Fluxblog #261: 2000/2001 surveys | Alexandra Savior | Cleo Sol | Bec Plexus | Knxwledge
This week I launched the survey playlists for 2000 and 2001, which many of you have been requesting for the past 8 years. This means I now have expanded surveys for the entire 2000s, and you can find all 10 playlists on this page.
April 26th, 2020
Spitting Blood Over Red Lipstick Stains
Alexandra Savior “Bad Disease”
Alexandra Savior belongs to a long tradition of torch singers, but the sound and lyrical concerns of “Bad Disease” place her in the overlap of a Venn diagram of Portishead and Lana Del Rey. I know it can read like a backhanded compliment to say an artist sounds like two others, but in this case I think you’d agree that it’s both accurate and high praise. Savior’s composition hinges on a slowly crawling bass line that’s both sexy and spooky, and filled out with an understated but potent level of atmosphere on the treble end – just enough to feel cinematic, but not melodramatic. Her vocal pulls off a similar balancing act, with enough pathos in her phrasing so the campiness of her affect doesn’t fully overtake the song. But oh, the camp of it all really is a selling point, particularly as her lyrics describe a sexy but poisonous man in details that make him sound like Nosferatu with a neck tattoo and a leather jacket.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
April 27th, 2020
Right Before We Cross The Line
Cleo Sol “When I’m In Your Arms”
Cleo Sol made her new record with the producer Inflo, who also produced the two Sault albums from last year. There’s a very similar aesthetic to this music – classic soul rendered with warm, foregrounded bass and ample negative space that highlights the precision of all other instruments in the mix. “When I’m In Your Arms” is gorgeous stuff – that lead part that sounds like backmasked guitar, the tastefully deployed harp, the gentle percussion accents, that swelling string arrangement that seems to drop out entirely like there’s an on/off switch for the orchestra. Sol’s vocal performance is sultry but understated like classic Sade, and delivers lyrics about a tormented relationship with thoughtful nuance. Every aspect of this recording is done with so much care, and it’s all in the service of highlighting the emotional complexity of the dynamic between these two people.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
April 29th, 2020
Am A Sexual Person
Bec Plexus “Busy Making Steps”
“Busy Making Steps” seems to convulse in harsh, jagged zigzag motions, like the music is having an allergic response to the song’s candid and angst-ridden lyrics. Bec Plexus’ vocal performance is the most straight forward part of the song – theatrical and arch, but within the boundaries of mainstream pop. She drops key words from her lyrics, in many cases removing the word “I” where the word is implied by context, which is a fairly subtle way of establishing a fractured perspective and alienation from the self. But the song isn’t about gazing into the abyss so much as trying to pull oneself out, and the middle section of the piece in particular comes across like a self-directed pep talk. There’s no suggestion of steady ground in this music, and even the most direct, emphatic, and seemingly triumphant line in the song – “I wanna make a statement but don’t know what kind of statement!” – is an expression of indecision and uncertainty.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
April 30th, 2020
And You Don’t Stop All Night
Knxwledge “amansloveislife_keepon”
Knxwledge has an incredible ear for small moments in songs that can stand up to repetition, and take on a very different character when shaped into an indefinite loop. This cut is essentially a remix of the Patrice Rushen song “Remind Me” that zeroes in on its core keyboard riff and jettisons its traditional song structure in favor of an extended vamp that feels weightless as most of the percussion is emptied out. The bits of beat that remain imply a groove more than they form one, especially with the snare hit that feels more like an accent at the end of the chord sequence rather than like something keeping time. Rushen’s voice is still there, but chopped up so it sounds like she’s just expressing a gratitude for this incredibly smooth groove.
Buy it from Bandcamp.