Hot Chip’s most recent video for Positive is… fascinating. Declan McKenna caught my attention with his last (but not first) album in 2017, and I’m glad to see him back with this new video for Beautiful Faces. KAYTRANADA is looking for their 10% in their groovy new video.
Bonus: This new Charlie Parr song is a foot-stomper. I guess I wasn’t expecting Charlie (who I saw and LOVED at Nelsonville) would be the type of artist to put out music videos, but he hit this one out of the park. The visuals on this are phenomenal. I hope he comes to Cleveland sometime soon!
"And again, Chicago and Detroit - you had a lot of African American artists that were making electronic music. And what has made deep house music stand out is that they're not just sitting behind a board and just hitting buttons. A lot of these producers are actual musicians. So deep house brings a sense of virtuosity, a sense of musicianship to a lot of the production."
(Via How To Like Deep House, For The Uninitiated : NPR.)
I was able to sit in on several of the most recent No Exit / Zeitgeist performances around the city. They played some amazing pieces by new composers, some of which were able to be present. Ending the nights, Zeitgeist performed music by Buck McDaniel, but I’ll let Cleveland Classical take it from here…
"The program closed with Buck McDaniel’s Scherzo in Four Movements, which served as something of a musical farewell to Cleveland as McDaniel moves to New York to further his musical career. In his pre-performance remarks, the composer noted that the classical symphonic scherzo is a kind of musical joke, but not necessarily a funny one. One of the movements lampoons the English Renaissance composer Orlando Gibbons’s setting of the word ‘motion’ as ‘mo-see-on.’
McDaniel’s minimalist writing is highly influenced by the works of Steve Reich, but with far greater harmonic variety and motion. McDaniel also gives a tip of the hat to his composition teacher by reworking part of an Andrew Rindfleisch work with different harmony and development. Zeitgeist gave the Scherzo a joyous, expert performance, enthusiastically received."
I jump any time I see Empress Of putting out anything new, and this new song & video from Kito & Empress Of for Wild Girl was worth the effort. Pet Shop Boys surprised me with a FUN new video and song for Monkey Business! Aussie pop band, Cub Sport, released this album-less single and nipple-icious video for Hearts in Halves.
Bonus: If you haven’t been keeping up with the new releases by The Weeknd, these songs and videos are POLISHED.
While there wasn’t a lot of must-see shows in January, having both YACHT and then Tōth within a week of each other was a real treat. You may remember Tōth as one part of Rubblebucket, who I’ve seen and posted about multiple times. His new album, Practice Magic and Seek Professional Help When Necessary, is superb! Check out some of his videos while you’re at it. Live, he was everything I was hoping from this show…
Opening, as she did once before for Rubblebucket, was Mal Devisa. Quite a different vibe from both Tōth and Rubblebucket, but she’s captivating in her simplicity and bass guitar. ohbtw - you’ll only find her stuff on Bandcamp.
Opening was our own Holden Laurence, who seems to be having a career rivaling his band, The Modern Electric.