1. Let yourself appreciate sentimentality - On New Year's Eve, I went to a killer concert in Brooklyn. Alongside the blisteringly indulgent Araabmuzik were the more ethereal Laurel Halo and Balam Acab. Balam Acab's beats were despairing and calculatedly disorganized. Layered on top of these grimy industrial textures were poignantly wistful vocals. I had no idea what they were saying, but I let the outpouring of emotion wash over me. Chillwave died and died hard; it is time for schmaltz to be reappropriated. Sentimentality has been a little taboo in music recently, but honest emotion is beginning to trump cool apathy once again.
2. Listen to more jazz - Truth be told, I spend an inordinate amount of time mourning the fading of jazz. It is such a rich genre: intellectually and melodically complex, rhythmically audacious, emotionally stirring. If you worry that it is not accessible, start listening to some more basic bebop before jumping into Coltrane's Love Supreme. Even with music trending away from hard-hitting euphoric electronica, music-making technology has become relatively democratized, and therefore the bar has been raised. There is so much interesting music to be sampled, so many genres to be rehashed. Please... let jazz be one of them!
3. Start diggin' kinetic sculpture - Nearly infinite sound bytes of information are colliding and as a result, traditionally separate disciplines are merging. Sound sculpture is a really neat example. Art and music have always been closely related, but the true marriage is something rather contemporary. If this following clip strikes your fancy, check out locally based kinetic sculptor Gerhard Trimpin.
