Maps and No Maps

Part of my maternal grandfather's road map, showing various routes he had traced out

I went down a few YouTube rabbit holes over the past few days, looking for new music. I'll be on a road trip for the entire month of July and it'll be good to have new music to listen to in the rental car. One of these days. I'll actually buy a car with air conditioning and a stereo, but anyway. 

My first and last love is jazz from about 1945 to about 1998 or so. But I also have long admired all sorts of other music, of course, and I often want to know what is emerging, what's new. (ish, since it does take a few years sometimes for stuff to percolate to awareness). I often go long stretches listening to a lot of the old jazz recordings I have-- Cecil Taylor, Eric Dolphy, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Anthony Braxton, tons of the Blue Notes from the '60s, etc. But every now and then I just want to clear my aural palate (palette) and get to the strange new stuff that is being done. 

I have no idea what led me to Jamie xx and the video for his track, Gosh, directed by Romain Gavras. It's set in Tianducheng China, a weird almost ghost town with replicas of parts of Paris. It features albino people (including the unforgettable face of Hassan Kone), hundreds of Chinese boys with bleached hair, from a Shaolin martial arts academy, a bitchin' Subaru and plenty of weirdness. All of it is in camera, no CGI, and the drone footage is extremely well done. 

It turns out that the Jamie xx CD that the track is from, In Colour, is excellent. I don't usually get very enthused about EDM or house music, but some of it is interesting, including this one. 

Lots of other new stuff. Young Fathers' new one, Cocoa Sugar, keeps growing on me, and I think it will be recognized as one of those "greatest albums of all times" recordings, down the line. They have two earlier albums, Dead and White Men are Black Men Too, and both of those are excellent, but it feels like every track of Cocoa Sugar is crafted perfectly, like they hit their stride and found the bullseye on each of the approaches they have taken in the past. It's much more of a pop record than their earlier two, which some fans will probably grumble about. But that's the way of things. I'd love to know more about how they create the surprising and dense music-scapes for their songs. 



More minimalist dance music, from South Africans OKZharp and Manthe Ribane. There's a full length first album coming out in July. The dance troupe is called Intellectuals Pantsula, and the choreography is beautiful, as well as the editing. 




Ambient/EDM minimalism from Lusine, who I just heard of but who has been putting out records for almost 20 years. Another one of those solo guys who uses a stage name. In the video, it's remarkable how the lighting is used. 



Definitely not my usual taste, this synth pop/dream pop band from the UK. But I love the arrangements and the mood. It'll make good road music. 



South African duo FAKA, also only at the EP stage of things, but recently tapped by Versace to provide music for the runway, so probably much more widely known soon. 




It's a big weird world out there. As painful and weird as the internet can be, I'm grateful that one can just go up on YouTube and, without any map or destination, try all sorts of new music. I guess the same is true with Spotify, but I haven't used that. Plus, I still really enjoy watching music videos, which, in many cases, have become elaborate, expensive and a very high art form.