Deep Voices #88

Seething is believing

Deep Voices #88 on Spotify
Deep Voices #88 on Apple Music

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Deep Voices is a labor of love. Each edition of the newsletter contains a one-hour playlist of music and writing about that music. “About” “that” music. If you’re reading this, you know what I’m talking about. Connecting the dots between input and output, what we hear and why we feel. A music lover saddled with the twin plagues of curiosity and writing, I’m just out here doing my best. Consider supporting this foolhardy endeavor you can :) Thank you for reading and subscribing.

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I’ve always hated yelling. When someone raises their voice to me, I shut down. When I’ve been the one to raise my voice, I am always immediately disgusted with myself. What possibly could be so bad it could not be solved without volume? 

I have, however, historically enjoyed music with yelling. Punk, metal, whatever. Usually, when I listen, it’s because I’m angry. Hearing that anger reflected in the music has tended to neutralize it. But, as I age, my anger becomes less jaggedly primal and more humdrum, more holistic. I’m angry all the time. Who isn’t? Hearing anger’s echo doesn’t assuage it like it used to. So I’ve been thinking a lot about what kind of music seethes. What is the sound of rage pulsing without boiling over? 

I got introduced to Chris Brokaw’s 2021 album Puritan from a recent Tony Rettman newsletter and have found it fits the bill. Brokaw, a guitarist and drummer, was notably a part of the bands Codeine (currently reunited) and Come, both pioneers of slowcore, the sect of indie rock that moves at a sloth’s pace. He’s also had a steady and diverse career as a bandleader; Puritan is his tenth solo LP. It’s a monster record that keeps the fury at a simmer, particularly the title track, which leads off this week’s Deep Voices. Brokaw’s voice, which he only uses for the first part of this song, is gruff and raw. It sounds like he spent a good deal of time yelling, but he’s done now. When he says, “A septic witch/Leave me dead in a ditch,” it sounds disgusted. And disgusting. Then he drops the vocals altogether and the song kicks off, the drummer pounding away, no stranger to the crash cymbal, the bass player noodling a hearty lament, and Brokaw on guitar surgically winding his way across a viscous melody. It sounds like they are casting a spell. A lot of angry music makes me want to firebomb stuff. This makes me want to take up martial arts. A more long term, seductive solution. A great song. 

Not everything else on this week’s playlist smolders with hatred or anything. But I tried to gather a collection of music that feels. The voice of Mira Billotte of White Magic is one of the most arresting I know. Carla dal Forno’s music is pensive, entrancing, and a little scary. The new Ariel Kalma/Jeremiah Chiu/Marta Sofia Honer is a new age album if you look at it one way; if you look at it another, it’s a treatise on anxiety. Colin Newman’s “Quite Unrehearsed” has got longing down better than Wong Kar-Wai. Across the playlist you’ve got a lot of guitar, a couple reed instruments, unrefined drum machines, and some haunted voices. A whole spectrum of emotions. I think it’s better to have a few than just the one.