Fluxblog Weekly #213: Steve Lacy, J-E-T-S, Yohuna, Flying Lotus
May 27th, 2019
I Only Feel Energy
Steve Lacy featuring Daisy “Like Me”
Steve Lacy says at the top of “Like Me” that he didn’t want to make a “big deal” out of coming out as bisexual in this song, but then it goes on to be a 9 minute suite, so go figure. The composition of the music is ambitious, but the tone of his lyrics are low-key, which is more to his point. He’s just meditating on how something as simple as being attracted to a variety of genders can be interpreted as something more complex and create so many unnecessary complications in his life. It’s a bittersweet song, and while he’s mostly talking about his own experiences, the real feeling in the music is a desire to connect with other people. When Daisy joins in for her own verse, the loneliness lifts and the verses shift from monologue to dialogue, and when they sing the chorus together it goes from lament to commiseration.
Buy it from Amazon.
May 29th, 2019
All The Feels
J-E-T-S featuring Dawn Richard “Potions”
The keyboard tones in “Potions” feel slightly uncanny, like if flickering neon lights had a sound. The producers Jimmy Edgar and Machinedrum make the song feel spacious and chilly, like a large loft with over-aggressive air conditioning. It’s basically an R&B song built around a track that’s not too far removed from where Autechre was in the late ‘90s, so Dawn Richard’s fairly straightforward vocal feels a bit aloof if just for being in this context. The lust and emotional rawness is there, but it seems like she’s at a literal physical distance from the groove. I’m not sure if this is what anyone was going for, but she sounds like someone trying to put on a sexy pose and be engaging, but also protect their heart as much as possible.
Buy it from Amazon.
May 30th, 2019
Close Enough To You
Yohuna “Mirroring”
“Mirroring” delivers the expected sensations of dream pop and shoegaze, or whatever you want to call music that sounds like it exists in a world where the only record label that has ever existed is 4AD. But there’s an interesting tension in Johanne Swanson’s lyrics that undercuts the romantic haze of the music, and an insecurity at the core of it that bleeds out into every texture. Swanson sings about a relationship that’s intimate enough that they begin to mirror one another, and she can’t seem to tell how she feels about this. There’s a strong implication that she can’t understand how she appears to someone else, and then is perplexed by why someone she loves would want to be more like her. The uncertainty and ambiguity really makes the song, and the structure emphasizes the open-ended feeling by starting and ending as if bracketed by ellipses.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
May 30th, 2019
Very Eager Brain Feeder
Flying Lotus featuring Tierra Whack “Yellow Belly”
“Yellow Belly” falls in the middle of Flamagra, a suite of songs that shift unpredictably between smooth grooves and agitated funk. This track is particularly odd – it’s a bit like stumbling into a room you’re not supposed to be in and witnessing some kind of odd sexual role-playing you can’t quite fathom. Flying Lotus’ track feels a bit like a Missy/Timbaland production thrown entirely off balance, and Tierra Whack raps like she’s deliberately trying to make you feel disoriented. When the song gets explicitly sexual at the end, it’s more slapstick than porno.
Buy it from Amazon.