36: Holly Herndon: Platform

Aye…?

This is 2015’s most challenging and cerebral attempt at music. I’m not even sure this is music, perhaps Holly just showed a group of foxes crayon drawings of burning clowns and recorded their calls of distress and confusion. When you first play the album it’ll sound like nothing you’ve ever heard before, and make the most of that hearing because the next time you stick it on it’ll sound completely different again: new sounds will screech at you, new convulsing rhythms will suddenly creep into your sweaty nightmares. That’s if you ever get to a second listen of course, this is the album released in 2015 most likely to leave you a quivering wreck in the corner of the room as you offer people the most disgusting sexual favours in exchange for just one listen of the latest Stereophonics album. Herndon refuses to make her music simple or even digestible, and the spoken word snippets are just a whole other level of disturbing. Much like Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Inherent Vice’ you just know there’s a lot to get your teeth into here, though it’s such a dense tome you’re not sure if you’ll ever have the time.

‘Fun’ Fact: ‘Inherent Vice’ was released more than a year ago, yet I’m still using it like it’s some sort of topical culturally reference

Don’t you think all those samples of voices and machinery looped and looped until they’re driven into unrecognisable insignificance is some sort of meta commentary on the art of electronic music making itself? Mate, I’ve no idea, my head hurts if I’m being honest, at least ‘Morning Sun‘ is the least crazy thing on here

Album Link