Culture
Suggested Listening ’20: Demetri Wolfe
< < Back toWhat a year 2020 was! Since it is doubtful anyone even believes in linear time anymore, it seems fitting that WOUB Culture is rolling out our Suggested Listening feature in January instead of December. The world is a hard place, and aren’t we all so grateful to have music to make it a little more bearable!
Demetri Wolfe is a musician and producer with Athens, OH roots who currently is based out of Chicago.
Top Albums of 2020
Floral – Floral LP
In my humble opinion, math rock is a genre that is beginning to grow incredibly homogeneous, especially because of the internet. However, Floral delivers a totally refreshing take on not just instrumental guitar music, but also on music’s form in general. Even with just clean guitar and drums, they have created a work of art that holds up against your favorite instrumental record.
Recommended listening: “80%”
Jinjer – Alive in Melbourne
Although none of these songs are new, covid really has me missing live shows. This live album by Ukrainian extreme music band Jinjer delivers on that brutal sonic assault all of us music lovers have been missing from the last year or so, in addition to some of the most melodically interesting, genre bending, multifaceted metal that currently exists! If you don’t know the name Tatiana Shmayluk, you shall come to know her and her two personalities soon enough.
Recommended listening: “Retrospection (live)”
Deftones – Ohms
Deftones tend to have this pattern of creating a top-tier album, following it up with a disappointing album, and then repeating that cycle over again. Ohms is the part where they make not just an incredible record, but an extreme sonic landscape where it feels like anything is possible. Amazing production on Terry Date’s part.
Recommended listening: “This Link is Dead”
Mestis – En Vivo
If it didn’t say it last time, I REALLY MISS LIVE SHOWS! One goal I had in 2020 was to see Javier Reyes with his other band Animals as Leaders, but I ended up staying inside, closing my eyes and losing myself vibing to his much simpler, groove oriented solo project, Mestis. From the roar of the fans, to his hilarious stage banter, to songs that are as lyrical as they are instrumental, this is the closest you’ll get to filling the void left from no concerts in 2020.
Recommended listening: Mt. Pleasant (Live)
Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia
Dua Lipa will single handedly save pop music. Armed with instrumentation that is as classic as it is refreshing, she has released some of her best material to date. Future Nostalgia is a perfect example of why we do not have to actively listen to pop music for its earworm-like melodies to fester in our heads until we’re all singing along!
Recommended Listening: Levitating
Honorable Mentions
Fruit island- Standards
Covet- Technicolor
Chromatica- Lady Gaga
Inoculous- Innocuous Inoculant 12