Not to be an insufferable fucking hipster about it but there is a certain joy in finding hidden nuggets of musical brilliance, as yet unknown to the wider world. As I'm always in search of music to write to, in particular of the sort which is suitable for writing horror, I've come across some really innovative emerging artists I thought I'd share with you fine people.
Area of Effect, abbreviated A.O.E. was the name Spectral Spectacle initially went under. He's published a great deal more as Spectral Spectacle but to be perfectly honest, I don't care for much of it. The two tracks he released as A.O.E. appear to have been a fluke. An isolated flash of brilliance which he has not since repeated. I dearly hope he will study his initial offerings with a view to recapturing what made them great in his future efforts.
Crystal Clocks and Music Box shares the archaic, analog sounds of Bassed on a True Story, both very much cut from the same cloth. It evokes a feeling of antiquity, of mystery in a bygone era. Yet both eventually morph into experimental dubstep tracks to different degrees, fusing the old with the new in a synthesis that works beautifully for me. Your mileage may vary.
'Blank Pulse' is the debut album of Tiago D. Ferreira, an Argentinian artist I anticipate great things from. Drawing on inspirations including Silent Hill, Nine Inch Nails and John Carpenter, it evokes feelings of desperation. Of bleak hopelessness in some sort of abstract, barren hellscape. There's just so much to like here and all of it is of a consistently, rich, chocolatey quality. Do yourself a favor if you're at all into the macabre! Put on some headphones, turn off the lights and descend into the bitterly cold, alien depths of madness with 'Blank Pulse'.
Steve Roach arguably doesn't warrant inclusion in this article as he is much better known and more established than the other two, but nobody I personally know has heard of his work, so I am moved to spread awareness of it to the widest audience I can. Quiet, otherworldly and ethereal, the music of Steve Roach almost doesn't seem intended for humans.
It creates within me a feeling of slowly unfolding, crawling horror. Of quiet, soft, writhing discomfort which soon erupts into convolutions of stark terror. To listen to Steve Roach in a dark room, or better yet a sensory deprivation tank quickly becomes borderline unbearable. If there were going to be an official soundtrack to the works of H.R. Giger or Zdzisław Beksiński, Steve Roach is at least a very strong candidate.
This is to be the first of several musical features on my blog. I've showcased other types of artist before this, and while "hey check out some of my favorite bands" is a sort of empty and banal concept for an article, the underappreciated and novel nature of these artists (I hope) makes up for it. Feel free to experimentally pair some of these tracks with suitable short stories I've already posted. In many cases, that's what I was listening to when I wrote it.