Fluxblog Weekly #210: Eve Maret, Ari Lennox, Vampire Weekend, Quantic
May 5th, 2019
When I Hear Your Voice
Eve Maret “Sound of Space Between”
“Sound of Space Between” is like a meditation on the simple act of talking to someone you love on the telephone that starts off in “galaxy brain” mode and then kinda spirals out from there. Eve Maret’s arrangement is like Kraftwerk gone cosmic, and she sings with a flat affect that does nothing to hide the vulnerability and warmth in her voice. The most interesting thing about this song for me is the way the song seems to move in an orbit, so it feels a bit like you’re observing musical and lyrical motifs from slightly different angles as the song progresses. Maret reaches no conclusions – it’s just a thought and a feeling in a moment that is extended to the point of abstraction.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
May 6th, 2019
I See You Adorn Me
Ari Lennox “Up Late”
“Up Late” is a very classic sort of slow jam, something you could probably have slipped into a Quiet Storm radio set if not for all the lyrics that wouldn’t make it past the FCC regulations. Ari Lennox’s voice has a low-key boldness here – she sounds so fully command of the situation that the relaxed sensuality of the track isn’t undermined by traces of insecurity. She’s singing about a regular hookup, and as sexy as the song gets, the most interesting bits of the song allow for unsexy details – duplicate key fobs, tv news, the very presence of the phrase “corn on the cob.” Even the more glamorous details, like setting the song in North Hollywood, get grounded in her mentioning her “Target lingerie,” complete with the ironic “Tar-jay” pronunciation.
Buy it from Amazon.
May 8th, 2019
A Sharpie Face On Tangerines
Vampire Weekend “How Long?”
“How Long?” is played as a light and jovial tune, right on down to including some goofy sound effects as punctuation on Ezra Koenig’s pleasantly winding melodies. It’s an amiable front for what could be Koenig’s crankiest, most bitter song thus far. It starts off with Koenig’s character grumbling about getting dumped by someone who cleverly tried to make it seem like a mutual breakup – “the only choice you gave to me is one I took reluctantly.” From there he’s questioning the value of pretty much anything, and though he’s doing it with a bit of levity, he’s not fully concealing his wounded pride. This is pretty bold for a guy who up until this point wrote every song in a way that suggested that he’d never had an unreasonable thought or feeling in his life. “How Long?” is pretty much nothing but unreasonable thoughts and feelings. It’s a song in which he conjures images of environmental catastrophe and it’s all just a hyperbolic backdrop for these two people to get stuck together alone all over again. Every mess seems entirely inevitable to him, and he’s just sitting there impatiently waiting for it just happen already.
Buy it from Amazon.
May 9th, 2019
After Dark
Quantic “Atlantic Oscillations”
“Atlantic Oscillations” calls back to an era of disco-era dance music when everything sounded extremely expensive. The bass groove is down and dirty, but the strings and piano accompaniment sparkle like fancy baubles, and the mix has the dry, crystal clear aesthetics of 70s studio wizardry. I’ve heard a lot of artists attempt this vibe over the years but Quantic nails it, largely if just because the composition is on the level of its sonic ambitions. The groove is right, and the melodies are graceful and glorious. It sounds like a pleasure machine built by an expert hedonist.
Buy it from Bandcamp.