Coldplay opened the door for an endless series of introspective, soaring, soft-rock, shoe-gazer uplifting bands from everywhere. The sound is similar in the way the singer is miked & the music is engineered. Sweet, sometimes jangly guitars, touches of synth, burbles of electronica, strings & sensitive yearning lyrics.
From Iceland comes Low Roar. I have the self-titled Low Roar & 0 – I’m not sure if it is O or 0 though. Not that it matters. It is dreamy, shoe-gazer, electro folk. Relaxing. Out of Australia comes Chet Faker: Built On Glass. More of the same musically with perhaps a bit more energy & humour. Which is what one would expect with a name that parodies Chet Baker. I was hoping for some jazz in this Glass but there was none. From the UK comes Bear’s Den with Islands. Blindfold test & I cannot tell one from the other 🙂
Even before the emotive cool of Coldplay there was Brian Ferry. Perhaps more relaxed but a clear inspiration for many of these bands. In this mp3 compilation I have Avonmore. Gentle, soaring & sort of a sequel to his Avalon. No matter what he does it always sound like Roxy Music. No matter what Cold Play does it sounds like Cold Play.
To balance all this gentle pop I added Germany’s Einsturzende Neubauten: Ende neu Kleff. Electronica & homemade instruments this is a punchier version of Kraftwerk. One of their videos had been posted to Tumblr – it was hypnotic, propulsive & right up my ear alley. One lps was enough to satisfy & this is wild music but not too aggressive to listen to.
The same holds true for Underwater Noises. This is a globe hopping compilation of electronica all with some water element in the mix. I may have found this free on the Internet Archives site or perhaps Bandcamp. Finally is the soundtrack from Beasts of the Southern Wild. Evocative, comes rocking with Bayou funk this is a great soundtrack for a great movie.
(a piece from May 2007)
Sense of Absence
you’ve heard of phantom limb syndrome
well, I suffered phantom pubes
when I had them shaved for surgery
I didn’t realize how I relied on them
till they were gone
there was a constant sense of absence
as they grew back
reaching down in the morning
for a comforting little scratch
with no welcoming thatch of hair
for my fingers to work though
not that having them shaved
was much of a thing either
before it happened
I had some worry about being aroused
an erotic shaving panorama
warm sudsy water
frothy white almond lather
vanilla peppery smell
on the tip of an ultra soft brush
careful caressed on
hone stropped sharp blade
sliding through the soap
to leave me smooth as a baby
flesh tingling
it wasn’t a bit like that
a shoulder nudge at 5:30 a.m.
‘here to shave you’
female was all I could tell
with light hitting my eyes
a spray bottle
like window cleaner
two cool antiseptic squirts
scrape scrape scrape
less than a minute
‘wipe off at the sink’
back in the bed
a glance down
gone gone
my crowning glory gone
it lead me to wonder
the why of pubic hair
certainly not ornamental
it can’t be one of those hormonal triggers
you know how girls
flick their hair
a come hither gesture
that is never done with pubes
not even in private
they don’t offer much
protective cover in case of emergency
they can be hard to get out of
the teeth of a zipper
or of someone giving you a close inspection
phantom pubes
I could feel them
even when they weren’t there
but at least that’s all that was removed
Hey! Now you can give me $$$ to defray blog fees. Thanks paypal.me/TOpoet
TOpoet 