AVAA! as a young cis man (??) who is currently going through something of a crisis with regards to that aforementioned identifier, artists like jane and underscores have been really helping me begin to grasp some of the almost indescribable emotions i've been struggling with. that "afraid i only changed myself because you're not into the original" line that you pointed out floored me when i first heard it, because i think it so directly addresses the subconscious (self-directed) transphobia that still lingers for me. i fear that my questioning of my gender stems from nothing more than wanting to be perceived by others as more 'desirable' or 'attractive', rather than a genuine feeling of dysphoria. i've no idea if this is a problem that trans people face, but regardless it hits home for me. My little (much too personal) ramble aside, thank you for treating trans art with such deep respect. it's clear that you are genuinely interested in understanding more about the trans experience via the amazing music they're creating. your insights have made me love this album even more. thank you, Skye!!
I've been a viewer for a little while, and as a trans woman I have always appreciated your videos on trans artists. I believe I first found your videos when you reviewed Dorian Electra's My Agenda, and I've always appreciated your takes. thank you for being an ally. listening to and actually feeling, analyzing, and understanding music from artists like Jane Remover and underscores, whose music is deeply and inherently trans, is more than most cis people do to try to understand us. AVAA! i appreciated your take on the line "afraid i only change myself because you're not into the original", because doubt is a thing we feel sometimes. when pretty much everyone else doubts you, it is incredibly hard not to internalize it. all of us deal with internalized transphobia to some extent. i doubted myself a lot at the beginning and was really afraid to even feel that way because i knew how bad it would be for me if I decided I was wrong. but even the fear of secretly not being trans deep down and having to detransition is also internalized transphobia. i think some level of doubt is normal, but cishet society doubts us so much and we have to fight so hard and work for years to be recognized, so showing any doubt at all is like offering up the perceived validity of your entire identity on a silver platter to a school of hungry transphobic piranhas. also if you get the chance you should try to see underscores on her current tour! just saw her and she was great. one of my favourite shows i've been to.
AVAA As a transfem musician, i wanted to weigh in the best that i could on the idea of "trans music." I can only speak of my own experience, but transitioning completely changed the way I thought about life. I felt like so many things that I assumed were truths about myself were much less fixed and much more fluid. That freedom I felt was not limited to how I dressed or presented, it naturally extended into how I artistically expressed myself as well. Few things have been as difficult to grapple with and deconstruct as the expectations of my assigned gender at birth. Idk, i guess once I'd done a lot of that work, the expectations and limits of something like a music genre seemed inconsequential and not worth taking seriously to me. So on one hand, the sky's the limit. Music genre doesn't feel like something i have to think about until it's being released and has to get tagged. On the other hand, i can't possibly explain how much it mattered to me and impacted me when I started discovering trans artiats. Listening to Black Dresses for the first time and hearing my experiences reflected back at me made me feel seen the way nothing had before. Of course I'm going to draw inspiration from the music that speaks to me. I didn't even know that there were options to express myself as a transfem vocalist until then! So anyway that was a lot of words to say that genre feels like a pointless limit to me and i am constantly inspired by other trans musicians.
i feel when you're forced to question everything about yourself and the world around you, what you resonate with artistically definitely changes. cis people or any other group that consequently do not need to question much about their existence often resonate with more "normal" expressions of art. people with very different upbringings and adulthoods feel comforted by experimentation and darker themes (love Black Dresses btw). it's a really common saying but there's truth to it; art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable
avaa. i've definitely noticed a similar thing about deadAir. they also have a guy named quannnic, who is also really interesting. his album from last year, kenospia, was one of my favourite albums last year. he has a new album coming out in november as well that i'm very excited for.
AVAA Professor ! Frailty is my favorite album of all time and made me a lifelong fan of Jane's work, so seeing you review this new album was a treat. This and underscores' album are my two favorites of the year so far
45:20 As someone who just got out of a relationship with someone 12 years older than myself the whole, "sex drive vampire" idea you come to here is really accurate lmao
excited to watch this one ! i owe so much to Jane’s music and this new album is really incredible. there’s a few more albums that have come out recently that i think are worth your time: Matana Roberts’ Coin Coin Chapter 5, another installment of their 12 chapter series exploring family dynamics and american history Slauson Malone 1’s Excelsior has some of the most vibrant and dizzying compositions and production you’ll hear this year, with some great songwriting mixed in too Kristin Hayter (of lingua ignota) just released her new album that sounds like an old freaky christian tape lost to time, using faith and salvation as an allegory for personal healing. It’s nuts! MIKE just released what could be his magnum opus, a sprawling rap album Burning Desire about a mediocre mask carver from Liberia with some of his best production and finally OPN’s Again is a wild synth collage winding through past eras of himself, one of the most expansive and sonically rich records you’ll hear this year hope you’ll check some out ! 😮
AVAA! I think you really are on to something with your attempts at classifying a “trans music”, if anything because I find myself as a trans person gravitating toward these exact albums for many of these elements you mention. I think most of the stylistic similarities could however more be attributable to the ‘scene’ these artists are creating, it being more literal in the sense of collaboration and inspiration from each other rather than inherent to the genre, but as far as lyrical and thematic content I think you’re on the money with the theory of where we see ourselves in the music. The “of the moment”-ness you speak of is really crazy as all of this is developing with so much great music coming out at a breakneck pace; just next week at least I believe we’ve got albums from Katie Dey and saiorse dream that i’m super excited for, hoping you’ll cover those as well and i’m sure they’ll give us even more to talk about around what this trans art stuff all means
im a nonbinary artist n i listen to alotta artists who happen to be transfeminine (jane, patricia taxxon, vylet pony, laura les from 100 gecs, black dresses + both of its members' solo work, sophie, underscores, 4lung, d0llywood1... etc...) n ive noticed a consistent set of characteristics. zippy synths n airy melodies with a sharper, more industrial edge. ive watched many of your taxxon reviews so im sure you can pick up on what i mean. even outside of hyperpop adjacent stuff, for example devi mccallion from black dresses makes this weird take on pop that has some glitchy abrasive edge to it, and 4lung just straight up makes happy hardcore. elements of body horror or confusion involving the individuals sense of self, whether physical or mental, ex; laura les describes herself and things around her as ghosts throughout demos on her a2b2 mix, black dresses has lyrics relating to being "dead" as a metaphor for trauma and oppression, patricia taxxons album "foley artist" has mentions of shedding skin and fearing what will happen when she dies as a metaphor for dysphoria. also theyre really good at brain tickling sound design, like what the hell, literally all of these artists have at least one album full of experimental bridges i keep replaying over and over.
This is the first video of yours i've seen but I'm definitely going to stick around! You're so respectful and thoughtful and so eloquent with your thoughts :) AVAA thank you for the awesome video!!!
AVAA, professor ! i find it really interesting that you bring up 90s, i think i got very similar vibes from stuff of that era like no doubt and garbage, not sonically but lyrically. the almost satirical touch of the lyrics that can be used to suit any sort of manipulation or power dynamic, sexual or otherwise. loved this album and loved hearing ur thoughts :)
this is my favorite album of all time already. frailty saved my life and census is the most excited i’ve ever been for music and i was not disappointed. avaa !! wonderful video :)
AVAA!!! I think its good to note that Douglas Dulgarian of They are Gutting a Body of Water played guitar on a lot of these tracks. A band who has been making waves in philly for a while
AVAA!! i finally got around to watching this, jane is the future imo and i love how ur able to recognize how this kind of dark beautiful music appeals to the youth, while also giving completely new perspectives throughout. and i kept making hum connections too!
i think you might be onto something with the trans music idea. ive also noticed similar trends , its interesting to wonder whether this comes from artists being inspired by each other in the queer community or if its an intrinsic manifestation of the trans experience. (i am trans and make music lol)
Your links between trans artists definitely scan, and it's a thoughtful observation. There are a few other sides to "trans music" that I think could be included. Anohni and Ezra Furman for example both pull from further back in popular music history, using familiar forms of expression for their own purposes. My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross reads like a classic protest record from the 60s or 70s, and links the struggle of trans liberation to other forms of liberation the listener might be familiar with. Ezra Furman's songs sound very classically pop and so become universal as a result. They both have very confessional lyrics that occasionally use body horror, though. You've also got the deep history of trans artists within house music, which (to generalise) is more about creating a utopian vision of reality in the present. Octo Octa and Eris Drew very much represent this with T4T LUV NRG. Trans art can of course be as broad and expansive as art from any other group of people. There are some themes that link our stories together, but it's the found community aspect that I think leads to these kinds of approaches we see in popular art by trans people.
I l(avaa)ove this album. Census Designated, Holding a Leech and Always Have Always Will have been on constant rotation. And please, please listen to Again by Oneothrix Point Never 😫 and if you're able to i would recommend reading his anothermag interview for the album. Same guy who made the sountrack for uncut gems and good time. Co-produced Dawn FM as well!
incredible insight, absolutely loved this video and I love seeing other peoples thoughts on this album, you always have such an interesting perspective on music. Love the trans allyship on display in this video, means more than you can know. AVAA
thank you so much for listening!! i love your videos!! AVAA!!
jane and skye in the same place will make me cry tears of joy
🥹 you're the best Jane
Jane ! You are incredible ! This album rocks and I love your dariacore stuff! Keep rocking 🫡🫡
One of the best albums of the year keep up the good work!
Holy shit it's Jane remover from family guy
just to be helpful, jane really dislikes when dltzk is used to refer to her art, it somewhat serves as a deadname. avaa love the videos :)
also its pronounced delete-zeke
@@bitingmylips666doesn’t matter
It’s a dude that wears a sports bra and cries into a auto tune pedal 😂
AVAA! as a young cis man (??) who is currently going through something of a crisis with regards to that aforementioned identifier, artists like jane and underscores have been really helping me begin to grasp some of the almost indescribable emotions i've been struggling with. that "afraid i only changed myself because you're not into the original" line that you pointed out floored me when i first heard it, because i think it so directly addresses the subconscious (self-directed) transphobia that still lingers for me. i fear that my questioning of my gender stems from nothing more than wanting to be perceived by others as more 'desirable' or 'attractive', rather than a genuine feeling of dysphoria. i've no idea if this is a problem that trans people face, but regardless it hits home for me.
My little (much too personal) ramble aside, thank you for treating trans art with such deep respect. it's clear that you are genuinely interested in understanding more about the trans experience via the amazing music they're creating. your insights have made me love this album even more. thank you, Skye!!
I've been a viewer for a little while, and as a trans woman I have always appreciated your videos on trans artists. I believe I first found your videos when you reviewed Dorian Electra's My Agenda, and I've always appreciated your takes. thank you for being an ally. listening to and actually feeling, analyzing, and understanding music from artists like Jane Remover and underscores, whose music is deeply and inherently trans, is more than most cis people do to try to understand us. AVAA!
i appreciated your take on the line "afraid i only change myself because you're not into the original", because doubt is a thing we feel sometimes. when pretty much everyone else doubts you, it is incredibly hard not to internalize it. all of us deal with internalized transphobia to some extent. i doubted myself a lot at the beginning and was really afraid to even feel that way because i knew how bad it would be for me if I decided I was wrong. but even the fear of secretly not being trans deep down and having to detransition is also internalized transphobia. i think some level of doubt is normal, but cishet society doubts us so much and we have to fight so hard and work for years to be recognized, so showing any doubt at all is like offering up the perceived validity of your entire identity on a silver platter to a school of hungry transphobic piranhas.
also if you get the chance you should try to see underscores on her current tour! just saw her and she was great. one of my favourite shows i've been to.
AVAA
As a transfem musician, i wanted to weigh in the best that i could on the idea of "trans music." I can only speak of my own experience, but transitioning completely changed the way I thought about life. I felt like so many things that I assumed were truths about myself were much less fixed and much more fluid. That freedom I felt was not limited to how I dressed or presented, it naturally extended into how I artistically expressed myself as well. Few things have been as difficult to grapple with and deconstruct as the expectations of my assigned gender at birth. Idk, i guess once I'd done a lot of that work, the expectations and limits of something like a music genre seemed inconsequential and not worth taking seriously to me.
So on one hand, the sky's the limit. Music genre doesn't feel like something i have to think about until it's being released and has to get tagged. On the other hand, i can't possibly explain how much it mattered to me and impacted me when I started discovering trans artiats. Listening to Black Dresses for the first time and hearing my experiences reflected back at me made me feel seen the way nothing had before. Of course I'm going to draw inspiration from the music that speaks to me. I didn't even know that there were options to express myself as a transfem vocalist until then!
So anyway that was a lot of words to say that genre feels like a pointless limit to me and i am constantly inspired by other trans musicians.
i feel when you're forced to question everything about yourself and the world around you, what you resonate with artistically definitely changes. cis people or any other group that consequently do not need to question much about their existence often resonate with more "normal" expressions of art. people with very different upbringings and adulthoods feel comforted by experimentation and darker themes (love Black Dresses btw). it's a really common saying but there's truth to it; art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable
hi im sorry whats avaa?
Probably the quickest I’ve ever fallen in love with an album. I was so damn hyped for it yet it managed to surprise me so much.
AVAA
This album is amazing but just demolishing. It makes me feel so much I get overwhelmed
! Idling somewhere is my current song of the year. It’s just so immaculate! Thanks for reviewing this! Jane deserves so much success!
OMG I CANT WAIT TO WATCH THIS! GETTING MY POPCORN NOW. NEW PROFESSOR SKYE OUT NOW LETS GOOOO!!!
Thank you for your insightful commentary! I’m glad more people are talking about Jane Remover. avaa
AVAA I loved this album so much and I thank you, professor, for covering this amazing project!
avaa. i've definitely noticed a similar thing about deadAir. they also have a guy named quannnic, who is also really interesting. his album from last year, kenospia, was one of my favourite albums last year. he has a new album coming out in november as well that i'm very excited for.
I love the hit Steriolab album bleeps and bloops. AVAA.
avaa! i really love watching your analyses before listening to the albums, gives an interesting perspective
AVAA Professor ! Frailty is my favorite album of all time and made me a lifelong fan of Jane's work, so seeing you review this new album was a treat. This and underscores' album are my two favorites of the year so far
45:20 As someone who just got out of a relationship with someone 12 years older than myself the whole, "sex drive vampire" idea you come to here is really accurate lmao
excited to watch this one ! i owe so much to Jane’s music and this new album is really incredible. there’s a few more albums that have come out recently that i think are worth your time:
Matana Roberts’ Coin Coin Chapter 5, another installment of their 12 chapter series exploring family dynamics and american history
Slauson Malone 1’s Excelsior has some of the most vibrant and dizzying compositions and production you’ll hear this year, with some great songwriting mixed in too
Kristin Hayter (of lingua ignota) just released her new album that sounds like an old freaky christian tape lost to time, using faith and salvation as an allegory for personal healing. It’s nuts!
MIKE just released what could be his magnum opus, a sprawling rap album Burning Desire about a mediocre mask carver from Liberia with some of his best production
and finally OPN’s Again is a wild synth collage winding through past eras of himself, one of the most expansive and sonically rich records you’ll hear this year
hope you’ll check some out ! 😮
AVAA! I think you really are on to something with your attempts at classifying a “trans music”, if anything because I find myself as a trans person gravitating toward these exact albums for many of these elements you mention. I think most of the stylistic similarities could however more be attributable to the ‘scene’ these artists are creating, it being more literal in the sense of collaboration and inspiration from each other rather than inherent to the genre, but as far as lyrical and thematic content I think you’re on the money with the theory of where we see ourselves in the music. The “of the moment”-ness you speak of is really crazy as all of this is developing with so much great music coming out at a breakneck pace; just next week at least I believe we’ve got albums from Katie Dey and saiorse dream that i’m super excited for, hoping you’ll cover those as well and i’m sure they’ll give us even more to talk about around what this trans art stuff all means
im a nonbinary artist n i listen to alotta artists who happen to be transfeminine (jane, patricia taxxon, vylet pony, laura les from 100 gecs, black dresses + both of its members' solo work, sophie, underscores, 4lung, d0llywood1... etc...) n ive noticed a consistent set of characteristics. zippy synths n airy melodies with a sharper, more industrial edge. ive watched many of your taxxon reviews so im sure you can pick up on what i mean. even outside of hyperpop adjacent stuff, for example devi mccallion from black dresses makes this weird take on pop that has some glitchy abrasive edge to it, and 4lung just straight up makes happy hardcore. elements of body horror or confusion involving the individuals sense of self, whether physical or mental, ex; laura les describes herself and things around her as ghosts throughout demos on her a2b2 mix, black dresses has lyrics relating to being "dead" as a metaphor for trauma and oppression, patricia taxxons album "foley artist" has mentions of shedding skin and fearing what will happen when she dies as a metaphor for dysphoria.
also theyre really good at brain tickling sound design, like what the hell, literally all of these artists have at least one album full of experimental bridges i keep replaying over and over.
This is the first video of yours i've seen but I'm definitely going to stick around! You're so respectful and thoughtful and so eloquent with your thoughts :) AVAA thank you for the awesome video!!!
AVAA, professor ! i find it really interesting that you bring up 90s, i think i got very similar vibes from stuff of that era like no doubt and garbage, not sonically but lyrically. the almost satirical touch of the lyrics that can be used to suit any sort of manipulation or power dynamic, sexual or otherwise. loved this album and loved hearing ur thoughts :)
AVAA just found you and now on my way toward superfan status! What a great take on Jane Remover. And looking forward to exploring past reviews now.
AVAA Professor, thank you for covering this, one of my favorites of the year
this is my favorite album of all time already. frailty saved my life and census is the most excited i’ve ever been for music and i was not disappointed. avaa !! wonderful video :)
AVAA!!! I think its good to note that Douglas Dulgarian of They are Gutting a Body of Water played guitar on a lot of these tracks. A band who has been making waves in philly for a while
Thank you sm for doing this, avaa!
AVAA!! i finally got around to watching this, jane is the future imo and i love how ur able to recognize how this kind of dark beautiful music appeals to the youth, while also giving completely new perspectives throughout. and i kept making hum connections too!
Brilliant, brave, bucket, bollocks.AVAA (Ren or Last Dinner Party come on )
i think you might be onto something with the trans music idea. ive also noticed similar trends , its interesting to wonder whether this comes from artists being inspired by each other in the queer community or if its an intrinsic manifestation of the trans experience. (i am trans and make music lol)
Hey Sky, AVAA, love to see the Jane remover support and would what you have to say about the latest MIKE album if you have time.
Your links between trans artists definitely scan, and it's a thoughtful observation.
There are a few other sides to "trans music" that I think could be included. Anohni and Ezra Furman for example both pull from further back in popular music history, using familiar forms of expression for their own purposes. My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross reads like a classic protest record from the 60s or 70s, and links the struggle of trans liberation to other forms of liberation the listener might be familiar with. Ezra Furman's songs sound very classically pop and so become universal as a result. They both have very confessional lyrics that occasionally use body horror, though.
You've also got the deep history of trans artists within house music, which (to generalise) is more about creating a utopian vision of reality in the present. Octo Octa and Eris Drew very much represent this with T4T LUV NRG.
Trans art can of course be as broad and expansive as art from any other group of people. There are some themes that link our stories together, but it's the found community aspect that I think leads to these kinds of approaches we see in popular art by trans people.
9:23 She could be considered the face of Grunge gaze ?
could u review softscars by yeule?
Jane
AVAA! amazing review, the album is perfect and Expozice Franze Kafky on the wall
Album of the year for me, loved the video AVAA!
Jane
I l(avaa)ove this album. Census Designated, Holding a Leech and Always Have Always Will have been on constant rotation.
And please, please listen to Again by Oneothrix Point Never 😫 and if you're able to i would recommend reading his anothermag interview for the album. Same guy who made the sountrack for uncut gems and good time. Co-produced Dawn FM as well!
would
Request to review reverend kristen michael hayter album🙏
Nice Hum reference AVAA!!!
loooooove this album , AVAA
imagine if skye discovered jazz mastermind matana roberts (irrelevant but worth the mention)
jane
AVAA you seen the Teezo Touchdown album yet?
incredible insight, absolutely loved this video and I love seeing other peoples thoughts on this album, you always have such an interesting perspective on music. Love the trans allyship on display in this video, means more than you can know. AVAA
btw! her old name is pronounced “delete zeke”, i prefer jane remover tho
Day 198 of Asking you to Review Achilles Come Down by Gang of Youth
J(avaa)ne
AVAA
I saw them in concert a few days ago and they sucked soooo much ass 🤣
just discover the band last october and it's refreshing
Jane
Jane
AVAA