For years, when I was younger, I supplemented a lack of cultural plurality by trawling music blogs online. Being from a homogenous place in rural Texas, it seemed that the only place to turn to for new sounds was online. These days under quarantine feel a lot like those: stuck inside, nowhere to go but into the depths of the internet record.
This is a list of songs that pull me out of the void while we wait for whatever new “normal” comes to be.
1. Plus-tech Squeeze Box: Rival
This outtake from the Nickelodeon-jazz stylings of Tokyo’s Plus-Tech Squeeze Box is Tarantino-level chase-scene music. Take a ride.
2. 4everfreebrony: Bluer Skies (ft. Chi-Chi, Lily Cloud & Relative1Pitch)
Contemporary Christian worship music, musical soundtracks, nay, even Sarah McLachlan cannot compare to the sappiness of the Brony musician 4everfreebrony. Cherish the sentimentality.
3. DJ Nosferatu: The Underground Stream
I heard Sean Bowie of Yves Tumor play an even dirtier remix of this incredibly guttural hardcore track in 2011 in Austin. I have been craving bass ever since.
4. This Mortal Coil: I come and Stand at Every Door
Not for the faint of heart, this song is a cover (as are most songs from This Mortal Coil) from the perspective of a child’s ghost, lost in Hiroshima.
5. K-Pital: E Ziua Mea
With the sound of thunderstorms, Romania’s bygone electro masters, K-Pital, bring the fear of God into pure transcendent sonic power. Few dance tracks can be this reverent and get the floor moving.
6. Paradisio: Bailando
I learned Spanish at public schools in Texas, and I won’t brag about that, but I will say that I can translate this entire song, word for word. After we leave the party, that is.
7. N’to: Trauma (Worakls Remix)
I was lead to this song while trying to triangulate a personal favorite from an old mixtape by a friend. The slow build is great for rifling through one’s library on an all-nighter while tying to meet those pesky deadlines.
8. Atlanta: Where Have All The Cowboys Gone (Factory Team Mix)
Where have all the cowboys gone, indeed. Atlanta puts Paula Cole’s original romantic crooner to shame with an unexpected kick into the new millennium.
9. Kirby 64: Miracle Matter
Video game soundtracks are not something I check in on regularly, but I made an exception for this song after a friend recommended oft-forgotten acid junts.
10. Della Reese: It’s Magic
“You sigh, the song begins, you speak, I hear violins,” Reese sings in tandem with a frolicking piano chord. We should all be so lucky to know the feeling.
