Fluxblog Weekly #258: Fluxblog on Twitch | Locate S,1 | Kamilita | Hayley Williams | Laura Marling
This week I started broadcasting live on Twitch! I've basically been doing freeform radio sets at different times of the day depending on my schedule and whim, and when I think people might be around to tune in. You can find me on Twitch here, and my four most recent broadcasts will be available as archives for the time being. I don't have a time set yet, but I will definitely be broadcasting this weekend and will announce the times on Twitter in advance. You can also follow me on Twitch and you will be sent notifications of when I go live.
April 6th, 2020
Four Horsemen Of You-Know-What
Locate S,1 “After the Final Rose”
The first time I heard this song was the first time I saw Christina Schneider and Locate S,1 perform live last year, when they were opening for Of Montreal at the Bell House. I was immediately blown away by the verse melody – “women in love, women in airplanes first class” – and went back through Schneider’s catalog desperate to find the song. When she started releasing singles for her new record Personalia, I was frustrated because as fantastic as those songs were, they were not this one. But finally, here it is: “After the Final Rose.”
The melodic part that stuck with me for months is still the highlight of the song for me, but I’m fascinated by how it fits into the overall composition. “After the Final Rose” feels woozy and off-kilter, and as she does in a lot of her songs, Schneider’s melodies connect at odd tangents and flow in unusual, seemingly asymmetrical meters. It’s still basically a pop song with pleasing melodies, but it’s deliberately disorienting. Her voice is calm and vaguely authoritative as she sings lyrics that satirize the reality sow The Bachelor what she’s called “corporate feminism and its lethal effects on romance.” Her vocal tone is perfect for this level of irony – she sounds distant and unemotional, but there’s just enough camp in her phrasing to convey her intent and low-key contempt for the show’s perversion of things she holds dear.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
April 7th, 2020
Don’t Talk To Me When I’m In the Zone
Kamilita “Can U”
The last time I wrote about this artist she was a mysterious and extremely prolific Bandcamp artist called Zizi Raimondi, but sometime recently she eliminated all her Bandcamp presence and rebranded as Kamilita. She’s still prolific, has put a lot of energy into her visual aesthetic on Instagram and YouTube, and is somehow even more mysterious now. “Can U” is one of her best experiments with dance music to date – she gives you a good thumping beat, but surrounds it with a dizzying array of vocal and keyboard harmonies that seem to spin out of it in circles around the downbeat like a spider web. The lyrics take a sort of banal phrase – “can you get into the zone?” – and nudges it towards a philosophical abstraction. Like, what IS the zone, man? How can you truly get IN it? Why is she in the zone, but I am not? When her voice shifts towards angelic high notes similar to peak Alison Goldfrapp, it’s just far too pretty and graceful not to feel sort of profound.
Follow Kamilita on YouTube and Instagram.
April 9th, 2020
All The Wilted Women
Hayley Williams “Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris”
The first time I heard this song I had no idea who it was by, and was legitimately shocked to discover it was the singer of Paramore, a band I’ve never had any affection for in either their emo phase or their pivot to boppy pop a few years ago. Whereas the songs Williams recorded with that band tended towards sledgehammer dynamics and guitar/keyboard tones I can only describe as “overwhelmingly corporate,” this new single has a more delicate feel and a very “120 Minutes” atmosphere. I hear traces of Siouxsie, Throwing Muses, The Cure, and early Björk in this, but also a lot of Radiohead circa In Rainbows. The shift in aesthetic suits Williams well, and the more pensive tone and loose groove give space for greater lyrical nuance and subtle harmonies with the members of Boygenius, who guest on the track. I’m particularly fond of the way all four singers hit the fourth utterance of “roses” or “lotus” in the chorus, with the unusual emphasis making the melody pop out more than it would otherwise.
Buy it from Amazon.
April 10th, 2020
Something To Defend
Laura Marling “Strange Girl”
Laura Marling sings with tone that suggests total clarity of mind, as though it would be a waste of her time to write from a perspective of uncertainty. “Strange Girl” is a character sketch of a young woman struggling to get by in a harsh economy that’s rigged against her, and while Marling conveys a lot of warmth and affection for her, she avoids romanticizing her or indulging her vanities. “Please don’t bullshit me,” she sings at the end of the third verse, her voice shifting from soft to blunt to emphasize the “shit” syllable. She’s not trying to call her out, but rather just get across that she doesn’t need to work so hard to get her empathy. The song is easy going and loose, and subtle in its graces – the structure is pretty straight forward and doesn’t offer much flair until near the end where she offers two different lovely bridges in a row before falling back into the chorus.
Buy it from Amazon.