"I've been told I play 'progressive black metal,' 'film soundtrack,' and 'noise,'" says the bassist behind The Utter. "I call it 'Contemporary Death Jazz.'"
Every spotlight asks an artist to describe their style, and the answers are the most consistently uncomfortable part of the form. Six artists here take six different exits from the question, and the exits are more revealing than any label would have been.
The Utter
The Utter is a one-man band built on bass guitar run through an array of effects, and the invented genre is not a joke at the question's expense - it is the most accurate thing available. The music is improvised and recorded live, which means even he does not know the shape in advance. "Because all my work is improvised, it's all surprising in one way or another, as I enter not having any idea of how the output will sound or feel." The project exists because waiting was worse: he realized he shouldn't wait until he considered himself good enough, because his expectations kept moving. He is autistic, and says he is comfortable with structure and repeating patterns - then makes a conscious effort on certain pieces to break out of them.
Kekal
Jeff has been in Kekal since 1996, across thirteen albums, and rejects the premise outright. "I don't want to put my music into boxes of styles and genres," he says. "I listen to all kinds of music and don't see music as divided into genres or styles. Good music is good music." Their 2023 compilation Eternitarian pulls 31 tracks from 27 years, made because listeners wanted a way in that didn't require browsing thirteen albums. He traces the whole thing to hearing Iron Maiden's "2 Minutes to Midnight" in 1984 as a kid, and to a feeling drawing could not carry: he was good at it, technically proficient, but felt a distance from it that music closed.
Living With Giants
The Sacramento instrumental trio gets called post rock, and treat the label as an approximation of something else. "Our style is really about storytelling through sound," they say. "We aim to move the listener through an audible journey - an experience more than a genre." It started as Ryan Mannie's solo project in 2009, became a band, went on hiatus, and came back. Each piece starts with a goal or a story, written independently before the band converges, until the piece begins to guide itself. Their advice to other artists is about shipping, not sound: don't wait too long, because after enough revisions it is ready to live in the world.
Matte Black
Matte Black answers by describing a through line rather than a category. "My music isn't always genre-specific, but there is a through line. I find it hard to describe my style. Sometimes it might sound like post-punk, ambient, metal, etc. I try not to overthink it and make whatever feels good." The latest release is two companion albums, Portrait and Landscape - one heavier, one a quiet instrumental record - which is one way to answer the genre question: release both. They tracked Portrait live in Stamford, New York, with Charles Burst, who had moved into a wing of a long-closed inn. He has been writing since before he could play - recording himself singing onto his parents' stereo at four, making everything up on the spot, and not picking up a guitar until twelve.
Caught In Joy
Caught In Joy has been writing since he was fourteen, starting on trackers on a Commodore 64, and has clearly been asked this before. "Good question! I'm asking around, and it is called progressive electronic music, somewhere between Berlin School, Dark Ambient, and electronica, but I do add guitars sometimes." The phrase "I'm asking around" is the honest center of this whole topic.
distance prefix
distance prefix gives the shortest version. "My goal is to be diverse. I like playing with beats and sounds but don't follow a specific structure, and my songs are an evolving journey. I'd call it 'electronic,' but I don't know if my works fit neatly into one specific genre."
The box and the music
The streaming era made genre a routing problem: a playlist needs a category, a listener needs a shelf. These six are not refusing to be understood. They are pointing out that the category arrives after the record, from someone else, and rarely describes the thing they were actually doing.
The Utter's answer works because it fails properly. No playlist will ever have a Contemporary Death Jazz section, which is roughly the point.