music i think is neat

here's an incomprehensive list of songs that i have thoughts about. i'll keep this updated until i run out of songs to have thoughts about. these'll typically be jazz-adjacent but no guarantees. some of the links are spotify and some are youtube. sorry if you don't have spotify. also sorry if you don't have an adblocker.

dataplex by ryoji ikeda: really cool electronic album thing. first few tracks are mostly nice beeps and clicks and such, but there's much more to the album than that. i'd recommend listening to it all the way through -- that is, if you don't mind the Very High-Pitched Sounds that the composer makes use of. i'd describe a lot of it as "spiders-inside-of-brain-core." probably a hard sell for a lot of people. i feel like i just said like 7 bad things about the album it's really good i promise i love spiders inside of brain
ultratronics by ryoji ikeda: similar deal, probably more accessible than dataplex (i.e. fewer 15khz tones (they're still present though)). when i first listened to this album i thought it was a bit samey but i really enjoy it now. 01 is a banger, 04 is pretty fun, and 07 was an excellent sort of bait and switch -- starts with the usual harsh noise and vocal samples and then switches into some big beat(? i dont know how genres work) sort of thing. cool album
dizzy strange summer by Genevieve Artadi: real cool album don't have much to say about it. youtube playlist has music videos but is out of order
like a storm by KNOWER: really cool shifts in tone etc. i enjoy most music i hear that has Breakcore Drums or whatever but i haven't actually listened to anything in the genre besides like , clown core
body blow by Donny McCaslin: not very much for me to mention here, the song's pretty straightforward. good though
i want more from the same album: kind of sounds like casiopea but more Rhythmically Complex and Abrasive and whatever
acid mwan idle by Autechre: pretty simple electronic thing, but the rhythm's really neat. the drums have some weird tuplets going on (i think), and the repeating synth thingy isn't on consistent beats. makes the song feel, organic almost? i don't know
actually all of NTS Sessions 1-4 by Autechre (the set of albums the above song is from; 4 albums, each 2 hrs long) is really nice, especially when listening through it fully. develops really nicely etc.
e l s e q 1-5 by Autechre: essentially more of the same, but shorter and a bit less...sparse, i guess. i especially like "chimer 1-5-1" on elseq 2, much more melodic than everything else but has a neat rhythm going on and builds well.
m4 lema by Autechre: it feels like this one's a lot less "subtle" than the other songs by this artist i've posted, if that makes sense? like it's a lot clearer what they're going for. there's a neat contrast between the repeated very nice chords and the harsher sounds. that was terribly phrased. i should try "revising" things i write at some point
actually autechre seems to have never made a single bad album after listening to all of them, you should check them out. amber, tri repetae, untilted, quaristice, exai are probably the most "accessible" ones. my personal favorite is draft 7.30
baby's on fire by Brian Eno: sounds like a pretty simple song, but it seems like the cymbal is always rushing or dragging very slightly. adds a lot of flavor to the track.
thicc by Sungazer: seems to make use of *very* subtle swing, gradually increasing over the song from practically none to around a quintuplet swing. i think it sounds neat. (not all of these are going to be cool rhythm things i promise)
ahh by Athletic Progression: another quintuplet swing, this one's literally just two chords + a really solid drum track. simple and very nice.
by fire by Kneebody and Michael Mayo: generally very solid, keeps the same basic 4/4 rhythm but switches up the drums to confuse you. instrumentation is really good and builds really well.
the above song is a cover of a song by Hiatus Kaiyote, another really good artist. choose your weapon, the album that by fire is from, is pretty solid although nothing i really can think of to talk about.
something by Snarky Puppy and Lalah Hathaway: saw this one in the artist bio for snarky puppy. at one point the singer manages to sing two notes at once somehow, really impressive. the song's also just really solid throughout.
everyone by Sevish: microtonal thingy. i don't have perfect pitch so i can't say exactly what's cool about this one. could even be in 12TET but probably not becuase the artist mostly does microtonal things.
again the album that this is from is pretty neat. not every track is great but there's a lot of interesting things going on in many of the songs.
with a little help from my friends by Mary Halvorson: pretty sure it's a cover of the beatles song, makes really good use of out-of-tune playing. you can probably see a pattern in these recommendations by now.
wolf out by The Bad Plus: like many of their other songs, this one's pretty much just a one-measure loop with improvisation on top of it. this one gets a special mention because of the weird time signature.
valouria by The Bad Plus: very good
promises by KNOWER: takes a really boring song & puts better chords on it. mostly just dubstep but i really like how the chords are sort of hazy in the chorus, just kinda neat i guess. also has a funny youtube comment.
time//motion//wine by Adam Neely: i really like the extremely compressed drums here.
of the blue color of the sky by OK Go: this one's completely different from all the other ones. i just really like the compressed drums (again), generally good songs, development throughout the album, etc.
lcd soundsystem and sound of silver by LCD Soundsystem: again not really Weird Experimental Thing like most of the stuff on the list, but these two are really solid albums, i like pretty much all of the songs on them. most of the songs develop really slowly which i like. don't know.
dance yrself clean and i can change by LCD Soundsystem: i didn't really like lcd soundsystem's third album as much but these two tracks are Really Good. i think i can change was the first track i heard by them.
the long goodbye by LCD Soundsystem: this is a live recording of what was supposed to be their last concert before the band broke up, although they reformed a while later. it's pretty good.
get innocuous! by LCD Soundsystem: this one sounds like talking heads. probably because james murphy really liked talking heads.
o.f.y.c. showcase by The Fall: this one sounds like lcd soundsystem. probably because james murphy took inspiration from the fall. the fall are pretty good on their own as well.
mint jams by Casiopea: don't have much to say. very nice japanese jazz fusion thing.
best live selections groove&passion by Casiopea: same thing here. i especially like the track fightman where there's a very long section where each member of the band (and another band! this was a collaboration i think) takes turns playing very short solo sections, gradually devlolving into chaos. someone plays smoke on the water for some reason. universe is long as hell but there's a lot of interesting stuff going on there. has like movements and things.
xnor xnor xnor by Frums: this one's a much less Interesting electronic piece than e.g. autechre, but there are some cool things going on. each "movement" of the piece is named after a day of the week for some reason. probably just an excuse to have cool morse code thing.
3 by tricot: fun little math rock album. it's probably called 3 because it's their third album (after the albums T H E and A N D). i particularly like the sixth and seventh songs (Pork Side and Pork Ginger; they're more two parts of the same song) which manage to stay interesting despite the relative absence of Cool Time Signatures, but the album is solid throughout.
上出来 by tricot: another album, some of the songs (いない, 餌にもなれない) are a lot more...aggressive? than the things in 3. much more varied sound i guess. fairly consistent quality throughout
不出来 by tricot: false advertising, i liked this one more than 上出来. some of the tracks (模造紙ヒデキちゃん, アンドロイド, 不出来) are a lot more...noisy? than the songs in 上出来. even more variance in sound. fairly consistent quality throughout
おちゃんせんすぅす by tricot: more cool chords and cool time signature. this time the lyrics are just おちゃんせんすぅす a bunch of times.
if you highlight the three bullet points above this one you see that for 上出来 and 不出来 the highlight doesn't have any gaps in it but it does for おちゃんせんすぅす. i wonder why that is. seems like if two lines in a row have japanese text the highlights won't work well, except that that's the case for this bullet point but the thing doesn't happen. wonder why that is.
f it up (live sesh) by Louis Cole: excellent
thinking (live sesh) by Louis Cole: excellent
my buick (live sesh) by Louis Cole: excellent
i'm the president by KNOWER: excellent
the abyss by KNOWER: excellent
crash the car by KNOWER: what i'm trying to say is that you should pay these guys elevenish dollars if you can afford it
not you anymore by Dorian Concept: very minimal, sort of loose rhythm/instrumentation that gives it flavor. the music video is pretty interesting (epilepsy warning probably)
two more musics by the same person.
vulfpeck live at madison square garden: this one's an entire concert film. the band managed to sell out madison square garden without a manager. i really liked the drum solo around 17:53 (the song starts at 15:42).
flim cover by Domi and JD Beck: incredibly impressive drumming, really close to the drumming on the original track. there's also a solo in the middle of it now.
cavalcade by black midi: i don't know how to describe this one
signal from the noise by BADBADNOTGOOD: pretty long song, interesting texture and development throughout. i wish i knew anything about music so i could say things about music on the page on my site where i attempt to say things about music