Back in Y2K GusGus totally ruled my world: This Is Normal and Attention were dark, sweet, twisted, sexy, druggy, ecstatic dance diaries of urban pleasure and pain. They mostly fell of my radar as the century moved on, although I do remember playing “Add This Song” as my takeoff song on a plane in ‘09, dodging a stewardess monitoring the phones off during takeoff rule. They came back roaring this year, with badass jams “Higher,” “Stay the Ride,” and especially “Simple Tuesday,” which hit a nerve with its account of a reeling consciousness in the midst of drab normality, and its soaring chorus of “When will I decide / Not to hide.”
Maltese electronic artist Joon released a gleaming, dreamy disco bauble called “Watch the Sky” that reminded me of Glass Candy at their peak.
And Pink Siifu sprawled out in slurred contentment across the stoned and cozy R&B of “Smile (wit yo Gold).”
Ty Segall is prolific and consistent to the point that it’s hard to get worked up about a new release, but I didn’t not drop Harmonizer into my iTunes rotation, and of course his monster truck pussycat in heat bangers ended up slamming into all my pleasure centers in that old familiar way. So yeah, we’re still a thing.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard literally toss out albums at the rate of two or three a year. They have hovered on the margins of my awareness, something about their name making me skeptical, but their particular brand of prog that is also a loving caricature of prog was unstoppable and undeniable on Butterfly 3000. Where it fits in their mountainous back catalog is something I honestly don’t know, but I am playing the delightful, nearly 11 minute “Crumbling Castle” from the Polygondwanaland album as we speak and I can report that Butterfly 3000 is, for better or worse, lighter and poppier and equally joy-giving. Check out the mind-melting “Dreams” video by Jamie Wolfe.