Mark E - Black Moon. From the album Stone Breaker
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May 18, 2011
January 18, 2011
Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise
When Nicolas Jaar was unearthed a little over two years ago, as an 18 year old University Freshman Student, the initial murmurings were laden with only superlatives. This was all due to the sheer brilliance of his now legendary Fall ‘08 Set, which had taken some of the finest parts of minimal, techno and house, added some haunting vocals, tweaked some brilliantly leftfield samples, and garnished a cultural and worldly touch throughout the whole thing that left listeners mesmerised, dumbfounded and scrambling for more. As his profile grew, Wolf and Lamb took him under their wing and his output became extremely prolific in terms of singles, and also in terms of his gigging. Jaar’s innovative and different angle on dance music was his unique selling point. Given his precociuosness and youth, he was heralded as a prodigy. Hyperbole led us to believe he was some sort of messiah, heralding a completely new direction of music a la Aphex Twin. Things were coming to head this year, with RA putting him at no.2 on their top ten live acts of the year. Yet hype can be an outrageous thing.
The Fall ‘08 set was worth all the hype, and more, as any listener will attest. However, maintaining that sort of standard was the only way for ‘Nico’ to live up to his billing. And it seems he didn’t really want to. That had a consistent, club friendly tempo throughout, whilst including all its fresh eclecticism. However, his output of singles became more and more distanced from that techno/house base, becoming more abstract, slower, experimental and quite simply, head scratching. Yet we still kept faith. ‘The guy is clearly a genius!’
He certainly had his own ideas and views. And he had a mission upon where he was going to take his music. In a club environment, he would take the BPM down to the unchartered territory of the 70’s, and declared that nightclubs were places where ‘heartbroken people’ went, and he therefore made music to cater for such heartbroken souls. I know what you’re thinking. Alarm bells. Because I was thinking the exact same.
The acid test of Nicolas Jaar’s hype, ability and talent is upon us, after an upward arc of two years, and fans suppressing their own questioning. His full length album, Space Is Only Noise, is soon to be released on Circus Company. And I’m afraid to say its probably where the patience runs out…
His defenders will say his style is a ground breaking mix of jerky dark hip hop beats and grooves crossed over with deep house, and these may be core influences, but Space Is Only Noise showcases none of his influences’ sensibilities. Despite its delicate and sharp production throughout, the entire record lacks a flow or tempo, and is instead a messy muddle of bloated and indulgent ideas. It attempts to be semi ambient, but only serves to antagonise the listener with frustration. It is over laden with sounds of the ocean, voiceovers in French discussing the beauty of landscape, intermittent ‘pops’ and piano keys, children laughing, Nico’s own vocals and consistently inconsistent off kilter beat structures that just lead to an infuriating mess. Despite the saturation of all these ingredients, nothing really happens in the vast majority of the tracks(certainly not the opening five), and its certainly very difficult to simply appraise it as ‘music’. Let alone decent, flowing music. It is almost like he’s trying to tease us, when the last thing we want is to be teased.
The stand out track on the album is when he actually does implement a consistent and remotely up tempo beat structure on ‘Keep me there’, and appropriately enough, it is both the most simple and most effective song. Even his samples here are restrained and subtle. Says it all really. As good as this track is in comparison though, it still only serves as some half baked chillout background music. He also should have implemented his hip hop brand more so, as there are many good things about ‘Problems with the Sun’, while the title track has some good electronica moments too. Yet both are ruined by the vocals. Unfortunately, if these are the most redeeming aspects of the record as a whole, it proves that the listener is really clutching at straws.
Apart from being crushingly disappointing, I can’t bring myself to consider this remotely house, hip hop or techno, let alone the broad expanse of dance that Jaar has been championed within. It is definitely poles apart from the dizzy brilliance of Fall 08. All I can say is that its completely Avant Garde. However, more akin to the infamous, self indulgent side of avant garde. I’m sure the musical equivalents of Cosmo Landesman will rave about this and find superlatives out of nowhere to shower it with. Not to mention being heralded for pushing boundaries. As far as I’m concerned, pushing boundaries counts for little if the essence of the flow and music is lacking, and in Space Is Only Noise, it is spectacularly so.
December 2, 2010
Lower Dens - Twin Hand Movement
Dreamy indie shoegazey, hazy albums have been the order of the year thus far, especially in a Pitchfork kind of context. Beach House set the standard with Teen Dream, while Wild Nothing followed on with their slightly more upbeat and plaudit laden ‘Gemini’. Not to mention much of Deerhunter’s pretty solid ‘Halcyon Digest’, as covered already on this blog. Next in line now are Baltimore’s Lower Dens, who present their own take on the loosely defined genre in the guise of long player ‘Twin Hand Movement’. Comparisons with Beach House are inevitable, and probably one of the first references Lower Dens are going to have to constantly brace themselves for. They shouldn’t be too surprised, given they are fronted by an eerie and encapsulating female voice in frontwoman and established folk singer Jana Turner, who may never be able to shake off comparisons with Beach House’s Victoria Legrand. It doesn’t really help that they are currently touring together…
Twin Hand Movement is their first album, so when describing it as a less polished version of Beach House is neither lazy on my part, nor derogatory. The sound however, does come across as quite lazy. Its purposely haphazard, jangly and simple in its instrumentation, allowing the raw guitar sound and Turner’s voice battle it out in a tinny soundscape. It almost sounds as if Steve Albini got his hands on the mixing desk, and at times I’m not afraid to say that Lower Dens sound like an early Sonic Youth with Kim Gordon taking over the mic, especially in ‘Hospice Gates’. The sludging basslines and basic approach also recalls The Jesus and Mary Chain at times. However, given this lazyish soundscape pervades the record, its a blessing any tendency to ‘rock out’ or to get aggressive is held in check. Instead, a thoroughly spacey, gazey vibe is held in check. So you get the picture, a grittier Beach House, yeah? Probably clad in impossibly faded lumberjack shirts from 1993 for good measure too…
The problem is, this isn’t all that enticing, and wouldn’t really strike the fire in your belly to nab a few Lower Dens tickets, if you got a sniff of a live performance. Its because, despite the flattering comparisons, there’s not all that much from Lower Dens that jumps off the page. The album often is just that bit too hazy, too simple and a little too flat. (Especially if they want to compete amongst that emerging niche Pitchfork market…) After a promising start, the standard begins to fade into relatively anodine material gradually, and many of the songs melt into one. Prompting the dreaded term, ‘filler’, I hear you say…
That said, Twin Hand Movement certainly does have its moments, and has a strange charm to it. Repeated listening does reap its rewards, and there’s clearly something enchanting within this album. You begin to appreciate the band fully on the moments where they let their distinctive guitar sound hit the right notes and flourish. Songs such as Two Cocks, Blue and Silver, Tea Lights and Hospice Gates are great examples, and easily the best moments. Sadly, much of the album lacks this quality and punch, and thereby melts into ubiquity. Pity, because when they are good, they are very good indeed. It seems that with Twin Hand Movement, Lower Dens have merely flirted with the genuine quality needed to spar with the leaders in their field…
November 2, 2010
The original is often sacred... Didn't you know that Dan?
(Click the link to stream The Caribou Remixes album)
Ever feel the tangible disappointment when two of your favourite artists combine together for a remix, only to combust by grossly flattering to deceive? I presume you have, because it happens ALL the time. Invariably, its because an outstanding original track by an outstanding producer is so hard to better. To be honest, its generally best to allow the original work of art glow in its brilliance, rather than be pointlessly tampered with to swell a single release. Going out on a limb, a huge amount of remixes do end up being folly, and the ones that stand out are generally lavish reworks of tracks that were kind of mediocre in the first instance.
So if someone at the top of their game, say for example, Caribou, has one of the plethora of his superb tracks from this years Swim remixed by another ace producer, say, Junior Boys, listeners begin salivating. Why? Because it looks like its going to sound great. They’re both quality! Obviously! In reality though, there’s a track record of these collaborations being underwhelming. Why? To use this example, most of Swim just will not be bettered! So whats the point? Well, someone obviously did think there was a purpose to taking another spin on the album. Milking it. Hence, today’s release of the Swim Remixes album.
On paper, the Swim remixes album reads like an embarrassment of electronic riches. Caribou, aka Dan Snaith, handpicked the remixers for each track from Swim. Unsurprisingly, the guy has great taste, choosing some great artists like MCDE, Junior Boys, Gold Panda, Fuck Buttons and James Holden. No wonder people are waxing lyrical. But this merely served to prove that my aforementioned remix syndrome rings true. On my first foray through the album, all fully streamable through the Guardian link above, everything sounds pretty, pretty average. Not one track supersedes the original, and in fact, nothing really comes close. The two mixes of Odessa aren’t a patch on the original. On its own, MCDE’s rework of Leave House is a decent track, but I’d still pick the original any day of the week. So, no matter what any of these attempts sound like, they just can’t compete.
This album just reminds me of Man City. Looks amazing on paper, a wealth of talent, assembled to look glittering but ultimately, it just fails to deliver. People are getting very excited and caught up in hype of its release, but if they have any sense (or taste) they’ll realise that’s its a hollow gesture of a release. The moral of the story is merely a humbling compliment to Snaith. His original vision of Swim will ring true everytime, and have much more resonance.
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