Max's Music Mondays with Fantasy Land & Harry Edohoukwa + a Wrapped Graph
you won't believe it - these songs are nuts
Welcome to Max’s Music Mondays. My ~music discovery newsletter~ where I get too excited about songs I love. I hope you love them too. If you do, you can follow along on spotify and please be sure to absolute smash that dang subscribe button! tysm :) Your paid subscriptions go towards supporting the artists you read about here too!! That’s right(!!), the artists who made This Weeks Songs are getting paid!! <3
Home stretch into 2024! I’ve spent a lot of my free time thinking about this newsletter. What it is, how it’s grown, what I want it to be, and how to get there. When you start thinking of time in the micro, this week to week grind, the work feels so intense, the change and growth so small. But taking the time to see time as the big thing it is, you can see how much has changed over this year alone.
Total subscribers are up some 34% since the start of the year, and I’ve paid out almost $1300 to artists I love this year thanks to the paid subscribers. That’s so fucked I am freaking out just typing it. Thank y’all so so much.
Next year is an exciting one for me - a lot of big plans and hopes to continue to grow this into the platform I know it can be.
If you’re willing and able, the generosity to support me through subscriptions (most of which goes right back to the artists anyways) means SO SO much. So please consider signing up for an annual subscription :)
But there’s still more to enjoy this year. Two nuts songs today. More subscriber exclusive writing on Friday. And the Maxies hehehe a lot of joy left.
Cheers :)
Fantasy Land - Red Car Pet
LMAO!!!!! This shit is so damn good.
For me, as I’ve probably said one literal million times, the harder and deeper the search, the more rewarding the find. Lately, I’ve felt in a bit of a rut, discovery-wise. It takes time, it takes focus, and a little bit of creativity. But when I’m in that rut, the energy to break out of it builds and builds and last week I went on a TEAR. I went for a damn dive down some bandcamp rabbit holes, jumping from record to record, scrolling through the supporters, digging through their collections, finding something interesting, and repeating from there. Often fruitless and frowned upon by doctors, this is not a reliable method. But then I found Fantasy Land and my goodness.
The record lives on GLARC’s Bandcamp -
The kind of thing that is so bizarre and purposefully inaccessible, it means there has to be good music within. And this is exactly that.
Opening with a sick groove, some vocals sampled and repeated like a human hi hat, gives the whole song a wtf-vibe from the first moment. As the beat settles and our first vocalist slides in, the sampled voices slide deeper into the mix, now sitting as a bass. Like if the folks who made the rugrats theme got really into J Dilla and Dirty Projectors and Jockstrap. This first section fires off with a soaring melody. The singer feels so surreal here - her melody feels new and novel, with bits on the edges that seem to be manipulated a little more. Pitched up and down here, sampled and stuttered there. It’s electric and exciting.
As the moment continues, it opens up wider and wider. Bigger kicks, some harsh fx, and not much else. It’s unsettling and beautiful. It feels due for a change as those piano chords climb and hand the mic off to a new singer. Riding this sparse arrangement forward, big reverby vocals and rolling kicks carry through the minute mark. More drums joining, piano raining down, that weird and surprising vocoder chord tacked on as they finish the section around 1:14. All the elements coming back and folding in together. Some loose piano taking center stage over this verse(?), their accent coming through on the there’s no way out. Feeling so human and endearing which goes a long way with production this otherwise-alien. Some inane harmonies come shrieking in at 1:47 - this song never letting your attention drift.
The arena rock slapped bass and drum fill drop out of the sky, big and gnarly and incredibly effective. RHCP eat ur heart out. Passing the mic back to the other singer again, and more moments to admire. Had a very nice day returns, this piano spiraling down as we’ve heard a few times now, but instead of culminating with a smashing-your-hand-on-the-keys stab, it lands with two moving chords. Chords that say “yeah we’re good musicians and we know what we’re doing and the other times we made it sound crazy on purpose” to which I nod my head and say Mhm yes, I had a feeling!! *stroking my beard*.
These two sections throw back and forth, both such nice complements. The next section A (if you will) seems to start in outer space. The drums bringing us back to earth. Stripping back to just vocals and keys, it’s really cool.
This next section is the one that I had BLASTING in the car. The song winning me over more and more as it goes, that adlib at 3:11 my exact and true reaction. Loving every bit and by this point screaming along, VERY NICE DAY. We get that unexpected harmony on Have a liiiiiiife that I adore. Rolling through another section of the band jamming, before the piano dances us home. What a delightful and unique song. The album is crazy, with lush ambient soundscapes and Lex Luger rise fx straight out of my 2012 ripped copy of fruity loops. It’s a trip and fun one to be on.
Follow Fantasy Land on IG / Spotify
Harry Edohoukwa - FOUND ME
It feels good to press play, hear one second of music, and sit back with a long sigh, knowing you’re in good hands for the next couple minutes. Edohoukwa instantly has me at ease, a smile on my face, a summer sunset of a song.
Over fantastic drums and a bounding guitar, Edohoukwa slides right in, so madly in love. I love his confidence early on - this “If she don’t hit me back, obviously the Gods need her” line so beautiful. They’re meant to be together so if anything gets in the way, it MUST be bigger than them. From there wasting no time offering to steal from his mom, a line so sweet and endearing. Ya he’s willing to do something very naughty actually, but in its framing making it clear that it’s only bad because he loves his mom a lot <3
The production is outstanding, these bouncing background vocals, layers and layers of Harry giving this song SO much character. Just feels so lush and full but not overdone one bit. We hit the chorus, a wonderfully mixed moment, with more and more vocals supporting us. I’m glad Edohoukwa has the support because man he was in LOVE love, like ruin your life type stuff here. Promises made that must not have been kept, but Edohoukwa chasing them down hoping it might all still be true.
The bass walking, the guitar plucked, another verse begins. He breaks the mold for this one. A new flow unafraid to dance around a bit more. A totally different rhythm that pushes and pulls this easy steady groove and wakes the whole song up a little.
You shoulda left me where you found me. Wishing none of it ever happened. As the band breaks, I can’t help but sing along. Not that I’m feeling this pain myself, but I can see it and hear it in Harry and they seem so sweet I just wanna be there for them. Especially as every thing but the acoustic dissipates, a final few repetitions that feel so earnest. My heart breaks!! Damn this one is so good, y’all better listen!!!
Follow Harry Eodhoukwa on IG / Spotify
SPOTTY WRAPPED PART ONE!
Folks! I love music! I know it, you know it, and those nosey little scoundrels at Spotify know it too.
It was really interesting to break down my top 100 songs and watch some categories form naturally. I’m gonna be back Friday for a little snippet on a theme that interested me the most, and I wanna dig more into.
But for now, here were the categories of my top 100 songs:
I paid some mathematicians to throw this together. A bit of everything but a pretty sound representation of who I am as a listener and music fan. One thing you might find interesting is that the number of songs in each category EXACTLY matches the % of the pie. I’m not Mr. QuadraticFormula or anything, but that is wild!
Sorry. Anyways, mostly it’s new releases from artists I love. Then artists I discovered and instantly became obsessed with (most you’ve heard or read here already). There’s bigger artists who I’m just now going ‘oh shit i get it’ and my personal AOTY candidates getting a few songs in there each. Plus the I <3 MB section.
You’ll never believe it but I actually think the entire list is perfect and every song is so damn good. Please toss it on shuffle and enjoy!!!!!!!! <3 Again - back Friday for some personal investigation.
Big love to you and yours,
Max