I know music plays a big part in my life but it isn’t until I sat down to write down this piece of news that I really saw it. Two pieces of mine have been published recently. Neither deal with music but both feature it. ‘Eason Chan In My Room‘ is a memoiristic essay about growing up with the Hong Kong pop star’s music. ‘They Will Come For Us‘ is the first time I’ve explored the supernatural in my fiction. Click the links to read them! Thank you to Ibis House at Subbed In and Drunk Monkeys for publishing both.
As for music, February and March were very interesting. I do not have a load of time to recap but here are just a few notes of the top of my head:
- I got sad to Julia Jacklin’s Crushing. It could be my album of the year if only I could bear to hear it a few more times. Otherwise Adia Victoria’s modern blues Silences, Girlpool’s What Chaos Is Imaginary, Nilüfer Yanya’s Miss Universe, and Sharon van Etten’s Remind Me Tomorrow all lead the pack.
- Kenny will never die. Serengeti put out Music From The Graphic Novel Kenny vs The Dark Web after the Kenny Dennis character arc came to an end. Yes, there is a graphic novel in the works. The universe is so big now it’ll take multiple listens to every album (some not easily available) and EP and single to piece it altogether.
- Matthew Logan Vasquez has been putting the dad in dad rock. His solo output has been rock and roll in truthful form, but he has time for songs such as ‘I Love My Boy,’ which I find intriguing if not exactly relatable. It makes me wonder if most former listeners of Delta Spirit all have kids around their shoulders.
- I’ve never been able to put my finger on why some artists continue to stay relevant in my life. Andrew Bird and Beirut released average albums to me but I really liked vocoder-charged Lambchop. I mean, is this really the band that made Mr. M and Nixon?
- I do think that we’ll look back on this decade as the decade of jazz. Kamasi Washington and BBNG really threw the doors wide open. 2018 Jon Batiste’s Hollywood Africans revitalised piano jazz for me but this year I’ve already replayed Ben LaMar Gay, KOKOROKO, Ronin Arkestra, and Dave Harrington Group. Whereas the electric period that Miles Davis messed around with was quite inaccessible, these days jazz finds that tinkering with electronics can be fun and fruitful.
- And no, it’s not that indie rock will die, because it will never die. For some hope, check out Helado Negro, Westkust, and Anemone.
Joel Mak 