SOUNDTRACK: THE XX-Coexist (2012).
Given my proclivities towards noisy fast rock, there is no reason that I should like The XX, and yet I like Coexist quite a lot. It is such a spare album, but Romy’s voice is fantastic—so sensuous and breathy–that she can totally handle a song that is nearly a capella. So a song like “Angels” whose music consists pretty much entirely of a beautiful echoey guitar (and virtually nothing else except for some occasional soft percussion) is engrossingly intimate and not at all boring. In fact when that simple percussion eventually comes in, it’s like a revelation of sound accompanying her.
What also keeps the album interesting is that she is not the only singer (so there’s something for everyone). “Chained” has Oliver’s breathy, sexy voice as he more or less whisper/sings the lyrics. It has slightly more complex arrangements (meaning the drum is constant and there are quiet waves of synths). “Fiction” slowly builds with an ominous muted guitar motif and echoed chords. But when the chorus kicks in, that muted guitar grows loud and it’s almost overpowering (relatively, of course). “Try” brings in a spooky kind of keyboards that is slightly unsettling under their mellow hushed duet of vocals.
The diversity of simple sounds that Jamie xx adds to each song are revelatory. Even though each song is quiet and intimate, the sounds that he uses are so very different within that limited palate. So “Reunion” sounds like a steel drums, before adding pulsing bass beats. “Sunset” has a slinky guitar and “Missing” introduces as drumbeat that is like a heart beat. “Tides” has one of the loudest drum beats on the record, alternating with a delicate guitar line.
The simple bass line adds a really funky quality to “Swept Away.” And when the claps and keyboard hits come in it feels almost like a dance song.
This is a great album for quiet nights and headphones. Even if the songs seem to be mostly about lost love, it has a calming effect that is really enjoyable. I’ll have to check out their debut as well.
[READ: September 30, 2014] The Lost Scrapbook
Some fans of David Foster Wallace speak well of Evan Dara (at least that’s how I’ve heard of him). I was unfamiliar with him and the fascinating story he has built around himself. Evan Dara appears to be a pseudonym. As one writer put it: “Hell, we don’t even now who Evan Dara is. Apparently, he is a male American in his 30s living in Paris.” This, his debut novel, has attracted attention not only for being really weird, but for being really good.
What was fun about reading this was that I knew there were strange things afoot in the book, but I didn’t know what exactly (I really like to go into a book completely blind if I can). So when the book started out with a conversation in which no character names were given (or even how many there were), I was prepared. And while I didn’t really know what the subject they were talking about was, I figured that would be fine as well. Then when four pages in the all caps word YIELD seemed to signal a change of narrator/perspective/something, I thought, okay this is what I’m in for.
Then I noticed that every paragraph which wasn’t conversation (with an em dash) was preceded by three ellipses (and ended with same). A few pages later there’s an all caps TOW-AWAY ZONE which introduces another shift.
And somewhere around page 14 a sort of plot begins to form (although it’s unclear whether or not any of the earlier sections have anything to do with this one). A man is shot…or not? But then after the KEEP DOOR CLOSED section break, a new story develops. A man with a Walkman (I was trying to decide if this was deliberately retro or intentionally set in the 80s, but that was unclear to me) is driving along to meet a man named Dave (at last a name!). Dave is a filmographer who has been collecting fireflies for a video project. And just as we near a kind of resolution of this section, it morphs, unannounced, mind you, into something else entirely–a discussion of music, specifically Beethoven and his decision to rework limited material into multiple variations. It is fascinating and engaging and very well-considered, but it too ends before anything can be “resolved.” (more…)
Read Full Post »
SOUNDTRACK: MATT HAIMOVITZ & CHRISTOPHER O’RILEY-Tiny Desk Concert #426 (March 14, 2015).
There’s no introduction or fanfare for cellist Matt Haimovitz and pianist Christopher O’Riley’s Tiny Desk set. They just start right in with a romping Beethoven piece. I don’t know these two, but the notes say the duo has a new album out called Shuffle.Play.Listen., in which music by Stravinsky and Astor Piazzolla mingles with Cocteau Twins and Arcade Fire. There’s no contemporary music in this set, but it’s very cool nonetheless.
I Just Read About That... 