Fluxblog #286: Gen X in Middle Age | Lex Amor • Goya Gumbani/Kiina • Heno • Helena Deland
This week's playlist is a Gen X in Middle Age 2006-2010, a companion to last week's Boomers in middle age playlist in which musicians from the '80s and '90s navigate aging and the deeper ends of their discographies with quite a bit of style and grace for the most part. [Apple / Spotify]
October 11th, 2020
I Feel It In My Bones
Lex Amor “Odogwu”
Lex Amor exists in the nebulous but familiar zone; the center of a Venn diagram in which dancehall, rap, and trip-hop overlap in the most organic and intuitive way. “Odogwu,” a freestyle performed over a drowsy but subtly dynamic track by Josette Joseph, has an aesthetic kinship with ‘90s-era Massive Attack and Tricky but it doesn’t feel like some retro thing – it’s a different sort of stoned feeling and tinged with a different sort of melancholy that feel very rooted in the moment. I wouldn’t call those classic trip-hop records optimistic or sunny, but there’s a feeling in them like they’re boldly facing the future and whatever is coming. “Odogwu” feels more hesitant and wounded, like Amor is hoping to find a shortcut around whatever the next doom may be.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
October 14th, 2020
Standing With The Planets In My Hand
Goya Gumbani & Kiina “Erica”
“Erica” fades in and then fades out, a brief groove that’s like a fragment of a sentence with ellipses on both ends. Kiina’s track is all elegant simplicity – gentle percussion supporting an electric piano riff, loose enough to feel improvised on the spot but sliced and treated just enough to introduce some question as to whether or not that gorgeous keyboard tone is actually sampled from something else. Goya Gumbani’s rap is mellow and introspective, perfectly matched to the tone of the piece but also a little subdued. It’s the rare hip-hop track where it sounds as though the rapper is trying not to upstage the beauty of the track, and so he sort of melts into it.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
October 15th, 2020
Stay In Control
Heno “I.D.C.A.S.”
“I.D.C.A.S.” is short, simple, and spiky – mostly just one menacing keyboard riff and creepy ambience supporting a vocal by Heno that’s mostly rap and a little bit of dancehall toasting, but has a very punk energy. The title is short for “I don’t care about shit,” but that’s a bit misleading – he’s talking about having the discipline to not panic about things he can’t control, and to keep focused on things he can change. This would be a good idea at any point in time, but feels especially relevant now when so many people drive themselves mad with anxiety to the point that they can’t really function or contribute in a meaningful towards improving material conditions for themselves much less anyone else. This is not a song about embracing apathy or nihilism – if anything, it’s shaking out of the apathy and nihilism that comes from obsessing on powerlessness and intractable situations.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
October 16th, 2020
Quiet Stars In Mid-Afternoon
Helena Deland “Pale”
“Pale” is essentially a song about feeling so self-conscious that every sensation feels a bit off, every emotion is uncertain, and every situation feels either unreal or too real. Helena Deland sounds forlorn and a little shellshocked as she sings about an awkward intimacy, as though she’s just lying there asking herself – does this feel good, isn’t this supposed to be nice, why can’t I feel comfortable in my body? The music mostly sounds like a melancholy daze, but there’s a bit of a sexy tension to it as well. All the questions in the song aren’t resolved, but answers to the questions “can this feel good, do I feel good” don’t seem to be entirely negative.
Buy it from Bandcamp.