Future Bass: Snail's House

Defining a music genre can be a tricky job. Producers and artists are continuously trying to improve their music and experiment by mixing different styles. Especially in electronic music, borders can become vague. However when enough people start to use similar sounds and rhythms, eventually a pattern emerges which can then be named. So what happens if you take the hip hop influenced beats from trap music and mix them with the high-pitched sounds used in chiptune? You get future bass! Even though future bass is often quite upbeat, it still manages to give a relaxing feeling, while the addition of samples and electronic sounds keeps it from getting boring. One of my favourites at the moment is First Love by Snail's House. I discovered this song on the Tasty Network YouTube channel, which, by the way, is an excellent channel that promotes all kinds of electronic music. Other nice songs are Innocent by Cole Sipe and Monody by TheFatRat.

For more future bass tracks, check this YouTube playlist from Tasty Network.

Kawaii Metal: BABYMETAL

Besides music I have a second passion, Japan. I became interested in Japan several years ago and during my internship in Tokyo in 2014 I fell in love with the country. A big part of Japanese culture is formed by kawaii (かわいい), which translates best into 'cute' or 'adorable'. You can find this kawaii influence everywhere; from public transport mascots to clothing and of course in music. Lots of Japanese singers and groups incorporate kawaii into their songs and performances resulting most of the times in sugar coated sweet pop tunes. Even though I was aware of this phenomena I was still surprised to discover BABYMETAL. As the name implies this group, consisting of Suzuka (18), Yui (16) and Moa (16) makes metal music. However the shredding guitar riffs and rocking drumbeats are accompanied by happy J-Pop melodies and kawaii dancing. The whole show seems so absurd that you might think that these girls will never make it big outside Japan... think again. Their song Gimme chocolate!! gained massive attention and has currently over 50 million views on YouTube.

Starting with a big concert in the Wembley Arena in London BABYMETAL is currently touring all across Europe and the United States and have even appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Their latest album METAL RESISTANCE has just been released and features the single KARATE. Visit their official YouTube channel for more music.

Chanson: Zaz

A while ago I was watching the movie Dead Man Down starring Colin Farrell. The movie itself is not very special, with a cliché story of a man seeking retribution on a crime lord for destroying his life. However in one scene (and this is not really a spoiler) the lead actress, Noomi Rapace, sits in her room crying after being turned down and turns on her radio. It was at this point that I forgot about the mediocre plot of the movie and goose bumps started spreading across my arms. The raw voice of the singer cut straight through my heart.

After finishing the movie I immediately started looking for the name of the song. Luckily IMDB shows which soundtracks are used in a movie, so in no-time I found out that the song was called Éblouie Par la Nuit performed by Zaz.

Zaz (real name Isabelle Geffroy) is a French singer who combines chansons with clear jazz influences. Besides the slow more serious songs like Si she also makes happier up-tempo songs like Comme ci comme ça.

For more music look on her official YouTube channel.

Weekly Sounds: An Introduction

Welcome to Weekly Sounds, a new blog about music discovery.

What music do you like? At first glance a simple question, but for some people more difficult to answer than for others. If people ask me this question the simple answer is: everything! But the reality is, as always, more complex. The truth is that my musical collection consists of thousands of songs covering hundreds of musical (sub)genres. From baroque to hard rock, from hip hop to electropop, from country to jazz and everything in between, spanning every decade from the 1920's to the 2010's.

Looking for new songs and genres is one of my favourite pastimes and finding a completely new artist that produces a sound that I've never heard before exhilarates me time and time again.

YouTube has made this search even easier, with a few mouse clicks you find the music that your local radio station never plays. Of course there are also lots of other websites sharing and promoting new music, however most tend to stick to a certain genre.

On this blog I'll try to post a new sound every week. Often this might be a song, band or genre you don't particularly care for or even dislike. But stick around, because once in a while one might pop-up that changes your world.

               Wouter (all-round music addict)