What I've Been Listening to: May 2024

 6th June 2024, 3:00 p.m.

May's Topster

Lately, as a result of being in the studio more to prepare for the end-of-year submissions, I've taken more to the idea of having music on in the background while working. My friends and I would enter the studio to silence for roughly 10-hour work days daily, and frankly, we had gotten quite sick of the quiet. 

We'd log into the desktop computer that's connected to the sound system at the front of the classroom and just take turns putting on songs. 

As a result, I listened to a lot of new music in May, in the studio and on the commute to Manchester and back. I listened to techno, reggae, electro, rock, folk, shoegaze

STANDOUTS AND THOUGHTS 

artist: Oasis 

I stumbled quite by chance onto Live Forever again while working in the studio. I had listened to Definitely Maybe in the past, but for some reason it only really clicked for me this May. I've never really been one to look into lyrics when listening to music, yet for the first time the words registered. There's an air of hopefulness in the cool exterior, and it dug itself into me; I listened to it over and over on the train rides from Liverpool to Manchester and back, in the sunny 6am sun and the fading 9pm light. There was one rainy night when I got soaked on the way back from the station, but I didn't care: this song was blaring in my ears and I felt like I could live forever.

PUNCH NOTES:

mellow music

I have been listening to a lot of mellow music (folk, shoegaze, stuff in that vein) in recent months; slowdive, cotton jones, alex g, fog lake, big thief etc. I'm not sure what part of myself is charmed by it, but it just is. I took a walk in early May to Everton Park, just listening to the music while the wind blew through the grass and as the sun set.

IDM and ambient techno

I've been a fan of Aphex Twin for quite a while now, but I'm now looking more into Squarepusher's and u-ziq's stuff as well. I got a Venetian Snares CD for only 4 pounds from the Vinyl Exchange on Oldham street back in January. Hoping to get a CD player setup, am convinced CDs will have a second boom just like how vinyls did (plus I just love CDs and jewel cases)

reggae

One of my classmates has a boyfriend who comes into the studio to work with her, and he had also added some music to the queue; songs like Dennis Brown's Things in Life, and Darling by Mo'Kalamity. I had heard Things in Life in Chungking Express, but had never in its entirety. The other songs within the playlist he had queued had such a smooth, relaxing flow to them. I added them to my playlist as well after listening.

soundcloud rap

Through working with Kenneth (of beansclub fame haha), I've inadvertently become more aware of artists like Hi-Cee and nettspend and the sounds that surround that scene. I enjoy it a lot, really. 

I used to plan out what I'd listen to next, but I've decided to just listen to things organically now. Music is a reprieve from the madness of the everyday, so treating it like an assignment seems counter-intuitive now.

Anyways, here are the tracks I think were most of note during May: