Riff Of The Week 5

Paperhouse – Can

Can were unprecedented, a product of post second world war Germany, where the youth felt it necessary to distance themselves as far as possible from previous generations – and seemingly much like there generation in other countries, they turned to psychedelics and primiscious behaviour.

However, unlike their contemporaries from across the pond, Can had a transcendental nature to their music, songs that would reach 15 minutes in length, all free form and rhythmically repeatitive. A friend of mine once likened ‘Krautrock’ (a term given to the German rock music of this period by the British press) to being the sonic representation of driving down an endless autobahn, where the sense of all urgency is lost.

Paperhouse is a track from Can’s most accessible album ‘Tago Mago‘. Once again, it is incredibly difficult or technical guitar playing, but it exudes a rawness as it moves with vocals, it sweeps you up and pushes away throughout the song. Essentially to me, it is an ever changing landscape and easily one of my all time favourites.

Listen to it here –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8ESWyyxzvk

Ode to Viceroy – Mac Demarco

In the age of technology, it seems as if music is getting more and more of an electronic focus. However, it is important to note that the rise in popularity of electronics, in conjuction with the drop of price in home recording equipment, is allowing us to hear music by self-produced artists we may have never heard before.

Mac De Marco is an example of this – a Canadian musician, living in Brooklyn with a couple hundred  of dollars worth of recording equipment, making an album on his own and then taking the independent music world by storm.

Riff Of The Week 5

Mac has become reknown for his wobbly and unconventional twee pop guitar stylings – and in all honesty, I could of picked a multitude of songs from any of his releases to highlight this. However, to me the track ‘Ode to Viceroy’ sums it up perfectly, kooky, simple, far from perfect, yet completely complimenting the song.

Enough of my thoughts,  form your own here –