“It’s just music isn’t it? The good, the bad, the soul shrivellingly shite,” our blog brother Andy Von Pip from The Von Pip Musical Express recently tweeted us in a discussion on genres. He’s right of course, but where every tune and band lies on that spectrum is THE BIG DEBATE. Some of us will define the good by a certain type of sound or noise, others by the melody or lack of it or by something which we’re familiar with or something that we’re not. One man’s meat is another man’s poison etc etc. We all have our prejudices, even the best critics.
It’s probably why at Breaking More Waves there’s been an internal dilemma going on over the last 24 hours since the Blog Sound of 2014 poll results were announced. For the very first time in the poll's three year history there are two winners, carrying exactly the same number of votes. On one hand the wistful dark alt-folk sounds of Marika Hackman. On the other the smoky come to bed music of Banks. Two very different artists who from the various poll announcement posts we saw seemed to be loved and loathed in equal measure by the voting bloggers. Camp Marika or Camp Banks. Lines were being drawn and it appeared from our window of the world nobody was prepared to straddle them.
Except us at Breaking More Waves.
We like Marika Hackman. We like Banks. All the arguments that thave been put forward about blandness, corporate vs indie, originality etc we can sympathise with and understand, but the bottom line is we love far more music than we hate. Call us non-discerning if you will, that’s fine. It’s why at Breaking More Waves a night with our music collection will find us absorbed and consumed with the likes of Aphex Twin to Abba, from Chic to The Clash or from Lorde to Lennon (John of course). Our dilemma is should we hate more like it seems that many of our blog peer group do. Our answer is no. We like to straddle genre's now and then. Variety is the spice of life etc and other clichés.
Which brings us neatly (albeit via a lengthy journey) to When 5AM. They’re the kind of act that Camp Marika will (probably) hate. Yet despite being happy to spend time in that camp, we like this one as well.
As you can probably tell from the name, Worcester based 3 piece When 5AM do music that is late night and earthy. It’s house music, but house music that possesses a soft seductiveness. Listen to the delicate piano twinkles and smooth production on Get In Love, a track from their free to download (via Bandcamp) 7 tracker and you’ll see what we mean. Both blissful and euphoric it’s a bit of a beauty. There’s something about the groove, the warmth, the ecstacy-laden sheer damn sexiness of the sound that tickles our ears very nicely.
The good, the bad and the soul shrivellingly shite. You make your own decisions, but if you love music that moulds and shapes your feelings, puts you in a trance, takes you somewhere and makes even the most overcast of days seem OK (and fancy a bit of a dance) then Get In Love and When 5AM might just be your thing.
When 5AM - Get In Love
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