Angelique Sanders / Whatever s Clever James Weber Jr. started writing the songs that would make up Keen Dreams debut album after reading Daisy Hildyard s
The Second Body. The book-length essay makes the case that humans have one corporeal body and one less tangible body, something more spectral. It is not, by all accounts, a book that reaches simple conclusions â bewilderment struggling towards expression, according to one review â which in itself might help to explain the dreamy and uncanny nature of Weber Jr. s songs on a record that borrows its name and structure from Hildyard s book.
ADVERTISEMENT Keen Dreams, completed by drummer Eric Martinez and bassist Shana Applewhite, make sprawling, dreamy pop music that echoes and maybe most importantly wanders around. The trio experiments with new age improvisation and the sort of spacey indie rock melodies mastered by bands like Spiritualized.
Sometimes it can feel that the music that comes out of the New Orleans scene is an art of polar extremes extreme jazz, extreme hip hop, extreme zydeco, and so on and so forth. And then your finger hits the pulse of something that just defies categorization, something that a lot of music in our city instantly demands.
When you hear the latest track from Delores Galore (of Sexy Dex and The Fresh fame) titled “Continue?,” their song calls to mind different genres and different musical epochs but their voice paired with slowed down hypnotic beats defies classification.
“I didn’t have a vocal influence for this song, but I do always look up to my father Michael Washington, Whitney Houston, Minnie Riperton, Janet Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Selena, and many many more at random times of creating,” says Galore, otherwise known as Gabrielle Washington. Something spooky and ethereal underlying the track calls to mind the haunting “Resolution” by the late and mystical Aaliyah or t
Synth Spotlight: A Chat with DJ faeriegothmother
WWOZ may be where jazz, blues and world-music-heads get their music fix, but WTUL based out of Tulane is where the prog and alternative cats get their tunes. Enter: DJ faeriegothmother who currently hosts bi-weekly Tuesday night showcases of alternative local music from 8-10 p.m. CST. And although their name is goth-centric, one never knows what might show up on the broadcast.
“My show sometimes takes a life of its own, and completely changes from what I envisioned going into recording it. Because most of this year our shows have been pre-recorded as access to the station is very limited, it’s really given me the chance to dive into a whole bunch of genres in a single show. One almost can’t expect anything in particular be’cause I’ll find a natural flow from Trip Hop legends Massive Attack, to country queen Loretta Lynn, and then around to something that’ll pull at your heartstrings like The Postal Service,” explains th