🤘✨The Nexialist #0084
Relax, Don’t Do It | Boy Harsher | Electronic Body Music | Post-Punk | ____Punk | The Quagmire | Popcorn
Welcome to yet another week of cyber-confabulation-and-curation, The Nexialist
Hello, world! These couple of weeks I have been overtaken by plenty of projects, gigs and social events, which means The Nexialist might look a bit different… or with a different focus, which is fine. In the end, I think I could still provide brainsparks to you based on some music I have been enjoying live or in my headsets. I hope you all enjoy and share this with someone dear. Kisses!
1 year ago » 🌞✨The Nexialist #0036 : Forró of Chromatica | Kaleidoscopic Pop | Streisand Effect | Deepfake Aesthetics | Cinematic Concert Experience | More Jungle | Regarde-moi and more
👨🏻Relax, Don’t Do It
Coincidentally, TN#84 starts with the top hit from 84, Relax. Recently, while listening to the top 5 songs from every year since the 50s for a work project, this hit song came up and made me want to get up and dance. I had only heard it as a teenger in the Zoolander film, so needless to say I was so excited to see their original kinky video. The song was banned by the BBC at the time, but still it was in the top of the charts in many countries.
The track was a celebration of hedonism and living life on the edge. There was no filter on ‘Relax’, which didn’t sit right with the powers that be in 1984. Broadcasters were disgusted by the unapologetic attitude that Frankie Goes To Hollywood proudly showed off on the track. The fact the group featured two homosexual men amplified the furore tenfold.
Read: Why the BBC banned Frankie Goes To Hollywood's 'Relax' which celebrated homosexual love | FarOutMagazine
📺Boy Harsher
A few months ago I discovered Boy Harsher (they have appeared here in The Nexialist a couple of times already) and last week I had the privilege of seeing them live here in Amsterdam. It was one of the coolest concerts I’ve ever seen in my life. Jae Matthews was just a powerhouse on stage, giving off a kind of Stevie Nicks aura. Also, the chemistry with her duo August Muller was incredible. I was impressed with their performance and how they managed to make everyone dance from 18 to 60+ year old (and also I could barely move). If you have the chance, check them out (online or live.)
Read: Boy Harsher on emotions and intimacy by Angela Donskaia | Subbacultcha
🦿Electronic Body Music
Kris Baha was the opening act for Boy Harsher. I had no idea who he was, but I was immediately captivated by his energy and his ability to sample live and use all his “tools.” Gladly I found this full performance online and I hope you enjoy it.
I also learned a new term, and I feel like I found a musical rabbit hole to indulge myself later:
Electronic body music (acronymized to EBM) is a genre of electronic music that combines elements of industrial music and synth-punk with elements of disco and dance music. It developed in the early 1980s in Western Europe as an outgrowth of both punk and industrial music cultures. It combines sequenced repetitive basslines, programmed dance music rhythms, and mostly undistorted vocals and commandlike shouts with confrontational or provocative themes.
🤘Post-Punk
This band had been trending on TikTok some weeks ago. When I saw the Cyrillic writing, I had to click immediately and I was led to their album which is quite exciting for sounding from past and future at the same time:
Molchat Doma (Russian: Молчат Дома, lit. 'Houses Are Silent', pronounced [mɐlˈt͡ɕat dɐˈma]) is a Belarusian post-punk band from Minsk, formed in 2017. Their current lineup consists of Egor Shkutko (vocals), Roman Komogortsev (guitar, synthesizer, drum machine), and Pavel Kozlov (bass guitar, synthesizer). Their style is influenced by 1980s Russian rock music and has been described as post-punk, new wave, synth-pop, and cold wave. (Wikipedia)
Leonid Sverdlov left a comment on YouTube that I could not leave out:
[…]
The original lyrics come from a poet called Ryihij Boris who committed suicide in 2001 at the age of 26 (this is important information). So basically this song goes like this:
Enameled vessel (bath tub)
Window, bedside table, bed (a typical hospital room in Russia)
It’s hard and uncomfortable to live in, but cozy to die in. (Referring to the bath tub from earlier)
And it drips quietly from the tap. (Again a reference for the tap of the bath tub)
And life is ruined like a whore (referring to his own life)
Emerges as if from a fog, and sees: bedside table, bed (this means he wakes up in a hospital room after attempting suicide)
And I try to prop myself up, I want to look her(it) in the eyes, look in her eyes and weep (here he means he is reflecting or wants to reflect on his life)
And to never die (he is regretting that he almost killed himself and now just wants to live)
So in summary this song is about a man who tried to commit suicide in the bath tub. He fails however and ends up in a hospital. He regrets that he ever tried to do it and now understands that his problems didn’t go away and his life will never be the same again. Moral of the story: DON’T ATTEMPT SUICIDE, IT’S NOT A WAY OUT, SEEK HELP IF YOU NEED TO.
🦾____Punk
After hearing all these punk references, it got me curious about why we call these sci-fi genres/aesthetics/movements such as cyberpunk, steampunk or solarpunk.
On Quora, Will Greenway shared a clarifying answer: What is the basis of the “punk” genre names?
The original term “cyberpunk” was invented by Bruce Bethke. The title of the story was called Cyberpunk. He arrived at this name by combining “cybernetics” with “punk” with a reference to wild music counter culture of the 70s and 80s.
This high tech in the hands of lowlifes was something that sparked William Gibson to crystallize it into a futuristic form of cyber noir.
So, there are two things to the xxx-punk genres.
Punk — counter culture protagonists.
Tacking ‘punk’ on the end of something is cool.
It really is essentially something that simple. The xxx part is mostly the niche technical/magical prevailing style of the milieu. Steampunk for instance, is a stylistic contortion of steam-machines with the capabilities of advanced technology. It’s a pseudo-historical Victorian setting with these twists in tech incorporated through the society and culture. There are dozens of these niches … and it’s all about tacking onto and living within the established canon. I think by and large… the ‘punk’ is just a moniker and a nod to the original counter-culture genre. They don’t even necessarily just portray grunge protagonists.
On Reddit, some people compared it to how we add -gate to denote a scandal (due to Watergate), which doesn’t make sense but made me smile. It did remind me of TikTok’s Namecore (TN#77), though. Then, another interesting comment on Reddit:
Lich_Hegemon "-punk" after cyberpunk has two meanings.
One, directly derived from cyberpunk, is about extrapolating and blowing up the struggles of the common people in the face of certain time periods or technologies.
Steampunk deals with the industrial revolution, class struggles, colonialism, and imperialism on an extreme scale brought about by the extreme advances of stream technology.
Dieselpunk deals with the fears of the inter war and WW2 period. Poverty brought about by the great depression, the fear and development of a great world war, the oppression and suffering brought about by nationalistic beliefs. All dialed up to 11 thanks to extremely advanced diesel-like and airborne tech.
Biopunk is mostly speculative as there is no real life equivalent, but it deals with genetic engineering, interfacing biology and technology, the breeding of society into castes, and the problems this brings about
The second meaning is one of aesthetics, derived from steampunk. It describes settings rather than genres.
Cyberpunk is about gritty dark neon futures with cities of a huge scale.
Steampunk is about oily steamy smokey machinery contrasting with green countrysides
Biopunk is about toxic looking industrial landscapes and disfigured threats.
🕶The Quagmire
While I was at Kris Baha and Boy Harsher’s concert, I was somehow transported to The Quagmire, the darker club from Black Mirror’s S3E4, San Junipero. It inspired me to create a playlist, which you can ❤️ to listen to now or later.
Read: Black Mirror: San Junipero --- The Virtual Afterlife is a Quagmire | 25YL
🍿Popcorn
I cannot wait for Tove Lo’s album to come out. So far, I’m in love with all her new songs and the videos are also delicious to watch. When I heard it the first time, I thought of the 2005 Crazy Frog’s hit Popcorn, but I never knew the original song was from 1969 and it was the first electronic song to become a hit in the top of the charts (it also appeared on my time traveling work-task). I’m glad I found the video below to add to my WEIRDANCE playlist on Youtube.
See you next week!
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I truly believe innovation comes from bringing improbable areas together, and that’s why I called this project The Nexialist. Some sectors are known to be self-referencing and hermetic. Sometimes teams are on autopilot mode, focused on the daily grind, which hinders innovation. As a Nexialist, I like to burst these bubbles, bringing references from different areas, and maintaining teams inspired and connected to the Zeitgeist.
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