Week 51 singles

2021 is slowly entering its final tail. The radio is all about looking back with the top whatever of all time in whatever genre. WoNoBlog has found some recent singles to put a spotlight on and for now looks forward still, despite the date nears to start looking back on the past year. Two instrumental songs this week, not an everyday genre on this blog. Some more nostalgic pop and supernew bands, it's all here this week.

Replenishing Water. Abrasive Trees

Replenishing Water is a song that is hard to write about. It is instrumental, so there's no story to write about. Neither does it have a fantastic melody. No, it is all about atmosphere, so it may well be a choice for one of the upcoming Kairoses next year. The song is full of long-held guitar notes, full of echo, delay and who knows what else on effects and distortions. If anything, it is mystery. The kind of music one undergoes without escaping, unless you switch it off of course. It is not without any contact with the past. You could see Replenishing Water like an intro to a great classic rock or prog track, just before it all goes full out. The mystery building towards the explosion of sound. Abrasive Trees decided to remain in the intro stage, with the question of what could have followed for always remaining in the air.

This Old House. Eelke

No, this is not an acoustic rendition of Shakin' Stevens' big hit. Remember him? I almost did not to be honest. Thematically the two songs are not that far apart. All about the past that was better and a metaphor for what has come to pass. Eelke starts his new song ever so small and modest. The modesty does not so much leave This Old House as there was a point to be made. This Old House really needs to be preserved after I'm gone, it spells. Musically the song is built up around a few guitars, acoustic and electric, with sparse piano notes sprinkled out over the guitars. And then the full band joins, giving the soft accompaniment all of a sudden a strong body. Not so much a solo is played as that all instruments add emphasis to what they were doing before because drums and bass have joined in. All played in such good taste.

Don't Need Anybody. Dmitry Wild

"I don't need anybody, the whole world is inside me", sings Dmitri Wild. Anyone able to look at his life this way during the pandemic will come out on the other of it filled with experiences and reliving them as well. At the same Wild lets us jump around on his second single. Musically it spans decades of alternative rock, garage and punk rock. Geoff Palmer is in the song, as are The Strokes, garage bands from the 60s and the better punk pop singles of the late 70s. No, I won't write that Don't Need Anybody is a fantastic song, because it is not. What it is, is a song to have fun to, even alone in a room, to sing along to and to thoroughly enjoy. The little riffs, the nice bass lines (as in really, really nice), the acoustic guitar underneath the tougher parts, it's all in here to enjoy. And what more can we ask for in these dark days?

Too Late Now. Wet Leg

Single number three by Wet Leg is unleashed on the world. Five more months to wait where the release of the album is concerned. In this tempo we'll not have a surprise left. Again Wet Leg manages to surprise me a little. From a modest song, with even some, fast, spoken word Too Late Now explodes into a punkrock song. The way Too Late Now builds up is extremely nicely done. The bass drives the first part, with a dry drums and muted guitar behind it and all sort of atmospherics sprinkled over it. The middle part is bare with the bored spoken word and then Wet Leg's world splits open. No doubt letting festival fields explode one of these years. This can only be the effect Too Late Now desires to accomplish. Fantastic song? No, great song with a great effect, oh, yeah.

Komodo Dragon. Soon

A new band, a first song. What to expect? Not what I am hearing right now. Komodo Dragon is clocking in close to 6 minutes. The first minute sort of passed me by with the sound as low as I was starting out with. Slowly the song swells, slowly but surely like the rising tide. At the top of the high tide a huge wave comes over it all, paving the way for the storm behind it.

Komodo Dragon is a duo, Liú Mottes, also known from Blue Crime and Slow Worries and Jochem van Tol. Together they have recorded an album to be released in March. On it they explore how far they can take a musical idea. If Komodo Dragon is anything to go by, the world has something coming. Instrumental postrock with loads of electronic elements washing over the more traditional guitar and drums. Effect laden guitars are shredded to pieces before the storm calms down and the composition is brought to its end, leaving me behind breathless. A whole album may be a challenge to sit through in one go but bring it on nevertheless, please.

Wout de Natris