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24 - The Michigan Daily - Orientation Edition 2006
Pretty good computer?
MUSIC COLUMN DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE
The most recognizable images behind
electronic music aren't exactly the
most artistically profitable, let alone
representative:
The raver kid with a pacifier and bottle
of Rx fun.
The aging hippie who likes to use the word
"chill" excessively.
And, of course, the absolutely
Euro-America club lizard who likes
to dance around Manhattan to the
same songs everyone made fun of in
"A Night At The Roxbury."
What's interesting is that
remarkable, artistic electronic
music is reaching a watershed
era and way too many people are
sleeping through it. It's not just the
past few years that have been vital,
tight and ridiculously impressive, E
it's the fact that some of the golden McG
artists of the past few decades are
finally, and rightfully, moving into history.
Everyone, from Neptunes to Big & Rich to
Interpol, has gotten fat from the weird bound-
ary pushing German and British lab nerds did
-ack in the '70s. Dusselldorf's Kraftwerk and
their industrial "robot rock" taught American
and British rock bands how to make the studio
experience more brittle and stark. England's
Brian Eno showed everyone that pop could
still sound like pop - even after it played with
some digital angles for a while.
Today we're immersed in it like the air we
breathe; the universe of American pop music is
obsessed with electronics and the digital prop-
erties of sound. Whether you reject or adore it,
it usually plays a major role in the way music is
crafted. The White Stripes, The Postal Service,
50 Cent and Wilco, major bands as diverse as it
gets, all would have drastic shifts in their sound
if it weren't for the tinkering synthesizer geeks
and studio-philes in past years.
For some artists, this relationship to the
seemingly inhuman, impersonal side of
music never ends. They use computers and
other tools to achieve what's at the heart of
all music: expression of human experiences
through sound in unique, specific way. Elec-
tronic music uses what's easily labeled artifi-
*al or inauthentic to mold resonant forms of
expression.
That isn't a defense of a genre (no genre
needs a defense), though some, like this one,
need clarification. And like all other genres,
there are plenty of weak spots. The ultra-cool
shield of electronic music has its dents: the
woozy, endless nausea of low-grade trance and
those bleating, stop-start club songs where an
VE
anonymous foreign woman shrieks about some-
thing related to dancing. You know, those songs
from club scenes in "Sex and the City."
Which of course means that I've seen "Sex
and the City" enough to remember the music.
Awesome. That's a nice one, Evan.
But seriously, the vital electronic music
we've been missing for the past few years is
layered, instantly accessible and
thrilling. It's a wide-open world:
trip-hop, drum and bass, jungle,
ambient music all coincide, and
what's more, they've all been
around for some time now.
So; again, in the interest of
fairness, here are some electron-
ic outfits that have helped me
get a stronger sense of what the
genre can do:
AN Massive Attack sounds like syrup
ARVEY dripping down a champagne glass:
slow, achingly smooth and almost
ominous. Don't blame them for the cascade
of also-rans who are cropping up these days
(cough ... Zero 7 ... cough), because their run
of albums, Blue Lines and Mezzanine are both
gems - was so effortless and haunting no
one could make "lounge" music so visceral or
enduring ever again.
"Skittering" is an understatement when describ-
ing the music of Aphex Twin. A dominant force in
the mid-'90s United Kingdom, this one-man outfit
fractures drums and basslines at near the speed of
sounds. He can make blizzards in your headphones.
An intense and yet somehow peaceful trip through
these quark loops of sound is possible. Depends on
just how high your tolerance is.
Prefuse 73, the most contemporary act on the
list (his masterpiece, One Word Extinguisher,
was released in 2003), might also be the most
palatable. Scott Herrin, the man behind the
Prefuse moniker (among others he uses), uses
a glitch style of electronica that breaks up the
different rhythms of loops as much as it freezes
and melts patterns of sound. If that reads awk-
wardly, trust me, the tempo shift is smoother
than a May breeze, and the blend of drums,
vocal samples and crashing digital synths
become a warm narcotic.
Though the more inhuman and cold weeks of
the year are crawling back day by day, there's
one interesting solution: an insulated cocoon of
digital atmospherics. Try it, couldn't be worse
than the Christmas albums around the corner.
- McGarvey thinks that the Dust Brothers are
more important than The Beatles in the history
of music. E-mail him at evanbmcg@umich.edu.
Nov. 15, 2005
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46
Courtesy of Geffen
So talented, so weird.
Ethereal group continues
long, wild trip on 'Takk'
By Chris Gaerig
Sept. 20,2005
When the Vikings discovered Iceland around
1000 A.D., they named it to deceive other travelers in
search of a warm, comfortable
home. It was a sneaky move, Sigur ROs
but when have the Vikings ever Takk
been known to be compassion-
ate and caring? If only there had Geffen
been mass production of music
a millennium ago, the Norse travelers wouldn't
have had to go through all that trouble. Sigur R6s
would've warded off enough foreigners with their
chilling ambiance.
Known for their expansive sonic environments,
cocooning vocals and destructive crescendos, the
Icelandic quartet Sigur R6s ambushed the music
world's conception of epic, intellectual composi-
tion. Coming off of 2002's ( ) and dance-inspired,
music-box freak-out Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do, Sigur
R6s made fans' mouths water in anticipation of
Takk. They don't disappoint.
Takk is laden with Sigur R6s's signature atmo-
spherics and vocals but diverges into uncharted,
more optimistic territory than on previous releas-
es. Gorgeous string arrangements replace the
dead air and ambient drones that marked earlier
works. But the still indecipherable, yet melodic
and cheerier, moans of lead singer J6n 6r Birgis-
son infuse a sense of hope into the group's some-
times-downtrodden sound.
Sigur R6s's sound isn't unlike Homer's sirens.
It lures with comforting, melodic songs before it
destroys listeners with bombasts of guitars, strings
and chimes. Birgisson's croons on "Gl6s6li" fill
the room with a glossy warmth, while a parade of
cymbal crashes and distorted guitars march in unan-
nounced. By the time listeners realize it, the track is
stampeding through the air.
"Saeglopur" is another iceberg-like song. What
appears to bea fairly harmless, subtle track is quick-
ly overtaken by the feedback, driving percussion
and angelic vocals beneath.
Not all of Takk is that deviant. "Meo Bl6dnasir"
is bright and heartfelt from the outset. The sunrise
cymbal splashes and choir carry the two-minute
interlude from beginning to end. Its palm-muted
guitar and interweaving xylophone lines are a wel-
come departure. "S6 Lest" sounds like an extension
of Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do with its dependence on aux-
iliary percussion. The song is a lullaby amplified
by Birgisson's manipulated falsetto. It ends with a
schizophrenic episode of waltzing horns.
Takk houses Sigur R6s's most ambitious departure
from their early work. "Gong" opens with a seem-
ingly electronic drum beat and staccato bass line. It is
surprisingly reminiscent of Radiohead's KidA. While
to an untrained ear Birgisson and Yorke's vocals
might occasionally be mistaken for one another, the
two groups' music rarely, if ever, crossed paths. The
track's dependence on a guitar riff gives the song a
more conventional structure and groove.
However, aside from their envelope-pushing
albums, Sigur R6s is notorious for their live shows.
While many contemporary artists' music translates
poorly to a more personal stage, Sigur R6s's soars to
new heights. Their ambience and atmospherics are
said to enthrall listeners and hurl them into a wholly
different sonic experience.
Because of this reputation, Sigur R6s has legions
of fans willing to follow them around the globe.
Their Sept. 20, Michigan Theater show sold out in
approximately two minutes - a feat nearly unheard
of for anyone of their popularity. Those sales are
generally reserved for groups like The Pixies and -
during the height of their ill-fated popularity - the
Backstreet Boys.
In recent years, Sigur R6s fans have drawn been
compared to worshipers of groups like the Grateful
Dead, but not in that let's-go-smoke-weed-and-trip-
out-to-this-band kind of way. Rather, Sigur R6s's fans
arebeingcomparedtotheDead's notoriousDeadheads
(the legion of people willing to follow the band across
the continent). While their number is significantly
smaller than the number of Deadheads, fans of Sigur
R6s are just as vigilant and dedicated to their idols.
Takk is another installment in the infallible, fan-
crazed catalog of Sigur Ros. The group continues to
consistently produce some of the smartest and most
dense music being made without sounding played-
out and monotonous. Many would argue that Sigur
R6s is pretentious, pompous music that only elitist
indie critics can get behind. The excellence of Takk
and their large following attest to the opposite. These
Vikings have earned the hype.
! i / I / i 1-1 1 F. I
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