As much as I bitch and moan about the constant source of disappointment that is the revolving door of buzz bands we’re subjected to daily whilst staring longingly back to the 90s (mainly for the fashion but yeah I guess the music was kinda cool too…) I do actually think music is in a great place right now. I’m not going to bore you with the details why, not only because no one want’s to read a 10000 word think-piece on the state of the music industry from a 5-minite-a-day blogger but because I don’t want to write a 10000 word think-piece on the state of the music industry because i’m a 5-minute a day blogger. However if you are interested, come get a drink with me and I will happily yell at you at length using phrases like ‘THE FUTURE IS NOW’ whilst gently peppering you with saliva. Tempting right?
One thing to get excited about now is that the troubadours of our generation are not the hemp-drenched folk scenesters of yesteryear but a gaggle of reverby lo-fi bedroom projects where, from behind closed doors, we’re really spared none of the emotion and intensity with which these songs were born to be delivered with. You’ve got the slacker-romanticism of Canadian chappies like Travis Bretzer and Mac Demarco and the most uniquely voiced London teen in music right now ‘King Krule’ making his wistful ballads. We also now have Future Shapes, who falls somewhere in between these two groups. Taking a keen ear for delicate melody and marrying it to a maddening vocal delivery, Future Shapes creates something that has an almost feral tranquility, a dream that’s so ferociously intense it takes on a nightmarish quality but you awaken only to miss feeling anything that strong. There seems to be minimal action at the moment with Future Shapes but hopefully it begins to stretch out further than the bedroom.
I’m serious about that drink – who wouldn’t me spitting on them? Comment!
Will
CATFROMJAPAN 