FluxCapacitor
Posts
I once worked with a graphic designer who smoked pot in the underground parking garage every lunch time. Chances are we've probably all worked with one. In the afternoon my guy would listen to music on his headphones with great focus and intensity. Greater focus and intensity than he'd put into his graphic design work at any rate.
I'd often walk by his cubicle to watch the show. On a good day he would jerk violently back and forth in his seat, spinning this way and that, not unlike the occupant of a bumper car. Eventually our company employed a carny to jump up on his chair arm and say, "Relax, buddy, I'm taking the wheel!" Okay, so our company didn't employ the carny. With characteristic lack of imagination they simply canned his ass instead.
I was reminded of this tragic occurence while listening to "Los Angeles", a largely instrumental album by Valley boy Steven Ellison (or Flying Lotus to his mother). Like my erstwhile graphic designing chum the beats are somewhat lazy and stoned, but that's not the entire connection...
I'd read that "Los Angeles" was unobtrusive. This was attractive because I tend to avoid shouty lyrics, heavy beats, and raging guitar solos while working. Instead I listen to electronica: ambient, house, minimal techno, IDM. A respectable, middle-class family of music.
"Los Angeles" is classified as hip hop. I know what you're thinking, "But, Colin, that's such a dysfunctional family." Yes, hip hop is home to gold toothed pimps, tattooed thugs, cough bottle junkies, Hennessy swilling alchies, big bootied honeys, and blinged out biiiyatches. And it has undesirable elements, too.
Steven is not among them. True, he's often called Fly-Lo, but only by hipster douches. Rather, he is the great nephew of Alice Coltrane, jazz legend and wife to some musician chap who's name I can't quite recall. That's the family to which Steven belongs.
Taken on his own merits, though, Steven is of the geekoid persuasion. Look at the evidence: He makes all his music on computers. He enjoys video games, the internet, and Adult Swim cartoons. He has written musical segues for Adult Swim cartoons, for goodness sake. Case closed. Geeeeeeeeeeeeeekoid!
He is a geekoid who constructs one helluva groove, however. Therein lies my problem. I'm working away happily when all of a sudden I discover that my head is bobbing and my toe…all my toes…they are tapping. To co-workers I appear to be on the Snoop Dogg Diet. I have become my erstwhile graphic designing chum.
Of course I haven't been puffing away on joints during work hours. So, what's going on? I'm not quite sure. At first, some fractured, soulful beats playing in the background. Then, at some point "Los Angeles" shakes me from my thoughts and makes me hyper aware of my heart, in the manner of a good recreational drug, a mild adrenaline shot, or a really bad wind pain.
Unobtrusive, my ass.
The album has been described as cinematic, too. I take this to mean that it sounds like the soundtrack to a movie or several different movies. In Ellison's case it's the latter. The dark continent drumming of "Melt!" wouldn't sound out of place in The Last King Of Scotland, "Brainfeeder" has creepy synths reminiscent of Manhunter, the riotous "GNG BNG" is built for a Guy Ritchie getaway sequence, while the breathy jazz vocals on "Testament" and "RobertaFlack" have film noir written all over them. It's understandable coming from a guy who studied film and has lived his whole life in LaLa Land.
Cinema isn't the only reference point. As befitting a true geekoid "Parisian Goldfish" and "Comet Course" – both the cause of much head bobbing, toe tapping consternation to me – are built on video game sounds.
Along with its squelches and bloops "Comet Course" has one of the few vocal samples on the 17 track album. It comes from Steven's great unkie, John. "May there be peace and love and perfection throughout all creation."
A sentiment no doubt shared by stoned graphic designers in parking garages the world over. At least before an ass canning renders them bitter and twisted. Yet the appeal of "Los Angeles" is not limited to the stoned graphic designer in the parking garage. It is music for the stoned graphic designer in all of us.
...
If you can dedicate a review to somebody without sounding ridiculous, and you probably can't, I'm gonna dedicate this review to Tyler, my present graphic designing chum.
....
Flying Lotus - Los Angeles out now
My country was once home to three million God Fearing Christians. Today that number has dwindled to approximately sixteen. The reason for this sharp decline is up for debate. The Catholic Church points to rising consumerism. Everyone else blames the child molesting. No matter. The upshot is, Irish people now sleep off their Sunday morning hangovers in bed, rather than a pew.
I for one am gratified by this turn of events. I try my best to live creatively, but I've never found religion particularly inspiring. Not once did a trip to church make me want to pick up a musical instrument. A shotgun, perhaps, but never a musical instrument.
Contrast this with Randolph "Deastro" Chabot. The 22 year-old Michigan native has helmed the finest electronic album out of America in 2008. But what was Chabot's first major influence? Why, his parent's "weird Christian music".
I forgive him. It's the Christian thing to do. Especially since Chabot has infused his debut LP "Keepers" with a much broader range of inspirations. They include New Wave synthpop, cosmology, Brian Wilson, comic books, '90s shoegaze, and feminist literature. That's right. Chabot is an oddball. Just like you.
A trace of the sacred remains, however. How could it not? Chabot is a former choirboy and there is something angelic in the way he voices his softest song, starry lullaby "The Floating Cradle". Likewise with the Christmas ballad "Child of Man, Son of God", which invokes not only the little baby Jesus, but also his successor, the celestial Sufjan Stevens.
Believe is at the heart of "Keepers". Although Chabot's brand is a shade more secular than his mom and pop's. Optimism shines through on indie anthem-in-waiting "The Shaded Forests". It begins with one of those cool rock stutters, "I t-t-t-t-told you we're gonna be fine" and ends with Chabot crying "We're gonna make it home!" over an industrial strength guitar riff. A more perfect soundtrack to the end of the Bush era I haven't yet heard.
"The Goodman of House" continues the "yes we can" vibes. Chabot begs forgiveness for past "enchantments", before building the tension with a military style drum beat. The bleeps of a Mothership arrive out of nowhere to release the pressure, and then Chabot guilelessly admits "I want be a good man/I want to be a fortress…I want to save the forest." Don't we all, mate. Don't we all.
Melody runs positivity a close second in Chabot's song book. Whichever genre he slips into the result is eminently tuneful. You can hum along to his 80s pop stylings ("Michael, The Lone Archer of the North Shore) and to his M83 channelling ("Open Up Ye Dark Gates!"). The astonishingly self assured "Wind Powered" has a twisting, turning, utterly relentless acid line, punctuated by a dirty great monster howl. Yet it's catchier than any of the dross that typically clogs up the singles charts.
Not that Keepers is entirely dross free itself. I didn't think it possible for music to sound futuristic and twee at the same time, but Chabot has managed it with "Light Powered". Suffice to say, this updated slice of an olde Englande folk song is the perfect soundtrack to sod all and nothing, except perhaps "Brave Sir Robin Ran Away".
However I thank God (yes, for the purpose of this review He exists) that Chabot has sublimated his cheesier urges for the greater good. That is, to entertain oddballs like us. In fact, if it means he'll never stray from his one true path, I'll supply all the cheese Deastro will ever need. How? By signing off in true music reviewer style, with a horrendously crappy pun:
"Keepers" is electronic music that stays with you.
...
Keepers is out now on cult US electronic label Ghostly International
http://ghostly.com/releases/keepers (stream and download two songs)
http://www.myspace.com/deastro
Comments
Whoa..I think I've seen the light. Michigan? Who knew. He crams an awful lot into the dot..dug that.
Glad to hear it, Cody! "Crams an awful lot into the dot"- Heh, well put. Indeed. Shades of the Forest, as we say in these necks of the woods, is animal.
Ahoy Mogmeisters!
This video review of the Australian MGMT features special guest star, Clara the Nu-Rave Indie Band Guitarist and Teenager.
And there's more! Much more! We've got
* a mortifying anecdote about David Lynch!
* the fabulously entertaining tale of a stunned kangaroo!
* an awful accusation concerning Enrique Iglesias!
We also found some time to actually comment on the album. Hey, we thought we'd try something new this week.
Enjoy the vid!
(Okay, strictly speaking it's a Podcast with Pictures. A slight technical hitch ocurred during filming. And, to think, we weren't even drinking this time. Never again.)
Hugs'n'stuff,
Fluxy
The Vid:
Our review of Empire of the Sun - Walking On A Dream from CJ Scuffins on Vimeo.
The Transcript (for those who can't understand a word):
Clara the Teen and Colin the Step-Dude sit at webcam. Jill the Embarrassing Mother is behind them on the sofa, watching the TV. Colin makes The Teen laugh by flicking his glasses off his nose.
(Song plays -- Standing on the Shore)
Colin: So, as a guitarist, what did you think of the guitar riff?
The Teen: S'alright.
Jill: I thought the guitar was good.
C: Hold on a second, you've never even looked at a guitar, never mind played one.
TT: You've stubby fingers.
J: What has stubby fingers got to do with it?
C: I don't want to get too technical, but I think [the song] had a good beat.
TT: It was okay.
C: Right, here's the next one.
(Song plays – Walking On A Dream)
C: What say you?
J: Say I, I like that one. It reminds me of Zoot Woman. They only brought out the one album.
C: That's right, yeah.
J: It didn't really go anywhere in the charts, but I actually really liked it.
C: Jacques Lu Cont. That's a bloke now. I'm not swearing at you. That's an actual bloke. Okay? (to The Teen) Do you think this song will appeal to the younger generation?
TT: No.
C: You don't?! What's missing? If you put acid hoodies on them and had loads of laser lights around them...okay?
TT: Yeah.
C: Because they probably wear billabong hats and the video's probably outside at a barbeque.
TT: Acid hoodies, yes.
C: Acid hoodies. What if a kangaroo had an acid hoodie [in the video]?
TT: No.
C: No?
J: Oh! Did you hear—I heard something about kangaroos!
(TT laughs.)
C: Oh no, it's the embarrassing mother!
J: I heard something about kangaroos! About— (C groans.)Wait til I tell ya!
C: We're trying to conduct a professional review here.
J: Hold on! Somebody told me this ... (laughs).. they were in Australia, going down a big highway... they put a Celtic [soccer] jersey on [a] dead kangaroo and went to take a photograph. But the kangaroo wasn't dead. It got up. It was just in shock. A car must have just knocked into it beforehand. And the kangaroo jumped off with the Celtic jersey! (Everyone laughs) So in Australia there's a kangaroo with a Celtic jersey!
C: Oh mother, you're embarrassing me! Mother!... Next song.
J: (Sighing with pleasure) ... Oh, that was good.
(Song plays – Half Mast)
C: I've figured out by now, six or seven songs in, that they've got two vocalists. One sounds like Bob Dylan and the other sounds like the Bee Gees. What say you?
TT: You know the guy that was singing the more melodic part, I like him.
C: "Haaa! Haaa!" That guy?
TT: I prefer him. He could probably sing for a better band. I would tell him to kick the other guy out and start singing [in the style of] more indie genres.
C: The youth of today are so ruthless!
(Song plays – We Are The People)
C: Clara has just spotted something. What did you spot there?
TT: Enrique Iglesias?
C: Is on our iTunes. Enrique Iglesias is cool, isn't he?
Jill: Who the fuck is Enrique Iglesias?!
C: (Denying it) That's you, not me!
TT: What the hell?!
Jill: Enrique Iglesias! Where is he [on iTunes]?!
C: I love him! I admit it, I love Enrique Iglesias! Is that wrong?
Jill: Is it because you taped something for my dad?
TT: No.
C: (Cagely) ... Yes. (They laugh.) Thanks, Jill... Very good. I love the guy with the high voice in this band. If I had to write a fan letter to this band, I'd say "Dear Empire of the Sun, this is for the guy with the high voice. Please could he send me a signed autographed picture. Perhaps with his mouth open so I could see his tonsils." If you were [really] sending a fan letter to Empire of the Sun, this is how it is addressed: 'Bloke with the high voice, Empire of the Sun, Australia.' So he gets the letter. And the letter says, "Leave the band. Youse are useless." That's it, isn't it? "But you're all right."
TT: Yeah, "But you're all right."
C: It's a bittersweet letter, isn't it?... Okay, here's one that sounds like the theme tune of a 1980s TV show.
(Song plays – Country.)
J: David Lynch's Twin Peaks.
C: That's correct. That's what it sounds like. David Lynch's Twin Peaks. David Lynch is a bit of a nut.
J: Yeah. Mulholland Drive.
C: He wants to save the world through meditating and making films that nobody can understand.
J: We got this movie, Mulholland Drive. (C sighs.) And Colin says, "Oh, I love David Lynch. I think he's really, really great."
C: I was trying to impress you at the start of the relationship.
J: He was trying to impress me at the time. So, we were watching a movie, and the movie kept going really slow and stopping at different times. And Colin was sitting there going, "Hmm, yes, I love Lynch's work. You see the way he's able to, like, still the film." And all this kind of stuff. But wasn't the DVD broken. It was just skipping on the DVD player and this pretentious shit—
C: LYNCH!
J: He thought that this was the way the director was after filming the whole thing. (Laughs.)
C: Can we get on with this, please? We don't want to hear those stories.
(Song plays – Without You)
J: He's in fucking pain!
C: He's in pain? I'm in pain as well. So I can identify with him.
J: I liked two of the songs. That's about it, really.
C: Well, I liked most of it. I think they're very, very good. And I'm the youngest, hippest teenager here, so I should know—Oh, shit, she's here. (TT laughs.)
J: See that last song? That was fecking depressing.
C: Aaah!
J: That was depressing.
C: You know what's depressing? YOU!... So overall, what do you think of this band?
J: Boo!
TT: Boo! Boo! Join an indie nu-rave band!
...
Empire Of The Sun is a collaborative project between Nick Littlemore (PNAU) and Luke Steele (Sleepy Jackson). Their debut LP ‘Walking On A Dream’ is out now.
...
Links:
http://www.walkingonadream.com.au/
My review of lead single, Walking on a Dream
Comments
Somewhere between "Who the fuck is Enrique Iglesias?!" and "But wasn't the DVD broken. It was just skipping on the DVD player and this pretentious shit", I fainted out of laughter. BRILLIANT review, brilliant.
Is this a contemporary band btw? I thought they were from teh 8os. I really did!
I dunno, I try to do a professional review and I end up getting SLAUGHTERED.
And yep, the band are contemporary, although they do sound kind of 80s and the cover shot looks like Adam Ant did a remake of Star Wars.
Thanks for listening!
MOG Meter
Comments
I never thought I'd read a post that combines geeks to hip hop to stoned graphic designers to Adult Swim cartoons. If your man Tyler made a map out of this post, it would be the most surreal one ever.
Thanks for the introduction. And for sharing your man love.
You're welcome, Anna. The album hits a fair few points on the map so I thought I'd try to do the same. As for my man Tyler, he's is too busy for me these days, what with with his freelancing and everything. Selfish, really.