Top Tracks of 2008, Part Five
1. School of Seven Bells – Half Asleep – (2008) Alpinisms
I have a short attention span, and like to listen to many different types of music to enhance and accompany the many activities and settings I find myself in. But every so often, I hear a song, and I can’t help but put it on repeat for an entire day.
School of Seven Bells hails from New York and consists of identical twin sisters and a guitarist/beatmaker. While the instruments sound like indie pop, the Dehaza sisters’ haunting vocals add an otherworldly holiness. I like to think that hindu goddesses would boogie on down to this band in a Manhattan night club.
VISIT SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS AT MYSPACE
The ad-infitum-ness of this song stems largely from the fact that every reason I’ve listed for the above songs totally applies to this one. The music, while mostly electronic, blends in aspects of live instrumentation. The entrancing vocals of the identical twin lead singers inject a monastic meditative chant into what would otherwise be a catchy pop song. The near-monotone melodies of the verses and obfuscating diction of the chorus are initially off-putting, but deriving the lyrics yields the same life-changing revelations that I and my Gen Y Peers are arriving at to maintain our sanity through our quarter-life crises:
What begins as an unbridled train of thought
slowly can become an addiction
to the slumber of disconnection
and resonance of memory that no longer has a shape
but keeps you numb
through the hours ’til gone’s another day
[audio=http://simpleharmonicmotion.net/htc/20090114/mp3/top2008-01.mp3, School Of Seven Bells -- Half Asleep]
Dayv rocks an open mic at a local coffee shop every Saturday. He also co-produces a podcast of mixes at http://simpleharmonicmotion.net