When I was working on my Spillover music post, so many goth pop albums came up that I realized I needed a second post for dark synth-based pop. So here it is.
ByGD
Heavy Ethics
Marduk was a familiar name to me, but I never really listened to them before I saw Marduk at Eistnaflug in 2016. I enjoyed the set, but the presence of meaty rams’ heads on stage as props gave me pause. As a vegetarian, how did I feel about the aesthetic use of animal parts for entertainment? A vegan friend who was also there didn’t even notice them, and was much more enthusiastic about the music than I was.
After a discussion of ethics in heavy metal, we decided it was okay. They eat a lot of mutton in Iceland, and whole sheep’s heads are a holiday special there like whole turkeys in the U.S. It’s not like they actually killed animals for the show. And it did look cool if you didn’t think about it too hard.
Only later did we discover that they also have songs celebrating the courage of Nazi military units, and have refused to distance themselves from white supremacy. I did a bit more research, and it doesn’t seem like Marduk are actually Nazis. It sounds more like an example of white privilege trying to be edgy. But if you prioritize an edgelord aesthetic or obscure mystique of your band over the safety and welfare of actual people, I have better things to do than listen to your music.
It turns out that when something pricks your conscience, there’s usually a reason. Even if it looks really cool.
ByGD
Seattle Opera Takes On Flight
It’s kind of a no-brainer for an opera company based in Boeing’s hometown (and sponsored by that company) to take on the production of an opera set in an airport. When the pandemic shut down travel, it made the opera even more timely. Although set at an airport, Flight is not a story about mobility but of confinement, as a bunch of travelers are stranded by storms, temporarily sharing the circumstances of a refugee who can neither travel on nor go back. A year ago, that was an interesting concept. Today, it’s the story of all of us.
ByGD
Isolation Music I Like
Solitude and art have always gone together. But the past year, even the most extroverted among us [hint: that’s not me] is finding themes of isolation relevant. I added at least three recent releases to various other draft posts before I noticed how often those themes pop up. Lately things have started opening up, but I suspect we’ll have another round of solitude before this whole thing is over. So here’s a whole post of albums to listen to alone.
ByGD
Sleep of Reason
I got this poster of Goya’s famous print at a Seattle Art Museum exhibition on the invention of cartooning. “El sueño de la razón produce monstruos” (The sleep of reason produces monsters”) has hung on my wall ever since, and for the past few years has felt so much more timely than anything produced in the late 1700s should. I hope to be able to look at it with a little more distance in the future.