Fluxblog Weekly #248: Activity | Andy Shauf | Jeff Parker | Basia Bulat + Primal Scream XTRMNTR 20th Anniversary
I wrote about Primal Scream's brilliant and unsettlingly prescient album XTRMNTR on its 20th anniversary for NPR. Check it out, I think it came out pretty well:
https://www.npr.org/2020/01/29/800807212/primal-scream-xtrmntr-saw-our-future-20-years-ago
January 26th, 2020
Literal Hell
Activity “Calls Your Name”
Activity’s forthcoming record Unmask Whoever is one of the best debut records I’ve heard in a long time – a band arriving fully formed after years of its members doing strong work in other groups (Grooms, Field Mouse) and pulling together a set of tasteful influences in interesting and evocative new ways. The band exists in a very Portishead-ish space between electronic music and bleak art rock, with the single “Calls Your Name” leaning a bit more towards sample-based production and a clicking, twitchy paranoia. The music in this song feels tight and claustrophobic but also overtly sexual, like they were making music on the prompt of “erotic panic attack.” The vocals signal a sort of flirty ennui, the guitar and keyboard parts offer subtle melodicism beneath the rhythmic clatter. It’s not even their best song.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
January 29th, 2020
Dazzled You Away From Me
Andy Shauf “Where Are You Judy?”
In the story cycle of Andy Shauf’s new album The Neon Skyline, “Where Are You Judy?” is the inciting incident: Shauf’s lonely barfly discovers his ex-girlfriend is back in town, and gets it in his head that he needs to see her again. You hardly need the other songs on the record to get a complete experience of it – to be honest, given that I like this song more than the others and I prefer not following up on where the character goes from here, I prefer it on its own. Shauf conveys a lot of information with economical language, first sketching out the character’s romantic notion of why his relationship with Judy ended, i.e., that she was enticed away by the possibilities of flashy experiences somewhere else. He fantasizes about her giving him a call, telling him that she got bored of all that, that what she was chasing instead of staying with him was empty. And, by extension, that what they had together…that was fulfilling. The final chorus turns that flash of egocentric optimism inside-out without changing a word. Instead of wondering where she literally is in the moment, he’s flashing back to her lying in bed with him, her mind a million miles away. “Where are you, Judy?”
Buy it from Bandcamp.
January 30th, 2020
Watch The World Go By Slow
Jeff Parker featuring Ruby Parker “Build A Nest”
I will admit to you that I feel a bit corny sharing the only song with vocals on a consistently great and inventive new jazz record, but just listen to this – it’s so lovely and gentle, it seems like it’s radiating warmth and benevolence! The feel of the track is easy going but there’s a slight tension in the groove, a bit of resistance to the call to slow down and enjoy the moment in the lyrics. Ruby Parker, the composer’s daughter, sings a very Dirty Projectors sort of melody with serene tones, as though she’s just moving with the waves of the rhythm. There’s a passive feeling to the song, but only in the sense of learning to calm down, trying to trust the universe, and letting that make you feel free.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
January 31st, 2020
You Left Behind A Hurricane
Basia Bulat “Your Girl”
“Your Girl” is a wistful folk-pop song in the tradition of Natalie Merchant and 10,000 Maniacs – crisp and clean in structure, but earthy and wholesome in aesthetics. Basia Bulat’s perspective is somewhat ambiguous in this song, shifting between a first-person testimonial about how she’s become hesitant to fall in love after some difficult experiences and choruses in which she’s addressing someone else about how they’ve let down their girl. It could just be that she’s talking to the one who wronged her, but there’s a suggestion of elapsed time. It could be advice to a friend, a warning to an ex that they’re keeping up the same mistakes, or maybe it’s just her reliving the same old traumas. But it’s notably that the song isn’t bitter or angry, just resigned to the seemingly inevitable catastrophes of people getting close to each other.
Buy it from Amazon.