OPM: Weird and On Film

Cashlin – The Illest

Deeply strange blend of hip hop, eccentric pop, and gas-station-drug psychedelia. The beats owe as much to digital hardcore and mid-period IDM as they do to hip hop. The vocals/raps are strangely hypnotic, repetitive and lyrically bizarre. Musical accompaniment is fairly minimal but, no surprise, matches the wider oddball aesthetic. 

Mild dissonances, weird timbres, and just a general tendency to do what you didn’t expect. There are few things I value in this life more than an artist who is just hardcore doing their own thing, and friends, this is H A R D C O R E doing its own thing. Can’t promise you’ll like it, but you do NEED to hear it. 

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Casey Wells – “Beating Heart”

Gorgeous lowkey hypnagogic pop that makes a big impression without any big movements. You could compare this to a more relaxed (more stoned?) Tame Impala, or a less hipstery Mac Demarco, maybe – a similar mastery of pop idioms and hazy, slippery atmosphere is on display. 

That said, it has its own identity – you’d never mistake this for either of those acts, for example, even if it’d sound at home sandwiched between them on the radio. A lovely blend of understated guitar work, tasty synths, hard-hitting but laidback beats and groovy atmosphere. 

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Voidscan – Tired Monster

Meticulously produced synthwave with an eye on the future and a deep understanding of the genre’s roots. It’s a real “visions of futures past” kind of vibe – it feels more varied and expansive than a lot of synthwave, but so much of that is it honoring a wider (and deeper!) take on the genre’s precursors. 

This is synthwave for people who love Tangerine Dream and John Carpenter but find a lot of the newer stuff somewhat sterile or derivative. The last couple tracks open the palette up considerably, delving into pure ambient and IDM-tilting electro. Beyond that, it’s hard to put my finger on what exactly is happening here to set this apart, but my heart insists, and I believe it. 

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REvolt3D – “Free Palestine”

A short, sharp blast of protest music that draws on hip-hop and punk to deliver its message. The vibe is raw, unvarnished and to the point – no fancy wordplay or instrumental flash here, just a simple call to action: Free Palestine. A quasi spoken word vocal, a heavy but simple beat, and some squalls of treated guitar or synth are all it takes to get the job done. 

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John M Davis – The Fisher King

An orchestral work inspired by classical, soundtrack music and, probably, a bit of ambient and related electronic work. Strings are the main ingredient but there’s also some interesting percussion (closer to downtempo than most orchestral percussion), piano, bells, synth timbres, and some field recordings to keep things varied. 

No word if these strings were played by real folks or came out of a library, but they sound lively enough and most people (myself included) won’t care either way. Musically, there’s plenty of tension and some release here – this sounds like kind of a scary, or at least emotionally fraught, film! An interesting and emotionally resonant album.

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