Sad Boi, GothBoi *click*
When I Think I'm Still Young
Of the internet, it make sense I found out about GothBoiClique through the internet. GBC and emo trap, cloud trap, whatever you want to call it. Generally white guys singing auto-tuned vocals with earnest lyricism. Crispy electronic hi-hats, strong 808s, sometimes synthesizers, a lot of the time arpeggiated clean electric guitar phrases.
I really don't know how I learned about the GBC or emo trap stuff in the first place. I think I landed on Wicca Phase's This Moment I Miss EP on Bandcamp somehow, and I was hooked on the equal parts metallic and trancey production. And Wicca Phase's voice sounds so vast.
It's a type of music that I somehow feel like I'm cheating by listening to it, or that I haven't earned the privilege. It's online origins in Tumblr and Soundcloud was not a subculture I was aware of, and the lyrical content and lifestyles of the artists is stuff I can vaguely relate to but am probably too timid to really invest myself in.
I think it pulled me in because it had a lot of elements from trap music, like the snappy hi-hats and thudding 808s, but a worldview that was more relatable than black artists I sincerely love but understood the lyrical content was of a world I could probably never inhabit. Sad suburban white kids that like death metal and pretty stuff...that's more familiar to me.
The emo trap stuff is a fully realized expression of a certain sub-genre sadness. Like doom metal tends to fully express despair, emo trap expresses that period of development when you start witnessing what will become clear as depression but when you're younger just feels like some weird flipped-stomach sensation that sticks around. There's probably a German word for it. Ennui or something. That's French I guess.
There was a recent EP from GBC members Horse Head, Lil Tracy, and Cold Heart, with production from Nedarb that perfectly defines the elements I love from this genre.
The song "Floorboards" opens with a moody electric guitar quickly supported by tacky electronic hi-hats over which Horse Head's vocals soar with their effected warble. The lyrics are openly melancholy. But the transparent depressiveness causes some kind of mental adrenaline response.
If you've ever been really injured or broken a bone you probably have felt that surge of adrenaline that is just working as hard as possible to stave off the looming sensation of pain. And I think my brain somehow interprets this kind of music as so emotionally exhausting that while listening it just starts cooking up as many positive neurochemicals as possible, thereby giving me this weird sensation of happiness while listening to this syrupy sad shit.
Hey, it's Christmas Eve.
If you want to continue the discussion, send me an email or put it through the snail mail
HERE TO LISTEN LLC
PO BOX 725
BRATTLEBORO, VT 05302
You can listen to the radio show on Brattleboro's community station WVEW every Sunday at 12pm EST
Here to Listen show archives are available here
You can buy Here to Listen merch here