Fluxblog #354: Cola • Warpaint • Koma Saxo • Pom Poko
Plus a look back on the music of 40 years ago
This week’s playlist is a substantially expanded and reworked version of the 1982 Fluxblog Survey Mix, covering the music of the year across genres. Yes, this is basically a deluxe reissue of a playlist! The 1980s surveys were the first historical surveys I made and as such aren’t really up to the level of quality of more recent versions, so it was time to try updating one of them and it made sense to do this since this year is the 40th anniversary of all this music. 1982 is also interesting in that it’s the year the sound of the 80s really kicks in – for whatever reason the xxx2 year of every decade is where this seems to happen, which is part of what makes the year we’re living in now pretty exciting. [Spotify | Apple Music]
The first Fluxpod miniseries of 2022 will launch this weekend on the Fluxblog Patreon! The new series is called FLOPUARY and will feature Molly Mary O’Brien from And Introducing, and in it we’ll be exploring the idea of flopping and “flop eras” from a few different angles. This series will run every weekend in the month of February, and you can check it out for a $5 donation which will also give you access to all the premium episodes including the Led Zeppelin, U2, and Sonic Youth miniseries and archival interviews with bands such as Car Seat Headrest, Hot Chip, Japandroids, and Belle & Sebastian.
To Explain The Mirror To The Wall
Cola “Blank Curtain”
Cola somewhat resemble the sound of Interpol on “Blank Curtain,” but a version of Interpol in which all the members have been unknowingly hit with some kind of tranquilizer. Interpol would play this fast super tight, but Cola play it slow and slack. It feels a bit like the stage of insomnia where your body and mind are totally exhausted but you still can’t quite turn off, so everything seems to happen in a slow blur. Tim Darcy’s voice sounds drowsy and slurred but there’s an obvious core of empathy in his performance even without paying attention to the lyrics, in which he’s musing on someone else’s feeling of emptiness and loss. “I wish it could be easy on you, that I could reduce the cost,” he sings, conveying a genuine kindness but also just a profound sense of impotence in the face of everyday misery.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
Everything You’re On About
Warpaint “Champion”
A lot of Warpaint’s music sounds very much like the work of a band that do their best in a room together, songs that come across like music that was born in jams and refined through steady work. “Champion,” from the group’s new record largely made by remote through the pandemic, makes the most of their physical separation by moving towards an arrangement that suggests distance and isolation in its cold tones and wide open negative space. But as icy as the keyboard tones are and as clicky as the drumming gets, there’s some warmth radiating through this song. The guitar part sounds like it’s a thousand miles away from the drums but in a way that makes it feel like a far off beacon, and the vocals send a message of support and love from across the apparent chasm. The song doesn’t actually come across as especially sad or lonely, more just meditative, kind, and hopeful in its longing.
Buy it from Warpaint.
Everyone Knows You Won’t Return
Koma Saxo featuring Sofia Jernberg, Otis Sandsjö, Jonas Kullhammar, Mikko Innanen & Christian Lillinger “Koma Kaprifol”
Petter Eldh and his Koma Saxo ensemble approach jazz as though they’re just trying to organically get to where DJs and producers like DJ Shadow and Luke Vibert got with jazz through sampling and digital approximation by themselves 20-25 years ago. “Koma Kaprifol” has the compositional logic of a DJ track – the flute part is played like a loop over the beat, every other element seems to get layered in like a collage. The break sequence that leads to a shift in beat and a more wild bass part even sounds to me like the way Shadow would sometimes cut away from neat loops for a bit of carefully composed funky chaos. Eldh really gets the best of both worlds here, this balance of that meta compositional approach and the energy of musicians in a room actually deliberately playing the stuff rather than having it repurposed later on.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
Pom Poko “Enduro Corner”
Pom Poko songs tend to be very dynamic to the point that they can sometimes feel twitchy and impatient, as though the band is always eager to leap to another section from where they are in the moment. “Enduro Corner” has the big dynamic swings but a more mellow disposition as Ragnhild Fangel sings a gentle tangle of melody on the verses over guitar parts that seem to sway in a breeze. This is the tone that dominates most of the song, but it’s in some ways just an extended set up for the big dramatic moment in the chorus as the guitars feel like they’re suddenly dropping you off a cliff. The song eventually resolves into a more relaxed state, but only after a staccato part that somewhat disrupts the calm.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
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• David Marchese’s interview with Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder in the New York Times this week is interesting in just how much Vedder doesn’t really answer most of the questions. I think part of this is because Vedder is understandably very private and reflexively self-protective given his experiences in the 1990s, but also because I think he genuinely doesn’t really think about his life and work the way a media person like Marchese would, and doesn’t really want or need to.