Philip Montoro, Reader music editor, is obsessed with . . .
Ahab, “Further South,” from The Giant This funereal German band’s website bears the slogan “Doomwards let us row,” and on their latest album, The Giant, their nautical obsession leads them to Antarctica—a voyage entangled with despair and madness. Beautiful, monstrous, and desolate, “Further South” magnifies private misery to the scale of an ancient saga: “Whither should I / Flee from myself / Further down / Further down / Further south.”
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Staff Benda Bilili, Bouger le Monde! For keeping private misery in proper perspective, though, I recommend this rumba-rooted Congolese band, formed by four homeless paraplegic guitarists who rehearsed in the half-abandoned Kinshasa zoo and filled out their rhythm section with street kids. Bouger le Monde! (“Shake the World!”) is Staff Benda Bilili‘s second album, and the success of the first has changed them—they now have or are building houses, and they’re opening a school for disabled people and homeless children—but they’re still playing some of the most buoyant and indomitable dance music I’ve ever heard.
Shub-Niggurath, Les Morts Vont Vite “The Black Goat of the Woods With a Thousand Young.” Music is ritual. Words are incantation. To open the vortex both must be flawless. And to enter it one must not seek to fill the void within but to embrace it, penetrating its center and willing it to eat away all else. Boo! Shub-Niggurath (1983-’95) were a French avant-rock ensemble, loosely connected to the Magma-inspired “Zeuhl” school of prog but with a sound much more grounded in fear and menace. Great to listen to while reading Lautreamont’s Chants de Maldoror or anything by H.P. Lovecraft.
Duran Duran, “The Chauffeur (Blue Silver)” Speaking of Eno, Duran Duran’s very Eno-esque track “The Chauffeur (Blue Silver)” was stuck on repeat in my truck last week. I despised this band when I was a kid because I (correctly) assumed it was music for 13-year-old girls, but it’s actually held up quite well—and that song in particular is really fucking cool. The harmonized flutes are a nice touch.
