internet, and it hasn’t been taken over by TikTok yet.
This week’s blog post is a little text short because, sadly, I’ve now been affected by all the recent tech layoffs: my full-time position was eliminated last week. But I’m still freelancing and running this newsletter, don’t worry :) if there’s ever a time to sign up for a paid subscription (or donate to my coffee fund), this is it. Links to both are below. The best way to support OPE!, of course, is to still share this newsletter.
But enough of that. Now onto the dang links and music.
Links
How Peter Jackson Broke Up The Beatles
One of my favorite features ever written about the Beatles. It made me fall in love with Revolver all over again. (Shhh, don’t tell Revolver that Help! is once again my favorite Beatles album.) (Shhh, don’t tell the Beatles that “Champagne Supernova” is a better “Hey Jude.”)
“For all the Beatles’ genius, they never imagined a day when their music would mainly be played through earbuds. The stereo versions of their early albums were mixed for novelty, with extreme separation between sounds in the right and left speakers, sometimes to the point of lopsidedness. (The Beatles themselves preferred the mono mixes, which are harder to find these days.) “Taxman” was a notorious offender, with bass, drums, and rhythm guitar on one side, and for much of the song, just tambourine and cowbell on the other. It’s been reported to cause dizziness in headphone listeners. For 56 years, there was no way to separate those instruments and rearrange them across the stereo field.”
Leonard Bernstein on the Beatles
Gotta love a passive-aggressive Bernstein breaking down Revolver-era Beatles. Strong Tár vibes indeed.
“What I like is maybe 5% of the whole output, which pours over this country like the two oceans from both coasts and it’s mostly trash. But that good 5% is so exciting and vital.“
The surest reminder of how publishing (like most art industries) is made up of friends of friends.
“Blurbs may be earnest and true, but they are always the product of favors being called in: from authors’ friends, from agents’ other clients, from publishers’ other authors. Everyone knows this.”
The Power of the Radiohead “Creep” Chord Progression
“I - III - IV - iv”: one of modern music’s more flexible and interesting four-chord progressions.
What The Banshees of Inisherin Is (and Isn’t) Asking of Us
I went into The Banshees of Inisherin (now streaming on HBO Max) not expecting or knowing much. I knew it was by the director of In Bruges, a movie that’s more fun to think about than watch. I actually didn’t like The Banshees of Inisherin at first. But when the dialogue and overall tone finally clicked for me, I was all in. It’s now my favorite movie of 2022. This video makes me appreciate it even more.
I’m also a fan of most videos by Thomas Flight. His breakdown of how Paul Thomas Anderson’s style has evolved with each film is a great place to start.
The Boschian Horror of Elden Ring
The best work of art I’ve interacted with within the past year. This game is so good and so strange. I’ve also become attached to the already-many parodies of Elden Ring (“Are you The Elden Ring??”). For anyone who wants an Elden Ring 101 breakdown, or anyone who’s never played a souls game (or doesn’t know what a “souls game” is), Iron Pineapple has a great introduction.
This Hidetaka Miyazaki interview is also great. I love his philosophy on why he makes his games so difficult and the unique rewards from playing video games that you can’t get from other art forms (a difference that many people are picking up on about HBO’s mostly great adaptation of The Last of Us).
“A novel’s achievements can elude a careless reader. A film’s themes, or its plot, can be misconstrued by a lazy viewer. Only a video game, however, can punish an audience’s faults. If a player mistimes a jump, falls to an adversary, or fails to reach the end of a level, a game can deny them access to the rest of the work, halting progress until they pass the test or resign in defeat.“
Saunders’s own Substack is one of my favorite newsletters. I don’t know too many well-known writers who are this generous and honest about detailing the struggles and joys of writing.
“I really feel that always (even with published books) we are working, not on behalf of that book, but on behalf of the next one. In this sense, we are always, perennially, doing warm-up exercises, for that ultimate book that, we hope, we'll never quite get to.”
Hey, it’s that thing I built! One of the fun parts of also becoming a software engineer is that I can now build stuff like this. Candyfloss is a curated music digital newspaper that’s continuously updating with the newest music features and longform from my personal go-to sources and publications. It is indeed named after that one Wilco song. I basically made my own music Twitter without all the baggage of social media. I’m always making updates and adding new publications, so if there’s a publication you’d like me to add, let me know. (For all my fellow coders, here’s the GitHub.) Enjoy!
Music
Lifeguard - “I know I know”
These are some young Chicago greats — the drummer is the younger brother of one of the members of Horsegirl, another beloved Chicago band — and they just signed to Matador. The kids are alright, indeed.
Caroline Polachek - “Pretty In Possible”
The only song on the new Polachek album that doesn’t make me roll my eyes. Glorious moments on weak-to-fine songs where the artist is more interesting than the musician, just like Bowie.
Hank - “All for You (Baby)”
If the new Polachek album feels like an HBO prestige drama (well-made and somewhat overhyped), Hank’s Call Me Hank EP from last year feels like the better Hulu equivalent.
Fenne Lily - “Lights Light Up”
I love this guitar tone. This song has strong “Well, winter might finally be coming to a close” feels and her upcoming album was mixed by Jay Som, so a lot of reasons to be excited.
Blondshell - “Kiss City”
Another “Put this on your radar now before you hear her everywhere” kind of record.
Heartworms - “Retributions Of An Awful Life”
Brexitcore has lost much hype within the past year — a scene that I still love and had covered a few times — but there’s still a lot of great music coming out of this post-post-punk revival. Probably shouldn’t be shocking to say that Heartworms is signed to Speedy Wunderground.
Gorillaz - “Oil (ft. Stevie Nicks)”
My interview with Damon Albarn from a few years ago is still a favorite of mine, and I enjoy most Gorillaz albums — or at least find them all interesting. If you’ve tuned out of Gorillaz for some time, their new album Cracker Island is a great place to jump back in. There’s a sameness that hovers over most songs — my gut feeling that Gorillaz albums are better as collections of good songs instead of fluid albums remains true — but this is their most consistently enjoyable album in years. Albarn is still a master of those Britpop melodies that sound great regardless of genre or era.
De La Soul - “Eye Know”
Mura Masa - “give me The ground”
Mura Masa doing Father of the Bride two years before Vampire Weekend.
Letters To Cleo - “Come On”
“Can a depressed person make this.”
Jackson Browne - “Late For The Sky”
RIP the great David Lindley, who played with Jackson Browne for many years. I used to think Browne was boring but I’ve grown to love his songwriting and lyrics. I think the rule that applies to Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love also works for Late For The Sky: you shouldn’t listen to this album until you’ve experienced legitimate heartbreak or loss closer to your 30s.
Fleetwood Mac - “Gypsy”
Speaking of Stevie. I forget that Fleetwood Mac made other albums than Rumours. Some of them are quite good, too. Team “Justice for ‘Silver Springs.’”
And that’s it for this week! Until next Monday.
With love and all the other good things,
-b
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