The thunder of public popularity clapped loud, the lightning of record labels cracked a vinyl record clean in half, sending its shards reeling down a towering mountain they called Mainstream Pop. It was bleak times, where human emotions were monetised, listeners were turned into consumers, and music was no longer a mode of free expression... Then came the Internet. And the Indie musician was born.
Here are some artistes whom you might not have heard in your neighbourhood club or pub, but must add to your playlist.
One Man Dancing
If you like your music to be thoughtful yet foot-tapping, heavily-influenced yet non-derivative, this band is for you. Frontmanned by Argentinian music producer Agustin Samur, OMD released its debut single ‘Blank Page’ last October, and its 10-song album, Memories of a New Home, came out on Spotify last month. Alt-Pop would be the safest genre to slot it into. Some songs have a dominant Dave Matthews Band vibe, while Samur’s S Carey-esque coarse huskiness caresses your ear canal. ‘My Darling’ might leave you surfing rainbows with your paramour, ‘Beside Woods’ sashays and stuns you with deep violas and elec-guit riffs straight out of Santana’s oeuvre, while ‘Anywhere’ dunks your head into a beer glass your head is too small for.
Die Antwoord
Ok. Fair warning. Don’t listen to this band if you’re too sober or faint-hearted. This band stands for all that is Indie, right from independently creating their own music, artwork, merchandise, videos, under their own label. Pioneering and rising out of South Africa’s Zef counter-culture, Die Antwoord uses a mix of rap and rave styles to represent the gun-on-sleeve attitude you might need to survive in the harsh environs of a country known to house the once ‘world’s murder capital’. So, naturally, parental discretion is advised.
The duo released their latest and fourth album on SoundCloud last September and the video for ‘Banana Brain’ has accumulated over 23 million views on YouTube. You will recoil at first encounter, but will wake up a week later, with your browser history betraying how you shamelessly binged on this band.
N u a g e s
Nope, that’s not a printing error, it’s how the artiste stylises his (gender presumed) name. And fittingly so, seeing as how this super-enigmatic UK-based producer’s music creates liberating space in your mind and perception, much like the ether between clouds (which ‘nuages’ is French for). There is precious little about this artiste on the Internet (which explains the enigma). Its tone is mostly non-lyrical, downtempo chill, suffused with loads of ethereality, trip-hop elements, and simple chord structures that dovetail into hypnotic soundscapes. He’s been around since at least 2014, doling out singles intermittently to comprise the album Moments , released last June. Three more bonus tracks were released three weeks ago on Bandcamp. For starters, check out ‘Dreams’, featuring a sampled voice-over of Alan Watts talking of lucid dreaming. Then, ‘Closer’, which uses two repeating chords to douse you into a swimming pool glinting with fractal reflections on a sunny day. And when you come out of the trance, dive back in with ‘Beside You’, his latest, and fall in love with its childlike falsetto.
