What Were They
Thinking!?
There are a few bands out there that mix together genres, and mix them well,
but just as many aim for novelty, and fire blanks. Sure, everyone's heard of
Babymetal, but what of the many others you may have missed out on?
If you weren't 13 in 2007, you may not have noticed Albuquerque, New Mexico's
BrokeNCYDE, whose music is described as crunkcore. Mixing southern trap and
crunk, with a little screamo, and a touch of emo, other bands of note include
Millionaires, and 3OH!3. Due to the age of the performers, as well as their
appropriations of gangsterism, critics panned the music, and - not taken seriously
- BrokeNCYDE and like-minded crews hardly got any notice in the press. In 2014,
the band asked their fans to publicly fund thirty grand for their new LP, All
Grown Up. Having grown up, their fan base moved on, and only raised slightly
over $1,000.
Another blend that
sent many into psychosis was electro-swing. In the 1990s, hip-hop artists were
heavily using jazz samples, from A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory
LP in 1991, to the 1999 track "Swing Set" by Jurassic 5. Sometime
in the new millennium, producers like Marcus Füreder, sped up the beats,
and began to release it as EDM. Under the name Parov Stelar, Füreder had
a few Top 10s in Australia and Greece, but the fast pace of 20's ragtime, and
techno beats, didn't catch on well in the US or UK, besides in commercials.
Speaking of electro-swing,
a very close sound-alike genre, which rubbed many ears the wrong way, is chap-rap,
or chap-hop. A product of the steampunk culture in the UK, acts blend ragtime
and swing, with hip-hop lyricism about British Victorian life. While the most
popular (if you can call it that) musician would be Professor Elemental, other
rappers in this style include Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer, Poplock Holmes &
DJ WattsOn, and Sir Reginald Pikedevant, Esquire.
Hip hop wasn't
to blame for that absurdity, and neither is any other genre for the chimeric
bastardizations some musical alchemists devise. Hence, we can forgive heavy
metal for pirate metal; a quixotic amalgam of speed metal and sea-shantie work
songs. Pirate metal was best left to drown in the waters it crawled out of (some
say in 1987, when Germany's Running Wild gave labor to it on their third album,
Under Jolly Roger), but it won fans in certain circles nonetheless. Like
Erik Pontoppidan's mighty Kraken, this oceanic beast took different forms wherever
it was spotted, with acts such as Canada's Verbal Deception, Alestorm from Scotland,
and the US's own Swashbuckle making waves worldwide.
Sometimes it's
not a fusion of music styles that offends the ear, but a synthesis of music
and message that boggles the brain. A newer act brewing music with an out-there
idea, and another in the realm of heavy metal, would be Okilly Dokilly from
Phoenix, AZ. Calling themselves Nedalcore, they combine metalcore with the theme,
look and lyrical lingo of The Simpson's animated character Ned Flanders.
Self-releasing their debut LP, Howdilly Doodilly, in November of 2016,
it's yet to be seen if this is something that takes off, or nosedives right
into the ground.
The last band I'd
like to bring up is another oddity due, not to their mixing of musical tastes,
but in the ideology expressed within their chosen genre. With its clear Hi-NRG
and Italodisco influence, "Genetics" sounds like a Bobby O knock-off
one would imagine filling the dance floor of your typical gay club in the 80s,
if it didn't first appear on a racist compilation on Rock-O-Rama Records - the
same label that gave the world Skrewdriver. The band, Final Sound, never released
another track besides their debut on 1985's No Surrender! (LP# RRR 052),
sided next to bands like Brutal Attack, Above the Ruins, New Dawn, and Indecent
Exposure.
Only time will
tell what strange and unfamiliar concoctions await our ears. One can either
guess what sonic unions anticipate our listening experience, or go out and make
new ones themselves. Let's see, and hear, what the future holds.
A. Souto, 2017
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