OPM: The Nameless and the Nerdy

Tim Eveleigh – A Record

A collection of quiet, introspective songs that live at the intersection of folk and pop. To my ears, it’s somewhat reminiscent of Badly Drawn Boy’s electronic-tinged tunes – guitar and voice forward first, but often with some intriguing and unusual instrumentation around it. The opening track, for example, manages something like drone folk for its first half! 

The songs themselves are earnest and rich with meaning, both personal (love, loss, the typical) and more worldly (eg anti war songs). The vocals are on the delicate side, and the guitar is acoustic and lightly strummed, generally speaking — a very light, airy sound overall. Definitely worth checking out if your collection is full of Elliot Smith, Sufjan Stevens and the like.

(Listened to the entire album)

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TV-MA – The Light at the End of Decay

Unusual and distinctive album that blends hip-hop, twee pop, and more to deliver a musical message of hope in the face of apocalypse. Arrangements feature heavy use of Omnichord, strings, flute and more, but the core of the album is hip-hop/trip hop, making for an unusual result. The vocals themselves are similarly distinctive, delivered in a cadence that’s part talk-singing and part actual rap. 

The liner notes claim trip hop, y2k pop, Disney musicals, nu metal and oldies as influences and, sure; I’d add New Age, house music and chillout to that mix, maybe a few more. This is one of those flavor blends so distinctive that the only way to know if it is for you is to give it a try, so…what are you waiting for?

(Listened to the entire album)

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GBΔFLΔME – “Group 4 [Feat. Mantis]”

Fascinating track that walks a weird line between industrial and pop, with hints of hip-hop. A heavy, distorted and minimal beat is topped with a distorted, growling spoken/rapped vocal. An almost-pretty synth arpeggio circles over top constantly, offering up a slim respite from the darker elements that anchor the track. 

From there it takes a quick turn into IDM territory as the heavy sounds go fizzy and swooshy, and then it’s done! Intriguing and leaves you wanting more…good thing the album is coming soon.

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evbp – Only Criminals Get Caught pt. 1

Alt synthwave with unusual and distinctive vocals and a message for our times. Musically, this sticks relatively close to the synthwave blueprint – classic synth sounds punched up with modern production techniques and some driving rhythms. There are also some forays into woozy chillwave and classic synth pop territory as well. 

And over all of it, some unusual vocals. One track offers a weird spoken-word nerdcore approach; the next goes all in on the vocoder/robot effect. Others rely on vocal samples pulled from the news. Lyrically, the message is anti authority, pro human rights and generally the kind of thing that’s gonna piss off the redhats. All told, an interesting, uncommon approach that yields idiosyncratic results.

(Listened to the entire album)

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Gene Boggs – Once Lost

Hypnotic and groovy guitar and electronics instrumentals that refuse to slot neatly into any genre. A little too structured and rhythmically focused to be ambient; not nearly beat-focused enough to fall into the IDM camp. Too rock to be downtempo, not rock enough to be prog or jam. Makes it hard to label but easy to listen to. 

Groovy, slinky and funky at times, spaced out and psychedelic at others, it’s a lively and fascinating set of tunes. If it reminds me of anything it’s mid-late period Eno – that run in the ‘90s after he set ambient aside but before he returned to vocal and pop arrangements. That said, it isn’t trying to replicate Eno – it’s very distinctly its own thing, and a pretty cool thing at that.

(Listened to the entire album)

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