Cheap Thrills - September 2022
Pay what you want for these releases, including synthwave, future funk, post-punk, and more!
September's edition of Cheap Thrills is here with more awesome name-your-price tunes. You know the drill: support the artists by buying music and/or merch! Heavier stuff can be found at the bottom (as is only natural), including a link to the sister column over on Invisible Oranges.
Home - Odyssey
Had a rough day? Then perhaps you'd like to unwind and let Home's soothing synthesizers take a load off your shoulders. I immediately fell in love with the charming, almost chiptune style of Odyssey, and while the music here is certainly on the mellower side of synthwave (compared to, say Carpenter Brut, whose songs often sound like they're kicking in your door), each song still feels adventurous, but in a whimsical way. The beats are fairly muted and simple, providing a simple frame onto which mastermind Randy Goffe and slowly layer lush chords and playful arpeggios. I could imagine a number of these tunes in an indie platformer or puzzle game—something meditative and low-key where elements click neatly into place.
Flamingosis - Daymaker
Flamingosis is another electronic artist that's all about good vibes, but they achieve this goal through a fusion of funk and hip hop. The beats here are more propulsive and snappy; melodies are delivered through a diverse array of guitars, horns, synths, and vocal samples; and generally, Daymaker seems intent on getting listeners moving in some way, even if it's just nodding along to the infectious grooves. As its name implies, the album is a ray of sunshine, evoking the nostalgia of summers past while encouraging you to have some fun right now, whoever you are, wherever you are.
Sectarian Bloom - New Spring
Sectarian Bloom is a Californian three-piece that plays dark yet catchy post-punk reminiscent of Mission of Burma and Christian Death. Their latest EP New Spring further develops the sound introduced on their debut: the drummer and bassist share vocal duties, delivering both driving rhythms and anthemic hooks while bright, distorted guitar riffs cut through the mix like police searchlights in a high speed chase. It's a blast from the past with some modern sensibilities, and the aforementioned elements gel so naturally with one another that time seems to fly by as I listen.
Sadness - Tortuga
Damián Ojeda is a prolific solo musician behind a slew of punk and black metal projects such as Life, and Trha. Sadness is his longest running "band" with dozens of releases since 2014. It combines the influences found in his other projects into an amorphous and ever-changing take on what some would call blackgaze, a much maligned hybrid genre that even I have scorned in the past. Tortuga is perhaps my favorite release of the Sadness discography for its dreamy blend of atmospheric black metal, emo, and shoegaze that falls somewhere between Alcest and Have a Nice Life. The result is an achingly beautiful album that constantly oscillates between devastating and cathartic, often within the same song.
Want something heavier? Check out the punk and metal focused version of this series over on Invisible Oranges, where there's more blackgaze (I guess I was in a sentimental mood) as well as some wickedly fast thrash/grind, industrial death metal, and other grim goodies for your consideration. Support the underground!