by Tom Bosworth // May 8, 2020
I don’t want to spend a lot of time meditating or philosophizing on music in the time of corona or any other lukewarm-at-best hot takes, but I did see a tweet that felt very true:
So I thought I’d recommend two songs this week. One to listen to while you’re in the #Hell Zone and one to listen to when things are going “alright”!
Both songs this week are based around very synthy and strange soundscapes, but will start with music for when you’re wading through that chili. “Human Bog” is from Baths, an L.A. based solo project by William Wiesenfeld. It’s suitable for being sad but won’t catapult you anywhere unexpected.
I wish I knew anything about music so that I could more accurately describe it, but it’s mostly Wiesenfeld’s voice on top of a couple layers of mellow and drawn out synth. The hook, “I’m queer in a way that works for you / the lengths I go to get held on to” certainly lives up to the title of feeling like a human mud soup, but also, hey, big points for introspection and self-awareness! Also I learned through googling that bog is also British slang for the bathroom. How whimsical.
If you find yourself with some endorphins floating around— first of all, congratulations— secondly, check out “Youth” by Glass Animals. This one has a fun music video with a lot of my favorite music video things: being set in a diner, weird cameos by the band members, close up shots of someone pulling at their hair, and a dancing child.
The band describes itself as “psychedelic” which is a word that dried up and died long ago, but it’s a serviceable word for the all funky, synth woodwind things happening here. It’s fun, mostly upbeat, and also will likely not catapult you into either the Hell Zone or another strange mind space.