Review

Contributor Potluck: September 2024

September music recommendations from the indieAnthro team.

by Emberlynn Bland, Melissa Thyme Monroe, ceej, Jay Snow, Cam, Caleb 2 months ago

Welcome to our September Contributor Potluck! Each month, indieAnthro contributors get together and share what they've been listening to lately. Enjoy!

Ember

"FINAL LAP" - JamKam

This whole album is a bop, but this track in particular really got my blood pumping. I like its dark use of DnB elements mixed in with other styles of dark electronic music. I didn't wanna boil this down to "breakcore" but I was a big fan of "CRASH" and its use of breakbeats and harder DnB elements. Good stuff.

"FINAL LAP" is available now on Bandcamp.

Melissa

"NEVER KNOW" - lizzy's personal army

"NEVER KNOW" is the type of song that portrays a very relatable idea of queer yearning. It contrasts the semi-obsessive pessimism that comes with a deep understanding of your own flaws against the insecurities that come with removing them from you for your partner(s). The song flips between an infectious lullaby laden with clean guitars to a bombast of distortion, the hook in specific using this distinction to seemingly draw two meanings out of the line "I guess we'll never know": One of unstable anxiety and the other of a certain doom looming over the horizon.

"NEVER KNOW" is available now on streaming services.

"Boxing Day" - Car Seat Headrest

This track is like staring at a mirror version of yourself and weeping while painting over it so you can't see yourself ever again. I refuse to elaborate on this any further.

"Into Oblivion With You" - ZephyrInTheWind

I think one of the best things about EDM is that it has emotional range out the wazoo, irregardless of subgenre. "Into Oblivion With You" is a prime example, taking pianos and looped samples and turning them into a contemplative yet groovy drum and bass track. It's a very simple track compositionally, but it takes that simplicity and runs with it to a blissful four minute song.

"Into Oblivion With You" is available now on Bandcamp and streaming services.

Ceej

"(In Love with a) Rockstar" - Furry Loser **

I first discovered Furry Loser when someone recommended me one of its previous records Anxiety Eat World. Immediately I was drawn to how ecclectic these sounds Ed was producing. On this latest record Painting Clouds and Mountaintops, Ed brings us to the Land of Funny Animals. I could go on and on about the ornate instrumentation and luscious harmonies on this record (a-la Beach Boys), but I'd like to focus on the song "(In Love with a) Rockstar". This is a garage rock anthem, coming in about halfway through the record to take you by surprise. There's distorted, harmonic "woo-hoos" caked all over this thing. Don't even get me STARTED on the hooks and sticky guitar riffs. It's an absolute delight and a sore thumb (/positive) in the tracklist for this record. Do yourself a favor and check this new record out, you will NOT be disappointed.

P.S. My stoopTalk cohorts Ember and Will just interviewed Ed in this past week's episode. A nice companion piece to the record for sure.

"(In Love with a) Rockstar" is available on Bandcamp and streaming services.

Caleb

"ELEMENTS" - wolfears

This groovy new single from wolfears is really sick. There's this palpable anxiety to it that makes everything feel exciting. Everything is in constant motion. The grooves are prickly, never allowing you to settle into them. Their vocals sound like they're reciting mantras and chants which adds to the uneasiness. It's a good feeling of unease though. Her musicianship is pretty impeccable on this cut too as she handles every bit of instrumentation here. I could've been fooled into thinking this was the work of a full band. Overall, "ELEMENTS" is a really solid track and if you're a fan of either the Talking Heads or Fela Kuti - hopefully you're fans of both - give this a listen!

"ELEMENTS" is available now on Bandcamp and streaming services.

Cam

"Land of the happy moles" - LOCAL NOTHING

LOCAL NOTHING was my first foray into proper 'furry' music, CSH Notwithstanding. Track 'Land of the Happy Moles' brought back everything I loved about old lofi CSH with its perfect imperfection, and its overtly authentic and almost too-human noisiness distilled through the veil of a cartoon furry band is exactly the kind of juxtaposition that makes furry media so great.

"Land of the happy moles" is available now on Bandcamp and streaming services.

Jay Snow

"can't help falling in love" - secat

A crystalline synth, a loon’s call, and wispy vocals all color this track off Secat’s latest, spar box, an album that hinges on frenetic grooves so tight you can almost hear them tearing at the seams. The way melodic elements bounce off each other and skirt around the percussion really brings forth a sense of space; as much as its sound palette veers towards the mechanical, the static and the inert, the song still hums with life, in no small part thanks to the masterful flip of Julee Cruise’s “Falling” that fully surfaces near the end and carries it out.

“can’t help falling in love” is track 5 of off Secat’s spar box, available now on Bandcamp and streaming services.

** = This artist is part of the trickyStoop roster, the label side of our blog.

This post was a collaboration among