Fluxblog Weekly #125: Sales, Four Tet, Knifeplay, Magic Potion, Nosaj Thing
September 11th, 2017
Making Your Wish Come True
Sales “Talk A Lot”
Sales’ earlier material reminded me a lot of both Beach House and Blonde Redhead, and though those apparent influences are still in their music, their new single “Talk A Lot” sounds like a band who’ve found their own lane. It’s mostly in the rhythm – the beats are crisp and snappy, and the guitar is strummed so those clean, bright chords seem to bounce off the groove. Lauren Morgan’s voice is well framed by this arrangement, and she comes off like a generally shy person tapping into a more assertive and confident part of their personality. The lyrics are fairly confrontational – “your friends they seem to talk a lot / you know I’m not that type” – but the song seems to be more about shrugging off some kind of drama rather than diving into it. The key line here: “Free me of that bullshit.”
Buy it from Bandcamp.
September 12th, 2017
Now You See
Four Tet “Planet”
Most of the Four Tet songs that I love are very similar, and are built around a tiny clip of the human voice looped at an interval that feels much slower than the actual tempo of the music. The sample in “Planet” seems to hover gently in midair as the percussive and melodic parts move along busily. It sounds very urban to me, like the feeling of moving in a slight daze through crowded, busy public spaces. I’m sure very commuter is well acquainted with this sensation, and in my experience it can be sort of satisfying. Physically alert, but mentally checked out. Moving in sync with everyone else while lost in your own head.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
Knifeplay “Greasr”
guitar that thuds along in a way that’s both hazy and overbearing, the muffled yet sensual coo of a human voice that’s almost completely drowned out by the volume of the guitar. But the key difference in this composition is the addition of what I must assume is some sort of keyboard making strange, expressive, high-pitched sounds that would work pretty well as the “voice” of a new droid in Star Wars. It knocks the song off-kilter, and serves as an odd and playful contrast to the bombastic heaviness of the guitar.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
September 13th, 2017
At The Core Of The Earth
Magic Potion “Rest Yr Skull”
Gustaf Montelius is the type of indie rock guitarist who makes it all sound incredibly easy, as if anyone could pick up a guitar and casually pluck out a slightly off-kilter but immediately pleasing riffs and leads. He’s got this and a mellow, slack relationship with the beat with Stephen Malkmus, but Magic Potion’s similarities to Pavement is more of an aesthetic kinship and shared philosophy than a direct A-sounds-like-B thing. Montelius’ songs have a sort of impish quality, and a melodic style that strikes me as bit more ‘60s. “Rest Yr Skull” reminds me a little bit of Donovan in particular, and has some of his playful qualities, but perhaps a bit more so. The part that really gets me in this song is the guitar solo section, which is so loose that it almost feels tentative and improvised, and manages a weird and lovely balance of wooziness and grace.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
September 15th, 2017
You Got U-God Yoo Gah
Nosaj Thing “U G”
There’s two vocal samples here, but your immediate attention goes to the one that takes up the most space – a rhythmic loop of a blues or R&B singer singing “you got” over and over until the words stop registering as words. It’s a great hook, and clicks well with beat. The sample that makes the song actually arrives first – a blurted “yeahhh” that sounds like it was recorded slightly off mic, and serves as the punctuation to a rather mournful two-chord organ riff that opens the track. These elements set up an intriguing atmosphere for the groove, an emotional space that’s somewhere in the vicinity of sadness but isn’t quite there. The beat seems as though it’s running away from this minor key dreariness, but those vocals act like a tether. It gets away, but only so far to get jerked back into position.
Buy it from Amazon.