Week of 12/2: Hand Habits, 8485, Ki Oni, Advance Base
Eric admires an up-tempo Hand Habits song, Eli chokes out the phrase "post-hyperpop," Michael recs NBA ambient music, and Miranda writes about an essential December tune.
Welcome to Endless Scroll, the brainchild of Eli Enis (he/him), Eric Bennett (they/them), Michael Brooks (he/him) and Miranda Reinert (she/her). Since Feb. 2019, we’ve been a weekly podcast about music, the internet, and where those two things intersect. On Substack, we’re also a weekly roundup of songs. Our format is simple: each of our four hosts picks a song they love and writes about it. There will be one free post every week, and more at the end of every month for paid subscribers. For the sake of your wallet, don’t start a paid subscription on Substack. Instead, sign up at the 2$ tier or higher on Patreon and we will gift you a subscription.
Hand Habits - “Aquamarine”
Eric Bennett:
Hand Habits’ Meg Duffy hasn’t lived in New York’s Capital Region for many years at this point. Nor have I. And yet, because we briefly overlapped, I will forever look at them as a shining example of a local act becoming the national touring act they deserved to be. It’s been fairly easy to describe what a Hand Habits song sounds like, even when I found them in 2013. Sparse, wistful indie-folk songs that meander without any trace of concern. Take 2012’s “Be Yr Man,” which floors me even today.
On Duffy's third Hand Habits full length, they challenge this notion. After flirting with uptempo songs on 2018’s “Can’t Calm Down,” Fun House is full of propulsive indie rock songs. “Aquamarine” sits at the top of the tracklist and starts things off with a high kick. The song is littered with flickering synths and keys, immediately showing us that Duffy is done making exclusively soft, pensive music. Thanks in part to the co-producer Sasami Ashworth, it’s the most sonically diverse in the Hand Habits catalog. It’s refreshing to see an artist’s talent be channeled into new directions.
8485 - “hangar”
Eli Enis:
One of the best pop songs I’ve heard all year is the song “hangar” by 8485. The semi-anonymous hyperpop artist was on my radar during my binge into the scene in 2020, and she’s long been regarded as a visionary by many of her producer/vocalist peers. But for whatever reason, I didn’t think she sounded strikingly different from her many contemporaries, and I never fell in love any of her individual tracks. Until “hangar,” which is such a fucking stunner that I’m entirely sold on 8485 no matter what she ends up doing going forward.
Like many of her previous songs and the others on the EP this track comes from, plague town, “hangar” is produced by the prolific blackwinterwells, whose music can either exude the sparkling flash of a firecracker or the wispy smoke that hangs in its wake. Save for plague town’s pop-punky closer, “Southview” — Paramore-ian guitar chords and Taylor Swift-ian vocal melodies getting stoned on the hazy drone of Jesus and Mary Chain — the production on plague town mostly resides on the steamier side of wells’ spectrum. In the past, I found their collaborations with blurry-voiced digicore artists to be a bit too sleepy to leave an impression, but the melodically deft 8485 gives their ethereal, dreamy-poppy production the punchiness and urgency it needs to really hit on “hangar.”
While 8485’s double-layered auto-tune, sweet melodies, and wounded cadences ground her vocals in the hyperpop milieu, the spacious production reminds me a lot of songs like “Secrets (Your Fire)” and “You Lose” on Magdalena Bay’s Mercurial World. The steep reverb, stiff drum machine thwacks, blinking bassline and wreath-like synths have a very ‘80s feel to them that gives the song a retro-futurist vibe — one that’s distinct from hyperpop’s obsession with 21st century file-digging and claustrophobic, overstimulating, gleefully overindulgent compositional structures. “hangar” sounds like something different. A sound that interacts with hyperpop — the sound, the energy, the emotional signifiers — from the outside, treating it as one individual reference point among many others. Don’t make me say it. No, c’mon. Agh. Really? Alright, fine…..post-hyperpop.
Ki Oni - “Sports I”
Michael Brooks:
It seems safe to say that Los Angeles artist Chuck Soo-Hoo who makes music as Ki Oni hasn’t had any trouble staying busy this year. They dropped two excellent releases a few months back titled Indoor Plant Life and Stay Indoors and Swim on Sound as Language, and most recently they’ve gifted us with a two track project called Infinite Sports. To my knowledge there isn’t an abundance of ambient music out there that’s partially inspired by watching Steve Kerr drain threes with the Bulls back in the ‘90s, so if you’re anything like me you might want to check this one out. Both of the tracks on Infinite Sports are fifteen minutes long, the first of which is called “Sports I,” which features lush synths and swirling atmospheric textures at every turn. I’m hopeful for a future where musicians start creating modular synthesis inside of NBA Jam arcade cabinets and until that happens we’ve got “Sports I” which is plenty to tide me over.
Advance Base - “Summon Satan”
Miranda Reinert:
December is my favorite month. Maybe. I don’t think it’s objectively the best month, but it is my personal favorite. Thanksgiving was always my big stress holiday, so December feels looser. I like this stage of winter where you’ve only just really started having to wear a heavy jacket and you’re not exhausted by the cold yet. I always find it pretty calm and pleasant. That said, I’m not sure how much December Music I can really come up with. The Weakerthans are a December Band to me. And then there’s the music of Owen Ashworth. That might be it.
Most days I wake up and listen to Vs. Children or Etiquette by Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, but December is Advance Base season as far as I’m concerned. Maybe that’s because of the sheer amount of Christmas songs that appear on Advance Base albums, but I think the feeling of most of the songs suit early winter best. Today isn’t about the Christmas songs anyway. Today is about “Summon Satan.”
“Summon Satan” is a song about failing to summon Satan, then being cursed and killing an accordion player. It’s a confusingly violent, great song on Nephew In The Wild. Maybe it’s a metaphor, but I’d prefer it just be a straight forward story. I like that it stays light and jingles like background music in a Christmas movie. Most of the darker Casiotone songs have instrumentation to match, but “Summon Satan” is light and I think I like it best because of that.
Anyway, this is the season for Advance Base songs and I could have decided to pick out any of them. I just think this one is funny. Go see Owen play the Christmas songs on his upcoming tour and say hi to me if you go to the show with Joe Pera in New York.