Fluxblog Weekly #217: Adia Victoria, Black Midi, Ice Cream, Knxwledge, Miss World
June 24th, 2019
The World Was Never Enough
Adia Victoria “Devil Is A Lie”
“Devil Is A Lie” is a ballad that comes out of both jazz vocal and showtune traditions, but more specifically owes a debt to Fiona Apple and Jon Brion’s synergy of those styles on her second and third records. Adia Victoria doesn’t always work in this lane – her current record often sounds more like blues rock filtered through TV on the Radio vibes – but she ought to do songs like this more often as it really suits her raspy but expressive vocal style. The melody of this song is a delight, and there’s a very appealing low-key hamminess to Victoria’s delivery. Her phrasing is playful, but not so much that she obscures her struggles with temptation or her annoyance with “the stress of always having to be happy all the time.” The sweetness of the tune is undercut by bitterness and acidity, like the musical equivalent of a good dark chocolate.
Buy it from Amazon.
June 24th, 2019
Build This To Code
Black Midi “Speedway”
The lyrics of “Speedway” list off structures and spaces, a newly built city viewed both up close and from a distance. It’s the kind of song where the lyrics mostly serve as subtitles for the instrumental – even if there were no vocals, it’d be pretty obvious that this music was a meditation on geometry and structure. The video suggests itself: stark shots of clean new buildings and infrastructure, cut to the song’s abrupt staccato guitar chords and busy percussion. The contrast of those musical elements is the most appealing aspect – it’s like moving through a crowded, bustling space with a calm state of mind, navigating entirely on instinct.
Buy it from Amazon.
June 25th, 2019
What You Have To Sell
Ice Cream “Peanut Butter”
Do you ever stumble upon a song and just feel like “geez, were they trying to make me happy, like, me specifically?” Because that’s how this one is for me – it’s like the platonic ideal of the sort of independent pop music I was searching for all the time in the first seven or eight years of this site’s existence. The tunefulness and danceability of pop, but with the edge of rock. But usually in these things, the guitar parts are pretty simple, and sound like riffs presented with scare quotes. The guitar tone on “Peanut Butter” is far more distinctive and interesting – it’s very similar to Robert Fripp, but if Robert Fripp was inclined to do a guest spot on a Peaches song. It adds a touch of shiny glamour to the groove, and contrasts nicely with the emphatic and passionate tone of the vocals, which deliver low-key spiteful lyrics. It sounds raw, but sort of elegant.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
June 27th, 2019 12:34pm
The Swaying Fire
Mabanua featuring Chara “Call On Me” (Knxwledge Remix)
Knxwledge’s remix of this song by the Japanese producer Mabanua is so drastically that it’s surprising to go back to the source material and find something rather boppy and twee. Knxwledge takes the vocal Chara and turns the melody sideways in a deep, humid funk track. His arrangement remakes her breathy performance as an R&B vocal, and brings out a raw sensuality that’s far more Adina Howard or TLC than anything remotely like J-Pop. It’s a cool trick, but also an assertion of Knxwledge’s powerful aesthetic. Listening to this, you get the sense that he could will most any song into his low-key but intensely sexual vibe.
Buy it from Amazon.
June 28th, 2019
She’s Kinda Neat
Miss World “I Found A Girl”
As Miss World creates more music and videos, it’s clear to me that she’s a true auteur who is gradually creating her own distinctive aesthetic and iconography out of kitschy elements of the past and present. She’s kinda like the Anna Biller of indie rock, building fun but cleverly pointed art that on the surface comes off as frivolous because she’s mostly making references to junk culture made for women and the less glamorous elements of the internet.
“I Found A Girl” is Miss World in curatorial mode. The song was originally performed by an amateur singer called Roye’l on a public access show and spread as a minor video meme back in the early days of YouTube. Miss World’s cover of the song is not devoid of irony – she layers images of herself over the original footage in the video – but it’s very clear that her love for this song is entirely earnest. This is her best vocal performance to date – her timbre is uncannily similar to that of a young Madonna, and that along with the particular tone of the synths makes it sound like it could be a great lost mid-80s Madonna ballad.
The real joy of this recording is in how much she embraces the purity of Roye’l’s song, and sings it like the hit it ought to be. The hook is truly gorgeous, and I feel like my heart is glowing every time I hear her sing the phrase “I found her a girl, her name is Jikokoa!” The subtle tension in her version comes down to a bitter knowledge of how the world can be, and how first loves can go, but singing it all like she’s just trying to will more purity and kind-hearted joy into the world.
Buy it from Bandcamp.