2025 Mix 38: The '20s revisited, a too-rare foray into Taiwanese pop, a few fun music videos (cheap Spiderman PDA inclusive), and refusing to dislike things on paper
"ABCDário Da Guerra" by DJ Arana & MC Lan. I keep planning to do a post about this and others that are sorta like it: they are "Tracks The Refuse To Ge On-Track." But I've been having trouble getting on-track. So, what you say?
I think that what drew me to this song was that it took an element of baile funk that was really exciting to me in the 20s -- establishing the fullest possible world with the most minimal formal elements -- and filled out more of the world. I mean "world" in the sense of an open world video game, in this case something post-apocalyptic but without real conflict happening in the game, like a "Fisher King" where you're worried (but not too worried) that you might get stabbed.
Think this is a risky proposition, because you could easily lose the self-contained spark or charm or whatever it is that keeps a lot of funk of this period moving. I've heard a few 6-to-9-minute funk tracks that are a bit like suites (can't remember them now, but they would occasionally go viral in Brazil a year or two ago) that couldn't generate the necessary energy for me.
Think "ABCDário" has it both ways -- gives you different musical ideas that feel disjointed enough to get across the condensed spark of funk but fills in just enough other details that it feels like a fuller song. I've compared it a few times to "Bohemian Rhapsody," which tells me I need to think more about how I think *that* song operates -- "creates a world" is not how I would immediately describe it -- something about how the different sections stray just far enough from each other to keep you in mind of the others, feels intentionally disjointed but not arbitrary.
(Also think something that is generally true of Arana in this period (not sure about now, haven't heard much from him this year) is that his mise en scene is stronger than the acting, the tension is in his choices as a DJ, seems less of a negotiation between DJ and singer/rapper than other funk. It's like John Carpenter, maybe, where you want heavies and faces to inhabit the landscape but you don't exactly want a showstopper in there.)
Anyway, these are the ones coming to mind, should probably think more about it, can't think of other baile funk songs that quite achieve its particular atmosphere or entry point.
anyway, I guess the shorter version of this is that I don't see "ABCDário" as having a track to get on, but more of a space to stand in where you look around for a while and experience it but aren't really being told where to go.
(don't think this is at all in any way contradicting your idea of "getting on track," not having a track to get on is a good way to avoid getting on track)
Distance in a Zheani song is often discussed in the lyric and Naked is a good example of this, alienation by digital socioeconomics and life choices - the psychology of life choices is one of her themes, there are, I think, references to Jung, Nietzsche, Adler and probably Wedekind in her work but she's smart enough to make it seem like she learned it all from podcasts and memes and maybe she did, maybe she did
One of the reasons I find fairy trap so fascinating is that it's the best example I know of women moving into a very masculine genre, using it for very feminine purposes, and by doing so creating a distinct, unmistakable new genre - without necessarily changing a note of the music.
"women moving into a very masculine genre, using it for very feminine purposes, and by doing so creating a distinct, unmistakable new genre - without necessarily changing a note of the music." oh look, hidden Other Dave thesis statement (not for everything, but for a lot of things)
That is, I don't think that women doing this is some kind of universal thing -- that it is de facto good or successful when it happens -- but a lot of the music that I've championed the most passionately does something like this. It may boil down more to [seeming interloper] moves into [dead or dying or current unused or former zeitgeist], uses it for [personal but unique] purposes, and by doing so creates a distinct, unmistakable [something or other] without necessarily changing [thing that powered the zeitgeist]
"ABCDário Da Guerra" by DJ Arana & MC Lan. I keep planning to do a post about this and others that are sorta like it: they are "Tracks The Refuse To Ge On-Track." But I've been having trouble getting on-track. So, what you say?
I think that what drew me to this song was that it took an element of baile funk that was really exciting to me in the 20s -- establishing the fullest possible world with the most minimal formal elements -- and filled out more of the world. I mean "world" in the sense of an open world video game, in this case something post-apocalyptic but without real conflict happening in the game, like a "Fisher King" where you're worried (but not too worried) that you might get stabbed.
Think this is a risky proposition, because you could easily lose the self-contained spark or charm or whatever it is that keeps a lot of funk of this period moving. I've heard a few 6-to-9-minute funk tracks that are a bit like suites (can't remember them now, but they would occasionally go viral in Brazil a year or two ago) that couldn't generate the necessary energy for me.
Think "ABCDário" has it both ways -- gives you different musical ideas that feel disjointed enough to get across the condensed spark of funk but fills in just enough other details that it feels like a fuller song. I've compared it a few times to "Bohemian Rhapsody," which tells me I need to think more about how I think *that* song operates -- "creates a world" is not how I would immediately describe it -- something about how the different sections stray just far enough from each other to keep you in mind of the others, feels intentionally disjointed but not arbitrary.
(Also think something that is generally true of Arana in this period (not sure about now, haven't heard much from him this year) is that his mise en scene is stronger than the acting, the tension is in his choices as a DJ, seems less of a negotiation between DJ and singer/rapper than other funk. It's like John Carpenter, maybe, where you want heavies and faces to inhabit the landscape but you don't exactly want a showstopper in there.)
Anyway, these are the ones coming to mind, should probably think more about it, can't think of other baile funk songs that quite achieve its particular atmosphere or entry point.
anyway, I guess the shorter version of this is that I don't see "ABCDário" as having a track to get on, but more of a space to stand in where you look around for a while and experience it but aren't really being told where to go.
(don't think this is at all in any way contradicting your idea of "getting on track," not having a track to get on is a good way to avoid getting on track)
Distance in a Zheani song is often discussed in the lyric and Naked is a good example of this, alienation by digital socioeconomics and life choices - the psychology of life choices is one of her themes, there are, I think, references to Jung, Nietzsche, Adler and probably Wedekind in her work but she's smart enough to make it seem like she learned it all from podcasts and memes and maybe she did, maybe she did
One of the reasons I find fairy trap so fascinating is that it's the best example I know of women moving into a very masculine genre, using it for very feminine purposes, and by doing so creating a distinct, unmistakable new genre - without necessarily changing a note of the music.
"women moving into a very masculine genre, using it for very feminine purposes, and by doing so creating a distinct, unmistakable new genre - without necessarily changing a note of the music." oh look, hidden Other Dave thesis statement (not for everything, but for a lot of things)
That is, I don't think that women doing this is some kind of universal thing -- that it is de facto good or successful when it happens -- but a lot of the music that I've championed the most passionately does something like this. It may boil down more to [seeming interloper] moves into [dead or dying or current unused or former zeitgeist], uses it for [personal but unique] purposes, and by doing so creates a distinct, unmistakable [something or other] without necessarily changing [thing that powered the zeitgeist]
"seeming" doing a lot of work there, since e.g. women doing rock music weren't interlopers, and the "seeming" was usually rank (and boring) sexism