A live session for these guys showed up on my YouTube recommendations. Watched it in spite of their name and love the guitar-heavy post rock. And they're playing ArcTanGent 🎉

I am looking forward to this record a lot. This track is so heavy.

Jordan has won the ETID breakup (yes every breakup is a competition; I will not be taking questions at this time). I want to love Many Eyes because Keith has my favourite voice in heavy music but I just don't. I need my riffs.

This is shaping up to be a monster of a record.

I love Tiny Desk. It almost doesn't matter if it's an artist you're into. Everyone has their own interpretation of the format and most do something memorable with it. I even enjoyed Sting and Shaggy's collaboration and I don't have any particular interest in either of them.

Somehow I got chatting to a school mum about music and festivals at the easter ceremony at Tabitha's school and she was into house music. That's not something I'm terribly conversant in, but I can go to Skrillex, Pendulum (a DJ set I saw about twenty years ago 🤫) and Fred again (I've seen his Boiler Room set so I'm something of an expert) and it served me pretty well. Nice to connect with new people about music.

I told her I was usually into pretty heavy music that a lot of people find quite unpleasant, but she asked for a recommendation nonetheless. I recommended Every Time I Die because that's who I recommend to everyone. They're heavy but accessible and they've got a good vibe and an amazing sense of humour. I wonder if she listened to them.

Anyway this Fred again... set is quite special, in my opinion. I'd almost categorise it as post-electronic. Live sampling and basically writing songs on the bounce is an absolutely incredible skill that I feel is only available to people who live, breathe, and think in music. Obviously it's rehearsed, but writing a song whilst you invent instruments in front of a room full of people will never not impress me. It reminds me a lot of this J-E-T-S video where they're cutting samples up live. An enviable skill.

I did say these guys were amazing live. It's a live session but close enough.

I've said it before but Bo Burnham is an absolute loss to the music industry. His ability to write a vocal melody is unparalleled even in music, let alone musical comedy. And his live production on Make Happy is completely insane. I can't imagine what it'd have been like to be there for this recording. It's an absolutely huge end to an already incredible show. I wish I could've been there.

Watch Inside. It's the perfect time capsule for COVID, and the songs are incredible. Even the outtakes are better than the next-best musical comedy.

When it cuts to Taylor Swift standing and singing, that's where you've got me on the verge of tears. This song is beautiful and sad, and having the recognition of everyone in the room including the biggest star in the world right now; it just gets me teary y'know.

I love how Luke's constantly got his eyes on Tracy - he's following her, and making sure not to step on her. His voice is a perfect complement to hers (if a little high in the mix, but I'll allow it).

I hope this gets a proper recording that I can buy.

I love Hippotraktor and they're absolutely amazing live. Belgium, man; I keep telling you. That's where it's going on. Very happy that there's a new record this year.

In the right mood, there's nothing I like more than deathcore and I love ten56.'s take on it. It's so unnecessarily heavy.

I love clipping, and Tipsy was huge when I was going to clubs (don't ask how long ago that was; I shan't answer). I'm still used to the way the radio edit sounds but I'm guessing that's about to change.

I was a huge fan of Kittie in my teens. So glad they're back making music again, and they signed to Sumerian which I love.

Some abrasive vocals for your Friday afternoon. I love this sort of thing.

Aesop Rock is usually as reliable as he is eloquent, but I haven't been as into his releases since The Impossible Kid.

I've been enjoying ITS a lot - it's a solid combination of beats, word-play and entertaining stories, which is what I want from an Aesop Rock record.

This is a perfect example of why you should revisit music that you didn't enjoy first time. Dan recommended Future Islands to me ages ago and, for some reason, they live with Cursive in the Things That Are Associated department of my brain. Probably because Dan likes Cursive as well but I'm sure they were on the same label at some point or something.

I digress.

Future Islands make such an infectious brand of sad pop music for men my age, with my life experiences. They're like Bleachers or The Smiths, but for me. I like Bleachers and The Smiths, but I've never really identified with them in the way that I now do with Future Islands. Not bad for something that I really did not like five years ago. And, amusingly, Dan doesn't really like them any more either.

FFO: sad introspection, synths, dad caps and weird dancing

Love Audiotree and love Johnny Booth. Hope the latter makes it over to the UK some day.