KEYMAG Issue.01 by KEYMAG

KEYMAG

music of all shapes and sizes.

keyer.01

LPs Ahead of their Time Daft Punk Post-Rock Dangermouse Frank Ocean

Created and directed by Nathan Evans

@nayfun_evans @nayfunevans @keymag.01 www.keymag.com

Hello, and welcome to KEYMAG. I shan’t keep you long, only to explain what all this ink is for. I have a deep fascination with how music affects people, and the spots in ourselves they seem to wriggle into. Music comes from incredible places, too, I’m equally attentive to learning how an artist has made something, and why. With this in mind, I entered the process of writing the mag in search of what form of journalist I would take. Now on the other side, I have come out with a full understanding. I’m a storyteller, a tour guide through the endless voids of organised noise. This mag is about bringing light to invigorating tales. Chasms of untouched beauty. Giving those interested spaces to voyage, be it new or older, because one philosophy that is key to me is that the age of a piece of music does not depreciate its penetrative value. I’ve covered music from time gone by, as well as shone my light on new exciting artists, and both are equally as important to me, maybe you’ll come away with that. Thank you for spending money and time to read this easily-flammable product, and I hope to fuck that you enjoy yourself as you discover the mesmerising atmosphere of post-rock, the continued renovation of disco, the saga of one of the internet’s biggest outlaws, and so much more.

Design & Words by Nathan Evans Photography by Eli Lawson-Adamah Photography by Kay Tyrell Special Words by John Snave

KEYMAG

DAFT PUNK AND THE EVOL DISCO, HIP-HOP &

LPS AHEAD OF THEIR TIME - 7

ELI LAWSO

Discovery is the root [Contents page]

GUIDE TO POST-ROCK - 34

FLYNN WALLEN - 38

THE STORY AL

LUTION OF & PUNK - 16

MUSICAL COLLECTIVES - 29

BURIALâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S UNTRUE - 32

ON-ADAMAH - 21

of all that is creative

OF THE GREY LBUM - 40

ARTISTS TO WATCH - 44

FRANK OCEAN, BY JOHN SNAVE - 48

Good music retains its value, long outlasting any perceived expiry date

KEYMAG

« LPs Ahead Of Their Time »

When speaking retrospectively on an impactful album, a staple descriptor is that an LP was “ahead of its time”, and very rarely does it actually apply. There are records that were quietly exploring ideas that would later be popularised by other artists, however, this should not be construed with albums that are simply innovative. Many remark that records like OK Computer or Nevermind are ahead of their time. Sorry, but there is not a single way in which these were “ahead of the curve”, else they would not be sitting on millions of copies sold and colossal imprints in the musical

cannon. They were exactly on the curve if anything, and sure, they were influential, but we’re talking about artists like Nick Drake and Vashti Bunyan, who were both quietly releasing folk music amongst the noise of rock ‘n’ roll, and picked up more success well after their careers, even lives. In more recent times, there are a slew of projects that could well go on to become predictive in later decades, such as Flying Lotus’ Cosmogramma or M.I.A.’s Maya. But in the meantime, here are 10 records that are, indeed, ahead of their time.

Spiderland Slint 1991

Violent Femmes Violent Femmes 1983 A regular rite of passage for music fans is to get a friend to listen to the Violent Femmes’ self-titled debut album and have them guess what year it was released, and then to watch them react in shock to the fact is was released in 1983, ten years earlier than what they predicted. To pinpoint why they suggested the mid-90s, look to the aesthetics and personalities of each decade. The 80s was overcoated with a pristine sheen everywhere; recordings were bright and synthetic, and the punk music was conversely more direct in its aggression, compared to the 90s, which was charged with angst. With a rugged folk-rock texture, Violent Femmes belongs on the same branch as artists like Elliot Smith and Simon Joyner, who they arguably influenced. The

record’s standout single, “Blister In The Sun” became popular a decade after its release, further proving its true home in the alt-rock decade. Bubbling over with a sprightly guitar riff and lead singer Gordon Gano’s timid, nasal vocals, it soundtracks the hit Wisconsin-based 90s sitcom that never was. Though on its cracked surface, Violent Femmes may appear to be a lighthearted affair, its songs have a morose underbelly. “Add It Up” details Gano cheating sexual conquest with a prostitute, “Promise” spills over with self-destruction and frustration, the album even closes out with a song alluding to date rape. It’s this juvenile melodrama that kept these songs in circulation years after their initial point of impact, and inspired the lyrical angst of grunge and folk-rock artists to come.

If any rock historian were asked where the core energy of post-rock resides, two answers emerge: London-based Talk Talk and Kentucky natives Slint. Undoubtedly the grandparents of the genre, Talk Talk approached the arena from the angle of art rock and new wave, however, Slint came from a darker path, paved with elements of what would become math-rock and post-hardcore. Their second and final record Spiderland is a reckless excursion that is constantly shifting gears, from passionately dismal swamps that slow down the body, to tortured takeoffs that see the band wallow in the depths of despair. “Washer” bears all of this on the longest passage on the album. Coated in an uneasy, sinister tone spun from a

stiff, dusty guitar, it lulls into a false mode of comfort before switching tempo throughout. Hushed vocals are present and unchanging through the hysteria, making the ride especially chilling, then after the final verse, the band changes lanes and gives way to an ungodly crescendo, sounding strangled and gasping for air, it harnesses the essence of the story behind the instrumentation, of what seems to be a final goodbye. Few albums drive the same highway as Spiderland’s, not because of its compositional components, but through its performative intricacies. As well as being a massive touchstone for post-rock, math-rock and posthardcore, Spiderland is a drive-by across a desolate back-country of unfiltered despondency.

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Mystic Stylez Three 6 Mafia 1995

Deceit This Heat 1981 The world of post-punk in the early 80s was bleak. The genre was forming a militant assault onto the charts through the commercialised sound of new-wave, however, in the midst of all that, This Heat were going against the current to bring back the lost post-punk energy, and channel it into jazz-like experimentation, with splashes of prog-rock, too. Nevertheless, being recorded in what used to be a bloody, chilling meat locker, the record is light-years away from the dreaminess or calming qualities associated with those two genres – Deceit was born in a Thatcher-bred, Cold Warinfested world, and it has the angular energy designed to wake you up to the evil, corrupt world around you. “Paper Hats” detonates with a sudden freak-out that

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whirls with frantic guitars, and collides with machinegun drums. The exhilarating experience leads to a lengthy outro that maintains tension, as if the elements are ready to pounce at any given moment. This is only the second track, and the album has a cabinet full of moments that are not only extraordinary, but revolutionary. The way the band commands musical car crashes would later be seen in earth-sized rock bands like Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Swans, Sonic Youth, Public Image Ltd, as well as the jazz-leaning side of Radiohead. Calling this album merely “post-punk” is exactly what the album is titled. It is a record that is so outsider and with such a wild imagination, that it still sounds like the future today.

Memphis was never a camp that was especially prevalent in the rap arena. That was until the mid-1990s, when Juicy J, Gangsta Boo and the remainder of the Three 6 Mafia put the city on the map using low-grade studio equipment to create grimy, haunted hip-hop that is now recognised as “horrorcore”. Three 6 Mafia were concocting ghoulish horrorcore rap 3 years before Eminem and way before Tyler, The Creator would catch fire from it. The subgenre would have only been awoken by setting a treacherous precedent; their trademark sinister raps feel displaced when played anywhere away from the dead of night. “Live By Yo Rep”, a Bone Thugs-nHarmony diss, lays violent, demonic imagery over an eldritch beat, and while these lyrics that summon gun violence and hard drug use were incredibly taboo at the time, in today’s

hip-hop field, not only are they a staple, they are a cliché staple. The standout on this track is Lord Infamous, throwing razoredged flows along the many gruesome, detailed methods of maiming Bone Thugs. His aggressive projections can be seen across the hiphop spectrum, from Denzel Curry to A$AP Rocky, and the roaming, nonsensical chants would later bleed into the heart of crunk music, as well as the hypnotising triplet flows of Migos. From their grandkids Raider Klan and A$AP Mob, to the deep caverns of Soundcloud rap that once housed Yung Lean and $uicideboy$, it is clear that Three 6 Mafia’s ideas were far removed from their contemporaries, and instead was the archetype for the new generation of hip-hop. Though the battalion have long disbanded, it has casted a long shadow into the genre, with the idea to make hiphop sound truly horrifying.

2007 was one of a pivotal year for Kanye West in a myriad of ways. He dethroned 50 Cent to become the biggest rapper in the world with the release of his synthesized third album, Graduation. However, it was also the year in which his mother, Donda West, passed away. Pile on a ended engagement with Alexis Phifer and swarming media scrutiny, and the result was a downward spiral for Yeezy. In order to effectively channel his emotions, he abandoned rapping altogether, instead grabbing autotune - a contentious tool that had already been popularised in hip-hop by T-Pain and Lil Wayne - by both hands, and twisting it to create sublime but mechanised despair. “Welcome To Heartbreak” swells with submarine chords and marching 808 beats, all tied up with a fluttering piano lead that sounds graceful, a quality that is not just unusual for hip-hop, but to R&B too Kanye was crafting a unique sound in a genre that he didn’t regularly associate with.

Though the likes of Daft Punk and Radiohead had spent the early 2000s veiling their performances in vocodorised, robotic vocals, 808s saw this technique as a medium to express human emotion in a haunting way, and crucially ushered it into R&B and pop music. The notion of a hip-hop artist singing in a tuned-up voice was unprecedented, nonetheless paved the way for artists like Drake and Future to become musical institutions down the road, using a similar style of crooning rap. Tracks like “Paranoid” are laden with auto-tune, but also unearth the album’s roots in 80s synthpop and new wave, with its arcade-ripped synths firing like lasers around Yeezy’s melodic rapping.

artists like Lil Uzi Vert and the late XXXTentacion. Plus, it has allowed rappers to deal with their internal struggles using their music, thus making the connection between these rappers and their fans all the more dynamic. “Love Lockdown” was the album’s first single, and it perfectly encapsulates the album’s sound in one almighty piece of pop. Imagine the world first listening to this new Kanye, as each unpredictable element is sworn in to build the track up - first the booming bass sets a brooding tone, paints

a passionate red hue. Ye crawls in with a performance that grows with the track, then brisk piano stabs enter to add flavour and rhythm. This minimalist production is then bolstered by corybantic drums in the chorus that send the song to a high-octane apex. Climaxes like this are what make this album so special: the emotions are strong and displayed at the size of Himalayan peaks, a fitting monument for Kanye West.

On top of clearing the way for Drake’s mammoth success, it furthered the acceptance of hip-hop personalities laying out their emotions on wax, arguably initiated by Kid Cudi and Atmosphere. Fast forward to today, and “emo rap” is hitting charts and dominating Spotify through

808s & Heartbreak Kanye West 2008

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American Football American Football 1999

With grunge and punk rock bands hitting the big time in the 1990s, a glowing underground of emo rock was formulating, blossoming from the ragged sound of their punk forefathers. Enter American Football, a band that removes all stains from the hard-nosed rock aesthetic that defined emo for most of its life, and instead braids the genre’s trademark adolescent lyrics with a subtler, more technically-driven indie rock

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sound. This flavour would later collectivise as “Midwest emo”, and American Football are one of the most popular bands to come from this era. Newer bands such as Modern Baseball and The Hotelier, as well as labels like Run For Cover and Topshelf, borrow heavily from their math rock-influenced style, thanks in large part to their legendary eponymous debut album.

American Football’s opener, “Never Meant”, perfectly details the emotional characteristics of this record - how the snaking guitar lines intertwine like growing vines, how its para-melodies create sorcery, how the space and size of the music affirms that the narrative could be projected purely instrumentally. After clearing its throat, the song generates warmth through its guitars. The bridge ascends, increasing propulsion and space, for it to snap back into a twangy, eccentric breakdown, it implores reminiscence. With nominal, tear-stained lyrics, “Never Meant” and company act as a high school journal written with nimble guitars and bossa nova drums.

emo bands as a crutch, in fact, quite the opposite - they had found themselves in a world where bands were more adventurous, grown-up and refined. In other words, the world had just caught up with them.

In 2014, the band returned with their sophomore album, still self-titled. Upon release, the new record felt unoriginal, not because they were using the sound of new

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Loveless My Bloody Valentine 1991 Kevin Shields is nothing if not a perfectionist, and when he spent 2 years between 1989 and 1991 exploring the science of noise, it would be hard to imagine that he would end up building the scaffolding for one of the most revered subcultures in alternative rock shoegazing. £250,000 was the price needed to create a record loaded with wailing feedback, ethereal effects and muted, ghostly vocals – though it consists of loosely-organised tracks, they multiply to something much larger. At the heart,

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the songs are simple indie rock jams, but what makes them remarkable is the sound-play; the mix sounds meticulously crafted, it is clear that Shields and co. sacrificed life and limb perfecting the record’s aura. “Loomer” is a thunderous frame into the tranquil world that occupies lead singer Bilinda Butcher’s voice. You can hear the dream pop song underneath, yet it’s washed in effects and distortion, bolstering the track to feel like it has enough energy to shake the earth. There are so

many layers that uncover themselves over time, the music of this album is sub-nautically dense. Shields subtly referenced his music as punk music in interviews, alluding that his style of songwriting is not complex like that of Led Zeppelin, but as simple as the Ramones, something he said was much more difficult. It speaks to how time-consuming the album was, to pull from the abstract and produce a new sound - the sound of punk. Not to say that the album is monotonal; “When

You Sleep” provides a more temperate moment in which the effects aren’t a thick slab, only a thin veil, the beauty of the song underneath can truly be appreciated as well as the tsunami on top. In the current era where “throwback culture” thrives, with Polaroid pictures and vinyl resurgence, Loveless has continued to maintain relevancy, because of its dirty, obscured sound that may not be organic, but it is unquestionably physical.

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Nigga Please Ol’ Dirty Bastard 1999 The Wu-Tang Clan is oft revered for the amount of distinct personalities it housed. Ghostface Killah was spirited and was often the most direct route to raising the energy of a track, GZA was understated but had a razor-sharp pen, but Ol’ Dirty Bastard was unquestionably the most freakish. Combining a lumbering rap style with a wild and tuneless singing accentuation, he was a standout figure in a pack stuffed with rap virtuosos. However, when the Wu would splinter off to make solo material, Bastard’s second album in 1999 would animalise his music to create some of the most

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carnal, and forward-thinking rap material ever conceived. The record starts off well enough, with an infectious funk jam, “Recognise”, where ODB brings a guard dog-like performance, simmered by Pharrell’s cool flow on the hook. The following track, though, is where the album goes over the edge of sanity. On a cover of Rick James’ “Cold Blooded”, ODB is singing completely out-of-tune, and screaming his studio to the ground, continuing to do so all through the LP’s duration. Tracks like “I Can’t Wait”, “Dirt Dog”, and especially “You Don’t Fuck With Me”, see him embody a drill sergeant, with no

way to look past his manic screeching. Yet, look at the hip-hop landscape of today, and many underground rappers are attracting fans by making themselves seem like an unapproachable nutcase. At the time, rappers were seen as more marketable if they were calm and collected thugs; take 50 Cent as example. But in the viral social media age, the rappers that get attention are those who are the most insane and exciting, like 6ix9ine. “I Want Pussy” is the LP at its most gloriously asinine, with obviously vulgar lyrics encapsulating a sinister guitar loop. It should be noted that ODB would later be diagnosed with

schizophrenia, which may have contributed to way this album was constructed, as comparisons can be made to Kanye’s The Life Of Pablo as similarly Pollock-esque. ODB’s last studio album released during his lifetime leaves a legacy of delirium. Taking the idea of eccentric delivery to the extreme, the record borders on grating, but can be looked fondly in retrospection, with a good sense of humour, and in admiration for the maddening image it presents.

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Silver Apples Silver Apples 1968 The chronicles of Silver Apples begins and ends over the course of 3 years, beginning with an oscillator, and ending with a lawsuit from Pan American Airways. One of the first bands to successfully incorporate experimental electronics into rock music, their debut album integrates pulsating, dance-punk- and krautrockanticipating beats into psychedelic rock in a way that retains the spontaneity and organicity of the genre. This is exemplified on the opener, “Oscillations”. With a faintly syncopated drum pattern, frontman Simeon comes with many bells and a fleet of whistles, culminating in a throbbing couple of minutes that’s not simply a rubbing-together of rock and electronics, but a true weaving that calls

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forward to early electronica. The name of this track makes reference to the centremost instrument heard in the band’s music: a contraption dubbed “The Simeon”, it is homemade from nine oscillators welded together by wires and effect pedals. This self-proclaimed “piece of junk” generates an analogue toybox of squeaks and warps, but one of the few tracks where these waveforms take a backseat is “Program”. Here it is replaced by the waveforms of radio tuning into an array of stations, a seismic idea that becomes more baffling when noting the live performance of the song, tuning in live to real radio stations over a hypnotic, machine-like bassline. After standing on bold new ground, jamming

with Hendrix and Lennon, the band’s second album garnered a lawsuit from Pan Am, for containing a wreckage of one of their planes in its artwork. The suit ended the band in its primary form, but with praises being sang by artists ranging from Beck

to Portishead to the Beastie Boys, suffice to say that the original music still continues to resonate.

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Scott Walker has had one of the most outlandish and intriguing career trajectories of any artist, clocking over 50 years from being a teen-bop child star, and somehow leading to awakening some of the most batshit-insane avantgarde music of the modern age; his discography is

a descent into madness. Scott 3 finds Walker in the middle of his mononymous Scott 1-4 phase, a series of pop-agreeing albums built to hold up Walker’s performance with sonic cinematics. With baroque pop emerging at the time of this LP, Walker refrained from psychedelia like his

contemporaries, favouring to keep his music serene and earthly, inadvertently acting as an incredible precursor to chamber pop and flickers of Kate Bush’s work. “Winter Night” is a brief, Fantasia-esque serenata that encompasses a blockbuster’s-worth of visceral emotion by way of its grand instrumentation, soaring and simmering all at an interlude’s length. The strings and woodwinds truly glides the song while being texturally complex, forming a reference point for a host of artists, be it Goldfrapp, Bowie, Beck or Kid A-era Radiohead. On the surface, the orchestral pop housed under this record follows artists like Andy Williams and Frank Sinatra, however, the crucial difference is the addition of Wally Scott’s redolent

strings that are pigmented with airborne drones and traces of dissonance. Songs like “Big Louise” show how these immense arrangements colour the album, fluttering or rising wherever appropriate, but what further tints each Waltz-metered symphony is its pairing with Walker’s desolate lyrical themes of isolation and heartbreak. The writing style of Nick Cave could be traced back to this era of Walker, yet no-one could touch how the latter’s sonorous vocals lather the album’s filmic qualities. His 60s music feels like it occupies its own, wintery space, like a snowglobe, and with an experimental edge on his third effort, it breathes an extra dose of that same magic.

Scott 3 Scott Walker 1969

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DAFT PUNK

OF AND THE

EVOLUTION

The 70s was an incredibly fertile era for music. Within the many revolutions capsuled in this decade, there lies the baby steps and popularisation of punk, hip-hop and disco. All three were born from aggravated minority cultures, creating something to put their struggles into, and channel into a vigourous energy. Punk derived from the working class in England and America, hip-hop from African-Americans in New York, and disco from ethnic minorities and LGBT communities along the East Coast of the US. All three birthed from the frustration towards higher powers and mainstream culture. All three would be the deep roots of a musical project that, through cultural osmosis and continuous reinvention of their genre, has become dance music’s greatest contributor - Daft Punk. Hip-hop is a subtle influence on Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo. Not only do both parties champion boombap and 808-based beats, but DP also took on board the practise of shifting parts from an existing song, and repurposing it in their own - sampling. Producers and DJs from the Bronx were involved in developing this art form even in its inception, preserving and rejuvenating records that are potentially lost to history, while injecting their own creativity and self-identity in and around the sample. Not only does it provide an aural reference point for listeners, it can also demonstrate what music exactly inspires the artists they enjoy, such as when The Roots

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DISCO HIP-HOP & PUNK

flipped Afrobeat originator and human rights activist Fela Kuti on the aptly-styled “I Will Not Apologise”. The use of vocal effects in Daft Punk’s music was also nabbed from elite hip-hop producers, particularly the ever-innovator Dr. Dre, and enhanced the stylistic poinience of the duo’s vocals as classic tracks like “California Love” did before them. Punk had a short history, but through the process of evolution, has enjoyed a lifetime of ascendancy, and is a close species to electronic/dance music. One can look at the similarly independent, DIY mantra, an energy which coursed through both genres to influence culture through sheer force of will. The most poignant example of the convergence of punk and electronic music is Joy Division - a band that evolved punk by bringing its unfiltered emotion to outside inspirations, notably synthesized projects like Kraftwerk and Bowie’s Berlin trilogy, to create post-punk. After the suicide of frontman Ian Curtis, the remaining members would go on to regroup as New Order, the frontrunners of new wave, incorporating elements of dance and electronic music. Thomas and Guy-Man are certainly descendants of the punk timeline, even starting out in an indie-punk band called Darlin’.

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Their ties to disco go even further. The four-to-the-floor beat, muscly syncopated bass-lines and electric instruments would be the backbone not just to disco itself, but its rich successor in house music, a discipline that the duo would make their mark in. French house, a now-outmoded style of house, is clearly associated with them, and it too originates from disco, even sampling these records in some of its greatest creations. Nonetheless, Daft Punk’s link to the genre goes deeper than most house artists, even French house artists, and that is down to the heartfelt, emotion-driven moments they offer, and their second album Discovery is indicative of that.

Even down to the design of its casing, the record exists in a world of its own. Wrapped around the CD was an unconventionally minimal design for its time, with no album title, and simply a metallic iteration of the band’s patch-worthy logo on an inky black background. In the present, minimal, bold cover designs are all the rage, but for its time, it was as if its contents were etched into the pitch-black ether of space. A fitting canvas, considering that this is the band’s disco-oriented record, leaning into the future-forward aesthetics of synth-pop. Perhaps the project’s title is truly deserved; the album is a vast exploration into new forms, only possible by moving into the past. The album begins by greeting the crushed horns of “One More Time”, oft considered one of the greatest dance tracks on all time. Romanthony’s auto-tuned vocals dances betwixt a pulsating beat, but what makes the track so revered is also the reason why the robots are equally special. When disco was it its peak, its songs were structurally dynamic and each one displayed a ream of emotion in each track. Acts like Chic and ABBA elevated disco to a higher level by using complex song structures - the dancefloor had a narrative, these songs didn’t pummel the club all the time, the lower moments escalated the climaxes. Equally, during its midpoint, “One More Time” breaks down into its most minimal elements: Romanthony’s vocals punctuating soft, glistening chords. It’s a unique moment to engage in within the core of a bustling house track, to witness it killed off and unmasked as something of a ballad. However, when the celebratory horns creep back in, it is sent racing through space and time. It reaches its pinnacle, the same high reaches a higher level.

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Nestled in the middle of the side C is “Something About Us”, a lenitive love song fit for the perfect slow dance. Gentle guitar licks caress the snappy drums and crooning vocals, trickling out with a soft conviction, echoing into the ether. The song eases in slowly like a nervous teenage boy confessing their love to his lifelong crush, and plays out the same way - concluding with a keyboard solo that has soul lovingly stitched into each note - much in the same vein, disco records of their time would slow down to a heartfelt pace. Although their studio playlist cannot be fully uncovered, clues to what the robots were seeking insight from at this time can be found in their choice of samples. Eddie Johns, Sister Sledge, Edwin Birdsong, Tavares, Surface and Rose Royce were all recontextualised onto the LP, in ways that retains the fabric of the originals, but fits snugly into the world of Discovery. A commendable feat achieved by using fragments from these old disco records that no other producer would touch, and similar sentiments would be expressed to star hip-hop producers like Madlib. Though their styles are unaligned, their attention to detail and craftsmanship both contributed to intricate beats that separate themselves from the original samples while retaining their spirit and energy. “Face To Face” is the robots’ standout moment when it comes to recontextualising samples. Todd Edwards had a hand in vocals, as well as production, lending his schizophrenic electro-house fusing to the duo. The song is a timeless synthpop track combining the two production styles, reserving verses for Todd’s lyrics of reconnection, marching forth amongst the cutting, four-to-the-floor drums and punchy electro-bass. Meanwhile, the chorus is replete with a harlequin patchwork of instrumental and vocal snippets that is clearly the work of repossession, but the jagged-edged guitars and whirlwind jump-cuts breathe a little bit of life into every pocket. Taking bytes out of ELO, Kenny Loggins and Alan Parsons in the breakdown, it acts as a testament to the merits of sampling, a contested issue in both electronic music and hip-hop.

Discovery’s critical and commercial success was quite telling, because those who praised its refreshing sonic palette deemed the original neon-dripped 80s synth-pop and sparkly 70s disco that inspired the album as “cheesy” and “old-fashioned”. Discovery was about Daft Punk paying tribute to the music they loved growing up, and in being an integral member of the disco-tributing French Touch movement, they were able to kick down the door of a sound that has been trapped for too long, don it underneath a pair of chromatic helmets, and become pop culture icons. Yet disco is not all they have logged into their hard drive, that is apparent when examining their sound four years prior.

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mainstream with big-budget gigs and festivals, highlighting just how far they have come from conquering the powers that be that borderline criminalised them.

If Discovery is Daft Punk’s most disco-laden effort, their debut, Homework, is most rooted in hip-hop. The record glows with a youthful rebellion, the beats are fat and grimy, and, in an ideal world, should be played exclusively through a ghetto blaster. Hip-hop’s aesthetic pierces the record; there is just as many boombap beats as there are four-to-the-floor rhythms, putting them a foot above the rest of the French electronic music that was growing in popularity around the time of the album’s inception. The pair even spell out their influences on the track “Teachers”, listing Dr. Dre and George Clinton among the likes of Armand Van Helden and DJ Deeon. It seems, then, that on their adolescent studio work, Daft Punk wear their influences as if they were each sewn on, right next to the embossed patch seen on its front cover. The introductory single to emerge from Homework was “Da Funk”, a blistering hybrid of acid house and g-funk. Its trenchant beat stomps like King Ghidorah, meanwhile the guttural synthesizer riff has the bark of Cujo. The bounce of the track rumbles the nervous system throughout, especially in the final sector, which introduces a textbook acid-house squeal that acts out fervently, splashing from the speakers. Something so bashful yet imaginative is the mark of a track only the youth would create. Parts of the anatomy of the track were lifted from sooty soul songs that could only be found from crate digging, a hip-hop tradition that dates back to its inception with the likes of the Sugarhill Gang flipping Chic records. Thomas and Guy-Man would also utilise Chic to reach new heights later in their career, bringing their journey full-circle. The ties to hip-hop run deeper going back a track. “Revolution 909” does not begin until a crowd are disrupted by the police sirens and stoic orders to “stop the music and go home”, illustrating how French house music fans were held under the boot of the government, their raves being shut down under false pretences to delegitimise the culture in the 90s. Aside from an instructional cooking segment on making spaghetti, its music video, depicting a responsible party-goer on the cusp of arrest, further relates to hip-hop’s struggle to be devillainised by the establishment, and is also using peace-shattering beats to translate this message to the ear of people. Today, both dance music and hip-hop have become not just accepted, but have thrived in the

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Homework tackles many subjects throughout its 1 hour 30 minute runtime, yet this does not equate to it being a night-before-the-exam cram job. DP’s notoriously time-consuming creation process originated here, where they spent no more than 8 hours in a week making music, over the course of a halfyear. Those precious man-hours thankfully lead to a multi-faceted set of house tracks ranging from the gleeful gospel of “Phoenix” to unquestionably one of the most belligerent moments in Daft Punk’s discography, “Rollin’ ‘n’ Scratchin’”. On the B-side of the original “Da Funk” 12” lies this 7-minute demon, who makes its return on the album, and drives at speeds rarely seen at NASA. Breathing with only a small selection of components, DP squeeze in a shifting four-to-thefloor drum pattern and glass hihats with a monstrous, rage-filled synth that stridently fires off like sustained rounds of ammunition to the chest. This ball of distortion is unquestionably alive, growling louder and everviolent to an apex, then calming down almost to a stopping point, all before releasing a final convulsion of noise that heaves the track into the thermosphere. “Rollin’ ‘n’ Scratchin’” demonstrates how the duo take the aggressive, harsh sounds seen in hip-hop, implement them into house music, and then throw them into the lion’s den. Until donning their iconic helmets, the pair visibly brought the meaty urban bounce of hip-hop into the pan of house, stirring in the flavourful relish of disco, and disruptive tang of punk to create a sweet puree to drizzle across the 17 tracks that concoct the record. Daft Punk have stated that the album’s name derives from its humble recording sessions in Thomas’ bedroom, and as a whole, Homework feels like their educational expedition before they would venture into wider, more ambitious LP archetypes. As well as, ironically, the ideal beginner’s guide to house music. Warp-speeding to the years after Discovery’s release, the sound the two had made was in vogue. Artists like Madonna and David Bowie asked for their preternatural hands in production, which they boldly declined, instead searching for how to redefine themselves. Approaching the winter of 2004, Daft Punk saw fit to completely flip the ethos they had perfected over their first two projects, truly warranting the second half of their label - they were punking against themselves. Their slow and slaved-over construction process was even tossed out for a rigorous six-week space, and fabricating from that misty underbelly was Human After All.

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Still, Thomas and Guy-Man wear the spandex and denim well enough, but really go ham in the finale, occupying the entire space of the song with their ever-modulating vocals.

Upon release, many saw fit to weaponise the album’s title against them, raising that the duo were indeed human after all, and not wondrous androids capable of delivering perfection every time. Today, it is still seen as the robots’ only malfunction in an otherwise pristine discography, but their intentions and goals were missed by most. Examining the mantra of punk, the works of bands like The Ramones and such were based on messy, amateurish recordings through sheer circumstance - a lack of top-grade studio equipment played into the hands of the aesthetic. At the time, many wrote punk off as being “too rough” or “overly garish” to reach any notable level of appeal, yet it became one of music’s most defining movements, not because it was made using sterilised equipment, quite the opposite. Punk was profoundly human, and for two robots to recreate this feeling is a task so impossible, it provoked them. Utilising repetition and strands of improvisation, Daft Punk stood defiant in a world of electronic music that was not only based on rigid and measured track progressions, but ravenous for more of their unbreakable dance sound. As mentioned, this disobedience even went down to how the record was created, tearing up the usual white-gloved recording process, and instead taking only 2 weeks to bring something together, double that for the mixing time. Moments like the propaganda-smeared sloganeering on the hefty banger “Television Rules The Nation”, or the reworking of a Black Sabbath track on “The Brainwasher” show their intentions to use punk and counter-movement devices to venture askew and find the polar opposite of Discovery. The title track aims to be the mission statement for the oncoming 45 minutes of material, as crisp reverberating drums thump across the militia of thunderous guitars that have been squeezed into the mix. Despite shrouding itself in a defiant character, DP has not lost its pop sensibilities. Their trademark vocoder vocals take on a similar, two-parts melodramatic, one-part sticky, cadence seen in hair metal. Small wonder why the two are drawn to this; in retrospect, the gaudy clothing and power choruses that defined 80s bands like Van Halen and Bon Jovi look a bit, well - daft.

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Further down the mineshaft lies the schaffeling beat of “The Prime Time Of Your Life”. The song assembles itself in an abnormal fashion, split into two distinct halves, a characteristic that formed the basis of post-punk, the invention of new structures. The first portion is quite tame, as if the song is being contained under a ceiling, beating slowly like a rested heart. Dental synths and mechanised vocals take minutes to congeal, forming what could have passed as a perfectly acceptable electroclash release just a few calendars earlier. The second half of the track, however, comes when the vocals blow the ceiling off. That beating heart begins to escape from the control of pace, as if infiltrated with a lethal dose of amphetamines. It booms and whirs like a factory in high gear, gathering more and more momentum, going double, triple, quadruple time until it devours itself like a sonic black hole. What is left is nothing, and whatever the robots’ perception as the “prime time of life” has evaporated. While it is a somewhat destructive track, that is what was key to punk.

Human After All marks a pivotal period of time in the robots’ mythos, even if the project does suffer heavily at points from a lack of ideas. But what many looked over was the album’s influence to activate a sea change in the French dance music scene, with a more hard-nosed, glitch-laden style dubbed “Blog House”, a short-lived species in which Ed Banger Records was the kingpin. By showing that punk is not just a sound, but a set of philosophies that can be applied to any number of genres, the spirit that burns incandescently throughout Human After All has seeped into several corners of the music world. To lay out the bigger picture, these three albums post-mark the principle era of Daft Punk’s musical genesis, and give light to how disco, hip-hop and punk’s ideals and pillars were being smuggled into a seemingly different genre altogether. However, the robots would continue to upgrade; soundtracking Tron: Legacy in 2010 allowed them to unlock their string-composing capabilities, a skill they would to put to great use on their 4th record, Random Access Memories.

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proceedings on a quieter note that allows the listener to chalk up memories of the dusty music of the past, in preparation for DP to represent it in the most extravagant, high-priced way.

Dropping from the realm of fantasy in 2013, RAM was an album where they fled from electronic dance music altogether, to the dismay of many, but they traced their roots to the source, and found the groove-driven funk and disco of the late 70s and early 80s. Where they previously refreshed and tucked foreign styles into their music, they saw fit to elevate this sound altogether, and deliver a project that does not just pay homage and incorporate its mannerisms, but completely re-contextualise it for the modern age and future ages. The project’s absolute ambition is present even when looking at some of the collaborators on deck. Chic mastermind Nile Rodgers aid DP throughout the more guitar-led tracks, and Giorgio Moroder, the certifiable Henry Ford of Eurodisco who drove dancefloor-ready electronic music to the masses in the late 70s, appears as a rusty narrator. Having these two at the helm is especially tenacious for an album that grasps the era where these two cracked the whip. Blockbuster songwriter Paul Williams shares the robots’ yearning for feeling, meanwhile maven pianist Chilly Gonzales glides songs towards one another through his masterful piano transitions.

Another moment that testifies to the redefinition of disco is the Chase-man tribute, “Giorgio By Moroder”. Stretching across 9 transformative minutes, it begins with a monologue from the man himself, on the inception of his trademark sound. The background ambience immediately cuts to a potent use of the ever-prolific synthesizer, which gradually fades from being the central element to a motif for a wealth of sounds to dance over. Silky keyboard tones twirl alongside a bendy double bass; sunkissed piano ensemble darts around while a steady drum pattern keeps it in check; a plethora of strings unite to jerk the tear ducts until it expertly pairs with supple record scratches, all leading to a final attack of the senses with arena-sized drums and rock guitars. It speaks to the sheer majestry of the song’s core, that it can bound from one musical world to the next like a satellite transmission. The second Giorgio-voiced interlude inhabits this spirit, as he muses on breaking free from rules and boundaries to rediscover the childlike imagination that makes Daft Punk’s catalogue so impeccable. It’s the reason why this song was given so much wax - it was imperative to completing their mission of freeing their Random Access Memories. For now, this is where the chronicles end, nonetheless with hip-hop being the zeitgeist at the moment, I hope that they are able to do the same with this as well as punk in the future, because ultimately, it’s what they were programmed to do.

These legends sit alongside more contemporary and familiar faces, like eccentric producer/singers Pharrell and Animal Collective’s Panda Bear, who both distill their respective styles into the record. Finally, Daft Punk pull from their history to bring longtime friend DJ Falcon and prior collaborator Todd Edwards, whose old-guard house techniques and progressions are utilised on their respective tracks. This ensemble of collaborators details how far the two are willing to go in their quest to reinvigorate the soul of something that has been lost for decades. Take the epic introductory jam “Give Life Back to Music”. The show bursts onto the stage with an emphatic entrance that feels like watching every aural section - the surging guitar, bashful drums, rocketing electronics - intersecting in a slow-motion collision. In other words, these opening four bars could soundtrack the Big Bang itself. Nile Rodgers steps in with a nimble guitar line spread along the glamorous piano chords, opening up the album’s

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Eli Lawson-Adamah

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Eli Lawson-Adamah is one of those hard-to-pin personas that can only be thoroughly described through stories rather than words. He is the type of person to buy an A3 photography book hours before a gig, read it in the queue, and then have resort to hugging it in the middle of an active mosh pit, losing his glasses in the process. Not to mis-characterise him, he’s incredibly adept, but tell that anecdote to anyone that knows him, and they’ll respond with “that’s such an Eli thing to do”. His decisions are based from the heart as much as the head, a relentless drive that has seen him make a name for himself and as part of the RGB & Friends design team. After just a few minutes with him, it’s clear that he has a profound, almost spiritual connection with the camera lens. “For me, when I’m taking photos, I’m really in the zone, I black out, I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m just looking through, composing myself, snap it, move onto the next thing, because I shot on film so I don’t have to worry about looking at the image right after taking it. So it’s all about the human connection with the subject, and making them feel comfortable, showing them in their best light, but when I’m taking the photos, there’s no thought process. Your hands and your eyes do it, and then you have something at the end of it. I always try to make it authentic and capture something real in each person. It’s about capturing everything that’s not in the frame, and the essence of the person. Make it so you’re looking through a portal into a new world.” As we speak in preparation for the night’s event, his words ooze confidence. This should be no surprise considering that during the summer, he became part of the design team for Ghetts’ album, Ghetto Gospel: The New Testament. The event in question was revealed to be a gathering confounded to showcase the work these boys are conducting, dubbed NIGHTS: Summer’s Over. It looked to be the mould of a movie night, fitting for a

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collective of virtuosos specialising in both forms of image, still and motion. These events hinge on the products that they make, be it short films, music videos, photography or magazines. Tonight saw all of these collide, with an exhibition spun from the web of the family washing line, a movie screening using a home projector. It is a perfect facet of the DIY manifesto that sees many underground movements impact the wider cultural landscape. That they harness this passion-fueled philosophy means that their events have a homely but zealous aura, one that will propel this collective to bigger things. Flynn Wallen is the musical guest for the first edition of NIGHTS, and their plan is to have more artists and creatives guest their platform. Eli explained that they will begin with artists he has close connections with, starting within the family, then “from there we are able to have submissions and showcase other artists for our platform and help people grow.” The event is a reasonable £3 entry, with an option to buy a magazine that the boys have printed onto

square-shaped, high-gloss paper. It chronicles their travels to London, Copenhagen and even South Africa, though they do not view it as the focal point of the event. The magazine accessorizes their well-managed Instagram page, being a physical integration of their photography and design work. That, in turn, accessorizes the social events, their main production. RGB are linking the physical with the digital, and using physical media to promote themselves in the digital and real world. It’s a refreshing approach that allows them to create memorable experiences for their followers, and spread the word about what they aim to achieve. Only three names make up RGB in an official capacity, despite their already impressive set of affiliates: himself, Sean Dendere and brother Simon Dendere. RGB are a tight-knit family rather than a sprawl of creatives, as Eli confirms, “we’ve been friends for ages, it’s a family thing really.” Of course, their collaborators and partners are also part of the outer mantle of the RGB family, but these three represent the creative nucleus of the name. That namesake, in fact, is just as

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purposeful as the products they make; “Everything that you see on your screen is processed through RGB, Red Green & Blue colours, and that’s the entire point of it, to transition from online to physical.” We get talking about the magazine aspect of the project, with Eli explaining the origin of the print. The trio captured their journey to Denmark and South Africa, the zine being a publication to relive this time. Perhaps someday, they will produce an issue focusing on these NIGHTS events, because save from a few blemishes, the night was a perfect social celebration for the collective and what they had made so far. Foremost in the magazine in terms of content came from the expeditions the trio embarked on, one of which was Copenhagen, its distinctive fashion scene and blossoming photography field. Eli describes to me the annual summer fair held at the Charlottenburg Museum that houses upcycled structures, art exhibitions, free thinkers showcasing their creations and ideas. Add to this the cultivated town of Humlebæk, and these three were racing with a joint expressive buzz that led to them finding inspiration in the form of RGB; a large piece of the magazine’s content stems from Copenhagen.

South Africa was similarly educational, bolstered by the remnants of apartheid that still inhabit the landscape, one morsel of which the three visited. “There’s a place called Ocean’s View, that’s nowhere near an ocean, and the history behind that is that they moved when apartheid happened, the people that were living on the coast were kicked out of their houses and put into slums, and they renamed it Ocean’s View just to take the piss. And towards the end of the trip, we started to see the scene in South Africa, we saw people with dyed hair and stuff-” At this point, fellow RGB member Simon joined in to explain the majestry of the country. “It’s amazing. You feel like they don’t express themselves much, but you go to South Africa and people are just as crazy as anything, their arts, the museums we went to, the Norval foundation and Constantia, that was amazing. The [Johannesburg] CBD district, we went to the market as well, and there were loads of people doing crazy stuff-”

“When I’m taking photos, I black out.”

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Eli: “And yeah, people doing their own thing, starting from the bottom. It’s like Camden, but it only shows up at nighttime. You have to find the scene, if you just walk around as a tourist, you won’t find the scene. You have to hunt for it.” Once mentioning the topic of inspirations to him, Eli unloaded a round of influences, from all sides of artistic expression. Savants in typography, RGB look to inject their own flair into the art form and look towards Scandinavian approaches to design, people like Arne Jacobsen and Bruno Mathsson. An Austro-Hungarian photographer by the name of Weegee was a particular point of interest, and how his photos from back into the 30s look so modern, with pristine lighting and clarity. More names came gushing out - the “beautiful colourwork” of Petra Collins, the striking street photography of Henri CartierBresson, Nan Goldin’s innate ability to “capture the humanity of people.” Spiralling from this came the war documentation of Roger Fenton, the soft-focus portraits of Julia Margaret Cameron; Eli clearly resonated with high-octane emotions distilled into a picture frame.

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After exploring the vast emporium of inspirations that have unfolded his art form, Eli moves on to tell me how he met two important faces through luck of timing. “I’m coming through Liverpool Street to head to Shoreditch, to the Ace Hotel, where we were having a party. I ran into this Australian dude called Sebastian. He’s sat there with two skateboards on his set of wheels, bit weird, so I started talking to him. Then his girlfriend, Maya, comes over, they’re proper filmmakers, photographers, just like me. We get chatting, then head over to Ace Hotel, and all that timing, the way it works out, as I come out, I bump into Denzel Himself. I happened to snap his portrait, and get his manager’s details for future work. And then, when I get into the Hotel, I meet one of my favourite photographers, she’s just sat there, chilling, Olivia Rose, she takes loads of photos with the grime guys. The timing worked out just crazy.”

“It’s all about the human connection with the subject.”

Fate has a knack for putting Eli in special positions, and it’s just as fortunate that he is the type of person to take opportunities big and small. The dude has a talent for establishing connections out of the blue - after all, just a week before meeting Denzel and Olivia, he was shooting none other than Ghetts. The opportunity to work with the grime veteran materialised when Eli took a few promo shots for solo emcee Joseph Bernard “he happened to show the photos to a lady called Misha Meghna. Misha Meghna was one of the creative directors of the entire Ghetto Gospel: New Testament album. So, she loved the photos and then asked me to come on board. All through Joseph, so shoutout to him.” For a frame of reference, the initial shooting day was June 25th 2018, just three days after Eli’s A-level maths exam, highlighting simply how early on in not just his career, but life, he is getting to meet incredible people.

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Eli ended up working on not only stills for the album booklet, but collage designs in the booklet, CD cover, billboards, invites, posters he became a huge presence on its art direction. To cap off what many would consider the greatest work experience for a young photographer, he got to sit fornenst the man himself, leading Eli to his family home and favourite chicken spot, which showed a different side to the Plaistow native: “You know how Ghetts is known for fairing up in anger sometimes? He had one of those. We were in a chicken shop, called “Favourites”, and bossman wouldn’t let him take pictures in the chicken shop, he’s like “don’t get the prices in the chicken shop”. Ghetts said “look yeah, I’m gonna be real with you. On a business ting, this is probably the worst decision you’ve ever made in your life. Just by people seeing me in this shop, your customers are gonna come in like crazy.” He was going off on bossman, bossman was like “I’m not the manager, I can’t decide”, but got the photos anyway. Apart from that, he was really chill.” As much as Ghetts can be unsparing, he is nothing if not grateful, and makes sure to greet and bless everyone that works with him. This positive attitude is what may have led to such an evocative shoot. “For me, since I hadn’t been listening to Ghetts very often beforehand, I didn’t really know what to expect, so I just captured him in the best way I could.” This fresh take led to an artist looking rejuvenated, as Joseph Bernard’s older brother - a hallucinogenic R&B artist by the name of Haich - told him shortly after the shoot: “without knowing, you’ve been able to capture him in sort of an authentic, yardie sort of way”. Eli reproduced Ghetts as the elder he is in the context of the scene, no longer a youngen, but grime royalty, a tone that neatly suited the album.

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While I could end this feature with a corny line like “who knows what the future holds for this young talent”, but the truth is, Eli knows exactly what’s coming. Short films, collaborations, music videos shot in Super 8 film, for Eli and RGB, “it’s more of a when, specifically when it suit the timeline to put these things out, we’ve got a few things in the stash.” However, considering his confidence and prowess, it is certain that he will continue to surprise even himself.

“If you just walk around as a tourist, you won’t find the scene. You have to hunt for it.”

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Collectivised

Musical collectives are a rare breed, the internet only helping to accelerate that scarceness. While there are supergroups, cliques and groups that explicitly release content together and then solo material, musical collectives are groups of like-minded people that share

similar stylistic interests and a passion for creativity. They are prone to extinguishing quickly, as musical collectives exist usually until either success, conflict or simply finishing work separates them. Collectives have resulted in the increased prominence of the involved

bands and artists, as fans of the sound or other collective artists will be naturally linked to them. This can also equate to continued relevance or revitalisation of existing artists, too, and could provide an outlet for artists to show a different angle to their sound, or a new sound altogether.

Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians Soulquarians

When Jimi Hendrix threw the doors of Electric Lady Studios open, he strived to spark magic through its cavernous New York spaces. A visit to the hefty, opaque walls of Electric Lady Studios at the apex of the new millenium would find all three studios taken up by a single hive mind that stored some of the finest artists of its time. The compact journey of the Soulquarians began when D’Angelo and co-pilot Questlove moved into Studio A to record D’s follow-up album to 1995’s Brown Sugar entitled Voodoo. Even though they were composing at the same piano used by Stevie Wonder and David Bowie, recording was arduous,

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with extended jam and vinyl-listening sessions making progress glacial, eating up 200 reels of tape in a single year. So, Questlove brought his band The Roots into Studio B so he could work on their album, Things Fall Apart, as well as Common’s 4th studio release, Like Water For Chocolate. Erykah Badu and Bilal were further stirred into the mix, who came into Studio C after catching an ear for the swelling musical environment, which consummated the albums Mama’s Gun and 1st Born Second respectively. Toss in James Poyser and J Dilla - who became in-house producers and composers, dipping their hands into every project and soaking in their vintage soul and caramelised, sample-heavy beats - and the result was supercharged creativity. Competitive crafting of sounds, intense recordings that

bounced off each other, created a new, smooth sound for R&B, one that had been in development for years, but had finally swapped funk influences for hip-hop leanings, characterised by off-kilter rhythms and deliciously lopsided chord patterns. From this creatively prolific era spawned hugely successful releases, not just commercially, but artistically. The Soulquarians tree grew some of its artists’ best work, and albums that would become classics. Though a misrepresentative group photo published in Vibe magazine doomed the Soulquarians to only a flash in the sky, it shone with the true spirit of Electric Lady.

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Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six Elephant Six

Elephant 6 was one of the biggest silent movements in the 90s, representing what was to come of the rise of independent music in the mid-2000s. Founded initially by 6 members - including Rob Schneider, Bill Doss and Jeff Mangum - they all shared an appreciation for 60s pop music, in particular the Beach Boys. Hoping to emulate Brian Wilson and co’s Brother Records, they worked together while maintaining projects that would later be incorporated into the family. Despite limited resources, the collective spent years honing many sounds that would cross over and blend, but each band ended up with an incredibly particular sound,

be it lo-fi indie rock, psychedelic folk and everything in between. There were several shades to the collective - the faithful psych-rock revivalism of Apples In Stereo, the opposing psych-rock derangement of Olivia Tremor Control, and Neutral Milk Hotel’s intoxicating surrealism. Commercial success came burgeoning in the late 90s, as did major record labels sweeping and separating the group, nonetheless it resulted in the prolonged the careers of the Apples In Stereo and of Montreal. The holy grail of this creative period has to be Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, a record that illustrates the lucid dreams of a headstrong madman using singing saws, bagpipes and Uilleann pipes. Jeff Mangum’s nasal voice guides the listener to unthinkable places, and

this idiosyncratic style is reflected back onto the listener’s experience; everyone draws something different from the whirlwind tales of Two-Headed Boys and Communist Daughters. It’s folk music’s answer to Alice In Wonderland, and the offspring of Neutral Milk Hotel’s final LP is in droves, including music formed from Elephant 6. In the same breath, the project could not exist without the collective’s strong mindset of standing out using alternative recording techniques, and playing outside the box with unorthodox instrumentation. After all, building a lot from a little is what indie music is about.

Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family Dungeon Family

The Dungeon Family is so prolific, the collective has spanned generations. Grounded in a deathly basement in the South of Atlanta, it began at a time of challenge in hip-hop. While the East and West Coast were becoming saturated and heated, the South was under-represented, suffering from a lack of a sound they could call their own. The Dungeon Family were set to provide, creating everything under the philosophy of making music that stood out from the rest, and spending many nights sleeping on a red clay basement

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floor, described by Cee Lo Green as “crowded but comfortable”. OutKast were housed in the Dungeon, as were Goodie Mob, but the golden backbone of the grouping was its production team, Organized Noize, who would set the tone for the both of these names, as well as the iconic Dirty South sound. The grooves are as thick as the walls of the dungeon, tethering the glossy G-funk swang of the West, with the beefy drums bellowing from the East. Though their sound would not be replete without an important innovation that would levitate Southern hip-hop into contention. The liner notes of Organized Noize releases contained personnel for live instrumentation alongside the usual

sample credits, bringing hip-hop closer to the soil with the dense, colourful production seen in the soul music of their forefathers. Superstar rapper Future has blood ties with the Dungeon Family, and though he did not become an established member, their environment of reinvention boosted his career to where it is today, pioneering the auto-tuned sound of modern Southern trap. His magnanimous success is a testament that the Dungeon Family ethic will inspire until the end of days.

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BURIAL UNTRUE Mood is a valuable tool is an artist’s arsenal, and there are few better illustrations of this than Burial’s Untrue. At 12 years old, it is still classified under the dirty word that is dubstep, doing a great disservice to a record that pulls from UK garage, trip hop and ambient music. This forms a project chock-full of heavy, off-the-cuff beat music that features dark synths and a big, brooding atmosphere of a murky city at midnight, raining and thundering. Burial’s ingenious use of samples is imperative to his idiosyncratic sound, such as on “Near Dark”, which uses the sounds of falling bullet casings from Metal Gear Solid as jangling percussion. The track “Ghost Hardware”, incorporates off-kilter, featherweight

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drums and liquid synths, actively conflicting with the harsh bass strikes throughout the otherwise numbing affair. Tucked within the LP’s dimly lit halls is the haunting ambient piece “Dog Shelter”, and the title track highlights a key element in the album’s successful creation of mood; Burial swipes vocal samples from unassuming R&B songs, creating abstract lyrics that read like poetry, detailing sorrow, regret, loneliness. Upon first listen, Untrue can be seen as very ominous, gloomy and unapproachable. However, the more familiar the album gets, the more it opens up, bringing comfort. Though it’s hardly a varied album, it’s a special vehicle, heading towards a desolate world that Burial has made just for you.

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Gateway To Post Rock Post-Rock is an exploratory genre of music that focuses on building walls of sound and creating moments that feel bolder than life itself. The result is grand, dramatic movements that transition from cinematic highs to brooding, desolate lows. Typically, post-rock musicians often utilise drones and ambience to further decorate their work, and a wild amount of elements from other styles can be incorporated, including electronic, jazz, post-punk, progressive rock and even classical music. Nonetheless, it can be a patience-testing genre that fans appreciate for the vast sonic landscapes that one can step into, get lost in and pull meaning from. If you wish to get into this style of music, here are a selection of albums to start with.

Explosions In The Sky - The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place Explosions In The Sky’s third studio effort is one of the most accessible records in the genre for new listeners. Like most post-rock material, the album is instrumental, but despite the lack of voice, there is still a lucid concept that can be pulled from this and indeed most post-rock albums, should listeners choose to dive into it. Most interpretations differ greatly, as this commanding style of music can act as a blank canvas to put one’s own meaning and story into. The album opener, “First Breath After Coma”, begins with a single guitar line, rising over the course of minutes into a climactic, emotive high

punctuated by two guitar lines intimately weaving in and out of each other. The track is then brought back down to its original shyness, only to be sucker-punched back up with thunderous power. The more obtainable sound The Earth Is… brought to the post-rock table has been recycled many times both within the genre and outside it, even bands like Coldplay were influenced by the wailing, reverb-soaked guitars all over this album. Though the album does suffer from a lack of variety, both structurally and by instrumental choice, it nonetheless carries enough hope and warmth for the Earth.

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One additional note that shows off the profoundness of this project is the full title located on the vinyl version of the album:

“ T h e Ea r t h i s n o t a c o l d d e a d p l a c e b e c a u s e y o u a r e b r e a t h i n g , b e c a u s e y o u a r e l i s t e n i n g .”

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Sigur Rós - Agaetis Byrjun Sigur Rós are, even within the world of post-rock, an oddity, thanks in part to their use of unique instruments such as the cello bow that evoke otherworldly, picturesque sonic landscapes reminiscent of their home country of Iceland. Sigur Rós also uses vocals, another rarity, though they are used as an instrument blended into the mix, rather than a standout feature, as evidenced by the lyrics predominantly sung in a self-made language known as “Hopelandish”. The boyish vocals from lead singer Jonsi are engulfed by the surrounding luscious instrumentation, however these vocals still play an important role, breathing warmth into the frosty

atmosphere of the record. One song that typifies the Sigur Rós experience is the captivating 10-minute venture “Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása”, which moves like glacier, and evolves from a timid cell into a crushing titan. A gentle piano lead ushers the song in from the chilling ambience, and more elements introduce themselves, all culminating into a heart-wrenching climax featuring shoegazy guitar and frantic violins. The self-imposed language barrier the band creates showcases that no matter what the lyrics say, the emotions birthed by the music is potent enough for anyone to understand, truly re-defining the classifier of “world music”.

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Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven! Of the three post-rock picks, Godspeed’s second full-length effort is considerably more expansive, being a 90-minute double album divided into just 4 tracks. It is by far the most challenging of the three, delivering an apocalyptic journey that is heavy on the heart and brutal on the ears. However, after giving this album enough time, one can find merit in the way Godspeed marries the ferocity of a punk rock band with the majesty of

orchestral music. The music presented on the album is colossal and overwhelming, as if it were designed to soundtrack the demise of the universe. With the same level of passion, however, Lift Your Skinny Fists... employs harrowing ambience to continue the vast feeling of the album even in its quietest points. It uses claustrophobic drones that bring a shattering amount of tension — make no mistake, this record is as sepulchral as it is whimsical.

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The introductory moments of “Storm” give an immaculate mission statement on what the band aim to do, gathering momentum from murmurs and building an odd denouement to begin the piece, with frivolous horns, stomping drums, all bathed in shimmering shoegaze guitar, and for it all to plunge down into an elegiac rendition of “Amazing Grace”, the aftermath is just as moving. This is all within the first 7 minutes, and although entire days could be spent discussing and reliving every tidbit of …Skinny Fists…, mere description

doesn’t do justice, it has to be experienced first-hand. One important aspect of the success of this album is the introduction of outside influences. Through the smokey void of this album blossoms elements from indie rock and hip-hop, take a look at the subtle but loose drum breaks in the final 5 minutes of “Sleep”, giving the soaring climax a fresh take. Gems like these are what makes post-rock so resonant, influence can be implemented anywhere, and brings innovation to such an enigmatic field of music.

Post-rock is a varied genre despite its lack of mainstream popularity, and its entire ethos or sound cannot simply be summed up with three albums. Thus, the following is a list of further listening to provide a slightly more comprehensive view of the genre, though it will be far from the end of your journey into post-rock.

Mogwai Mogwai Young Team Mogwai is a Scottish band whose debut, Mogwai Young Team, is a vigorous and boisterous record that highlights the heavier, more noise-rock-influenced side of the genre.

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This Will Destroy You This Will Destroy You This Will Destroy You’s 2006 self-titled album compliments the serenity of The Earth Is… with the tense darkness of ...Skinny Fists... to assemble a well-constructed extension of both records.

Talk Talk Spirit Of Eden One of the foundational albums in post-rock, Talk Talk drifted from their 80s synth-pop roots to bring a heavily-improvised rock record that with elements of ambient, jazz and classical music.

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FAVOURITES_Playlist1.m3u

1. A$AP Rocky ft. Moby - A$AP Forever