By Kavit Sumud | December 4th, 2012
Songs about male bonding tend to get stuck in a vortex of arrested development. Sure, we do more than rambunctious, drunken nights out and ogling together, but you wouldn’t know it by the music that represents us. There are a lot of academic reasons for this, but, simply put, consciously or unconsciously, most male artists avoid potentially orchestrating the soundtrack to the bromance.
Which is a terrible shame, because there is loads of material to mine in this vein. See, for instance, Majical Cloudz’ recent single, “What That Was,” which unabashedly captures the life-giving intimacy of times between him and his best friend, Neil. It sways with a subdued exhilaration much in the same manner as Simon and Garfunkel’s, “The Only Living Boy In New York,” with as much emotional punch — without the uneasy tension — as Sufjan Stevens’ “Futile Devices.” Free from stereotypical cliches, Majical Cloudz material is able to soar in ways few tracks that on this topic do.
Most of you might know Majical Cloudz from his work with Grimes, as he is featured prominently on her track “Nightmusic,” but he’s also released a largely overlooked previous LP and EP, which you can check out on his Bandcamp. However, with the quality of his recent effort, Turn Turn Turn (which this track can be found on), I predict he’s going to be on the fingertips every indie blogger soon.