This feeling was incredibly significant when I discovered They Are Gutting a Body of Water for myself. I can’t possibly claim that I was there as a fan starting from the band’s offset. I was a 15-year-old high school sophomore living in Dubuque, Iowa when the album dropped in 2019 with no logical way of knowing what was going on in the underground Philadelphia rock scene at the time. I had first heard the song “eightball” off their album Destiny XL when I was driving to see one of my friends who lived 30 minutes north right along the Mississippi in the late summer of 2022 before I left for college. The noisiness and discordant arpeggio melodies were much to my liking, but the tracks punctual switch-ups were what was so captivating.  

College’s initial great change must’ve made everything too crazy to find time to sit down and listen to things, because the album sat in the back of my mind until I heard “eightball” fade in over some breakbeats in a DJ set. I gave Destiny XL a full listen the next morning and was enraptured by its searing, discordant distortion and blown out, battering riffs with interludes of drum and bass in-between. I saw they were playing a show in Davenport in October but wasn’t able to find anyone with a car or time to go in those early isolated times. I just had to view the photos taken from somebody’s backyard in the following days. 

Not too long after that time I had also been entranced by feeble little horse’s Hayday and all its sparkling energy. It was very healing listening to the buzzing noisy tracks. The record was originally release #008 on the Julia’s War label. Being obsessed with Hayday led me to discover more that revolved around the label, like the Wednesday monthly vlogs and music videos, the Hotline TNT Audio Tree performance in a ski shop, and the “I THINK IT’S OVER” video that followed TAGABOW on tour.  

After the first semester of college in December of 2022, I visited Chicago with my friend who was going to a national composer conference. One night, I didn’t really have much to do, so I just walked around the frozen dark streets in Armour Square and put on Destiny XL. The semi-sprawled grids, highway overpasses towering over otherwise normal city blocks, fluorescent streetlamps staining the cracked concrete white, and dirty tiny snowbanks defined the winter urban environment. It accentuated the atmosphere while walking around with the album’s dark grittiness and sheathing frostiness, fully enveloped in place and time.  

When the cold was too numbing to further bare, and I returned to the place we were staying, I laid in front of my laptop. Its blue glow and the orange lights from outside were the only things that lit up the dark room. I just searched They Are Gutting A Body Of Water and looked through their old webpages and accounts, most of them stylized with appropriated mashed up early 2000s imagery. I came across the band’s SoundCloud which had the recently released lucky styles and FC GORIS EP, along with a bunch of unreleased drum and bass tracks, and somewhat fleshed out riffs. I spent that night just listening through as much as I could, enticed by the treasure trove of music that I found. 

Only a couple months later, this bubble of east coast shoegaze burst to where everyone was rightfully appreciating it. At the time, I felt like I had come across something incredible that was new and unknown since no one else I really knew at the time was talking about it. It was that enthralling feeling of discovery that made the world around me feel exciting and optimistic despite the surrounding chaos at the time. 

In June, TAGABOW released swanlike a collection of loosies from 2020-2023. Most of the tracks on this compilation album come from the band’s SoundCloud page on playlists titled “sc bp excl” and “finger top digital good”. On the first listen through, most of the songs were recognizable. “killfraiser” and the opener “solo gay bowser” stood out as iconic. It still gave this frontier feeling having these songs in a new lens.

swanlike is a very different vibe from Destiny XL or any other TAGABOW release. Some of the tracks do come off like they were just thrown on there, such as “lu tamé” or “voicememmo” but it makes sense since they are all demos in a way. It’s not inherently cohesive, but that’s what you would expect from something referred to as “loosies”. The essence of each track though matches, and that probably comes from their shared origin on a SoundCloud page just made by a guy trying to see what he could get to sound cool. Experimentations out of boredom and making something not boring, making it feel earnest. Maybe it comes from the overall lo-fi fuzzy sound in the instrumentals, the strange ideas that shine through in parts like the middle of “elysian fields”, or the constant switch-ups.  

Of course, along 22 tracks there is a wide range of tones and emotions reflected in swanlike. A song like “clit eastwood” is an all-out rager with a bouncy blasting ending, impossible to quell any excitement. This is along with a plethora of other blistering drum and bass tracks. “beautysleep” and “day of the dead” feels in a way like signature TAGABOW with dragging, chorused acoustic parts and dejected vocals found in gestures been mixed with the drum machine loops and digital sound flairs in the band’s newer material. A lot of these tracks generate a very poignant yearning.

The first listen to swanlike was in a similar situation to the night walk with Destiny XL, just a different time, setting, and context. It was in Berlin just after I had recovered from jet lag and didn’t know what to do yet, so I just walked. I went through different areas in Friedrichshain and Kreuzburg in the early evening golden summer sun that seemed to linger on forever. The aimless drift dragged me along an urban fabric of faux-old ornamental stone buildings, on bridges over worn out metro tracks with vegetation sprouting through, and through ribbons of green space with occasional ruins.  

Again, the environment was accented by the varying sounds in the songs playing. Drudging acoustics often bit crushed in a processor, spacey reverberating drums, windy or pitched up vocals, quick switching samples, digital audio artifacts, and rapid drum brakes define the record. They all wove in with the scenery itself. All of it felt very vibrant and spirited. Even the more exhausted, low-energy moments like on “pacey” felt very grounded, as if there were just an overall acceptance of the way things would be. It has an air of defeatism, but without overbearing anguish.  

This feeling was ever more pervasive when “heavy vegetable” switched on near the end of the record’s runtime. A plucked, saccharine guitar plays throughout most of the track, and the ghostly phases that oscillate throughout the track give a very tender and longing feeling. A lightly hustling drum loop plays underneath in contrast. Everything around was so in touch with me, like it was whirring by my body. In that vivid moment, with that mix of feelings, it was all very lucid. There was a sharp resignation, but with the urge to continue to move along in hope the next thing would be better. On the path of discovery I found in that new place, in that new moment, it was better. 

The post Rediscovery in “swanlike” by They Are Gutting a Body of Water appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Coming off a strong LP with I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You, the West Coast artist continues to become more versatile with his latest mixtape SCRAPYARD. This mixtape has almost everything to offer within the current musical landscape. There are traces of postmodern hip-hop, cloud rap, indie rock, and folktronica. The combination of these genres makes for a fun and creative record. Despite the various mixes of different musical genres and influences, Quadeca’s sense of melody is strong throughout the project and every hook lands.

Quite honestly, SCRAPYARD sounds like the project that artists like Yung Lean and Lil Ugly Mane have been trying to make over the entirety of their groundbreaking careers. The triumphant instrumental of the incredible “A LA CARTE” sounds like something that would sound at home on a Bon Iver record, while “GUESS WHO?” is an energetic EDM trap banger. “U TRIED THAT THING WHERE UR HUMAN” has a distant almost alien like sense of emotion that is commonly seen on Björk albums. Quadeca’s confidence throughout this record is exuberant as he tackles an array of challenging styles, putting his own emo hip-hop spin on the various genres incorporated on his latest mixtape.

One of the biggest flaws of Quadeca’s unbridled creativity is the lack of cohesive thought. Even though most of the songs off on this project sound good individually, the great variety in styles spreads the main focus thin. It leaves us with undercooked tracks like “I MAKE IT LOOK EFFORTLESS” and “WAY TOO MANY FRIENDS”. Despite Quadeca showing proficiency in many different styles of music, he has mastered few of them.

Nonetheless, the potential that he shows across the fifteen tracks of this mixtape left me awestruck with the possibility of what he could do in the future. Quadeca has the raw talent to create classic records for years to come. If he simply hones in and develops some of the styles showcased across this diverse mixtape, we are going to be in for something special in the near future. If SCRAPYARD is merely a bare bones skeleton of a great record, I have seen few that are more appealing.

Official Maurice Crawford Score: 8.2/10

The post Quadeca Scavenges Different Genre Fragments for “SCRAPYARD” appeared first on KRUI Radio.

While the main focus of streaming services will likely continue to be music, podcasts have gained a heightened following of late. Not only do they feed our content hungry culture, they are consistently updated on a weekly or even daily basis, a speed of release the music industry will never be able to keep up with.

Could you imagine an artist releasing a new song every day?

“Thank you everyone for coming out to our show tonight. To finish off our set, we will be playing our newest song, entitled It’s Tuesday, Here’s Another Song. We hope you enjoy. One, two, three, four.”

Podcasts have been around for a long time but really grabbed hold in the early 2000’s and have continued growing in popularity since. An evolution of public radio and live performance, the podcast provides daily entertainment for its listeners and continues to change with new platforms and technology.

We’ve certainly come a long way from Lily Moscovitz’s radio show Shut Up and Listen in 2001’s The Princess Diaries. Side note: Shut Up and Listen has recently become a real podcast available on iTunes and SoundCloud hosted by Lily herself, actress Heather Matarazzo. Though I will certainly miss the gaiety provided to the show by Jeremiah’s fluorescent red hair and card tricks.

Most notably in our current political atmosphere are the plethora of politically focused podcasts.

The Daily, created by The New York Times, regales listeners with 25 to 30 minute discussions over recent political news released every morning Monday through Friday. Host Michael Barbaro speaks with a political expert, journalist, or scholar each episode about a pressing issue in Washington.

The New York Times’ stance on the actions of the Trump administration has been clearly defined through many of its publications as critical, but like the NYT’s written pieces, The Daily is not combative in its tone. Each episode endeavors to openly discuss politics and any individuals involved without personal attack.

For me, The Daily is a to the point podcast that digs into current events without name-calling or blatant opposition.

Additionally, the short length of each episode is appealing to those like me who tire of long-winded newscasts that further remind us of the whirlwind of controversies our country is trudging through. However, you news-hounds out there can find solace in longer political podcasts such as Pod Save America or The Wilderness.

Politics have a stronghold over the media today, yet podcasts allow for a variety of genres to shine, each catering to a different audience. Scroll through your favorite streaming service and you are sure to find a multitude of options. Similar to music or books, podcasts serve a variety of purposes. Just find one that suits you.

The personality of a host plays a big role in the success of podcasts and, appropriately so, many celebrities have capitalized in the audio world. It gives them a chance to share their innermost thoughts and interests, usually hidden behind the roles they play. Amy Schumer, Anna Faris, Ru Paul, and dozens of other well-known personalities have ventured into the podcast world. The list continues to grow to include popular YouTubers exploring a new platform.

Armchair Expert, hosted by Dax Shepard, explores the background and early careers of other celebrities through two hour interviews. Dax’s openness about his personal struggles and experiences in the entertainment industry creates and atmosphere for his guests to speak candidly about their lives. It has enlightened me on the lifestyles of celebrities I thought I had already really known (well, as much as one can know a celebrity through social media) and is a great listen for fellow pop culture nerds.

Comedy podcasts are another one of my favorites and the internet is chock-full of them, whatever your sense of humor may be. By hearing someone’s voice, it feels as though you are in the same room as the hosts, laughing alongside your virtual friends. From sarcastic commentary on the world’s most gruesome murders in My Favorite Murder to wine-drunk ramblings in Unhappy Hour, there is something for everyone to chuckle at.

Podcasts also have the power to open up dialogue on topics not usually discussed in the public sphere. Guys We F****d comedically goes through the exploits of hosts Corinne Fisher and Krystyna Hutchinson by bringing a past sexual partner onto the show and discussing their experiences together. Unashamedly fun and shedding light on female sexuality, often treated as taboo, this “Anti Slut-Shaming Podcast” is an hour of female freedom.

If you need a break from music, listening to a podcast is a way to feed your brain in any way you choose. Entertainment, information, and education are all possible in this new form of media that is sure to only advance in presence and opportunity.

The post An Oldie But a Goodie: Podcasts appeared first on KRUI Radio.

During the discussion, the panelists talked about how technology is changing music and the industry. The industry is becoming less personal, partly because everything these days is online. It is definitely convenient to be able to find anything and everything on music sites, such as Soundcloud, but it is talking something away from the viewers experience. One of Johnson’s missions is to personalize the industry again. She helps manage bands and tries to make sure their relationship is less about the sales and more about the music and she is also trying to make sure that the band’s relationship with their fans is more of a friendship, and again, less about the money.

West explained that Soundcloud is trying to make listeners experience more “natural and perfect in the moment”. They are always tweaking their algorithm to make it better, make it so more the of the music that comes on their page is something they would actually want to listen to. Zax described his listen experience with Soundcloud’s competitior, Spotify. Spotify creates a weekly playlist of the songs they thing the view will like based on what they have listened to. Zax explained that most of the time, this playlist is spot on. That’s twenty-five out of thirty of the songs he knows and loves and the other five he hasn’t heard before, but he really likes them.

Moeller is also trying to make the listener experience more personal. He puts up live tracks of bands that aren’t as well known on his website. This gets them some publicity and, hopefully, more ticket sales. In his opinion, the only way you can really know if you love band is if you see them live. He wants the music he puts on his website to make people want to go see shows so they can get to feel more connected to the band and the music they are playing.

The music industry has received some bad press over the past few years, but with these panelist working hard to make it great again, we have nothing to worry about.

The post Mission Creek: Digitized: The Evolution of Music In the Age of Connection 4/8/16 appeared first on KRUI Radio.