Kevin Warwick, Reader associate editor
Protomartyr, “Ypsilanti” What’s not to love about Detroit’s Protomartyr? Nihilistic to their core—their 2012 debut is titled No Passion All Technique—they’re fronted by Joe Casey, a slurring character who dresses like a middle-aged, out-of-work accountant, hand in pocket like he’s barely scrounging for a nickel to tip the shoe-shine kid. “Ypsilanti” is a true punk single, with Casey bouncing his slovenly Mark E. Smith-style vocals along with the chorus’s pulsing beat and the casually driving guitar. At points he’s almost animated, before settling back into his lazy groove of not giving two shits.
Matt Clark,Tic Tac Totally Records founder
Pierre Raph’s mysterious genius All of the soundtracks by the mysterious Pierre Raph connect with me, but especially the subtly detuned, sparse strokes of pure ennui he sends floating through the baroque graveyards of Jean Rollin’s allegory of broken love, La Rose de Fer. Raph worked closely within Rollin’s very tight circle of collaborators during his most prolific burst in the early 70s, scoring much of both of their best-known work, including Les Démoniaques and Requiem for a Vampire, before the man seems to have vanished.
Grimes‘s “Oblivion” video I only know about this because my wife is much hipper than me and keeps up with current music. I haven’t liked other stuff I’ve seen by her as much, but I thought this video was pretty neat. I love how easy it is to make young men look like little children just by videotaping them doing their things. It turns the kind of standard dude-with-a-bunch-of-chicks-in-his-video archetype on its head. Seems like there was a good bit of pirate video making by her as well, which is cool. And the track is pretty decent, if a bit repetitive.
