Gently join hands at the edges of the universe
Mix 16: Maximalist songwriters, minimalist rappers, and a few things smack dab in the middle
I have long posts about A-pop and the People’s Pop Polls brewing (only one, about PPP, will likely wind up published, though I might end up doing a whole series on this A-pop nonsense), so for now I’m just going to link to some stuff I read and loved this week.
E.S.P. by Lucy Sante
How many Jaynetts were there? Did they ever appear before an audience? What did they look like? Did they wear bouffantes and long gold lamé dresses, or kerchiefs and sweatshirts and three-quarter-length pants? How was the song heard by its first listeners? How is it heard today? Did everybody but us mistake it for an ordinary anodyne pop song? Where did the song really come from? Was the song actually written by someone who sat down at the piano one day? Was it sung to the pretended author in a bar by a stranger who thereupon dropped dead? Did it just somehow materialize, in the form we know today, on a reel-to-reel tape with no indication of origin? Why does it seem to resist the grubby quotidian context from which all things come, particularly pop songs aimed at a nebulously conceived teenage audience? Is it simply a brilliant void like those that periodically inflame the popular imagination, which allow their consumers to project any amount of emotional intensity upon them and merely send it back in slightly rearranged form, so that it can seem to anticipate their wishes and embody their desires and populate their loneliness and hold out a comforting hand, when it is in reality nothing but a doll with mirrored eyes?
Of Wolves & Vibrancy by Scott Seward
With metal, I think it’s that sense of immediacy and vitality that even mediocre examples of the genre can conjure up simply by virtue of hyperbole and that striving to be the most of something. The most base, or debased, or most grandiose, or most gloomy, or most triumphant. I respond strongly to unashamed displays of the will to power in most genres of any art. At the very least, I admire those who feel as if the infinite is within their grasp. No matter how misguided their central premise. Believing you are a bad-ass is half the battle when it comes to creating something compelling.
i'm just a notch in your bedpost, but you're just a line in a song by Isabel Cole
For most of [“The Albatross”], she plays the idiomatically famous literary allusion of the title fairly straight, if not quite in a manner that proves she has ever read Coleridge:
Cross your thoughtless heart
Only liquor anoints you
She’s the albatross
She is here to destroy youBut then at the end, we get the kind of script-flipping final chorus she’s been doing since her country days:
So I crossed my thoughtless heart
Spread my wings like a parachute
I’m the albatross
I swept in at the rescueThis is peak Taylor, to me, more so than any number of sad songs about boys: taking a longstanding symbol of a burden so heavy it feels like doom and saying, But don’t you know that birds can fly? This brand of willful optimism is objectively kind of dumb, and I used to find it really annoying. But at some point I warmed up to it, largely because the picture it paints of Taylor’s worldview is so, so funny; it’s like the 30 Rock scene where we see the world through Kenneth’s eyes and it’s all muppets singing about how special he is. See also the line on “thanK you aIMee” about how she pushed each boulder up that hill on the way to her grand success: only Taylor would write a song where Sisyphus finally gets to say, “We did it, team!” Taylor the romantic is more or less dead on this album, where even the few love songs never approach, say, the transcendence of State of Grace or the depth of New Year’s Day. But you can still catch glimpses of the girl who read Romeo and Juliet and thought, Good start! But I have some notes.
Mix 1 // Mix 2 // Mix 3 // Mix 4 // Mix 5 // Mix 6 // Mix 7 // Mix 8 // Mix 9 // Mix 10 // Mix 11 // Mix 12 // Mix 13 // Mix 14 // Mix 15
MIX 16: GENTLY JOIN HANDS AT THE EDGES OF THE UNIVERSE
1. Sheena Ringo: 人間として [As a Human]
I fell head over heels for Shee Ringo’s 2003 Kuri No Hana last year as I was listening to 2003 albums for a People’s Pop poll. I’ll admit I haven’t explored the rest of her work with the rigor it probably deserves, but this single has her distinctive mix of Technicolor movie musical and a Björkish sense of how weird you can get before someone cries “uncle” (but she takes schmaltz more seriously than Björk ever has).
2. Jay-Jay Johanson: Lujon
A Henry Mancini cover by a Swedish artist who combines orchestral maximalism and 90s electronica recessiveness to an often beguiling effect, like if Portishead only dreamed of perfecting “Autumn Leaves.” His “Paris” from 2013 was yet another People’s Pop find that makes me pause every time he shows up in a playlist.
3. Yannis & the Yaw f. Tony Allen: Walk Through Fire
This was one of the last collaborations drummer Tony Allen was working on before his death in 2020 (he also did a fantastic installment of Adrian Younge’s Jazz Is Dead series). This one is a bit of a mixed bag—Allen & co. provide an impeccable rhythm section for the somewhat annoying roots-rock vocal from Foals lead singer Yannis Philippakis, who sounds like he’s angling for a choice sync in a prestige drama.
4. ME:I: Sugar Bomb
I have no sense of how common Japanese-language mixes of K-pop are these days; I remember them being very common ten years ago but have only seen a few more recently. But I think this is the first time I’ve heard a Japanese group—the winner of Japanese idol competition Produce 101 Japan: The Girls—that sounds like they should consider putting out a Korean-language mix.
5. Ibibio Sound Machine: Pull the Rope
I generally find Ibibio Sound Machine too slick-sounding, better on paper than in practice, but a simple group chant overcomes my aversion and brings out my affection for their undeniable funk chops, which should appeal to me more often.
6. Jey One: Tetere
More dembow from what might be the best all-around dembow artist putting out regular material right now (seems like Angel Dior is chasing pop crossovers down a bunch of blind alleys, but I wish him the best). The tricky five-beat click keeps throwing the song slightly off-balance while Jey One’s vocal provides a rope bridge across.
7. Irepelusa: Losken Roland
Smooth Venezuelan pop features some imagery in its charming phone-camera video more hard-edged than the song’s effect, which is firmly high-end-furniture-store-pop.
8. Jassa Dhillon, Karam Brar, Starboy X: Hulare
Punjabi-pop that seems perfect for the precipitous yo-yo into summer this week.
9. Bibi Babydoll, d.silvestre: Onlyfans X Fogosa
Last year I kept shortlisting overbearingly porn-y (er, apologies for the cover art) Brazilian MC Bibi Babydoll’s breakout song, “Automotivo Fogosa.” Was put off by her visuals, which are uncomfortable in their tryhard provocation, and wasn’t quite sold on the music. But One Weird Trick —keeping the much better d.silvestre beat from her track “Onlyfans,” with its insinuating sample of the guitar line from Ultra Naté’s “Free”, but pasting on the vocals from “Automotivo Fogosa”—has finally made the whole thing gel for me. Bibi Babydoll seems extremely affected as a performer, like she’s doing baile funk as Brechtian distancing, or maybe as Paris Hilton (same difference?).
10. Q2, CDQ: 100
Naija pop that’s gone full amapiano—which, given their sub-100 view counts on their YouTube videos, does not seem to be a magic formula for them yet.
11. Cfu36, Ahmed Shakib: Dj Ke?
To my knowledge this is the first Bangladeshi rap that’s ever made it through to a mix after several years of pulling songs from a Bangladesh regional playlist.
12. Wokeups: Fragged Aht
The first of two tracks from Ryan Dee’s playlist this week. Combines an abrasive hypertrap setting with an R&B melisma spirit, which takes it closer to hyperpop’s origins as ambiguous pop critique. But unlike most of that early stuff, which rarely did anything for me, this one mostly gets the job done earnestly—it wouldn’t be the first time cramming something genuine through an Autotune sieve resulted in greatness, but it seems like a hard trick to pull off.
13. Shygirl: Making the Beast
Shygirl is touring with Charli XCX and her new stuff feels smaller and weirder than ever—this one’s driving minimal techno with Shygirl’s vocals appearing unexpectedly like someone just woke her up from a nap and rushed her into the studio to get the take at its groggiest, so that it really lands when she ends the phrase on “in the middle of the night.”
14. Mel V: Seeing 20
The second Ryan Dee track, an interesting take on the sort of self-consciously deranged braggadocio Baby Kia trades in, from a Houston rapper getting big on social media. (On YouTube, there are more comparisons to more outré Atlanta rapper Lazer Dim 700, whose chaotic fun hasn’t gotten through to me yet.)
15. Risa Takeda: 狂想・未来・ロマンチカ [Rhapsody ・Future ・Romantica]
Indulgent, maybe borderline-unlistenable, seven-minute avant-cheeze odyssey (endurance test?) that dutifully obliterates its time signatures and sounds like its hyperactive Synclavier orchestra has been cobbled together from the soundtrack of a Super Nintendo RPG. My kid lasted three minutes in the car, during which time comparisons were made to a carnival, a video game, and “weird goat music” before the experience was deemed too painful to finish (“my ears can’t listen to any more of this”).
16. Floyd Lavine, Coffo f. Rawb Boss: Good Morning
I’m getting more below-the-radar African house music from a few new playlists; this is a minimal afrotech jam with a certain playfulness to it. Compared to the previous track, the seven-and-a-half minutes will feel like a breeze.
17. Ekko Astral: uwu Type Beat
Second go-round this year for this DC “bubblegum punk” band, who seem neither bubblegummy nor particularly punk but do channel something closer to the Breeders on this one. I almost missed that it was a repeat appearance—one to keep an eye on, I guess.
18. Holladay, Estrada: Death Is My Best Friend
Bedroom shoegaze from LA. Background research yields a patchwork of Instagram profiles, which is usually where I throw in the towel. Spotify bios: “san fernando valley queer” and “shy foo songs,” respectively (which apparently makes this “foogaze,” a search for which leads to another all-Instagram rabbit hole but does make me wonder how LMFAO would sound against My Bloody Valentine).
19. Zombiero Martin: Evil Seeds
Prague-based group of Italian origin, a stripped-back guitar-and-bass number that teeter-totters on its interesting chord progression. Reminds me a little of Alice in Chains, but with stacked vocals closer to TV on the Radio.
20. King Hannah: Davey Says
Liverpool indie with big Yo La Tengo vibes.
21. Chanel Beads: I Think I Saw
Jagjaguwar group sets a cheesy 80s synth line against a looping staccato string section, with vocals half-buried in hyperpop filters. Prettier than it probably should be.
22. Arooj Aftab: Raat Ki Rani
A gorgeous ballad from Arooj Aftab, whose equally gorgeous work last year with Vijay Ayer and Shahzad Ismaily on Love in Exile proved too inaccessible to me beyond abstract appreciation (it sounded like it could have secured them several grants). This one is a much more direct play for the heartstrings, thanks in large part to a melody and overall candle-lit sumptuousness that puts me in mind of Sade.
23. Broadcast: Follow the Light [c. 2006-2009]
A Broadcast demo culled from recordings between 2006 and 2009; my guess is this is closer to the 2009 side, but I couldn’t find more specific information by press time. I’m not super well-versed in Broadcastology but this seems smaller and sparer than I’m used to from them. A haunting little postscript.
***
That’s it — until next time…I dunno, recommend me some more reading!
—Dave Moore (the other one)
Title translated from Sheena Ringo’s “人間として” (“宇宙の端と端でそっと手を結わえてくれ”)