Bands That I Like

76 Dinner Dinner   I don’t even really know how to write about this artist. Honestly, I think I just came across his first release, 2015’s Three EPs, 2012-2014 , I was mesmerized by the album cover for some reason. The music was even more far-out. It sounded like one of Kraftwerk’s younger brothers playing on a synth, recording their own stuff, messing with vocal effects, down in the basement. Almost like a German Daniel Johnston… with higher-quality recordings. It is gritty yet glamorous. The project is the brainchild of Danish producer/vocalist Anders Rhedin. It began with the release of 2012’s You Are Like L.A. EP . The proper debut album came in 2016 with Psychic Lovers , a perfect blend of ‘80s-meets-2010s electro-pop. Since then we have gotten 2017’s New Work and 2019’s meditation-based Kyoto Window . Some people will be turned-off by Rhedin’s unique vocal style, which is primarily a goofy baritone. It’s like Nico’s voice slowed down 50%. This is like a more biz

75 Dimlite Dimlite I discovered Dimlite when I was at the Love Garden record store in Lawrence, KS. I was just flipping through the record collections, the vinyl, as you will & as you do and I came across the artwork for Dimlite’s Prismic Tops LP. This album was released in 2010. Now, I’m embarrassed to say, I was too broke at the time to afford the record. But that artwork stuck in my head and I went home and had to check out what that music sounded like… especially if the cover art was that trippy. So like a typical millennial, I went and found it on a streaming site. The music inside was just as titillating as the cover-art. Just like the cover-art: the music morphed and transcended upon itself- heading in every direction. Beats born out of beats. Dimlite is the project of Swiss producer Dimitri Grimm. He produces some jazz-odyssey-filled-hip-hop-beats. He first released the A/DD EP in 2003 and the full lengths (2005’s) Runbox Weathers and (2006’s) This Is Embracin

74 Death Grips Death Grips  Death Grips are as difficult as they are enthralling. This noise-punk-rap cyber-transgressive band consists of drummer Zach Hill, rapper MC Ride, and keyboardist Stefan Burnett. This band, for me, all starts with Zach Hill’s drumming. Hill is an amazing drummer whose main claim to fame is as the drummer for 2000’s math-rock band Hella. But he’s only a third of the project- because what really makes Death Grips so original is MC Ride’s amazing delivery, natural skill at rapping and overall persona. I’ve never seen a punk-rap group like this before: Sorry N.W.A. Death Grips formed in Sacramento in late 2010. Our first taste of Death Grips was of their self-released (2011’s) self-titled E.P. and debut-mixtape Exmilitary .  The Money Store was their proper debut album, an album recorded at Chateau Marmont and somehow released by a major label (the same one as Mariah Carey and Meghan Trainor if you can imagine that [who had the task of selling