holly herndon, boards of canada and sun kil moon

Sun Kil Moon - Garden of Lavender

I see the big orange tabby cat
Getting warm on the cover of the laptop
He turns over on his back
Looking for a belly rub
I see the deer trap
And the snow on the end of the path
That leads into my backyard
I hear the sound of my girlfriend's car
Coming up the driveway and it fills my heart
With joy
Though I know it'll all end someday

Sun Kil Moon combines melody with casual stream-of-consciousness rambles and deeply personal anecdotes to make music that celebrates the mundane. His openness reminds me of how social media has transformed our modes of communication (and art.) We share openly, often without thought. He's the David Foster Wallace of folk.  

I love Boards of Canada because their songs always strike a chord. Often, I feel like an alien visiting earth, stranded and alone. Their music sounds like a field recording an alien may create if it visited this planet. A capsule of what it means to be human - artificial, but still an embodiment. Music of the future and now.

My boyfriend introduced me to Holly Herndon. She's a doctoral student at Stanford who studies composition. Her music is out of this world, and incredibly forward-facing. Her relationship with technology is both conflicted yet dependent, and it's reflected beautifully in her latest album Platform. Platform was the first album to include a track (Lonely at the Top) intended to trigger Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR).