Spotify Me Part 16: A Song of Ice and Playlist

Spotify Me Part 16: A Song of Ice and Playlist

Mark’s Discover Weekly Playlist for the week of 12/14/15

As you may have noticed, I write a god many of these at the last minute, usually while watching movies on television. So, to surfeit your curiosity, this week TV treated me with a double feature of both of the new J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies. Weird thing though, the played the second one first, followed by the first. And remember, playing episodes out of order can really do a number on a SciFi series. I trust I need not clarify.

It’s been a big week for SciFi, as Star Wars: The Force Awakens was just released in theaters. I have seen it, and I liked it. And that is all I’m going to say. But to celebrate the new film, you will notice that the first song in this article is about war, and is by a band called Stars. I did this on purpose and did not “just notice the coincidence afterwards and claim it like I always do” so just leave it alone already. Its been an interesting week.

In Our Bedroom After the War
Arts and Crafts Productions

In Our Bedroom After The War – Stars

 The first song of this week’s article is sad quiet and sweet, but has a hint of joy. It matches to an extent, the emotion felt when, as the title describes, the war has ended. And although I feel as though I have never truly seen a war end, I imagine the emotions run a zigzag over the broad line between happy and sad and everything in between. It starts out quiet, and builds over time. It’s like waking up feeling calm and safe after having lived in fear for so long. Anything seems possible. There is joy for the end of an era of destruction and death, but at the same time, mourning for the loss that will always come as a result of war. This song doesn’t capture that perfectly, and in my opinion, no song ever will. However the song does do a good job of generating emotion, passion, and energy. It genuinely is moving, and deserves recognition for that.

And the Moon Was Hungry
Obscura Records

King – The Romanovs

Moving on, we arrive at a song that is cool, classy, and smooth. It’s a bit like James Bond even though it doesn’t match the style. The style instead is a bit like Evanescence but less loud. Instead the song moves at the pace of a confident strut, slowly and with conviction. Arid strings and light piano work in unison with distortion and electronic effects to create a full and satisfying soundscape. Even though you can’t place an exact emotion on the song, there is energy. And not only that, but the song paints a picture. When I listen I can’t help but imagine all kinds of strange and interesting visuals to accompany the music. The song has a sinister feel, the voice of the singer hinting at political plots and schemes. Honestly, sometimes when I really like a song it can be hard to describe exactly why. I’ve tried my best worth your time, I promise.

Datarock Datarock
Young Aspiring Professionals

Computer Camp Love – Datarock

Ok, so, imagine Grease the musical, but with more nerds and computers, and you have this song. I mean, they actually use quotes from songs in the movie, so I’m being very serious. However, it’s up to debate how serious the song is. I can’t quite tell if this is social commentary or parody, but to be honest, parody is a form of social commentary so that debate may not be worth our time. The point is that the song is nerdy while cool, and smart while funny. The electronic melody is smooth and dark. In fact, without the tongue and cheek lyrics singing in a more upbeat and cheerful melody, the songs atmosphere would be completely different.  The song is cool, but not in a perfect way. It seems a bit more like what kids who are trying to be cool would sing, but carried with a confidence and style that makes it work. Also, I have to disclose that I have no clue what I am talking about as I have never been what most people would refer to as “cool”.

Dangerous Days
Blood Music

Humans are Such Easy Prey – Perturbator

This is actually for me a really funny story. You see I was listening to a song on YouTube at work, (either The Hit by TWRP or HE^RT by Starcadian I can’t remember which) and a song by this artist came up as a suggested video. After listening to the artist for a while, I got really into the 80’s electronic vibes mixed in with more modern sound devices. When this song came up on my playlist, I was very excited for a chance to talk about it. This song seems to be an tribute to the Alien series, pulling what I’m pretty sure is a sound bite from Ripley. The song then rips right into dark, fast paced, suspenseful electronic beats and melodies. The clear 80’s instrumentation is mixed with what seems like either 8 or 16 bit sounds in order to create what sits between an 80’s movie and a video game soundtrack. One of the tings I like most about this artist is that they treat the electronic sound as a way to tell stories and paint pictures rather than just give a dance beat. And the best part about that is, in this case you could still dance to it. Its good, high quality music that I have been very into recently, and hope to keep listening to in the future.