Anti Heaven: So accurate it hurts

 I have a new music obsession that I can't seem to quit. It's one random song from a random album from some random guy.

I don't know what brought it on, maybe I've been having too many happy thoughts lately that I needed to be reminded of what hopeful melancholy sounds like. This is the song. 

It's called Anti Heaven but before I get into the song I'm gonna talk a bit about the man behind it. 

Ben Shirken or as I came across him, Beshken, is an indie-electronic music producer and instrumentalist based in New York. After winning me over with his 2021 EP Tendryl, and in particular, Like You Do, I listened to more of his stuff and found that he's capable of making these deep soundscapes that wave you away for a while. Going for fast-paced high-hat usually and faded-off into the distance vocals, the whole thing just screams of spending a relaxed evening in a trance. 

And even though that EP is quite strictly electronic music, the artist has a habit of surprising you with each new single or album. His music reminds us of jamming jazz rhythms and quirky piano melodies, at times he brings his indie voice closer to the spotlight and uses more organic sounds that can ground the track into the psychedelic indie genre. 

He's like smoke tendrils and moving in and out of your ears. His 2019 single Cursed particularly captures the experience and the song (Focus On) that follows it on the album (Aisle of Psalm) vibes in the exact same fashion. 

His latest release is the 2023 EP Pressure Bump. On there he takes us to darker sounds but you can still feel his essence. He gives it his absolute all on the final track Mother. 

Now Anti Heaven. It's part of the 2022 album Pantomime which has other great tunes on it such as Self Defense, Social Suicide and The Ocean, El Diablo just to name a few. The song feels like the soundtrack to a moment of reflection. It feels like standing on top of a hill over the sprawling city in a cold sunrise. The city lamps are still on but the sun already made the sky lighter. The drums come in and sound like total chaos, but there's a meaning to each and every one of the beats. There's a specific feeling behind the speed of them and the harsh delivery at times. At the same time, a deep piano melody takes you along for the ride and that leads our vocalist into the first first to take off and get us to the heart of the song. It reminds me of the Weird Fishes/Arpeggi conundrum that we find in Radiohead's In Rainbows (2007 only fuller. 

I can't wait to be stuck in a skyscraper hotel room in Chicago at night looking into other people's windows and wondering the meaning of life itself. Again. Next week I'm gonna be feeling like a side character in The Bear having their little moment thanks to this song. 

I'll leave you with a quote from Beshken: "Finding excitement in the abstraction of human existence allows for the flow of endless ideas."

Music is in its hot summer era

What is it about summer that everything just screams and bursts with colour and taste? The sounds coming out of my headphones lately certainly are keeping to the style of the season and everything sounds a lot richer and rounded.

Loud and deep, reaching into the pit of my stomach and swirling me around as if high on daylight, heat and music. This is not specific to one genre, one artist, one mood. It's how the medium feels right now. Is that just me?
I'm using this entry to clean my monthly list just so I don't have a stupendous mental breakdown at the end of the month and I have to delete 50 songs because they don't fit. Three silly songs that I will be keeping in.

So, what's been getting me all hot and bothered lately? Aside from life itself:

1. Trey Wxxds - HERE FOR A MOMENT (Album)

Mystery rapper Trey Wxxds released an album last week and against all odds, it's surprisingly closing ranks and becoming one of my favourites this 2024. Highly recommended is the Robinson Park (Freestyle) at the start of the album that even has a little snippet of Alec Guinness' Obi-Wan sampled. It has an admirable flow and bottled female soul backing vocals towards the end that give it a heart. It's got a classic beat that feels light 90s. I'll also give a solid mention to Been Here Before which is just weird and feels more like an interlude than a full song. It's nostalgic and druggy, two big favourites of mine, but particularly one of the artist's strong points. I'll also recommend These Days for beachy afrobeats on the instrumental. It's summer after all.

2. MRD - Let Her Go (2023)

If techno is the natural progression of the mainstream use of the synth, MRD's Let Her Go is a step in between. It's as if someone went full techno and then decided to scale it back one notch. As a result you get a dark and fast techno album Løvehjerte (2023) with postpunk electronic drum arrangements and full gorgeous melodies with simulated guitars and Dave-Gahan-sounding vocals. In one of my moments of rest at the gym, Midsommar, in collaboration with Narciss came on and I immediately felt hooked. After looking into the album a little bit, Let Her Go is a clear favourite. 

3. James Blake, Lil Yachty - Bad Cameo (2024)

If I was given a choice of artists that I would have loved to see collaborate, the combo James Blake and Lil Yachty would have been right at the top. After both released two albums in 2023 that absolutely blew me away, I can't imagine anything more harmful to my emotions. The album definitely feels as if Lil Yachty is swimming in an ocean of Blake. There is enough of his signature sound and signature lyrics to give him the spotlight many times but the sign-off is that unique James Blake production sound. Already hitting it off with Save The Savior I was shaking my head and practically begging for mercy. If looking into the gaping hole of destiny had a sound, it would be this. Strong contender for my favourite track of the album also was Run Away From The Rabbit which has an incomprehensible ending. As in I cannot wrap my head around the magnificence of it. Missing Man also made the list for like a minute but on the second listen I knew that I was kidding myself. Clearly, the best song is Bad Cameo. It feels like getting lost between two very different dreams. Lil Yachty's autotune echoes in the ribcage while Blake tickles your spine on the keys. Just when you think it's already pretty good and could leave it at that, Lil Yachty's autotune is almost gone making him human again "In due time, we'll be fine" and it's Blake's artificial falsetto that brings the robot back in "Don't you want to see the morning?". And right there is where I cried. I continued to cry but "Don't lead me down a dark path" just felt like still getting punched when you've lost consciousness. There really is no need. You're a clear champion mate.