Fluxblog 490: adrift on memory bliss

New songs by Thandii, Błoto, and Louis Fontaine

I don’t have a new playlist for you in this issue, largely because I was on a little mini-vacation in Canada in the middle of the week. But I would like to call attention to a few older playlists that I recently improved by finally being able to include the original recording of P.M. Dawn’s 1991 classic “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss.” The song has actually been available on streaming since March, but I didn’t know about it until last weekend. I added it to a few playlists where it was needed, but I’d like to direct your attention to these three:

WELCOME TO THE 90s: THE NEW POP 1989-1992, a look back on an fascinating and remarkably tasteful period of pop where it's not quite 80s in style but also not what would take hold for most of the 90s either. [YouTube | Spotify | Apple]

SAMPLETOPIA: THE GOLDEN AGE OF SAMPLES IN HIP-HOP 1988-1992, a look back on a five year window in which new sampling technology allowed for a creativity with sound not yet constrained by copyright law. [Spotify | Apple | YouTube]

THIS WAS AUTUMN 1991, a flashback to a pivotal moment in music history, particularly for rock music as several game-changing blockbusters all hit around the same time. [Spotify | Apple | YouTube]

To Make A Dream Come True

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Thandii “It Only Takes 2”

Thandii are funk minimalists in the tradition of ESG and Liquid Liquid, though I think their grooves come out feeling less tightly wound and neurotic. “It Only Takes 2” in particular strikes me as being like if Swim-era Caribou made an 80s freestyle song. The stark arrangement keeps your ear focused on the most functional elements of the groove, but it also implies a sweaty, close-counters intimacy that amps up the lust and eroticism at the core of the song.

Buy it from Bandcamp.

Błoto “Shitaake”

There are some things that just sound extremely cool, and I’m not sure if trying to describe or explain it would do anything to help my – or anyone else’s – experience with the music. Sometimes you just have to let the cool, mysterious sounds be cool, mysterious sounds that move your body and your mind and not ask a lot of questions. A sufficiently advanced groove is indistinguishable from magic. I could be talking about most anything in “Shitaake,” really, but the part that gets me going comes in almost right away, about seven seconds in. Just put that on.

Buy it from Bandcamp.

Louis Fontaine “Mousse au Chocolat”

I don’t know much about this Louis Fontaine record except for that he’s playing every instrument on the track and every song on the album is “inspired by childhood culinary experiences.” I have no idea what his specific childhood experience of chocolate mousse might have been like, but I can hear how this instrumental signals something sweet, rich, refined, and vaguely campy. There’s something a bit childlike about the brighter piano notes and staccato chords that carry the verses, and there’s something distinctly fudgy about the bass tone. I feel like I’m at least halfway towards parsing Fontaine’s synesthesia.

Buy it from Bandcamp.

This week I saw Dora Jar, Delia Delia, and The Army The Navy in Manhattan…

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…and Vampire Weekend and Cults in Montreal.

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I also got Vampire Weekend to play a Squeeze classic in the all-requests encore part of their current show.

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LINKS LINKS LINKS LINKS LINKS

• Tom Briehan at Stereogum wrote about the 20th anniversary of Annie’s Anniemal, and about how she pioneered the concept of a niche legend pop singer. I’m flattered to be mentioned in this piece, but it makes sense – I truly was on this before anyone else in the United States and kinda lucked into finding her music in the very early days of Fluxblog.

• Craig Jenkins at Vulture wrote about Katy Perry’s new album in the context of all the other pop stars who’ve had a very difficult time in 2024.

• I loved Andrew Hickey’s conclusion to his mini-series about The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” in his A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs series. I suppose you should listen to the full series, but the third part that just came out is where he actually focuses on the song “Sympathy for the Devil” in great detail, and drops in some incredible stories about the Stones in this period I’d never heard before. (Some of those incredible stories are extremely dark!)