The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Friday, March 25, 2016 — 5

Japanese jazz hit 
‘Scenery’ excels 

By ANAY KATYAL

Daily Arts Writer

Thelonious Monk taught us 

the beauty of improvisation. 
Louis Armstrong helped us find 
fun in swing. 
Duke Ellington 
showed us the 
wonder and joy 
to be had with 
a big orchestra. 
Ryo Fukui had 
all the mate-
rial to make a 
similar impres-
sion on the world of jazz with 
the modal masterpiece that is 
1976’s Scenery, but among some 
of music’s biggest injustices, the 
lack of a global stage for musi-
cians of Fukui’s ilk is one of the 
most unfortunate. When listen-
ing to Scenery, it’s hard not to 
think about the countless other 
potential works of art that the 
Western musical zeitgeist has 
failed to account for.

Jazz’s liberating nature sepa-

rates it from other genres of 
music. Artists are free to stitch 
together a variety of styles and 
sounds effortlessly, affording 
them a significant level of cre-

ativity and improvisation. In 
Scenery, Fukui provides listeners 
a refreshing take on some jazz 
classics, like “Willow Weep For 
Me,” “Autumn Leaves” and “I 
Want To Talk About You.” While 
he relies on the works of other 
musicians, he has an undoubt-
edly unique take on every song. 
His rework of “Autumn Leaves” 
contains an eclectic, soulful 
introduction before he breaks 
into the slow, subdued jazz stan-
dard. While “Autumn Leaves” 
is an oft-used piece for begin-
ner jazz musicians to acquaint 
themselves with jazz harmony, 
Fukui still manages to create 
something original out of an 
otherwise rudimentary piece of 
music, adding an upbeat cadence 
and flair throughout the song. 
The drums are thunderous, 
but at the same time expertly 
restrained, and his keyboard has 
an air of both swing and finesse.

Even in his original arrange-

ments, the giants of jazz piano 
are 
channeled 
through 
the 

sounds of Scenery. Fukui’s style 
is immediately reminiscent of 
Bill Evans, and his modality 
recalls to life the masterpieces 
of the John Coltrane Quartet. In 

the track “Early Summer,” his 
transition between chill melo-
dies and slapping chord pro-
gressions culminates in a grand 
three minute solo, mirroring a 
lot of the grandiosity found in 
both Evans and Coltrane’s rep-
ertoire. Though Fukui remains 
calm in some arrangements, 
he switches gears on frenetic, 
seemingly improvised pieces 
like “Early Summer,” a fitting 
apex for the album.

While jazz in America was 

going through a crisis of iden-
tity and relevancy, Japan had an 
artist whose talent and adher-
ence to the purity of the genre’s 
sound created some of the 
world’s best, and most unno-
ticed, works of art. Scenery is 
both an expert homage to jazz’s 
best, and a damning illustration 
of an artist whose talent can 
almost match the musicians he 
honors. Scenery fuses elements 
of modal, bop and cool jazz, 
creating an unbridled spirit of 
majesty and excitement. While 
even some of jazz’s most loyal 
patrons may have failed to sur-
vey Fukui’s work, it’s never too 
late to rediscover the mastery of 
Scenery.

MUSIC REVIEW

‘More Water’ flops by 
trap-rap standards

By HARRY KRINSKY

For the Daily

At one point during a Vice Media 

mini-documentary about Atlanta 
rapper iLoveMakonnen, the rap-
per eats an 
hallucino-
genic mush-
room, and as 
it hits him, 
he 
remarks, 

“I 
need 
a 

goddamn 
bed with the 
booth, 
you 

know 
what 

I’m 
saying, 

just lay down 
and record some shit.” It’s a funny 
moment and seems to (mostly) be 
a joke. It also explains the appeal 
of Makonnen’s sound better than 
any formal interview can. A peak 
Makonnen track sounds some-
where between the thoughts of a 
rapper about to go to bed and the 
thoughts of a rapper who just took 
shrooms, all the while percolating 
in a brain raised on the Atlanta 
trap-rap sound.

Unfortunately, 
Makonnen’s 

most recent EP, Drink More Water 
6, does not sound like the musings 
of a sleepy tripper. The tape, more 
than anything, sounds like the 
cold authenticity-killing power of 
a rapid rise to fame and a major 
record deal. This is Makonnen’s 
first major studio album. While it’s 
been marketed as a mixtape, and 
comes as the sixth installment of 
his Drink More Water series, this 
is his first commercial release. The 
album-mixtape ambiguity seems 
to manifest itself in the project. 
From top to bottom, Drink More 

Water 6 feels like a collection of 
Soundcloud releases, rather than 
an album. It’s not particularly 
unique, nor is it necessarily a 
misstep, for rappers to dump a 
bunch of tracks in a mixtape and 
release it without much thought — 
Lil Wayne seemingly did it every 
other month for a few years. If 
Drink More Water 6 was simply 
a free mixtape track dump, it 
still wouldn’t be very good, but it 
wouldn’t have been as much of a 
disappointment as it was.

Drink More Water 6 is, or at least 

should have been, Makonnen’s 
coming out party. He’s done the 
heavy lifting. He convinced the 
rap world that a goofy, shroom-
popping rapper with repetitive 
pseudo-melodic 
choruses 
and 

hard Atlanta beats can be absolute 
fire. He’s been featured on a Drake 
song and rapped on DJ Mustard 
and Carnage beats. In spite of all 
his recent success, Makonnen 
feels strangely risk averse on Drink 
More Water 6, as if his response to 
a major studio deal was to just not 
mess anything up for himself. On 
“Sellin,” and “Pushin’,” Makonnen 
sticks with rapping broadly about 
the drugs he sells, without much 
nuance to his angle. Even his love 
songs “Back Again” and “Turn 
Off the Lies,” which are rapped to 
an elusive female (or females) he 
refers to as “you,” don’t contain 
the relatable boyish emotion that 
makes “Second Chance” work. His 
hyped-up braggadocio tracks like 
“Uwonteva” and “Live for Real” 
don’t come close to the snarl-
inducing tracks like “Where Your 
Girl At?” and “I Live Tuh” from 
his 2015 campaign. It’s possible 
that “Solo,” probably Makonnen’s 

most unique track on the mixtape, 
could have worked if it were 
surrounded by equally strange 
songs. But on Drink More Water 6, 
the track alone doesn’t have a long 
shelf life, and by the third listen it 
starts to lose its initial appeal.

While the album is regrettably 

generic, it’s only generic by 
Makonnen’s 
standards. 
The 

album still has moments of the 
fun weirdness that characterize 
a peak Makonnen track. On the 
final track, where Makonnen 
best captures the hallucinogenic 
trap-rap fusion, he raps “two 
phones going ham, watch the 
bag triple double,” over a simple 
baseline, next to a subtle snare 
progression and under a whacky 
distorted set of echoing chimes. 
The line, along with the beat, 
is dripping with the duality of 
playful weirdness and serious 
subject matter.

Ultimately, 
though, 
this 

album does not exude the feeling 
that time or effort was put into 
it. It’s a set of throwaway tracks 
that aren’t even the good kind of 
throwaway tracks. Makonnen 
had the opportunity to harness 
all his pent-up strangeness and 
push the envelope on how far 
the Atlanta trap-rap sound can 
stretch. He had the opportunity 
to belt quirky yet witty lyrics in 
his tonally questionable voice 
and have the rap world eat it up. 
On Drink More Water 6, he did 
none of that, but the flop of an 
album will not come as a death 
sentence. Makonnen will have 
another chance to show the 
world what it’s like to fall asleep, 
trip, trap and rap, all at the same 
time.

C+

Drink More 
Water 6

iLoveMakonnen

Warner Bros. 

Records

MUSIC REVIEW

A

Scenery

Ryo Fukui

Trio Records

‘Daredevil’ continues 
along a sinister road

By MEGAN MITCHELL

Daily Arts Writer

The cast of Marvel’s “Dare-

devil” has finally come into its 
own, entering the second season 
more comfort-
able in their 
roles 
than 

they 
were 

last 
season. 

The complete 
new season of 
the hit series 
began stream-
ing on March 
18, and since 
then, 
paus-

ing an episode has proven crazy 
difficult. Before the first appear-
ance of the vigilante Daredevil, 
the Marvel Cinematic Universe 
was solely characterized by shiny 
technology and the crisp suits 
of the Avengers. But when law-
yer-by-day, hero-by-night Matt 
Murdock (Charlie Cox, “Board-
walk Empire”) finally graced our 
screens, we were taken to the 
darker, sexier side of Marvel.

Showrunners 
Doug 
Petrie 

(“American Horror Story”) and 
Marco Ramirez (“Orange is the 
New Black”) helm the new sea-
son of “Daredevil,” taking the 
reigns from predecessor Steven 
DeKnight (“Spartacus”). So far, 
they’ve been sprinting ahead with 
the figurative baton. This season 
sees the addition of the Punisher 
(Jon Bernthal, “The Walking 
Dead”) and Elektra (Elodie Yung, 
“Gods of Egypt”), who, at first 
appearance, are meant to jux-
tapose the actions of Daredevil, 
but ultimately end up encour-
aging them. Where a stark line 
once stood between the actions of 
Murdock and season one antihero 
Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio, 

“Jurassic World”), season two 
explores the morally gray area 
that comes with vigilantism. It’s 
obvious that Petrie and Ramirez 
are taking a different approach to 
“Daredevil,” putting Murdock’s 
hero under the same scrutiny that 
Christian Bale’s Batman under-
went in Christopher Nolan’s “The 
Dark Knight.”

The season begins strongly 

as Matt struggles to balance his 
dual identities despite the urging 
of partner and longtime friend 
Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson, 
“Mockingjay: Part 2”) to give up 
the mask. As a break from the 
secrecy of the first season, it’s 
refreshing to have Foggy in the 
loop on Matt’s late-night activi-
ties, and this season, he seems to 
be acting as the voice of reason. 
Although we may have prema-
turely pinned Foggy as the side-
kick to Murdock’s Daredevil, 
Nelson is taking over as a solid 
force in the series, shining in the 
duality of sarcasm and serious-
ness. Another driving force in the 
show, Karen Page (Deborah Ann 
Woll, “True Blood”), becomes 
more comfortable in her skin, fall-
ing into the trio smoothly with 
her strong will and unwavering 
loyalty to the clients of Nelson & 
Murdock.

Just as the characters begin to 

find balance in the mayhem, the 
unanticipated return of Elektra, 
a past lover of Murdock’s with a 
taste for blood, begins to deterio-
rate Matt’s relationships. In the 
beginning, the audience is enticed 
by Elektra, with her suave, ninja-
esque moves. Slowly, her sadistic 
thirst for vengeance breaks her 
facade, showing something much 
darker beneath the mysterious 
exterior. Especially since Karen 
and Matt have just begun to act 

on the spark of their relationship, 
Elektra’s arrival comes at a really 
a bad time.

As the trial of the century 

between the DA’s office and Nel-
son & Murdock over the fate of 
the Punisher begins, we see Matt 
choosing to abandon Foggy at the 
trial’s most crucial point, chip-
ping away at their friendship right 
at the hinges. As the season goes 
on, it becomes harder to endorse 
Daredevil’s actions. Considering 
the second episode showcases 
Foggy’s desperate plea that Matt 
end his days as Daredevil, worried 
that his actions will ultimately 
lead to his demise, it’s irritating to 
see Matt fail to reciprocate Foggy’s 
loyalty. Petrie and Ramirez are 
making it increasingly difficult 
to root for Murdock as the series 
progresses. Surprisingly, the only 
common feature of the first and 
second seasons of “Daredevil” is 
the cinematography. There’s one 
stairwell fight scene that is so 
smoothly choreographed and sty-
listically pulled off that it could’ve 
easily appeared in the first season.

Overall, “Daredevil” seems to 

be balancing on the cliff between 
one of Marvel’s rare treasures and 
the cinematic graveyard. Hope-
fully, the slightly rushed plot lines 
that characterize the first epi-
sodes of the season will be outli-
ers compared to the smoothness 
that eventually characterizes the 
following episodes. If “Daredevil” 
is picked up for another season, it 
should focus on this smoothness 
so the series doesn’t burn through 
plot too fast. As far as the cinema-
tography and character portrayal 
is concerned, though, “Daredevil” 
might just be headed towards 
the same pedestal as “The Dark 
Knight” if they play their cards 
right.

A-

Daredevil

Season Two 
(6 Episodes 
Reviewed)

Netflix

TV REVIEW

NETFLIX

Not really sure what’s going on here.

Lichtenstein-esque 
‘Sixty Six’ exuberant

By VANESSA WONG

Daily Arts Writer

1960s pop art and Greek 

mythology collide in a dizzying 
explosion in Lewis Klahr’s collage 
film 
series 

“Sixty 
Six.” 

Paper 
cutouts 

of Lichtenstein-
esque 
blondes 

scuttle 
through period 
magazine 
imagery, 
background 
prints 
and 

photographs of modernist LA 
architecture in dynamic stop 
motion. It’s the Silver Age of 
Greek mythology played out with 
the pulpy suspense and visual 
identity of the Silver Age of comic 
books.

Unlike 
some 
experimental 

films, Klahr’s work usually has 
a fairly defined, linear narrative, 
but an idiosyncratic method of 
reveal. He creates a scrapbook-
like collage, physically overlaying 
flat cutouts and 3D found objects, 
then intercuts them with digital 
imagery, flashes of bold color and 
soapy sound bites that guide the 
storyline.

The twelve films in the series 

work together as chapters of 
a larger storyline, one which 
switches easily between ominous 
melodrama and playful irony. 
“Helen of T” features a time 

period appropriate jazz to follow 
a seductive blonde grappling with 
the loss of her youth and beauty. 
He then switches visual styles in 
“Mercury,” a short fight between 
comic book superheroes. Choppy 
cuts hover in on various small 
details — the point where a punch 
meets or a muscle straining — 
sparking motion to what was once a 
static physical image. Then there’s 
“Ambrosia,” a respite from graphic 
imagery, focusing on banquet table 
photographs alone to tell a story 
of the guests unseen. “Lethe,” 
inspired by the eponymous river 
flowing through the Underworld, 
draws revolvers and top hats 
from slick noir cinema for a bored 
housewife and mad doctor’s romp 
through death and rebirth.

Klahr says his films are from the 

“present tense, looking back”: that 
is, situating present iconography 
within the context of ideas that 
lead up to it. Cultural symbols may 
define an era, but aren’t exclusive 
to it. “Sixty Six” revives found 
imagery to uncover what relics 
of history have stuck and what 
they’ve become. After all, Greek 
myths were once narrative fodder 
for popular entertainment, just as 
the Pop Art movement drew from 
mass culture.

Still, calling “Sixty Six” a 

modern retelling of traditional 
archetypes doesn’t encompass 
the complexity of its scope. 
Klahr sources from an eclectic 
variety of well-known cultural 

markers, 
but 
disregards 
the 

chronological 
continuum 
that 

structures the ideas. He hints at 
how past ideas inform modern 
thought, 
but 
spends 
more 

time reversing it, finding fresh 
angles on things that have now 
wormed their way into collective 
consciousness. He meshes images 
together, then flings them in 
unexpected directions so all of 
these threads of perspective — 
Greek mythology, 60’s culture 
and the modern viewer — are at 
once recontextualized under his 
interpretation and stripped of 
context to create building blocks 
that the viewer can rearrange 
themselves.

He invites viewers to engage 

with the films within the context 
of their own lives, prefacing the 
screening 
by 
recommending 

that audiences unfamiliar with 
experimental film approach his 
series like listening to music. 
Just as song lyrics re-enter the 
mind during completely different 
situations than the original song, 
Klahr says because these cultural 
markers are already absorbed 
deeply into American popular 
culture, reassembling them is 
“about the way we personalize 
those images,” as Klahr said in 
the Q&A. With its delightfully 
distinctive collage style, “Sixty 
Six” 
has 
an 
unparalleled 

exuberance that truly does inspire 
audiences 
to 
make 
nostalgic 

imagery their own.

A

Sixty Six

Lewis Khair

Ann Arbor 

Film Festival

FILM REVIEW

ANN ARBOR FILM FESTIVAL

Sure, my life isn’t perfect, but at least my hair is.

