8 Tracks: To Strive to with Sharp Veins

Music

What do you know about apocalyptic music?

Sharp Veins released one of this years most out there albums which kindly represents the insanity of 2020 in the truest of senses. At times there are beautiful moments found delicately poised across an album which is hard to place. In other moments, Sharp Veins aka Harrison King, goes all out destroyer in an attempt to damage minds and ears with huge evil soundscapes and noise. It is the juxtaposition between this approach which makes ‘Armor Your Actions Up In Quest’ a wholeheartedly interesting listen, one which reflects reality as it is rather than what it might be.

He himself described the album as follows:

“I revisited and analysed new and old records, most of which weren’t electronic, front to back, and eventually, I ﬁgured, ‘fuck it, I might as well elucidate sonic intentions’: I wanted to make conspicuously plastic, garbled and mismatched music; pieces that, added together, amounted to something garish and bursting. These cartoonish versions of established and appreciated rock ‘n’ metal tropes are reduced to their strata, mixed and matched, strained to MIDI and forcibly ripped and pasted back together with no regard for tastefulness. It seemed like a good way to at once overcome writer’s block and turn my nose up at the notions of musical purity that were consistently giving me ﬁts of imposter syndrome.”

With a narrative as wild as that we asked him to pick some records he likes and write about them, which he does in eight below:

Buy the release HERE.

LISTEN

Bladee - Noblest Strive

Every year I get into a thing or two I wouldn’t have expected to get into. This year it was country and Bladee. Exeter and 333 both rule, but the latter is just so relentlessly uplifting (I take pause when I see that word but here it’s really true) that I could’ve made this strive song list exclusively out of selections from it. ‘Noblest Strive’ features some real cinematic, crossing-the-finish-line-cresting-the-hill production courtesy of White Armor & Mechatok, and Bladee’s lyrics just embody the feeling of peeling oneself off the ground after being slapped down.

Bladee - Noblest Strive

Every year I get into a thing or two I wouldn’t have expected to get into. This year it was country and Bladee. Exeter and 333 both rule, but the latter is just so relentlessly uplifting (I take pause when I see that word but here it’s really true) that I could’ve made this strive song list exclusively out of selections from it. ‘Noblest Strive’ features some real cinematic, crossing-the-finish-line-cresting-the-hill production courtesy of White Armor & Mechatok, and Bladee’s lyrics just embody the feeling of peeling oneself off the ground after being slapped down.
Björk - It's Not Up To You

I count Vespertine among the albums that have really helped me when I was at the bottom of a well. It’s a really empathetic record, feels like exchanging secrets in whispers most of the time. This song is maybe the most expansive on a record of micro emotional landscapes. It’s all about giving in and letting go, finding joy in daily uncertainty. I think about it all the time.
After The Burial - Ometh

This song’s about slashing and burning the decaying old self to rise above and regenerate, a sentiment that finds its purest expression in the solo late guitarist Justin A. Lowe takes late in the song. I’d recommend looking at the youtube comments for this one as there are some stirring testimonials there. RIP Justin.
Dragonforce - Once In A Lifetime

Dragonforce makes willfully corny music that often collapses under the weight of its own excess, but when they hit, they really fucking hit. I remember listening to this, the closing track from their 2004 album Sonic Firestorm, in carpool after middle school. I took it a lot more seriously back then, but even now I think (with an unfortunate and unavoidable amount of ironic detachment) it’s a posi-metal masterpiece, not all that dissimilar from loved-up euphoric trance [enter my next pick].
Dj Shah Feat. Adrina Thorpe - Back To You (Aly & Fila Remix)

Armin van Buuren’s A State of Trance 2008 was kind of my dance music gateway drug, though at the time I thought of it less as a collection of dance music and more as this really earnest expression of emotional states. This track features in the ‘In The Club’ section of ASOT 2008 and has one of my favorite breakdown-build sequences. The stutter right before the drop is so simple, so effective, and somehow so moving. There’s a real sense of triumph in the beat that rubs so effectively against this yearning in the lyrics that isn’t quite answered. Another selection with excellent youtube comments.
Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs - Highlight

I love this EP, and this track really is the highlight. It’s such a loud, joyful song with this slight hint of melancholy, so it basically occupies the exact center of my tonal sweet spot.
Motivational Song

This song makes me want to make mistakes. It’s so direct: two identical verses about not being afraid of fucking up, then a long series of ‘she-bops’ that lead to an unraveled conclusion. Algernon forever, Some Kind of Cadwallader is a perfect album <3
Kingdom Hearts Simple And Clean [Birth By Sleep] By Utada Hikaru 720p Hd Audio Boost Remix W/Lyrics

My love for this remix was sort of a precursor to my love of trance. It’s very synthetic but there’s so much passion in the delivery and the melody. It breaks my heart a little every time I hear it. The perfect song to introduce you to the world of Kingdom Hearts, a striving game if there ever was one.