Fluxblog Weekly #2: Kamasi Washington, Titus Andronicus, Kathryn Calder, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Leikeli47 & Doldrums
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I don’t have much to report this week, though I want to take this space to note that while I did not write about them, I have listened to T’Pau’s “Heart and Soul,” Siouxsie and the Banshee’s “Kiss Them for Me,” and Sinead O’Connor’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes” MANY times over this week. I highly recommend checking out/revisiting them.
And here’s this week’s posts…
May 11th, 2015
Your Love Keeps Calling
Kamasi Washington “Cherokee”
I imagine a lot of people will check out Kasami Washington’s The Epic based on the hype around it and not fully grasp why people are freaking out over it and declaring it the start of this bold new era of jazz when to the layperson’s ear it just sounds like…well, three CDs worth of jazz. Washington’s music isn’t some bold, obvious break from the past – it’s drawing on a rich history of jazz and jazz fusion, and the musical vocabulary in use is pretty traditional. It stands out from the recent history of jazz in ways that are more about spirit and context. Washington and his large band comprised of astounding players from his Los Angeles scene don’t seem beaten down by the public’s indifference to jazz, or jazz culture’s tendency towards becoming a museum of itself, or striving for relevance by adapting sounds from hip-hop and electronic music. Washington’s not trying to reinvent anything – his boldness is in writing and conducting jazz music that insists that the music is as vital and exciting now as it was in the mid-20th century. Instead of being defensive about jazz, Washington spends about three hours showing you all the things he can do with it, and giving the listener the kind of thrills that can only be had in this genre.
Washington’s music is accessible too, mainly because he’s an excellent songwriter with a great ear for melody and rhythmic hooks. There’s nothing intimidating about compositions like “Leroy and Lanisha” or “The Next Step,” and the more ornate, epic tracks are more about dazzling you with a sense of near-cosmic scale rather than empty gestures of ambition. Best of all, Washington isn’t afraid to give us a few vocal tracks featuring Patrice Quinn that work as straight-up pop music, albeit with the extended structure of jazz. “Cherokee” is full-on 70s jazz-funk, a sunny ballad that seems like it was designed to be played at cocktail parties and lounges. “Cherokee” bears a strong resemblance to “Am I the Same Girl” a.k.a. “Soulful Strut,” and wears that on its sleeve with a horn chart that lightly paraphrases a hook from that song. Like the majority of tracks on The Epic, it just overwhelms you with pleasure and good vibes, and manages to evoke the best elements of the past without feeling like a soulless pastiche or a work of musical academia.
Buy it from Amazon.
May 12th, 2015
The Right Amount Is The Entire Pound
Titus Andronicus “Dimed Out”
I didn’t like the mix of this song at first because everything was blaring to the point of obscuring the lyrics, and I interpreted it as this very contrary indie/punk move to put the vocals lower in the mix. But having heard it in the context of The Most Lamentable Tragedy, it’s clear that this is intentional, and crucial to the theme of the song – you just don’t do a punk song about feeling like only the loudest things make you feel anything at all and not dramatize that sensation. “Dimed Out” is a fun and often funny song, but it’s also a very accurate expression of the manic stage of manic depression. All the thoughts are sharp and urgent, but warped by a sort of false intensity. You lose all sense of emotional dynamic, and only the extremes seem true. In this song, that feeling is exciting and empowering, because that’s often how it feels in the moment. The burnout comes later on, but for the duration of “Dimed Out,” it’s all adrenaline and catharsis.
Pre-order it from Amazon.
May 13th, 2015
See How I Still Survive
Kathryn Calder “Take A Little Time”
I sometimes wonder what it’d be like if The New Pornographers made an album in which Neko Case and Kathryn Calder contributed songs along with Carl Newman and Dan Bejar. It’s a bit hard to imagine with Neko – her solo aesthetic is a lot earthier and more depressive than New Pornos, and I’m not sure if her inclinations as a songwriter are well suited to maximalism in arrangement. Calder’s solo music also tends to be a lot more melancholy and intimate, but I think she could do it. “Take A Little Time” wouldn’t need to change much to fit in on a New Pornos record, though I think it’s probably better off in this more ethereal form. I like the way she balances the urgency of the tempo with a hazy psychedelic arrangement and a chilly vocal timbre that feels like being lost in thought in some busy, hectic environment. Calder thrives when she can convey delicacy and interiority – this as true in the New Pornographers, where she can signal fragility in a way the three other vocalists cannot, and even more so when she’s on her own and that introverted character is at the center of the music.
Buy it from Amazon.
May 14th, 2015
The Love Of Your Life
Unknown Mortal Orchestra “Ur Life One Night”
Unknown Mortal Orchestra started out as a band no one knew anything about, and that lack of information only made their music feel more strange and misplaced in time. But now that UMO has a third album, all that has changed. Ruban Nielson, who essentially IS the band, was so open in this interview with Pitchfork that he’s on the opposite end of the spectrum from where he started. A lot of the interview, which feels far more like a segment on This American Life or a Modern Love column than a profile of a rock musician, is about he and his wife exploring a polyamorous relationship with a much younger woman from Japan. This experiment and the resulting emotional fallout is the basis for pretty much everything on his new album Multi-Love. (Funny how a title that seemed ambiguous at first now looks so totally literal.) I’ve had an advance copy of the record for a little while and, as with the previous UMO records, enjoyed it greatly on a purely musical level. Nielson is so great with melodic, rhythm, texture, and ambient vibe that it’s easy to just kinda gloss over lyrical content. But going back over the record with this context in mind is a revelation – the songs are all stuck in a weird space between bliss and anxiety. “Ur Life One Night” in particular shifted a lot in my mind, with my brain focusing in on all the question marks in the lyrics. This is about what I’d expect this unusual emotional situation to be like: Exciting and sorta simple on the face of it, but complicated and confusing in execution. This music just sounds like trying to feel relaxed and groovy and happy while constantly negotiating and dealing with neuroses.
Buy it from Amazon.
And here's a couple more from the recent past.
April 22nd, 2015
Stomping On Your Lungs
Leikeli47 “Two Times A Charm”
It is baffling to me that Leikeli47 is not the most hyped thing in music right now. Maybe that’s by design – this is an artist known for performing in a mask – but just on musical merit, her first mini-album is worth freaking out about. The easiest artist to compare her to is M.I.A., since they share a very feminine type of aggression and ferocity, and perform with the energy of people on the outside of hip-hop and are hell bent on being heard in that genre. But where M.I.A. draws on music from the Third World, Leikeli47 is more firmly rooted in hip-hop’s recent past. This is very much a post-Yeezus record – it’s there in the abrasive textures and the urgency of the tempos, and in the unambiguously confrontational nature of her performance. But it’s not all rage and fire. One of the most interesting things about her music is the way it will swing suddenly in the opposite direction, like when “Two Times A Charm” shifts briefly into straight R&B and she reveals a very sensual and empathetic side that is no less fierce.
Buy it from Amazon.
April 9th, 2015
Holographic Jesus, Come To Me In My Sleep
Doldrums “Blow Away”
Airick Woodhead spends the majority of The Air Conditioned Nightmare, his second album under the name Doldrums, wondering why he feels so ill at ease in situations that are designed to be comfortable. It’s not so much an attack on modernity as it is a meditation on anxiety and distrust of the mundane. “Blow Away,” a song that seems like an obvious radio single to me but is for some reason not being promoted at all, provides the thematic center of the record. It’s essentially a song about feeling weirded out by comforts, whether they’re sexual, material, or mindless. I don’t totally agree with the point of view in the song, but I understand it. It’s paranoia, really – this constant feeling that anything that feels good must be some sort of trap. But what really makes this song work on a thematic level is that while Woodhead is yearning for some sort of authentic experience, he seems to have no idea what that experience could be like. And maybe that’s a trap too?
Buy it from Amazon.