OPM: Tunes-Based Time Machine

How I Became Invisible – Dead World Building

Heartfelt and heart-wrenching emo with a heavy focus on the trans experience. And look – if there’s anything in this world that would justify being emo more than living in this era while trans, I certainly can’t imagine what that would be. Musically, this fits in with the usual emo approach – poppy, punky tunes with a heavy edge, both lyrically and musically. 

This spans the poppier and punkier approaches, leaning into each as necessary to fit the song. The guitar work is strong, as are the arrangements overall, and the occasional experimental production flourish keeps things interesting. The songs are solid and catchy, the themes are suitably tortured, and the results should make emo fans cry tears of joy (and sadness, natch).

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DEATH’S REACH – “Self-Taunting”

A thunderous slab of new Nu-Metal – chunky guitar riffs, brutal drums, and sung/shouted vocal. I’m told Nu-Metal is having A Moment, and good for it! The original wave, tho much maligned, did offer a handful of pretty enduring acts and a few new twists to the metal genre. 

This should help move that moment along, as it offers a lot of the charms – big energy, a surprising amount of groove underneath the chug, the classic loud verse/louder chorus dynamic – of the original era with a few nice production flourishes to keep it grounded in the now. 

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Damn Water Fountain – The Pumpkin Spice of Life

Delightful noise rock from a bunch of delightful weirdos. Reminds me of discovering bands like Flaming Lips and Ween when they were still just rural weirdos locked up with primitive recording gear and questionable drug habits. Occasionally goofy, frequently fascinating, constantly odd.

Meandering electronica, chunky riffs, spoken-word interludes, raps, and an overall lo-fi and demented approach come together into some really fun and silly songs, and a few left-turn surprises. Oh, I should say – it’s also a Halloween-themed album, tho masks are optional. This one will leave some of y’all completely confounded, but at least a few of you are going to love this. 

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AarDHD – “Flow State (Vivid Flow Remix)”

Absolutely gorgeous and enchanting track of liquid drum and bass with high production value and plenty of groove. The breaks hit hard and are appropriately frantic, the bass is IMMENSE and the angelic female vocal and celestial synths help elevate the vibe to something heavenly.

This would have sounded right at home on a PlayStation 2 racing or snowboarding game. It’s apparently a remix of an ambient track (and a binaural beat built around some kind of brain state business, if you’re into that) so if you dig it, there’s more of a similar vibe to be found. 

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Stephen Teter – Beyond Your Dreams

Another excellent collection of well crafted, era-accurate retro 80’s rock/pop from Stephen Teter. So much retro themed music is about recreating an imaginary, nostalgia-toned gestalt of the era rather than sounding like something that might have actually existed there. Not so with Teter’s work. These songs – based in the blues, steeped in funk and touched with soul, New Wave and synth pop – are perfectly in sync with the pop/rock of the actual late ‘80s.

There are a couple tracks that would have been pretty unusual in that era, but even those would have tracked as oddities rather than anachronisms. I mean, I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised to find this music on a CD from some offbeat, unknown regional record label at the used CD store back then – or in a box from an estate sale now! It’s a solid, intriguing collection of lowkey experimental late 80’s pop/rock with some great influences and ideas. RIYL late ‘80s Bowie, Talking Heads, The The, etc.