For this month’s Musical Box, I’ve invited friend and fellow blogger Denis Farr to share some recommended listening with us. Denis writes Vorpal Bunny Ranch, a thought-provoking blog about video games, where he often tackles issues of gender and sexuality. I’m always picking up great tunes from him on Twitter, so this post is really just cutting out the middleman (i.e. me).
Here are his picks for this month:
Greetings, Quixotic Engineer readers. I’m quite tickled that I have this opportunity to share my recent musical obsessions with you, which Matthew graciously invited me to do. Now, to the music:
Aleks & the Drummer is a local favorite of mine, based here in Chicago. It consists of ‘Aleks’andra Tomaszewska on farfisa organ alongside her siren-y vocals and Deric Criss on drums. I saw them open for The Octopus Project in 2007, and in 2008 they finally released the EP May a Lightning Bolt Caress You, filled with tracks that manage to sculpt out a space that brings to my mind space-age choirs. The ethereal landscape that is provided by Aleks through her two chosen instruments is well complemented by the driving force and reality that is Deric’s percussion.
I’ve always had a mild obsession with Grace Jones, ever since I first saw her in “Conan: The Destroyer”. Years later I would discover her music, and then my friend Josh showed me this video from her recently released Hurricane. The album itself is rather spotty, though the tracks that do stand out do so quite forcefully, and well. This was the first single, and seems to be perfectly suited for the economic crisis in which we find ourselves. Needless to say, it’s been played a few times since I’ve heard it.
Two notes: this video is much better viewed in HD and is NSFW. I have a special place in my heart for Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons, given his treatises on gender and a voice that seems to reverberate with that special quality we attribute to the soul singers of the past. From his new album, The Crying Light, this song has a very soft touch in its instrumentation, in contrast with the floating majesty of Antony’s voice.
There exists no actual video for the song I wanted to share for Goblin Cock, but this happened to aurally work its way into my brain quite effectively regardless. Goblin Cock includes the talents of Rob Crow, a rather prolific artist, if not widely known. What we have is a doom metal band that doesn’t take itself seriously, nor is completely lost in genre with gruffly presented lyrics. The result is the doom metal sound with only two acknowledgements: well-written in its form and fun.
Thanks again to Denis for graciously accepting to guestblog, check out more of his great work at Vorpal Bunny Ranch.
