The Living Music List #6: On Music's Role in a Cynical World

A venting session, a pledge, and a reminder that no amount of darkness can snuff out our art—followed by 50+ new music releases to help shed your cynicism.

Just want to see the new music recommendations? Scroll down or click the button below to check out the Living Music List. Otherwise, read on for this week’s reflection and the full list of new additions to the LML summarized.

Read the previous issue of The Living Music List:

The Living Music List #5: On Being Alone

Currently listening to: How Did You Feel? by Landing

Reflection

Hello, friend.

Huh. Is it stupid of me to keep calling you that? Friend?

We’re not really friends, are we? To each other, we’re invisible. I don’t think friends are supposed to be invisible.

To you, I’m a string of characters on a screen. An imagined voice that’s really your own, performing an impression of what you think I sound like. I’m someone else’s words helping your inner monologue practice its craft and, sure, maybe you feel and learn something along the way.

To me, you’re, well… you’re not much more than a dream. A wish for my silly little thoughts to be seen. You’re a number on a screen—a like, a statistic, a subscriber on my team. But above all, you’re a kernel of hope that my words and recommendations will, indeed, help you feel or learn something that you needed from me.

Maybe that’s why I’m doing this every week. Writing these reflections. Sharing new music suggestions. It’s a gesture of good faith to the population of others like me who I’m certain are out there reading the vulnerable work of us independent writers and feeling validation from someone else’s simple act of clicking the “Publish” button.

Because we all need that, don’t we? A reminder that we’re not alone in this shithole. Because, yeah, it’s been a downright shitty couple of weeks—er, months? Years?

A lonely young man took near-lethal aim at a former president who’s also a current candidate and convicted felon. A pandemic of biblical proportions swept the world, and we’ve already tried (perhaps successfully?) to repress it from our minds while the virus still floats around our atmosphere. A change in the global climate is occurring more rapidly than we can react to it, or even attempt to understand it.

And amid all these events, I’m most frightened by how easy it seems for us lucky Americans to just ignore the countless examples of genocide, instability, and geopolitical dick-measuring resulting daily in the death and misery of tens of millions of humans around this overheating trash heap.

Stuck Behind the Cynic’s Lens

Is it just me, or does everything feel like a scam lately? Like, everything we see online, everyone we thought we looked up to… it’s all counterfeit?

I recently read a New York Times article about how umbilical cord blood banks, in partnership with physicians and hospitals, mislead millions of new parents with false promises of stem cell storage for future, potentially life-altering treatment of various maladies. Turns out, a large portion of those stem cell samples are going bad, becoming contaminated or not actually containing enough cells to be usable. And yes, the doctors are often the ones pushing these very vulnerable and malleable parents to pay thousands of dollars—and continue paying money every year—for this frequently useless practice.

If there’s anyone I should be able to trust, it’s a fucking doctor who just delivered my baby.

It’s revelations like this that have continuously, dramatically darkened my vision of the world in which we live. This world in which we attempt to raise families and make art and just enjoy some hard-earned peace.

It’s the state of this world that makes me question all my goals. Sometimes, I wonder: what’s the point?

Should I be out there spending all my free time protesting and campaigning for causes I believe in, trying to drop a small pebble of change into a giant pond of fucked up? I see millions of people out there doing just that, and yet, the pond is still swallowing us up.

In America, our votes continue to be the lesser of two evils, or at least the lesser of two extremely undesirable options. Gun violence still rages across the nation. Homelessness is dealt with via spiky benches instead of shelters and mental health services. Isolationism is increasing in a time that feels like an echo from 80 years ago, when the world was experiencing a similar time of expanding global war and human rights violations.

Have we forgotten how appeasement failed? It’s cliché as hell that I can’t help but ask myself every day: Is history doomed to repeat itself? And has our luck just finally run out?

Maybe I should just focus on the small things I can control. Work hard to put my family and I in the best position in case shit hits the fan. It’s a selfish desire, but it’s how humans tend to react—often need to react—in situations of shit hitting the fan. Maybe things like my silly little newsletter with my rambling reflections mean nothing in the grand scheme of things.

After all, this world is trying its hardest to crush the efforts of the meaning makers.

Maybe it’s time to give up…

The Cynic’s Pledge

No.

I will keep voicing my support for the best viable political option (never Trump).

I will not shun my fellow humans who are trying to survive and put their people in the best positions they can muster.

I will not ignore the crimes and atrocities taking place in places far flung from me, as painful as they may be, just because they aren’t happening to me.

Above all, I will not give up on making something meaningful, even if the cynical voice in my head tells me it is tiny and insignificant.

For it is in the darkest times, when division seems omnipresent and the cruelest wills appear omnipotent, that a flame must continue to burn. A light must continue to shine, to be a beacon drawing in the other weary souls (for there are many of us) to its warm protection.

Making Music in a Cynical World

Recently, I saw a thread online about the message behind ambient music. Can ambient music, or any instrumental music without lyrics, really have a message? Is there a point to it? Is it meaningful?

Most of you reading this will probably agree that of course it is meaningful and a message can be sent without the need for words overtly stating it. Most of us have looked at an abstract painting and felt something.

Our brains are essentially hardwired to glean more than what our senses immediately receive. Colors make us feel certain ways. Music in different keys deliver different thoughts and emotions. Clouds that don’t actually have a consistent form will be interpreted by our brains as different familiar images that the clouds are obviously not intentionally creating.

The context of when, where, how, and why we experience a piece of art (and knowing the background on who created it) influences our experience tremendously, too. Blue doesn’t always mean sad—it can make us feel nostalgic, happy, or any other emotion. We may connect blue with a certain person, and our view of that person affects our view of the color blue. We may connect a song with a time in our life, and that song triggers memories and feelings from that time.

With the state of it all feeling the way it does right now, in the depths of my cynicism, music and art feels a lot more important to me. It feels more necessary and vital than it did 10 years ago. And the songs we listen to aren’t exclusively escape mechanisms, either. They can actively create changes in the public discourse.

It’s why there are so many examples throughout history of artists playing key roles during negative events. Consider the Woodstock festival and the American music scene in the 1960s and ‘70s, when the Vietnam War was destroying families, burning villages, and annihilating public morale. Remember the bands of the 1990s and early 2000s who were openly critical of their government and military, like Rage Against the Machine, Green Day, and Lamb of God.

When I’m being constantly inundated with bad news and anxiety for the future, I want to listen to something ambient to chill out, but also to support a fellow artist who has cast aside cynicism to share their unique sound with a relatively small audience.

When the world is shaking from the machines of war, I want to let loose and dance to Club Classics because it reminds me that sometimes the simplest joy comes from the pound of a kick drum and the sweaty mosh of a crowded room.

I want to make music of my own, and it doesn’t need words to send a message. I may not even release it, but the act of making it becomes a light in what could have been a very dark day for me.

Music is sound, but it is also light.

It illuminates emotions inside of us. It sparks ideas and relationships. It makes an individual or a collective shine. It guides us into its halo, where an audience of listeners like us stand together. We bob our heads and stomp our feet. We sing, or we yell, or we whistle or hum. We smile. We make stank faces and marvel at a musician’s talent. We go off on internal tangents, interpreting a song’s lyrics or chord progressions or subtle movements. We cry. We embrace each other.

We do all of this together when music is performed live, or we imagine it all as we listen at home alone on headphones. No matter where we are or whom we’re with, music lights us up.

That’s why music is one of the most important tools we use to dispel the darkness. And that’s why, as cynical as I’ve felt lately, I will continue to listen to it and create it and share it with this dark world.

So, please tell me: what are you listening to today, friend?

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Music Recommendations

Hello again, friend.

Thank you for reading today’s post. I hope you enjoyed the reflection—and maybe you are feeling at least a little bit less cynical… maybe?

If not, maybe the new music will do the trick.

Happy listening.

The Living Music List—Ambient

Note: All of the below ambient projects are available on Bandcamp. * denotes reader-submitted work—thank you!

1. Planetary Forces by Cosmic Cadence (album / space, psybient)*

2. Parallels by theAdelaidean / Steve Roach (album / drone, space)

3. Nightstream by Jeff Pearce (EP / ambient guitar, space)

4. Expanse 2 by Mick Chillage (album / space, dark ambient)

5. The Quietus by How To Disappear Completely (album / drone, dark ambient)

6. Torn by Veins Full Of Static & Two Way Mirrors (album / drone, electroacoustic)

7. il mare cancella, di notte by Lamasz, come le onde (album / drone, minimal)

8. all the ways in which i am mute by daily rituals (album / experimental, musique concrète

9. The World Between Breaths by XU (album / drone, experimental)

10. cilok by sonnov (album / drone, dark ambient)

11. Where We Are by Chad Lawson (album / classical crossover, ambient piano)

12. Hardy Boys by Emile Mosseri & Sam Gendel (album / experimental, jazz)

13. Galaxy by Stephan Moccio (single / classical crossover, ambient piano)

The Living Music List—All Genres

Note: All of the below projects are available on major streaming services.

1. Bando Stone and The New World by Childish Gambino (album / pop)

2. King Of The Mischeivous South Vol. 2 by Denzel Curry (album / hip-hop/rap)

3. Let’s Get On Dey Ass by Lil Yachty (single / hip-hop/rap)

4. I Love You So F***ing Much by Glass Animals (album / alternative)

5. Kansas Anymore by ROLE MODEL (album / pop)

6. As Above, So Below by Highly Suspect (album / rock)

7. 1 by bby (album / alternative)

8. Work It Out by Joe Jonas (single / pop)

9. Reverie by Gorgon City (album / dance)

10. Satellite Business 2.0 by Sampha & Little Simz (single / electronic)

11. some ep by deadmau5 (EP / dance)

12. Proof of Life by Boombox Cartel (album / electronic)

13. Albacete Knife by Al Wootton (EP / techno)

14. RITUAL (palace) by Jon Hopkins & Vylana (single / electronic)

15. Gem Lingo (ovr now) [feat. Ruthven] by Overmono (single / electronic)

16. heartbeat (feat. Vv Pete) [rebirth] by Logic1000 (single / dance)

17. Smile (feat. Carolina Liar) by Martin Garrix (single / dance)

18. I’ll Always Come Find You by Blxst (album / hip-hop/rap)

19. MÖBIUS MORPHOSIS by JB Dunckel (album / electronic)

20. All Hell by Los Campesinos (album / alternative)

21. Live From 525 by Elmiene (album / R&B/soul)

22. MINISERIES 2 by SUMI & slom (album / R&B/soul)

23. Unbound by Bizhiki (album / alternative)

24. Ill Times by GUM & Ambrose Kenny-Smith (album / alternative)

25. Second Dinner by slimdan (album / alternative)

26. Electrolytes by Summer Salt (album / indie rock)

27. Fallout by Major Murphy (album / indie rock)

28. Ancient//Future by Mourning [A] BLKstar (album / R&B/soul)

29. In Green We Dream by Parlor Greens (album / R&B/soul)

30. UHURU by United Freedom Collective (EP / alternative)

31. 100 Cowboys by Carter Vail (album / indie pop)

32. Yes by Big Sean (single / hip-hop/rap)

33. HEAVY JELLY by SOFT PLAY (album / rock)

34. Mischa Maisky in Verbier (Live) by Mischa Maisky (album / classical)

35. Science, Not Fiction by Orange Goblin (album / metal)

36. DARK SIDE OF THE BRAIN by FLAT BLACK (album / metal)

37. 15 MINUTES by Madison Beer (single / pop)

38. Female Intuition by Mabel (single / pop)

39. Drugs by Joy Oladokun (single / singer/songwriter)

40. Dead Man by Alessia Cara (single / pop)

41. breaking news by flowerovlove (single / pop)

42. Saltwater by Lee Clarke & Ivy Sole (single / R&B/soul)

43. Nack Nostalgia by Royel Otis (single / alternative)

44. Oblivion by SOHN (single / singer/songwriter)

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In the News (From the Archives)

Before I go, here are a few pieces of old news specific to ambient/electronic music that I had missed upon their initial release (note: these stories are not new, but worthwhile reads/listens nonetheless):

• From NPR (All Things Considered—April 7, 2024): “Why the ambient music market is booming”

• From edm.com (July 12, 2022): “Researcher Documents Climate Change Effects by Transcribing Ambient Sounds of Glaciers”

• From the New York Times (June 22, 2023): “Ambient Music Isn’t a Backdrop. It’s an Invitation to Suspend Time.”

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Thanks again for reading. Until next time.

Your friend,

Melted Form

Remember to listen to the hum, buzz, & hiss of the world around you—there is music to be heard there.

Want to suggest music for me to listen to? Have questions? Leave a comment or email me at meltedform@gmail.com. You can also join my chat on Substack.