#vaguegrant's music finds

[vaguegrant]

Inuktitut by Elisapie

I haven't been this excited to discover an album in months.

Inuktitut is Elisapie's fourth album, and it's nominally a cover album. Except for two differences: It's sung entirely in the Inuit language, and these 'covers' are absolutely brilliant rearrangements. Familiar songs are completely transformed, both through genius reorchestration and subtle changes that make each song sound like it was originally written in Inuit—as if no other language could really be suited for those songs.

Elisapie's vocals deserve plenty of credit too, of course. Her voice is rich and enveloping, but with a certain chilly depth that lends even the lightest of pop songs gravitas.

My favorite song is almost certainly Elisapie's entirely brass take on Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here", but every single track stands out and stands alone. Metallica, Fleetwood Mac, Queen, Cyndi Lauper, Led Zeppelin, Blondie—Inuktitut includes and perfectly reappropriates a broad swath of popular music, fearlessly and effortlessly.

I do not know how to recommend this album to you strongly enough. It is a must-listen.

[vaguegrant]

Allfather by Neon Odin

Okay. How do we feel about synthwave? Good? Great. Now, how do we feel about sweet guitar riffs? And brilliant, booming percussion? And Norse folk music played on traditional instruments made by the artist? And Odin himself looking sexy as fuck on the album art?

Yeah, me too babe. Me too.

Synthwave has had its hooks in me for the last year or so, which means I've heard a fair amount of it now. I don't think I've ever heard quite so inventive a synthwave album as Allfather (released 1 December 2023.)

Now, Allfather is indisputably synthwave—synths so fat and heavy you can barely squeeze them through your door, and a bassline to match. But Neon Odin (a.k.a. Hungarian black-/folk-metal artist vvilderness) layers on top of that delicious 80's sound some absolutely immaculate metal guitar work. It's the sort of screaming, unapologetic synth-rock that ought by rights to follow your protagonist down a neon-lit, rain-soaked alley.

But this is not just synthwave and metal. There's a secret third thing in the mix: Traditional folk instruments that elevate Allfather from "damn good synthwave" to music that demands and earns your full attention. The talharpa and nyckelharpa (which vvilderness apparently built themselves!) lead the album into sounds that defy time, space, and genre expectations. It's cyberpunk in a snowy, god-riddled fantasy land; or perhaps a collaboration between William Gibson and Neil Gaiman.

Whatever it is, I cannot get enough of it, and you need it too.

[vaguegrant]

Christmas Future - Vic-20

"Are we listening to 'what if .hack did a Christmas album'?" - my wife

She's not wrong! But thankfully, Christmas Future is a more complex album than that. You know it's a good sign when halfway through a seven-track album, I find myself wishing it were twice as long!

These are mostly classic Christmas songs, but with real effort put into transforming them into a modern-but-retro synthwave sound. Too many such albums are basically just Christmas carols with a backbeat. Others have so heavily remixed and reworked those hymns and carols that they're no longer recognizable, or don't have a tone that feels at all appropriate for Christmas. Christmas Future dances between those traps, even while hitting all the different moods and tones that encompass the real complexity of our feelings about the holidays.

I'm personally fond of "Christmas Morning", but Crystal Rome's work on the most somber version of "Angels We Have Heard On High" is not to be missed. Still, give the whole thing a listen. If you want Christmas music you can unapologetically dance to, Christmas Future is exactly and delightfully that.