1 post tagged “the qualia”
I friggin' hate MySpace. But, it does have its upsides--as a means of getting my music Out There for the enjoyment of others, it's quite convenient. And, conversely, it also allows me to discover a great variety of new, unsigned or independent, acts...some of which have proven to be so good that it astonishes me they're not more well-known.
A perfect example is The Qualia (official homepage), a unique outfit consisting of multi-instrumentalist L. Casteen and assorted others. Their music is a catchy combination of synthpop rhythms, folky acoustic guitars, spaghetti-western reverb, and witty lyrics. Their first album, Nevada's Greatest, is self-described as "The best pop record about robotic cowboys, advanced physics, revenge, drinking, desert battles, automobiles, narcissism, suburban sprawl, and hope EVER"--and, truly, it does live up to that description! The tunes are evocative of bare Nevadan landscapes of the near future, prowled by cyborg gunslingers and gigantic sentient trucks running supplies from one walled desert oasis to another. Songs vary from lush to spare, danceable to mournful, and display a lot of diversity and talent. The only arist/album that comes close to this kind of electropop experimentalism is NASA's masterful Remembering the Future (from which The Spacing Guild Guide to Good Music takes its slogan), and, like NASA, The Qualia have managed to perfectly capture that essence of "music of the future from the past." Many of the songs are evocative of "futuristic music" from the early 1980s, like Gary Numan, Kraftwerk, and Afrika Bambataa--yet they're still very fresh and the production is exquisitely modern. I can't recommend them highly enough.
The Qualia are signed to indie electronic label WTII Records, home of such awesome synth stars as Beborn Beton, Stromkern, and La Floa Maldita. You can order Nevada's Greatest and listen to some further samples of their music here.
