tisdag 12 Jun 2007, 22:10
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/6915/sjurqf6.jpg
I am outside your house, disrupting your sleeping patterns
How has your week been? Mine has contained, as you can see below, invasive clothing, girls with sparkly names, dreamy sixties instrumentation, several performers who have at one time or another been referred to as "chanteuses", incomprehensible British teenagers, Scooter's cool cousins from Boston, Brits with an unhealthy fixation for their shoes… and that's just the music! (LOL.) The weather here in the fair city of Trondheim has been warm and sunny, just the way I don't like it. Luckily, the temperature has now dropped to the low teens, bringing with it some nice and heavy rainclouds. Does wonders for the sinuses, I tell you.
Meanwhile, out in our backyard, some magpies have been making an ungodly ruckus for the last few days - something to do with childcare, if I'm to believe this ornithologist I found online. The noise should abate soon, as the younglings become more independent - but I tell you, having a tittering of overly protective magpies right outside your bedroom window is a test for anyone with a friendly disposition towards animals. Maybe I wouldn't be as bothered if I listened to more noise music.
Right. This is the last cull for a while, as I'll be taking a break from listening to my 40 track playlist, in favour of good, old-fashioned compact discs (maybe even some vinyl). See, I'm a fickle person when it comes to following through, and satisfied as I am with doing these write-ups for four weeks straight, I don't want to tempt fate, or more specifically, my own shifty attention span. I'll be back with these in a month or so, and look for an announcement tomorrow on what the schedule of this journal will look like in the interim.
What is The Cull?
The backlog:
One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven
* Broadcast - Unchanging Window (Chord Simple Remix)
I don't really know what the title of this remix pertains to (I haven't heard the original), and all my guesses sounded worryingly pretentious, so I think I'll move on. The singer, who I presume to be one Trish Keenan, breathes out a couple of wistful verses, a slightly more insistant chorus, throws in some "ah-ah-ahs", repeats the process, and then promptly vanishes. The rest of the song is instrumental, allowing the beguiling backing track - a psychedelic and reverby 60s throwback - to stretch out into what's basically a three-minute extended coda.
* The Campaign For Real-Time - Adjustments
The first time this came barreling out of my speakers, I wondered for a minute how a certain German shout-meister (see above) had managed to weasel himself into my playlist, but I soon wised up. It took four whacks of a hi-hat, and about one bar of some fantastic beats to turn my head to the fact that this was nothing near some peroxide Eurotrash stadium-monster - or perhaps it was, but if so, it certainly was the good kind. Twenty-odd listens later it still sounds as mindblowingly huge as it did that first time. Shat-hot live instrumentation blending smoothly with synths and programmed elements, and those perfectly preposterous shouty vocals on top. Make your own adjustments, and get on this. Now, y'hear!
* Neko Case - Star Witness
The moment, for me, comes about two minutes and fifteen seconds in, when Case intones: "The look on your face yanks my neck on the chain/ And I would do anything", whereupon another voice - Neko's own, or possibly Kelly Hogan's - repeats the line: "I would do anything" - back to Case - "to see you again". It's not particularly emphasised, just a small moment in the middle of the song, but it kicks my ass every time. I feel, each time I play this, that I've uncovered some secret, right then and there… "I would do anything".
* Destroyer - European Oils
How's that for a coincidence? Two Pornographers all in a row. At first, this can sound a little abrasive, Dan Bejar's vocals not quite meshing with the lush, orchestrated rock music here - but give it time, and it'll sound like the most natural thing in the world. Actually, getting to know Bejar's voice in this context is almost like becoming more fluent in a foreign language, steadily divulging subtleties you swore weren't there when you first heard it.
* Eivets Rednow - How Can You Believe
Another throwback to the sixties. This is authentic, though; a track from an 1968 instrumental record Stevie Wonder was forced to put out under a veeeery cryptic pseudonym, his label afraid such weird sounds would clash with his teenpop "Little Stevie" image. In reality, it sounds pretty harmless, a slick, easy-listening joyride, centered around Wonder's masterful harmonica lead. I don't know if it's because the instrument is so under-utilised elsewhere, but damn if it isn't possible to hear that it's Stevie Wonder playing. Then again, I practically grew up on the Eurythmics' Be Yourself Tonight album, so that tone seems ingrained in my memory.
* Fannypack - Cameltoe
All I'm saying is, it speaks volumes about Fannypack's restraint that they manage to use the word "blunt" in a song devoted to the whole cameltoe, phenomenon, and rhyme it with "front". And, you know, not that other word.
* GoodBooks - Leni (Chrystal Castles Remix)
Seizing upon the falsetto vocals of the original version's chorus, and jettisoning just about everything else, Crystal Castles had me thrown very far off the scent as far as the track's origins were concerned. Thinking this was some female-sung, pensive, staring-out-the-window number, I was only a bit surprised when I found that it was actually a fey-male-sung, half-pensive-half-rocky, staring-out-the-window number. Perhaps I should give the GoodBooks' version another spin or two, but so far, CC brings home the win.
* Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby
Odd one, this - ample proof you can make a cracking sandwich with just a small, small strip of meat if your garnish is good and plentiful enough. Everything about the songcraft here seems ephemeral, the verses and bridge just some la-la-laing, threading water while waiting to unleash that monster chorus. Which, you know, is okay, as my masterful opening metaphor illustrates.
* Quickspace - Gloriana
Soft-spoken, tape-hissy and drony, but also melodic and pleasant; Quickspace just avoids the ire my aversion towards this particular musical substrata usually provokes. The group vocals and the build towards the end are really captivating, but they also make me wonder what this would sound like with clear and glossy production. And that's really not the point, is it?
* Mark Ronson - Oh My God feat. Lily Allen
Ah, summer. Now that you've gone (temporarily, alas), it's nice to have someone like Lily Allen covering a Kaiser Chiefs song to remind us of your charms. It also helps that mastermind Mark Ronson provides an absolutely absorbing backing track, all skankfunky goodness; something in which to lose yourself when the novelty of Ms. Allen's performance wears off (which it bloody well shouldn't, because it's some of her best work). But yeah, if you're of the "Lily Allen: all-hype, no-substance" school of thinking, this won't convince you.
* Song-Poem - Virgin Child of the Universe
Forming something of a triptych with the Broadcast and Eivets Rednow tracks above, this apocryphal oddity pairs a cheesy sixties sensibility (discount church organ, woodwinds and a soaking wet backing chorus) with some trippy flower child lyrics, and a belting performance by a (sadly) anonymous diva.
* The Sunshine Underground - The Way It Is
These guys again. Definitely a case of the whole being much more than the sum of its parts. A lengthy, perfunctory dance rock intro, handclaps in the background, Craig Wellington's squealing vocals (which should be grating, but aren't), a half-tempo, spaced-out middle section seemingly custom made to drag the whole track down into the mud, samples of race cars (yes, really) laced into the groove when the pace picks up again, the glaring absence of hooks, the glaring presence of cowbell, and a very, very unmotivated fadeout. And yet, it's an effing blinder of a song… especially the part with the race car.