Fluxblog Weekly #247: Ultraísta, J-Felix, Pearl Jam, Dreamville/Ari Lennox, Four Tet
January 20th, 2020
Smuggle A Bomb In A Bubble
Ultraísta “Tin King”
Ultraísta is a trio featuring Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, the prolific session drummer Joey Waronker, and singer Laura Bettinson. It’s important to note this upfront because it explains a lot about the music – for one, it immediate answers the question of how this random band has a drummer who is working up to the level of style and technical sophistication you hear on this track. It also makes sense of how much this sounds like Radiohead, and in far more subtle ways than you’d usually get from an artist emulating that band. Godrich, who has effectively been a sixth member of the band from OK Computer onwards and also collaborates with Thom Yorke on his solo records, has understandably absorbed the aesthetics of that band over the years. But the interesting thing about hearing him as a musician cut off from all of them is getting the sense of how HIS aesthetics may have formed theirs as well. “Tin King” is a remarkable composition, particularly in the way Waronker’s busy percussion plays off a jumpy bass riff and a keyboard part that resembles Yorke’s Rhodes parts on “Everything In Its Right Place.” Bennington’s voice comes at a clipped rhythm, like she’s constantly chasing to keep up with Waronker, and her tone suggests a strange contrast of exasperation and serenity. Her melody isn’t far off from what Yorke might sing if he was on the track, but it’s not a problem. Any resemblance to Radiohead here is both logical and flattering: If this was in fact one of their compositions, it’d be among the better songs from this stage of their career.
Buy it from Amazon.
January 21st, 2020
It Will Crystalize
J-Felix featuring Andrew Ashong “Mind Up”
“Mind Up” is a very restrained and low-key funk track – always groovy, but so uncluttered and relaxed in its pace that it seems to glide by on a light breeze. There is a physicality in the track, particularly in that extra-crisp snare sound, but the emphasis of this track is on the way Andrew Ashong’s vocal floats through the ample negative space. Ashong has a great voice for funk – a bit of rasp, a touch of treble, a pinched delivery on the more rhythmic lines – and he sings lyrics about chasing ambitions that might ordinarily come off as a little trite with subtle shades of doubt and bitterness that ground the words in harsh reality and a sincere generosity of spirit.
Buy it from Amazon.
January 22nd, 2020
Endless Equations
Pearl Jam “Dance of the Clairvoyants”
Over the past two decades Pearl Jam shifted fully over to a jam band model in which the live show – and recordings of the live shows – was the primary focus of everything they did, and new studio albums were sporadically made as a way of bringing new songs into the setlist and having a peg for launching big tours. They only released four albums in this time, which is quite a drop from their frantic pace of writing and recording through the ‘90s. The records have their moments but feel very formulaic, as though the band identified a set of song archetypes they had to iterate on in order to fill out a sequencing arc that was pretty much the same every time. (2002’s overlong Riot Act is an outlier in this respect, but the tracks on the subsequent albums are interchangeable in production style and musical function.)
So with this in mind, “Dance of the Clairvoyants,” the first single from the forthcoming record Gigaton, is quite a surprise. “Dance” doesn’t sound quite like anything the band has ever done – it has prominent synths, a groove that encourages awkward dancing, and a vocal by Eddie Vedder that verges on a full-on David Byrne impression. It’s dark, but also sort of cheeky. (Near the end Vedder sings “I know the boys wanna grow their dicks and fix and file things.”) Even if the description of this seems potentially horrible, it all clicks together very nicely and sounds genuinely inspired. The band seem motivated to push themselves musically and Vedder is clearly inspired by the bleakness of contemporary politics and the oncoming disasters of climate change. His rich baritone is well suited to doomsaying, and when he sings a line like “the past is the present and the future’s no more” it comes out sounding like a prophecy rather than paranoia.
Buy it from Amazon.
January 23rd, 2020
To The 10th Degree
Dreamville & Ari Lennox “Bussit”
Ari Lennox sings sexy, sensual R&B songs with the authoritative cadence of a rapper. Her phrasing is so bold and direct that even her most vulnerable or submissive lyrics can come across like statements or commands. This works particularly well on “Bussit,” a slow jam in which Lennox is taking control of a relationship that’s been hot but a little ambiguous. “You scared of love, but fuck your fear,” she sings in the first verse, not allowing any room for negotiation. The sentiment of this song would probably feel sinister coming from a man, but in this context, it’s a woman who knows what she wants doing her best to cut through a man’s bullshit and anxiety. I suppose this song is an ultimatum, but she’s mostly just asking him to get over himself and commit to something he actually cares about.
Buy it from Amazon.
January 23rd, 2020
Taking Me On
Four Tet “Baby”
Over the past decade or so Kieran Hebden has emerged as the master of the chopped and decontextualized vocal sample. His approach is both melodic and painterly, applying snippets of voice to the area of the song with both precise intention and gestural grace. He’s never trying to hide the nature of what he’s doing – you can always tell it’s cut up and digitally edited – but the sound is never about the process, it’s entirely about feeling and abstraction. “Baby,” a new song made in collaboration with the singer Ellie Goulding, is a particularly strong iteration on his usual formula and adds an unusual dimension to a Four Tet song in allowing the listener to recognize and fixate on the voice of a pop star. It feels slightly transgressive to separate a pop vocal from clarity and meaning, and to reduce Goulding to just the particular sound of her voice. In doing this Hebden highlights the best aspects of Goulding – the specific brightness of her tone, the way she often sounds like she’s grasping for something, the way she sounds like she’s pushing herself through painful feelings. In framing her voice like this, he’s presenting a very flattering portrait of her as a singer.
Buy it from Bandcamp.