A Soundtrack to Life

Ever since late September, my life has changed massively. I've made some tough choices, said some hard goodbyes, and have left a lot of myself behind. But this has been something of a catharsis, and I find my mind clearer, and my life as whole, more interesting and fulfilling. And that's not to say that my life pre-university has completely dissolved; for once I was able to chose who or what remained a part of my life, and those that have stayed have made my life all the more enjoyable. I've made new friendships that will last a lifetime, and I have rekindled old friendships that will last just as long.

Now, enough venting and onto the main point of this post. I've discovered a lot of interesting music of the past few months, and a lot of it has provided a rhythmic backdrop to my life. If I'm doing something, I'm probably listening to music at the same time; music is a constant. Ever since beginning university, I've been exposed to a lot of stuff that I probably would never have discovered myself, and I've rediscovered a lot of classics. This is just a quick rundown of my 10 favorite songs since I started university (in no particular order) (PS. These songs won't have necessarily been released within that time-frame, but I have been listening to them a lot within this timeframe.):

1. Death Grips - Hustle Bones


Death Grips are one of the most unique acts that I have ever seen. MC Ride's shouted, often indecipherable vocals match up perfectly with production by Flatlander that harkens back to industrial music with elements of noise present throughout. It's as if Ministry and Merzbow had a baby that was christened in blood by MF Doom. It's dirty, it's aggressive, and to quote Anthony Fantano of The Needle Drop, "it takes all of hip-hops worst stereotypes, and turns them up to a deafening volume"

2. Alt-J - Breezeblocks


Now, anyone who knows me will have seen this coming a mile away. An Awesome Wave was easily my favorite album of last year (the only other that could probably give it any competition is probably Channel Orange). This song in particular spoke to me on many levels; the lyrics seemed to resonate with me incredibly well, and the music behind the words provided something that I didn't even know was missing; it struck a chord that I didn't even know was yet to be played. Needless to say, this album will be part of my rotation for years to come.

3. Major Lazer - Original Don (Flosstradamus Remix)


It's not often you see a remix on a list like this, but I had to highlight this one in particular. It takes a song that is excellent in of itself, and takes it to a whole new level. And, most impressively, it does this by still being true to the original. Flosstradamus take what is already an incredibly dance-able track, and add some of that trap magic that they are known for, and create a song that is impossible to sit still to. To quote every boneheaded brostep fratboy on the face of the planet, "wait for the drop".

4. Grimes - Oblivion
Grimes is something of strange character. Her music has a ridiculously wide variety of sounds and inspirations behind it that it seems almost impossible to pigeon-hole her into a genre. Her songs contain elements of electro, synthpop, industrial, bubblegum pop, and even Celtic and medieval music, and often all at the same time. However, she raps it all up in a package that just works. There's no other way to say it; it works, and it works in a unique and, often, pleasantly confusing way. The same can be said for Grimes herself; her public image and style can vary wildly from the happy-go-lucky girl next door to the quirky nerd girl to the bad girl Rihanna type. And it just works.

5. Explosions in the Sky - First Breath After Coma
This is a song that seems to work in any context. I can listen to it at any time and it still seems appropriate and fitting. This song has accompanied me on buses and flights, this song has woken me up in the morning, and this song has lead me to sleep. This is a song of incredible beauty, and it manages to tell a story without any vocals whatsoever.

6. A$AP MOB ft. Flathbush Zombies - Bath Salt


If I had to put money on one rap group to hit the mainstream with in the next year, it would be Flatbush Zombies. Made up of Meech, Juice and Erick Arc Elliot, the Zombies are one of few groups that don't take themselves too seriously, and this can be seen especially when Meech said, in an interview with Narduwar "fuck you if you don't think I'm a fucking goon because I fuck with Dumbo". They're currently on tour with Pro Era and The Underachievers, and look for them to make some big waves this year. Obviously nothing needs to be said about the A$AP Mob, but I will say, A$AP Ant's verse on this isn't bad. It's awful. But nevertheless, it's an amazing song overall.

7. Matt and Kim - Daylight
Now. normally I find it annoying and distasteful when a song is as in-your-face, happy-happy-sunshine as Daylight is, but if this song doesn't fill your hear with joy, then you may be some sort of soulless monster. The bouncy piano and the rolling drums create a song that's incredibly fun, and provides a perfect bed for the synth accents and the reverb heavy vocals. All in all, it's an incredible song that is just so happy that you can't help but smile.

8. Tyler, the Creator - Answer


Wolf is an interesting album in a few ways; it mostly trudges over old ground in regards to subject matter, but the writing and production is approached in a way that show's that Tyler's abilities have matured. This is especially apparent on Answer; the production is a lot cleaner than his first two albums, and despite having the old vitriol towards his father, the lyrics are a lot calmer and more complex, with the second verse culminating in a way that reminded me heavily of Yesterday by Atmosphere (I won't spoil it). Overall, it's an emotional song that gives access to the head of someone who grew up without a father figure, but has flourished despite it,

9. Kendrick Lamar - Look Out For Detox
There's nothing I can say about Kendrick Lamar that hasn't already been said by just about everyone. He instantly jumped to the top of the hip-hop ladder with good  kid, m.A.A.d city, but Look Out For Detox is the song that first put him on a lot of people's radars. His flow on this track is just ridiculous, jumping from regular speed to Tech N9ne-style chopper speed at the drop of a hat. This song really showcases Kendrick's technical ability.

10. St. Vincent - Cruel


St. Vincent is an incredibly underrated and underexposed artist. She is an amazing singer, skilled musician, and above all, an incredible lyricist. Every time I listen to this song, I get a different interpretation of the lyrics,  sometimes it seems to be a sarcastic lampooning of anti-feminist culture, sometimes I read it to be about our inability to live up to idols, and sometimes it sounds like it's about child's naivete being crushed by the real world. It takes a good artist to make you think the lyrics mean something. It takes an amazing artist to make you think that the lyrics mean a million things.


So that was my wrap up of the soundtrack to my first year of university. It's been an interesting, exhausting, incredible few months, and I hope that next year brings more of the same.

La Mer

This photo was part of a random 7am excursion along the seafront on one of those intermittent rainy days. I can't remember why I decided to leave the house at such a strange hour of the morning; maybe I couldn't sleep, maybe I was angry and trying to cool off. This photo is one of my personal favorites of that particular walk. There are a couple of aspects of this photo that I love: for example, I love the variety of lines involved, like the horizon, the curb, the double yellows, even the streetlights. Also, the rain adds a nice sheen to the road surface and darkens the pavement, which creates an interesting contrast. I also really like the splash of yellow added by the van in the background, and the grain from using ISO 3200 gives it a nice, gritty, almost dirty effect.

Glitch

Nothing particularly interesting, just a rough experiment with Glitch art. Pretty simple, I just opened the photo in a Hex editor, and replace all instances of the number 1 with 9.