Inspired by the now-defunct chill out lounges of the 1990s, stagnant ships, and Copenhagen’s music scene, Melbourne artist Now Always Fades questions what could have been on his new EP, Into The Doldrums.
Whilst starting as protest music, trip-hop entered the mainstream through an almost manufactured melancholia. With obscure samples and chopped up drums, its chilled out nature served as the ultimate come down music – almost sonic paracetamol. It's all you wanted to hear after you were that acid rave for 9 hours straight in 1996.
“It's good hangover music in a way.”
Into The Dolodrums echoes a forlorn song. Weaponising nostalgia through downbeat trip hop beats, Now Always Fades mourns hopes and dreams of the past. On the title track, a siren song lulls and calls you with half-closed eyes. It asks, when the trade winds stop and your ship gets stuck, where do you turn? ‘Close To Greatness’ reads like a burnt-out gifted kid’s diary, ruminating over frantic drums. The sun finally comes out on ‘A Pain That I Used To Feel’, shining like a track on the Gorillaz’s Plastic Beach.
“As you get older too, like, maybe the slower tempos become more appealing too. So, there could be just a natural progression into like, live music that's also electronic.”
In today’s world, ‘recession pop’ is played across radio stations worldwide. Those who hold the nuclear codes are unstable and decrepit. And the median house price is well over a million dollars, rising with each coming day. In times like this, counterculture rises – a trip hop revival looms.
Words by Nick Hibbs