Is There Really No Good Music Today?

Go on any Youtube video of any band from the past and you're sure to find this type of comment: 'Music is terrible nowadays compared to the past', 'We get Justin Bieber and they got The Beatles', and so on.

True there is a lot of bad music out there today and it's understandable that some people are appalled by contemporary music but this is quite a simplistic perspective to take. Throughout the 20th century, there has always been bad music. It's inevitable. Don't you think your parents had to experience some terrible music in their lifetime? Of course they did.

To say there is no good music in our contemporary is a blinded and lazy point of view to take. Just because people like Justin Bieber and One Direction reign the charts doesn't mean everyone listens to them, just young girls who have no concept of love. And yeah, a lot of other music on the charts is often terrible but look at the last year: Acts such as Disclosure, Arctic Monkeys, Gorgon City, Temples, Bombay Bicycle Club just to name a few have all featured prominently on them and that's an incredibly positive sign. Additionally, reports indicated that the first time in years Rock albums had outsold Pop as a whole which just furthers this.

Another argument is that if you were passionate enough about music, you'd go out of your way to find new good artists. Acts such as Maths Time Joy, Kelela, Bodhi or Maribou State aren't universally known but are all unique and incredible.

It's easy to say all modern music is horrific if you solely listen to Radio 1. Joy Division for example weren't instantly recognised as geniuses, whilst their fame was gradually increasing up until the point of their first US tour, singer Ian Curtis tragically committed suicide. And like so many artists, they became icons after his death.

So before you complain that 'all modern music is terrible', go and search for some that you don't know. With the internet, we've got the biggest database of information ever and it's becoming easier and easier to find new music. Even go down to any music venue and watch a band you've never heard, you may even be surprised.

I apologise for the rather long-winded nature of this post but it does infuriate me quite a bit. And if I get any accusations of being a hipster, I will accept them.

Grain Is Sure To Make A Scene This Year.

When Dusky announced recently who they'd organised to play at their Fabric night the 14th of March, I was excited. Long had I waited for this moment and I was sure I knew who would be playing. Yet I was quite surprised. Because of the amount of incredible releases last from AUS Music (Midland and Leon Vynehall are just some of the examples), I was naively certain a number of them would make appearances.

Instead, acts such as Jimmy Edgar, Loefah and Joey Beltram were to play. This of course reinforced Dusky's more recent emphasis on techno over deep house, especially with the release of 9T8.

Not long after this, another post of their caught my eye. They put up a link to a Grain song (Artwork's side project), who was one of the acts playing but who I couldn't find any songs by. The song was Untitled 4, a raucous tropical groove that was simple but incredibly tantalising. It was one of the most original techno songs I'd heard in a while, especially in a period for what I considered a musical drought.

And then something even better happened. I'd heard his remix of Midland's phenomenal Trace but the first hearing of it was of poor quality, ripped from the radio and wasn't the fullest version. But then MixMag put up the full version of the song and I was entranced. Hypnotic, odd, inspired and just generally remarkable, it's one of the best remixes I've heard in a while.

Having kept the Grain moniker dormant for 10 years, he's now come back in fantastic form. If there is someone who will make quite a scene this year, it is surely him. I was never a big fan of Artwork or Magnetic Man, but this is a side of him that I truly respect. Sure to shake things up, Grain will firmly root himself (I had to) in a scene that does tend to stagnate a bit.