4. Balam Acab – Wander / Wonder (2011)

Artist’s age at release: 20

What turns me off the most about some electronic music stems from either their lack of a lively human component or their tendency toward emotional indifference. I’m not dismissing your preference toward MIDI instruments or your choice to not do a key change over your quarter-note drum loop, I’m just saying there’s a good chance your music will bore me. On the flipside, some of the best electronic music that I’ve enjoyed thus far have been ones that thrive on redefining those characteristics in a way that makes me recognize their hidden potential and appreciate the creativity of the artist(s) involved, which often encompasses their technical ingenuity and attention to detail. Enter 20 year-old Alec Koone, an Ithaca College undergraduate releasing music from his upstate New York home whose 2011 Tri-Angle debut Wander / Wonder not only fits the above description but has also become one of my go-to mood albums for the past 2 years. For much of its 35+ minute-runtime, Koone utilizes musical and non-musical samples he sourced from various file-sharing sites and nature documentaries, creating a beautiful sonic tapestry of pitch-shifted, blissed-out R&B vocal snippets and gentle white noise textures that are equal parts glitchy electronics and barely-recognizable everyday sounds. On “Apart”, a modest ambient passage segues into an ear-rattling, bass heavy beat that is punctuated by eerie waves of decaying and distorted synth leads that never fail to make me feel like I’m 3000 feet beneath the ocean, taking my submersible further down as I double-check my oxygen levels and the water pressure around me that is slowly turning lethal. The 1:43 mark is when my vehicle collapses under its own weight and water starts to fill my lungs as I glimpse a faint indigo hue in the distance not unlike the one on the album cover. “Motion”, however, demonstrates that Balam Acab’s intentions aren’t always dark, as euphoric melodies phase in and out of each other to a smile-inducing effect. It’s that moment you never get to hear after a Burial-produced track ends, when the fog has completely disappeared and in comes sunlight. Step out and see.

Listen

5. Iceage – New Brigade (2011)

Artist’s age at release: 18-19

Out of all the albums that I’ve written about in this series so far, none embodies the spirit of youthful expression quite like New Brigade does. Clocking in at barely 25 minutes, its brevity alone reflects a kind of emotional rapture that comes and goes throughout that difficult but eventually cherished period in someone’s life. Musically, the relentlessly catchy and guitar-driven post punk that Iceage offer gains its momentum from lead singer Elias Rønnenfelt’s impassioned delivery and an effortless, in-the-moment playing style that sometimes results in a few broken strings (and bones) and mild-to-severe auditory discomfort to the inexperienced ear (think a more hi-fi but still abrasive Flux of Pink Indians). They’ve gradually become more calculated on subsequent releases (their latest and my personal favorite, Plowing into the Field of Love, heavily features arranged instrumentation. I highly recommend it as well), so New Brigade marks a point in their career where their mission statement was at its rawest and most unabashedly naïve. Of course, I’m not the one to tell you exactly what that entails, but every time I put New Brigade on and hear Rønnenfelt declare “I lie in a pool of spit and fear, but I won’t stay weak/ Or hurt or shattered/”, I feel as if I had screamed those words back at him from the midst of a packed crowd at a basement show before, sweaty and bleeding.

Listen

6. (Sandy) Alex G – DSU (2014)

Artist’s age at release: 21

If you could trace Will Toledo’s musical lineage back to indie rock trailblazers such as Modest Mouse and Guided by Voices, then Alex Giannascoli bears the DNA of Elliott Smith and Mark Linkous, singer-songwriters whose penchant for simple melodies didn’t betray their desire to push musical boundaries. They also treated music as a form of therapy, which added a personal layer to their body of work that was almost impossible to ignore. Even though Giannascoli’s lyrics come across as more abstract and less cathartic, they still paint a picture of someone who internalizes his worldly experiences through song and who marvels at the fact that you will never run out of sounds to do it with. Having been recording since the age of 13, Giannascoli has accumulated a decent amount of buzz and the musical know-how to show for it by the time New York-based label Orchid Tapes offered to release his sixth album, DSU. It couldn’t have happened at a more opportune time too considering how DSU serves as a potent distillation of what Alex G is all about, featuring short songs and musical passages that refuse to vacate your psyche even long after the album itself has. “Harvey” tells of the titular dog who Giannascoli has to leave behind while on tour and its instrumental backbone mainly consists of double-tracked acoustic guitars with faint harmonica, violin, and piano providing stray textures that culminate in a strawberry-sweet vocal melody sung by frequent collaborator Emily Yacina. “Icehead” showcases more of Alex G’s somber side as clean electric guitars guide Giannascoli’s pitch-shifted and layered vocals through an increasingly-crowded musical palette. It’s like watching distant landscapes wheel past from inside a moving car as it starts raining (Cole from DIIV did an Elliott Smith-ed cover of this song that you wouldn’t want to miss). If you go into DSU expecting an intimate, serenade-you-to-sleep kind of experience, it will take a while before you find it. But if you just let your guard down and welcome its assault, it will end up as a beating you learn a lot from.

Listen

---

Great Music Made by <= 21 Year-Olds

Part I