HYLI Vol XXIV: IDLES and Igorrr
Andy sends Patrick some absolutely wacky shit that's tough to pin down and Patrick sends Andy everyone's favorite British post-punk band
A sincere thank you to new and old subscribers of this newsletter. I’m glad people are finding at least some enjoyment out of it and hope it brings a bit of happiness to our otherwise depressing news cycle. I think Pat and I would continue to do this even if zero people read it, but it is nice to see people consuming it. If you ever want to touch base with us directly you can find us on twitter @expertfrowner and @DrewMEB. Genuinely, thank you.
In other news, police in Texas still suck ass, the Orlando Magic have a first overall draft pick (as a direct result of sucking ass), the Tampa Bay Lightning are down 2-1 in the Stanley Cup Finals (that sucks ass) (Patrick: I’m actually fine with this), and the Golden State Warriors won another NBA title (beating the Celtics, which definitely does NOT suck ass). Anyway, we like sports. Here is some music chatter.
IDLES - CRAWLER
Patrick: So, Idles. Y’all really like to talk hot shit about this band because, what, they’re very vocal about having (mostly) good politics? I swear, sometimes y’all just look for a reason to hate every single band that has ever existed.
Admittedly, the lyrics can be corny, at times (Andy: I have decided that lyrics don’t matter anymore to me so bring it on). Especially on the prior album, 2020’s Ultra Mono, with lyrics about Riot Grrrl legends grabbing Donald Trump by the, uh, another word for female genitalia (yeah, maybe y’all were right about that one lol).
Anyways, I think what I like most about this band is the energy. Frontman Joe Talbot has one of my favorite deliveries in music right now. Post-punk tends to either have a) extremely droll monotonous vocalists like Dry Cleaning’s Florence Shaw, that I love or b) yelling dorks foaming at the mouth like Talbot, who I also love. But oftentimes, it doesn’t seem like the energy of the vocalist is matched by the instrumental intensity. And, man, do Lee Kiernan and Mark Bowen bring it with the guitars. There are riffs for days. I absolutely love “Car Crash.” Great lifting music. Do y’all go to the gym? Maybe you would like Idles a bit more if you did. This is dumb. The band is fun. Hope You Like It.
Andy: The Wikipedia image for Idles is one of the most confusing band photos I’ve ever seen. There is a pop-punk drummer, guitarist 1 is in a bathing suit, guitarist 2 is from a 2009 emo band, the bassist just got off of work in business attire and the vocalist is wearing a cheetah print top. I have literally no idea what this is going to sound like. The heck.
This record rules. I love this post-punk (thanks Pat) (Patrick: you’re welcome) minimal/maximalist sound. I have to imagine this band is a blast to see live. I bet it is loud as shit. A bunch of semi-sludgy riffs with an angry British guy yelling at me. Sounds great. I don’t really want to do a song by song breakdown but I had a real fun time with this record. I guess a lot of people don’t like this record for…reasons (Patrick: I don’t want to get into it lol)? I don’t have any back catalog to compare it to but I felt like it was quite fun. If I had heard this record a decade ago I’d have been VERY about it. I’ll keep this in the library and probably check out the other records. I Liked It.
Igorrr - Savage Sinusoid
Andy: Last week Pat wrote a very personal post and our little newsletter had one of its better weeks. Piggybacking off of that I picked one of the least accessible records that will show up on this newsletter ever. Great job! I made a promise to myself and everyone that I would not pick a black metal album and, as much of a struggle as it was, I succeeded. Igorrr is a… solo project… that plays… some sort of metal adjacent… music? Bandcamp has them simply tagged as “Alternative” which is a weak cop-out, while Wiki says they are “black metal, baroque music, breakcore, and trip-hop.” They’ve been dubbed “baroque-core” by the internet because of mastermind Gautier Serre’s classical baroque training (Patrick: I’m always talking to my family and loved ones about “baroque-core”).
"I just want to make the music I love, without asking myself if it’s gonna be too complex or too far from what people like. I want to make the music which has sense to me, with no restrictions, like a big party with metalheads, electronics nerds, classical and baroque-heads and gypsy violinists getting drunk and joining together to bring the best of every genre. — Gautier Serre.”
This is the least “metal” album I’ve picked so far but it’s still very metal. I went with a bit of a cop-out and picked Savage Sinusoid over Spirituality and Distortion purely because of the runtime (also the excellent first track on SS). I’m sure I already know the answer to what Pat thinks and this is probably an exercise in friendship but Hope You Like It!
Patrick: Andy really likes to talk like he knows me. He does not know shit (Andy: You are literally impossible to pin down). Igorrr fucking rocks. This is like some metal dork really loving Moulin Rouge and making a, dare I say, twisted version of it. I don’t know why, as it occasionally feels hard to call this music, but I really love it.
*Very SNL Stefon voice* This one has everything. The wiki page for the album has an insane amount of credits. Dude plays a guitar, bass and drums on this album. Yawn. That’s for normies. He also plays a piano and sax. You have my attention a bit but so does Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and you need to shake it up a bit. Uhhh there is also accordion, harpsichord, mandolin and sitar. A little wacky! …… There are “8-bit sounds” and ………… “chicken” credited on this album. What the fuck bro? The 8-bit sounds are very obvious - the dude basically interjects these metal songs with Super Nintendo score bits. It’s cool. I’ve heard Horse, the Band try it before but it’s still a rad element of Savage Sinusoid. I … have no clue what “chicken” is referring to. I don’t remember the sound of a chicken (Andy: real fans know its at 2:56 in Houmous). To my knowledge, chickens do not have keys or strings to be played (Andy: he clucks). Perhaps we can get PETA on this (Andy: Serre is a super interesting dude. This album has no real lyrics. They just sotra yell whatever they want. He also does some crazy things to get sounds like setting an amp on fire and playing a guitar made of like…trash).
I’m being a cheeky twat (sorry, still listening to Idles), but, again, I cannot recommend Igorrr enough. This is the weirdest shit I’ve ever heard and it made me grin the whole time (Andy: this makes me happy). Thank you so much to my friend Andy who doesn’t know me at all and is a dweeb.