17. Ed Scissor + Lamplighter - “Light Round Here”

Ed Scissor is a philosopher. Only instead of writing essays and treatises he writes poetry. He blends the line between art and philosophy to paint scenes that soak within the ennui of daily life while at the same time picking it apart and poking at the raw underbelly of meaning beneath. His words are beautiful to witness, especially as they flow over the minimalistic soundscapes of Lamplighter. It’s highbrow stuff, often dark, intellectual and dense, but wholly accessible if you take the time to sit within it and allow it to resonate with your soul.

It’s a shame talent like this gets overlooked in the modern world, while the likes of all of the vapid Lil’ Soundcloud rappers inundate pop culture. However, given the prescience of Ed’s own lyrics, I suppose its only fitting,

“we’re all just littering the lunch queue / running through the carnage spilling darkness through your sunroof / unscrew your simple life pick a prize to run to / open up the sewer pipes and pick a pipe to lunge through / the sunlight cause patterns on the street swings revealing all the sediment that’s peppering the seasons / the sediment is very effervescent in this deepness / it hovers in the city like a hundred thousand bee stings”

We’ve fucked ourselves. The Internet has given power to the people, but the people weren’t ready. So rather than enriching humanity and causing us to evolve in equity and intelligence, all it has accomplished is to hasten us toward a cultural and intellectual devolution. Ed could be the next Nietzsche in an alternate reality. However, in this one we’ll have to settle with him remaining an underground legend.