Okay, I have to put something on here, which I have annoyed my friends with for quite some time now, but I want to make this marvelous collection complete. And it certainly wouldn’t be without Joe Snape’s – Brittle Love and pretty much everything that he has released.
Holy – this guy’s music seriously rocked my world and influenced all the music I have made since then. It was the first thing to really, truly have me baffled in terms of gerne or style. When I met Joe at a festival a year after discovering his music, he told me that for him, it wasn’t a matter of genre, but only a question of being genuine about what you write. His music is very much genuine, naked and honest, which makes it so touching. I guess, it’s what most people would call contemporary or experimental music but on the other hand it’s full of almost cheesy harmonies and melodies that are borrowed from pop. However you never fully get them served on a plate like that. Everything is kind of fragmented, distorted or blurred.
Check out “Mount Olympus” for example: Everything starts with a super intimate kalimba-like sound which acompanies what I think to be a harmonized solo clarinet. Everything is slightly out of tune and we only guess the underlying chord progression. It is as though someone wrote the most cheesy, heartbreaking piece of film music, took out most of the instruments and notes, detuned what was left and presented it in all it’s vulnerability. It builds up more and more, using pretty simple melody lines and the Snape-typical pitch shifted voice. When at 2:07, out of this sparkling mess, the solo ponticello violin arises and plays the most basic chord resolution, it breaks my heart everytime I hear this track! Everything explodes into a cloud of weirdness, reminding you that sentiments can never be only clichés and everything is more convoluted and complex than it might seem.
You can tell, I’m a huge fan. There is so much more I could say about Joe’s music. Most importantly though I will say this: If you open your ears for whats going on in his pieces, you will find something marvelous, truly unique and inspiring. His Album Brittle Love is not on Youtube or Soundcloud, but you can go and support him by buying it at bandcamp: https://slipimprint.bandcamp.com/album/brittle-love
Here’s one song, “Lada”, which is also an the album:
Favourite Track: Mount Olympus, Brittle Love, Closed for winter
How I found this: Recommended by a friend who had known Joe and seen some of his live shows earlier that year.
My friends don't like the songs I play 