Charles Mingus, Taj Mahal, Vashti Bunyan, Gil Scott-Heron, Kate Bush, Uncle Tupelo, Cornelius, The Avalanches, and The Shins. When I asked my son to pick 10 albums of his choice to add into my mix of albums, I knew I would get a diverse mix of genres and sounds, many of which I had never heard before. He didn’t disappoint, and perhaps no album opens the aperture wider than today’s record, “1000 gecs” by the act 100 gecs, which is a duo composed of Laura Les and Dylan Brady.
I’m not exactly sure what to say about this album. It is short, very short, with only 23 minutes of content. It is highly processed electronic vocals and music, but in an oddly appealing way. Often, I find songs like these to be brutally redundant and painfully annoying, but something about these songs keep them from excessive sound loops and are basically just good pop and rock songs that have been pulled through an extensive electronic distortion. While reading up on 100 gecs, I saw many terms that were used to describe or reference this music. They include “hyper pop”, “bubblegum bass”, “post-dubstep”, “trance”, “happy hardcore”, and my favorite, “chiptune”. I desperately wanted to believe that that “chiptune” was a reference to Alvin and the Chipmunks, but apparently it is a play on electronic micro-chips that are a fundamental component for this form of music.
As far as which songs to highlight, I will note they had one single, “money machine”. It may not be quite “happy hardcore”, as there is a little bit of pent-up anger in this song, along with another one of my favorites, “stupid horse”. I think if I had to pick one single favorite, I would select “…ringtone”. It actually is a happy little tune, at least as near as I can tell, and although I couldn’t listen to any of this music indefinitely, “…ringtone” will certainly work its way onto my master playlist.
To my son… well done. You definitely expanded my range and gave me a lot to think about and listen to over this experiment, and you never fail to impress me with your depth and range of musical knowledge.
A Lifetime-Plus of Music 