Real humans

So it seems everyone's all hot for neon-noir, Michael Mann-indebted sounds these days. And why shouldn't they be? I'm glad folks like the Chromatics are getting their well-deserved cinema time. Drive was exquisitely flawed — with a strange fetish for demolished heads — but it succeeded at least for bringing this fabulous track to light.

As much as the hook, I'm drawn to it for the tenderly delivered lyrical notion that to be 'a real human being' is itself a thing worth rallying around, as much as being 'a real hero'. Which is to say I'm at least halfway appalled that we expect a world of inhumanity, if we even know what that is anymore.

College (featuring Electric Youth) - A Real Hero

Meanwhile, I hate to waste anyone's time with a tune they're probably hearing a lot these days (though I do love me that M83 sonic overload), but this somehow feels like the flip side to the heroics above. The former was smartly used in a smiling, dreamy daylight sequence, while this one seems more the province of the stone-faced night driver that is the go-to mental image for this aesthetic.

Having said that, Anthony Gonzales gets a big high-five for his courageous saxophone deployment in the outro. A real human being indeed.

M83 - Midnight City

Alternate office party soundtrack

The approach of a work holiday party is always cause to imagine my own soundtrack. If you're gonna blast the music at a volume that renders conversation near-impossible, you can't expect me to not have strong feelings about it. Last year, I wanted to go all cosmic groovy. This year, it's vintage hip-hop robots, with lots of pitch bending. Which really should happen more than once a year.

Beem - Manka

Homespinning

I've spent enough time cruising flea markets and Etsy to appreciate the handmade economy and envy the many talents I don't seem to possess. Of course, music is the most natural thing to tinker with at home. But since any yahoo with a laptop and some ideas can realize his self-indulgent dreams, you need to be a selective browser. That said, this dude from Portland gets a much-deserved Songblague salute. Talking nice minimal synth mystery goodness from the quiet corner of a neon planet.

Shermstixx - Crystal Throne of Winter

Sweet Hatchback's sweetass song

Flynn's track from yesterday is uncomfortably resonant with my own worklife (metaphorically of course; my complaints are small relative to the world). My response is total escape—another one from team Windsurf. As much as my actual environs please me, it's a soft neon midnight dreamworld I imagine jogging through, as this song swirls through my head. I took it with me on a walk through a cold Lexington evening for a rare moment of solitude. And I had it going today when I bought my first new pair of running shoes in about a decade.

Hatchback - Midnight Jogger

Tropical late afternoon beach party in heaven

I don't know what it is, but I just can't shake my crush on the sweet Windsurf soundworld, the magic of which extends to the solo efforts of Messrs Sorcerer and Hatchback. It's funny because rationally, I should hate this stuff. It's beyond derivative, with influences plugged in almost completely unmanipulated. The songs are barely composed, mostly a bunch of ideas that flow one to the next. And yet...the effect is so ineffably compelling that I realize I will never understand the chemistry of aesthetic rapture. Guess that's just the way crushes get you.

Sorcerer - Jump Rope