Quiet and menacing, loud and biting, amusingly absurd and hymn-like in its dread. Today's selection covers a wide range—perhaps too wide. But I'm certainly breaking an unwritten rule today.
Morabeza Tobacco – Only the Weak Prey on the Kind
From blue twilight emerges an unsettling blend of melancholy and menace. Floating vocals over a bassline reminiscent of Every Breath You Take, crystalline guitars echoing through semitones. Only the Weak Prey on the Kind by the Swedish duo Morabeza Tobacco shimmers with a cold, lifeless glow and flows as thick as blood. An eerily ethereal shiver, like the soundtrack to a pleasing nightmare.
Catalyst – Steel Cap Slippers
“I bought a dog from the shop/ I called him the average guy/ Turns out the average guy has to hump someone’s leg every now and then” — Steel Cap Slippers by the Swiss duo Catalyst may make you chuckle with its absurd lyrics. But it bites and sinks its satirical claws deep under the skin. Dominic Curseri and Ramon Wehrle build up, break down and explode with lightning, thunder and fury.
Mouche-Miel – Shirako
Warning: This track is radical. Guitarist Sébastien Minguely and drummer Silas Auderset, aka Mouche-Miel, measure out the chaos down to the millimetre and construct dystopian contrasts. Aggressive ricochets race through the space, then suddenly a moment of relative calm, only to be swallowed up by the noise again in an escalation of elegance. Shirako feels like random madness, yet is mathematically calculated to perfection.
Anna Erhard – 1000 Sheep
What a marvellous interplay of absurdity and unpretentious storytelling. Yes, 1000 Sheep by Anna Erhard, a Swiss artist based in Berlin, is a love song, but one that makes you question: is this serious or an outlandish figment of the imagination? Erhard reveals that the track is inspired by an encounter with a “cute shepherd”, but as she doesn’t know anything about the man, she praises his ability to count sheep. Glorious!
Fat Dog – Call It What You Want
I do my very best to showcase as many different artists as possible in the Weekly5. That means: repeat features should be avoided at all costs. Yet Fat Dog gleefully make that impossible this week with Call It What You Want. The gritty, staccato post-punk, layered with a thick coat of melodic synths. It sounds euphoric and anthemic, but an underlying sense of fear lingers. Singer Joe Love reflects on his family’s problems and fears genetic determinism: “What’s up with your DNA? I felt like shit, you feel the same way.”
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