HDLSS
“Colonizer”
Selections From The DUMB
This is definitely interesting electronic music that moves like waves of the a dark, endless see. The bass line just rolls over you. The high keyboards carry you along, while the background vocals lift you over the waves. HDLSS (pronounced Headless) is a “nocturnal pop” duo from Ridgewood, NY, consisting of Far and Wolfy. “Nocturnal pop” is a perfect definition. This is real dark music, made for midnight dreams. According to HDLSS, (and they say it much better than I ever could):
“We use a lot of subtle musical references to try to get our point across. As the song formed, we realized that lyrically it was about cultural appropriation. So, as a parody of the trend in white pop music to use tropical rhythms right now, we combined different elements from dancehall to create the same sort of effect while singing about colonization and white guilt. It’s funny to see college kids dancing to Diplo or Beiber one night, and protesting celebrity Halloween costumes another, as this type of appropriation is still ‘acceptable. I don’t think it’s necessarily people mocking those cultures, but rather it’s people missing having a culture of their own, so stealing it becomes profitable. There is a demand to find fresh exciting new things in other cultures when we’re swimming in a dead coral reef. It’s like mental and cultural colonization. Also, the intro is a reference to Steve Reich’s ‘drumming’ piece, which for us is like the end of Western music, which felt appropriate. Like, we have no choice but to steal from “foreign” cultures since Western art has gone to the extremes of Warhol or Mondrian or Steve Reich; where else is there to move forward? Strangely enough those are some of our favorite artists though, so its complicated. Western art reflects Western culture, an unsustainable downward trajectory, but it’s still beautiful, like a fire. It’s like our culture ate itself, can we have yours? But they don’t ask, I guess.”
This is perfect for midnight revelries.