You never know what you’re going to get, in this maddening world where the digital and objective physical places in time intersect, like portals as doorways into other minds and experiences.
This is a quick story about music I love, 3 bands specifically… and how I found out about them in the most bizarre of ways.
AUGUST 2014 – Jai Paul
I am dead inside. Broken. Lonely. Empty routines litter the hallway, and I try to cope with the grief of my 14 1/2 year old best friend and pooch passing on, having shuffled the mortal coil in a painfully quick and unexpected way. We lost a few more years with a friend in a way we did not expect, and it hit us quite hard.
An odd claim to truth is that an Xbox present, I had received for my birthday at the tender age of 37, had not been set up because I couldn’t imagine becoming a gamer. But, in a desperate need for distraction that didn’t come with a glass bottle, I hooked up the system, and started by foray into Grand Theft Auto 5, which was basically a few days of falling off overpasses and attempting to understand the draw of the game. Having found my way to a few cars, I found my way to a few treats, and one of those were the bevvy of radio station options within the GTAV universe. I liked many, like FlyLo FM, but it wasn’t until I found Radio Mirror Park that I sort of stopped dead in my tracks.
Sonically appearing after a DJ’s promo lead in, this hazy, distorted synth starts pounding towards me, and this electro-blues vibe fills the headset, and it’s one of those moments… everything stopped.
I was listening to Jai Paul, a little known artist who had moved the needle significantly in 2010 with BTSTU, and then 2012’s Jasmine. I was about a year after his album leaked, so as I listened, I searched a mystical world of intrigue and confusion, finger pointing and modern woes in relation to album drops, album leaks, label and artist calamity, and the like. Jai Paul has changed my life, and like early to mid 90s Trip-Hop, completely altered the direction and flow of my river rapids of interest in aural delights. To think a video game, only played for the un-introspective and lazy deadening of grief, would help me stumble upon a sound that split me open and pointed me in a direction of new, and unknown, wonders. Thank you video game thingy. I miss you Pavlov. And his passing made a connection. I love you Pavlov.
Jai Paul – Jasmine
OCTOBER 2017 – Khruangbin
On October 17th, 2017, I was cruising Reddit, and saw this post….. which was about a chilly calf that was born during a far too cold moment in time, and the farmer had to heat up the little thing in his hot tub, and it created an adorable little eyebleach post, which can be found here. Eyebleach, along with the bleach for the ruined hot tub of cow placenta and diarrhea. Hey, it’s nature.
So this picture:
Led me to a point in that thread, where someone randomly posted a song that came to their mind….
“A Calf Born in Winter” read the eager commentator’s words, followed by an odd sounding name “Khruangbin”.
Since then, I’ve bought absolutely everything they have released. I’ve seen them about four or five times. A Calf Born in Winter is still one of their most mellow tracks, and I was lucky enough to find the 7″ for dirt cheap at the time. Since then it’s ballooned a bit (just checked, and my spending $20 on a 45rpm is now $200, and no one will sell them because it is a beautiful song that real fans covet… can’t flip when they ain’t no flippers).. but a lovely validation of their talent.
Khruangbin – A Calf Born in Winter
And they’ve changed my life for the better….. all from a throwaway comment on a randomly short-timed / short-lived reddit post. Timing is everything, and my friends, time was my gentle acquaintance that day. It’s not always so.
OCTOBER 2018 – Sofi Tukker
I am cruising youtube looking at “The Ocho” sports network, as one is prone to do. What’s better than weird sports, and what’s better than not getting a wrench thrown at your head.
In that case, it’s a new and wonderfully 5th element sport of solo freestyle sky dancing, and young Ms. Poh’s winning routine was unbelievable, fascinating, jaw dropping and bizarre. In that, I was transfixed, hearing nothing but the beat… this uptempo, charming and fun little electro-pop track that just spoke to a different time and energy, a music that was both fun and interesting. As I get seasick looking at the performance, I am immediately opening tabs to understand the band that is playing, and hear more music. What’s more, it was months before I understood it to be 2 people, Sofi, and Tukker, vs one woman named Sofi Tukker…. but that’s all how content is slapped across your face nowadays. I thought Jai Paul’s name was “Jie”, not pronounced “Jay”.
Hey… well… live and learn. And enjoy some great beats. Here’s the tracks embedded, so you don’t have to link hunt above. Cheers to all of you, and enjoy!Sofi Tukker – Awoo