MIKE

Zion I, “Radio”

Zion I always incorporates other styles of music into their hip-hop, and here, we’ve got something that kind of sounds kind of like conventional adult contemporary rock. Maybe there’s a reason other bands haven’t tried this sort of thing much?

Elvis Costello, “Party Girl”

From the extras on the deluxe reissue of Armed Forces, I sort of wish that the first bit here turned into the live version of “Surrender” from Cheap Trick. Or, uh, “Jimmy James”, which used the sample from the live version of “Surrender”.

Music over here.

Pharmakon, “Intent or Instinct”

Pharmakon is the avant garde noise project of Margaret Chardiet, one that is unflinchingly unpleasant. We go in for a fair bit of legitimately difficult music here at Five Songs, and Pharmakon is towards the top of the list. Chardiet was inspired to write it as a reaction to her own emergency surgery for a cyst, and it’s supposed to represent her abandonment by her own body. And, well, it sounds like it. Made of electronic noise and her own howls, shrieks, and agonized breathing, it’s disquieting in a way that many other extreme artists try for and don’t quite reach.