Top 5 Songs of the Month - February 2021/Մեհեկի 4513 - Schröttersburg, ΔIVIΔ, Claustraphobia
We’ve made it to late Winter. Coming out of Winter, I find that my mood has been up, having had time to process certain world events beyond my control. But I’m still on a Slavic post-punk kick, and have been since about September. I’ve been discovering a lot of new music courtesy of the YouTube channel Krzysztof Utbult, which consistently gives me a few new, mostly Russian songs to check out each day. I’ve finally done it this month, none of the bands are from the United States. They’re from Poland, Russia, England, Greece and Austria. Goth is truly global. I’ve heard South American and Australian goth bands, maybe I need to find some Asian and African ones to round it out. I’m sure they exist.
I have forgotten to do it for a few months, but I used to give forecasts of my blog for the coming month on these posts, so I suppose I will do it now. I am currently working on a few blog entries; I have another mix to share, this time comprised of hate songs just in time for Valentine’s Day. If I have time I may also share a mix I made of songs that mention the Heart. I also am about halfway done writing a review of Violent J’s The Wizard of the Hood for an out-of-genre experience. And on that note, I might review some more Oz books, since I’ve been reading more Ruth Plumly Thompson. And it’s going to be very time consuming, but I wanted to do a blog that catalogs my Top 3 Songs of the Month going back to when I first started keeping records in October 2000, even though some of the early entries make me cringe now and will cost me goth points. I have kept written records since then, but I don’t know how legible they are so I’ve been typing them out. I’ve gotten to 2013 so far. But, I have a feeling thanks to the weird formatting issues Blogger is giving me I’m going to need to finish it in a Word document on a laptop rather than my handy tablet that I am using right now.
Anyway, let’s get into my top five songs this month.
Schröttersburg - Keter
My top pick this month comes from Poland, and is another of those bands that forces me to copy and paste their name thanks to the umlaut (the next band is another). Their new album “Melancholia” releases on the 21st of this month, and I like what I’ve heard thus far. This track has these stirring emotionally-charged guitar riffs that I always love in a post-punk song, and although I don’t understand the lyrics, I can feel the energy of the song. I just recently found out about this band, but they have a few albums out which you can find on Bandcamp, many of them being name your price. From what I’ve heard of their earlier music, it seems to me like they’ve recently changed their sound a bit, and I like their newest music best. Hope there’s more where that came from.
I had the hardest time figuring out what the triangles were supposed to represent in this band’s name. Was it Aivia? No, according to their Bandcamp page, it is Divid, out of Moscow, Russia. They released their first album last September, and this track was released just last month as a single. The title of the song translates to “It Would Be Good to Die”. When I searched it on YouTube I got links to suicide hotlines, so I translated it to find out why and that’s what I got; maybe I shouldn’t find that funny, but I do. This is one of those songs that sounds upbeat and fun until you listen to the lyrics, or translate them. It’s just so catchy and danceable, and has that “Aaaaahhh” chorus which feels very Russian, I had no idea what it was about until I translated the lyrics.
Oof. YouTube is worried about me because of the music I like. Probably only because they don’t want to lose a customer. Don’t worry about me, I’m all right. Kind of makes me stop and think about the music I listen to though, and why I listen to it. Am I depressed because I listen to goth music, or do I listen to goth music because I’m depressed? I’m leaning towards the latter, but there’s more to it than that. It’s also just the music I like. I’ll never be into modern pop music no matter how successful of an antidepressant I find. I wouldn’t be me anymore at that point. And anyway, this song actually does lift my spirits despite its lyrics.
Last month I was really into Claustraphobia’s track “Broken”, and I mentioned this was the other track I was really into. It eventually overtook that track. The perfect winter song, this track got me through the various cold snaps of the past month. Yes, I live in Florida, don’t laugh. It was 37 degrees at one point! The song is about when you think it won’t get any colder, yet it gets colder still. I see it in a more metaphorical sense as well. I have mostly been listening to the “Morbid Mix” version, but the original is good too. The original is more haunting and raw, like a night on a frozen tundra. Maybe it captures the true essence of the song better than the remix does, but the remix has its own merits. It has more of a beat to it, while still remaining true to the song. Some remixes will just forget the basics of the original song in an effort to make it a dance club hit, but not this one. It still has that cold feel. Maybe the remix is like the cold in Florida when it actually gets kind of cold, like in the 40s and 30s Fahrenheit, and the original is like Siberia. If that makes any sense.
Tango Mangalore is an interesting one-man band from Greece. The singer is a sailor, and all of his songs have to do with the sea. I recognize the Greek fisherman’s cap he wears, I have a similar hat myself. His songs are basically Goth sea shanties. How cool is that? “Mort Marin” is a song sung by someone who died at sea and is haunting the shores, forlorn and unable to Rest In Peace. The singer’s voice sounds like the moans of a forlorn ghost. He’s speaking English but it’s so slurred you can barely make it out. And it doesn’t seem like they have the best grasp on English either, such as in the line “Your grievance is no way to are.” I don’t think that was a typo in the lyrics posted in the description of the music video, because that’s what it sounds like he says too. But that just adds to the charm of the song. The album this song was on, “Dear Shore”, released on Halloween 2017, is a concept album where the central theme is hatred for the shore and a love of the sea. Sea shanties are making a comeback this year in memes, so I heard, so maybes it’s time this band capitalized on that.
Скубут is a Russian band from Vienna, Austria. I suppose they must have moved there from Russia, I’m sure there’s an interesting story behind that. The album this track is off of, Меланхоличен (Meloncholia), was just released last month. And will you look at that! The first and last bands on my list both have an album called Melancholia released this year! I didn’t plan this. What are the odds? Maybe higher than you think when you listen to Eastern European post-punk. Anyway, this track has a blend of guitars and synths, and serves as a nice introduction to the album. Another case of translations revealing that the singer is not a happy camper, though, since Акт самоубийства translates to “suicide”, or at least that’s what Google Translate is telling me, as trustworthy as that is. I just really like this type of music, okay? I promise I’m not suicidal! Anyway, I am liking the other songs off this album too, perhaps this is a band I should keep an eye on. They’ve had six releases in less than a year, giving me a robust discography to work through.
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