Top 3 Songs of the Month – May 2020/Մարերի 4512 – Cabaret Grey, Ministry, Buzz Kull

          

            It seems to have been a long month since my last such entry. Probably due to being quarantined, 30 days ago feels more like 60 days ago. The flow of time is strange. But it is usually better when it flows more slowly. Anyway, I’ve been listening to a ton of new music which has made choosing a top 3 this month a tough choice. With concerts cancelled everywhere this is the time to buy music. I recently purchased albums from Buzz Kull, Silent EM, and a host of others. But before I get into this, here are some blog updates.

            As I mentioned recently, I’m trying to prioritize all of my artistic projects, as I’m currently developing a webcomic as well as working on some novels, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to quit blogging altogether, just that it’s taking a backseat to other things. I might do “1987 in Music” this month, maybe, if I have the time. I’m basically only doing those for my own amusement at this point though. This month I want to write reflections on my time visiting the Republic of Artsakh from May 8 to 13^th, 2015, and later this month write about the Battle of Sardarapat in 1918. There might also be a review of an Oz book or two. And whatever else I feel like writing about, if I find the time.

            Anyway, here’s what I’ve been listening to.

Cabaret Grey – Almost Frantic

             

First up we have a band from Poland called Cabaret Grey. The song “Almost Frantic” has an ominous feel to it, making it a perfect soundtrack to what’s going on in the world right now. And I don’t quite feel frantic about it; just “almost”. I suppose that’s why this song has been running through my head lately. Also, they get bonus points from me for doing a VHS-quality music video. I can’t explain really why I love VHS tapes so much, but I do. The song was released back in 2018 on their Freezing Point single. This band doesn’t appear to have a huge discography to their name yet, but they have been around since around 2011. This is a band worth keeping an eye on.

https://cabaretgreyofficial.bandcamp.com/album/freezing-point-single-2018

Ministry – Alert Level (Quarantine Mix)

 

I already featured this song in one of my recent blog posts. As much as I prefer synthpop Ministry and rarely have liked anything they’ve done after 1986, I found myself liking this song when I heard it. It gets points for relevance. I’m not sure how relevant it will be after this pandemic is over, but society will still be sliding toward its doom after the pandemic too, so maybe it will stay relevant. The voice samples “How concerned are you?” and “Young people are starting to understand your betrayal. We will not let you get away with this.” are powerful in my opinion. I like a song with good voice samples. Try listening to this song while driving through an abandoned downtown during a quarantine lockdown. You won’t be disappointed.

The YouTube video has a bunch of links in the description to where to listen and buy the single, I’ll just direct you there.

Buzz Kull – Existence

             

One thing I spent my stimulus check on was Buzz Kull’s 2018 album A New Kind of Cross (I’m two years behind this month I guess). I was not disappointed. Buzz Kull is a darkwave band out of Australia. I already loved the song “Avoiding the Light” so that’s how I chose the album to buy. Like many albums these days you can get it either as a collection of mp3’s or as a vinyl record. I’m starting to miss CD’s, seems like even cassettes are becoming more common than CD’s. I always end up burning the mp3’s onto blank CD’s anyway. But that’s just as an aside. The song “Existence” is my current favorite on the album, as I’ve been gravitating toward anything existential in recent months.  The video linked above isn’t official, but the Youtuber did a pretty good job on it.

https://buzzkull.bandcamp.com/album/new-kind-of-cross

Honorary Mention – Vitas – Opera #2

             

I accidentally discovered this famous Russian pop singer recently through his bizarre and outlandish stage performance of his song “The 7^th Element”, and have been getting hooked on his music. He’s just so strange and unique I can’t help but love his music. “Opera #2” is probably my favorite song of his overall, thanks to the accordion and Russian riffs, but I like them all. Russian pop isn’t what I usually listen to, obviously, but part of it makes me nostalgic for Armenia, because a lot of people listen to it there and it gets played everywhere. I definitely think it’s better than American pop, which I generally despise. It’s nice to kind of step out of my musical boundaries every now and then.

            Vitas is extremely talented, able to achieve this powerful falsetto that even many women wouldn’t be able to reach. He does all these weird and funny vocalizations in most of his songs too, best seen in “The 7^th Element” “Roll with the Beat” and “Dreams”. The video for “Opera #2” appears to be about how Vitas is a man with gills on his neck, who falls in love with a woman who he thought also had gills on her neck, but she doesn’t, and she rejects him, causing him to scream so loud glass breaks. Ah, what a tragic tale. We can all relate to rejection.

Top 3 Songs of the Month: December 2019/ Քաղոց 4512

            (This should be the last interruption of my top 10 albums that changed my life. Tomorrow it’s back to our regularly scheduled programming. And after that I’ll write about stuff besides music for a bit just to change things up.)

Nobody: So Suren, what kind of music have you been listening to lately?

Me: Well I’m glad you asked, Nobody!

I’ve had this monthly tradition dating back to the year 2000, stemming from radio shows I used to listen to back then where they’d go through the weekly Top 20 songs on the charts for alternative rock. I wanted to have my own top list. But I chose to narrow it down to three, and make it monthly. These are determined by which songs I've had stuck in my head a lot, which songs I've identified with at a given time, or which songs I've just really liked. Why I keep weird little traditions like this I don’t even know, maybe I have an undiagnosed mild case of OCD or something. I guess the purpose it really serves is that every year I make a mix tape (recorded on a two-hour blank cassette) which I update with the first two of my top 3 songs each month. I’ll put the number 3 song on the tape if one of the other songs has been on for two or more months in a row (because I’m not going to put a song on the tape twice), or if one of the other songs is too long (I can only dedicate a maximum of ten minutes to each month on a 120 minute tape or else I’ll run out of room; although if I go under ten minutes I do have extra time to work with in future months). Whenever there’s extra room on the tape at the end of the year, I pick my favorite number 3 songs from throughout the year and include as many as will fit on the tape. These tapes are a nice time capsule to go back and listen to, and are something I’ll likely blog about more at some point. It’s what I like to call my “audiobiography”. I have written records kept in old notebooks that go back to when this tradition first started. For the first entry, in October of 2000, my top three songs were “Undone” by Weezer, “Mope” by Bloodhound Gang, and “The Inevitable Return of the Great White Dope”, also by Bloodhound Gang. Obviously, my tastes have changed quite a lot in 19 years.

The tradition gets stranger though. In 2010 (by the Gregorian calendar), I grew tired of the Gregorian calendar, with its Roman Catholic-influenced “this month has 30 days, this one has 31, and this one month randomly has 28 days except on certain years” bollocks. I learned about the ancient Armenian calendar. Every month had thirty days even, with an extra five to six days before the New Year which weren’t part of a month and were basically set aside for partying. The ancient Egyptians had this type of calendar first, and that’s another culture I admire. By the ancient Armenian calendar it is the year 4512. That's the number of years since the legendary hero Hayk led the Armenians out of Assyria, defeated the tyrant titan Bel in battle and established the Kingdom of Armenia, around the Lake Van region in historic Western Armenia. The anniversary of this battle, called Navasard, is the calendar’s “New Year”, falling on August 11 on the Gregorian calendar. This website has more information on the calendar:

http://haytomar.com/

            I bring this up because I now decide my top three songs of the month on the first day of the month on the Armenian calendar, and I start my Year Tapes on Armenian New Year. December roughly corresponds with the month of Քաղոց (Kaghots), which begins on December 9. I’m posting this blog a day late because I don’t want to do two posts in one day and bury the blog about And One I just posted. Later this month I might just do a “Top songs of 2019” blog, or a blog about the 2010’s in general. I probably will, even though it'll really be the years 4502 to 4512. Just to satisfy the rest of those who conform to that flawed Gregorian calendar. So pretty much everyone else besides myself and like two other people. I have to think about my audience, after all. (*crickets chirp*) Ahem. 

        So anyway, as long as I keep this bizarre tradition, I might as well blog about it. You can think of this as music recommendations. These are my top three songs this month:

1. Mindless Faith – Moth Without a Moon

 

Mindless Faith is a band I discovered way back in 2007, in what was probably another case of a CD being placed in the wrong genre section at Rasputin Records back in Pleasant Hill, CA. Their album Momentum introduced me to a new electronic sound I hadn't encountered up to that point; similar to Das Ich but more trance-like. I’ve been following them throughout the years ever since, and I tend to like whatever they put out. This song comes off of their new album Insectual; which appears to be bug-themed. I guess concept albums do still exist in the streaming era. I plan on buying the album when I can. This song has grown on me in the past month. I do love it when they use female vocals, which isn’t something this band does all the time. I didn’t know moths were associated with moons. Do all moths have moons? Maybe it’s because moths are attracted to light? I really don’t know what the song’s about to be honest but I love the sound of it. I suppose genre-wise this is industrial. Or dark electro.

2. Buzz Kull – Avoiding the Light

 

       This song is on my chart for the second month in a row. I wish I’d heard this song years ago, but it only came out late last year. “I can’t face the day, and I’d rather the night. My death is impending: I’m avoiding the light.” I’m like a vampire when it comes to sunlight and will do what I can to avoid being directly exposed to it, and I certainly prefer nighttime. And everyone's death is impending. It's one of those songs that's almost a good theme song for me. I really relate to this song. It’s a perfect goth song. Makes me want to do the goth lurch, which is a kind of dance where you try to look like you’re too cool, dark and mysterious to be enjoying yourself. Buzz Kull has already been on my charts a few times now, I’m digging them more and more. The music video is pretty cool too. Old school photography development and such.

3. Silent EM – Machine

 

       Silent EM has been growing on me in recent months. Another song of theirs I was really into a couple months back and still like is “No Rest”, a song that I felt encapsulated the stress of the temporary full-time call center job I was working at that time. This is their second song on my charts. I’ll have to buy an album from them soon, when I can. If the “EM” is silent, should I be pronouncing the title of this song as “achine”? Anyway, Silent EM is a New York-based solo project of Jean Lorenzo, and I have it on pretty good authority that it’s in the coldwave genre. If I were to make music myself it would be coldwave. At any rate, since “Avoiding the Light” was on my mix tape last month, this lucky song gets to go on there this month.

Now it was a very close race this month. If it hadn’t been for “Avoiding the Light” being in my top 3 for the second month in a row, there would have been a different number 3 song, obviously. So I decided to give an extra song the benefit of the doubt for this blog and talk about my number 4 pick as an honorable mention. Don’t get too used to this, mind you. 

4. SYZYGYX – Pins and Needles

 

       This is a band I’ve been following since late last year, about the time they started to gain notoriety in gothic circles. They came out with three albums all in one year in 2018, which I purchased last Spring. Then they put yet out another album this year, so I'm no longer all caught up. How prolific. They must always be writing and recording new songs. How do they find the time to tour on top of that? They are going to be playing in Orlando in a  couple days, but sadly because of lack of funds and the need to take care of the baby I can't go. Sigh. Hopefully they'll come back to Florida next year sometime. At any rate, I believe their name is pronounced “Siz-eh-jix”. Almost sounds like “scissor kicks”. It’s derived from the astronomical term “syzygy”, which is when two or more celestial objects are aligned with one another. The husband and wife duo of the band are certainly in alignment with one another, as can be seen by how well their music flows and harmonizes. How romantic. I kind of wish I could start a goth band with my wife. But I’m more of a writer, and synthesizers are expensive. I’ve had this song stuck in my head on and off for the past month, but it hasn’t quite risen above the other three. Still, very catchy! Something to bob your head to. Not all of their music is this high-energy, but I’ve liked nearly every song of theirs that I have heard.

I’ll do this again on January 8^th, the beginning of Արաց (Arats), so stay tuned for some music recommendations.