OPM: Well-Made Weirdness

Walrus Promenade – Immune to Consequences

A delightfully bizarre tribute (?) album to an even more bizarre videogame called Blaseball that delivers the love in varying shades of weird indie pop. A little pop punk here, a bit of Walkmenesque story-song rock there, a prog solo drops in for a quick visit and bits of twee pop are sprinkled all over – musically it’s full of surprises, but the songs are invariably engaging, easy on the ears and packed with poppy hooks. 

Knowledge of the game isn’t necessary to enjoy this (I’d literally never heard of it before I listened) but I assume it does add another layer of appreciation to the experience. Still, if you like a clever rock/pop tune liberally dosed with absurdity, this will be right up your alley.

(Listened to the entire album)

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GBΔFLΔME – Superior

A skillful multigenre exploration of some of electronic music’s pillars, including synthwave, drum and bass, heavy electro and more. Despite small to large shifts in genre from track to track there’s an overriding aesthetic that glues these together nicely – not a sound that feels out of place despite the variety.

It’s also helped by what are a number of cross genre flourishes – like washy quasi vaporwave synths – that pop up across multiple tracks. Genre considerations aside, this is one for people who love vibey, emotional electronic music regardless of the box it might be stuck in for marketing reasons.

(Listened to the entire album)

Life Substitute – LoRez Genocide

A moody collection of darkwave, Kraftwerkian electro pop and electronic bedroom pop. That mix encompasses the edges of EBM/industrial realms as well, and this will be of particular interest to anyone who loves bands like the Faint and the Notwist that existed within the liminal space between industrial and synth pop. 

Some of the songs lean hard into one aspect or another – “I Have No Money” feels like a straight tribute to Kraftwerk, if not a lost track of theirs – but overall the aesthetic is a careful and measured synthesis of all of its parts into something new, but comfortably familiar. 

(Listened to the entire album)

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Zyph – Einz

 Classic punk rock delivered in its purest form – loud, lofi and shouted at you in German. Simple, pounding guitar, bass and drums with a mad-as-hell vocal – what else do you need? Now, as much as it would disappoint my dear high-school German teacher (RIP Herr T!). I can’t understand a word of this, so I can’t comment on the lyrical content. 

I can tell you the vibes are right. Listening to this reminds me of listening to punk as a 15-year-old would-be punk – I want to bang my head, throw a fist in the air, and tell authority figures to fuck off. What else do you need?

(Listened to the entire album)

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The Mad Maggies – “Carry On”

An extremely chill, bucolic piece of instrumental pop infused with hints of jazz and folk. Oh, and there’s an accordion. Don’t run off! It’s quite nice here, and you might not even realize it isn’t a synth if you didn’t already know. 

You also get some minimal percussion percolating along in the background, a couple of nice riffs that interact with each other in an interesting way, and some really nice sound design that manages to fit everything into one coherent, pleasant and satisfying box. Intriguing stuff, and if you also think so they have a few more releases to check out as well.

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