Max Tundra: Mastered by Guy at the Exchange

lol that rules

lotta pop music that I hear nowadays sounds like max tundra mbtgate

oh yeah he's the og hyperpop guy, for sure. as with many ogs his work is also pretty different from his successors when you look under the hood. definitely an irreducible, quirky tundran core, as opposed to the cultivated emptiness of some in the pc music universe

yeah more like twitchy straight ahead pop rather than pure cool weirdo or dumb art weirdo stuff

whenever I hear any pink panthress track I feel like I'm hearing him singing

“mgtgate” -> it’s not “the guy” but “Guy”, Guy Davie at The Exchange. Really a brilliant album title imho

whenever people say "I listen to podcasts at 1.5x speed" it makes me think of "Merman" which I think is a really funny way to make a 3 minute pop song into a 2 minute one

I seem to remember, and I might be wrong, but I think it was a Pitchfork review, of “Parallax Error Beheads You”, and I think it was written by the beautiful Dominique Leone, and I think it began with a fantasy-version of the previous decade of pop, where MBGATE was the primary indie influence on electronic chart-pop (as opposed to The Postal Service); and wouldn’t it be great if we’d had a decade of music that sounded like that instead of a decade of Owl City. Seems like Max lost the battle but won the war in the end!

Ha, quite! Leone's own pop experiments can definitely play in that game too btw - crashingly underrated and proto-hyper

one exciting prospect of AI is more weird pop dudes making stuff like "Orphaned"

I drunkenly accosted him post-show in portland ca. 2009 and basically asked him "how the hell did you make orphaned" and he was like, "it was 6 months of my life mate" and was keen to point out that it never repeats. so ... you're right.

― unknown pleasure zone (uptown churl), Sunday, November 9, 2014 1:51 AM bookmarkflaglink

i think of this post every time i think of this (incredible) song.

Might finish this. https://t.co/RVxzqbBSPx

— Max Tundra (@MaxTundra) January 27, 2023

Please!

(The quoted Tweet is from March 30, 2012)

https://thequietus.com/articles/33310-max-tundra-interview-kate-bush

New music - version of This Woman's Work + nice interview.

(Ben your time has come I hope)

delighted to hear he also adores "human sadness" and that a new album is coming along (though very slowly)

his hyperpop "this woman's work" cover rules too. i'm excited to hear new music from him that's influenced by all the cool stuff he's influenced in the last decade

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6x9CggWVsiA

i hadn't noticed he put out a new version of "lights" earlier this month, very promising for where he's at right now. it somehow answers the question "what if bloc party were hyperpop"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8W5RzTCAY0

oh there's a 6 minute version of it here too, even better. really wonderful stuff

Kind of odd that that interview doesn't mention the Daphne and Celeste album at all.

I was a bit surprised by that - kind of nice in a 'let's keep the focus on you' way but it does seem both big & pertinent, so weird there's not even a small mention.

that new "Lights" is very cool - the chimey sound added in the second verse might be a sped up "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" lol. Kate Bush cover is ok, wish more of it was like the final minute

the D&C album is a Max Tundra album in my mind, he wrote and produced the whole thing and his style is pretty strong on it. I don't like the album as much as his three solo albums but still look forward to anything he puts out

somehow missed the Daphne & Celeste album when it came out! been listening to it off and on for the past week since your post, Vinnie. it's a charmer! no question that i hear his style in basically every melody and production choice. maybe with fewer moments of sheer MIDI-glitchy sonic explosion than i'm used to? but very clearly of tremendous interest to any Tundra fan alive, glad to be getting to know it. "BB" was stuck in my head all yesterday and into the night.

Yeah "BB" and "You and I Alone" are def keepers