Fluxblog Weekly #111: Future/Kendrick, Cigarettes After Sex, Heliocentrics, Roger Waters, Showtime Goma
June 4th, 2017
Convulsions And Emotions
Future featuring Kendrick Lamar “Mask Off (Remix)”
So yeah, here’s two rappers who are nothing alike on the same track. Future mutters through the song liked a stoned zombie, and though I don’t find him particularly charismatic, that “Percocets, molly, Percocets” mantra has an undeniable gravitational pull. Maybe it’s because he sounds like he actually needs those drugs. The original “Mask Off” stays in this lane, and while it works well enough, the song is definitely improved by switching gears with the Kendrick feature. The contrast really pops – Kendrick’s arrival jolts the song out of its hazy stupor, and he packs a lot of action in a verse that lasts a little over one minute. His lines are more densely packed at the start, but that’s Kendrick-by-numbers at this point. I’m more into the climax, where he’s so in control of the beat that it stops and starts around his rhymes as though he’s willing his surroundings to bend to his will. He sounds supremely confident here, and that’s before he even gets to the bit where he says that Prince lives on through him.
Buy it from Amazon.
June 4th, 2017
Your Lips, My Lips
Cigarettes After Sex “Apocalypse”
Cigarettes After Sex is a good name for this band, if just because it so effectively conveys the aesthetic of their music. Every song on their debut record could accurately be described as “dreamy,” “hazy,” “romantic,” and “languid,” and the guitar parts often sound like the stuff Beach House and Mazzy Star forgot to write. The familiar vibe is more a feature than a bug, particularly as their sparkly/drifty guitars and slo-mo beats are often contrasted with a vocal melodies that are closer to contemporary pop in the vein of Lana Del Rey than anything Beach House has ever been up to. Greg Gonzalez’s voice isn’t totally androgynous, but his tone and phrasing can be off-handedly feminine in a way that suggests gender fluidity more than gender-bending. I particularly like how his voice is mic’d and mixed on “Apocalypse” – it sounds like a whisper very close to your ear, and it exaggerates the intimate vibe of the music.
Buy it from Amazon.
June 6th, 2017
How Low Can You Go
The Heliocentrics “The Silverback”
The Heliocentrics’ A World of Masks is a record rich in texture and atmosphere, and though it holds together musically and thematically, the songs feel like worlds unto themselves. You get jazzy incantations, skronk horns over kraut psychedelia, funk mysticism, stoner polyrhythms, and hypothetical Isaac Hayes spaghetti western soundtracks. The most obvious influence is tipped off by their name – this is a band of Sun Ra heads, and his cosmic jazz aesthetic binds it all together. It was quite difficult to pick which song to feature here, but I chose “The Silverback” because I think it’s the most immediately accessible. It was the first one that caught my ear, anyway. That simple vibraphone hook pulls you in right away, but the rhythm is the truly seductive element. I love the way the music sounds as though it’s descending into some secret world, and at some point you can’t even hear that vibraphone part because you’re in too deep.
Buy it from Amazon.
June 7th, 2017
Counting The Cost Of Love That Got Lost
Roger Waters “Déjà Vu”
It really is too bad that Roger Waters can’t call Is This the Life We Really Want? a Pink Floyd album because musically and thematically, it belongs in that body of work much more so than any of his other solo works or anything that’s been labeled Pink Floyd since he left after The Final Cut in the early ‘80s. The sound of it, the feeling of it, the particular odd combination of theatrical grandeur and dialed-down English bitterness. It’s all there, except for David Gilmour’s soaring guitar parts and more pleasant vocal tone. I like the rawness of Waters’ voice on this record, though – he sounds like a broken man, and it makes his overwhelming contempt and disappointment for the world as we know it now seem less haughty or preachy. He spent all those years in Pink Floyd being the most successful Cassandra in the history of music, but he doesn’t sound remotely pleased to have his dim opinion of humanity be validated by a post-Brexit and Trump world. “Déjà Vu,” an acoustic ballad that perhaps deliberately echoes “Mother” and “Wish You Were Here,” sounds more fragile and miserable than either. It gestures towards grandeur, but Waters sounds too weary to get there, and is too disillusioned to allow an easy catharsis. It’s as sad and lovely, but also tragic and pitiful.
Buy it from Amazon.
June 8th, 2017
Isn’t That Life
Showtime Goma “Chug”
Showtime Goma’s arrangements are incredibly busy, to the point that the swirls of notes, beats, and textures rapidly moving in, out, and around the track can obscure or interrupt the melodic through line of the songs. The central vocal melody of “Chug” is strong enough to withstand the self-inflicted onslaught of sounds, and is in some ways improved by this hectic, overloaded presentation. This approach to arranging can make songs feel anxious and confused, but the bright, assertive tone of the vocal mitigates that somewhat. It feels cluttered but light, and the zippy, shifting feeling conveys excitement more than apprehension. It’s like being overwhelmed with thoughts and feelings, but finding inspiration in that mental chaos.
Buy it from Bandcamp.