Weirdly Fierce

Classic: Live in the Stark, Menacing Pulse of Monoton’s Startlingly Advanced 1982 Electronic LP Monotonprodukt 07

Austrian artist and “hypermedia researcher” Konrad Becker released an extremely rare record in 1982 called Monotonprodukt 07. This record, the second release in his Monoton project, became one of the most whispered-about, sought-after electronic records of its era. At the time, it was only released in a very limited pressing of less than one thousand copies, making it a rare, mysterious rumour…

Classic Blast of the Week: The Electric Eels’ Do Punk Before Punk Was A Thing

What is punk? What is the nebulous genre-in-retrospect called “proto-punk”? The canonical, probably revisionist version of the story usually names The Ramones as the first punk band, and dates 1976 or ’77 as the “beginning of punk,” but why? The Ramones’ distillation of glam rock chunk and ’60s pop was certainly key for the creation of a punk ethic, but for whatever the genre became afterwards —…

Minimal Review: Manuel Göttsching’s Pulsing 1984 Electronic Classic E2-E4

Manuel Göttsching, E2-E4 (1984):

Impressions: Drift. Pulse. Space. Trance. Epic.

Importance: A critical stepping stone between the electronic experimentation of the 1970s German musicians loosely lumped together into the krautrock movement (of whom Manuel Göttsching was a member, playing in space rock act Ash Ra Tempel) and house and techno music.

Notes: Göttsching’s fluid guitar on the second…

The Perfect Song: Otis Redding “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay”

You’ve heard this song.

It’s wonderful and perfect. It might be the greatest song ever. It probably is in my book.

You know the tragedy that underscores it, but that only serves to make it more lovely.

Take it as a reminder to embrace every day to the fullest, and to enjoy the little wonders in life.

More Weirdly Fierce coming soon.

Song of the Day: Big Boys’ 1983 Wiry “Sound On Sound” and the Problems of “Proto-” and “Post-” Genres

Genre is a tricky beast, especially when it comes to defining a style of music by its influences. When a song hints at a genre to come, we often call its genre “proto-”. This, of course, can only occur in retrospect, after the genre the song presaged gained an independent existence and therefore a title. Yet, and also only in retrospect, when a track builds on an existing genre in a…

Song of the Day: The Wild Curve’s Big Electro-Pop “Diamonds” Brings Plenty of Fist-Pumping “Whoa-Ohs”

If you know anything about me, gooey big-synth electro is my musical crack. Well, a nice fat crack rock of anthemic, fist-pumping electro-pop just landed in my pipe with the sparkling, soaring “Diamonds” by Glaswegian band The Wild Curve. “Diamonds” is nothing revelatory exactly, taking plenty from the modern-day indie-pop of Passion Pit, M83, Chvrches, etc, but it’s a good pick-me-up track with…

Overheard: Slate Music Critic Carl Wilson on Open-Mindedness in Music Criticism

“I try not to dismiss entire categories of music wholesale anymore. That’s part of the job description for good criticism now: Nothing should be out of bounds. That doesn’t mean you have to like everything you hear, but rather to avoid saying, “That’s not the kind of thing I can like” before you’ve actually reviewed it.

Now, if I’m going to write negatively—or positively—about something, I feel a…

Song of the Day: Phantogram’s Shimmering, Fuzzed Out Electro Banger “Fall In Love”

Electronic duo Phantogram‘s sophomore record Voicesis an uneven front-loader of a record, starting off with five great tracks but losing steam on the back half. However, that inconsistency doesn’t take away from the fact that lead single “Fall In Love” is fantastic. A shimmering, sexy blast of midtempo hip-hop beats, swirling dreampop shivers, and maximalist, fuzzed out electronics, this is a…

Listen: The Faint Return After Years With the Pounding, Abrasive “Help in the Head”

Let me tell you a little story. In the fall of 2000, I was an awkward college sophomore who DJed a late-night radio show at the august KSPC in Claremont, California. My musical tastes at the time leaned towards noodly prog-rock epics about robot armadillos and whatever the fuck Yes sang about, so needless to say I often found myself at loggerheads with the hipster kids at the station who liked…

Song of the Day: Angel Olsen’s “High & Wild”

Singer-songwriter / guitarist Angel Olsen has struck gold with her new sophomore release Burn Your Fire For No Witness, a frankly amazing album that showcases Olsen’s remarkable voice and economical garage-country sound to stunning effect. It’s hard to pick the best song from this record. Part of my indecision stems from the album’s sheer range: “Forgiven / Forgotten”borders on punk with its…

WF's Top Twenty-Five Songs of 2013 (and a Few Others of Note, or Notoreity)

This has been a phenomenal year for new music. Even twenty-five songs is not enough space for all…