November 5, 2018

ALBUM REVIEW

Louis The Child, the EDM 

duo that has helped accelerate 
electronic 
music’s 
diffusion 

into the mainstream with their 
future-pop sound, released their 
second EP this past Thursday. 

The project, Kids At Play, features 
a dichotomous sound that partly 
reflects the group’s roots as 
a SoundCloud gem for EDM 
fans and its recent shift toward 
future-pop hit machine (with 
slightly more dignity than The 
Chainsmokers).

Louis The Child made a name 

for itself in 2014, when EDM 
began to morph from a pit of 
avant-garde 
wubs 
and 
noisy 

screeches into a musical genre 
that tastefully pushed boundaries 
of common sound. In this era, 
the young duo released beautiful 
remixes of Zella Day’s “Compass,” 
Oh Wonder’s “Body Gold” and 
SoySauce’s “Broken Record” that 
popped with synthetic texture 
and seemed to be crafted with 
the laudable goal of advancing 
EDM’s artistic credentials. Not 
only were these tracks as sonically 
mind-boggling 
as 
the 
future 

bass hits of big names like Flume 
or Odesza, but they were also 
extremely accessible, warm and 
fun characteristics that were rare 
in electronic music.

The duo rode this unique wave 

through breakout singles “It’s 
Strange” and “The Weekend,” 
but, as their popularity grew, 
Louis 
began 
releasing 
short 

and shallow singles featuring a 

sole female vocalist and mildly 
innovative production, similar to 
those corny hits from Zedd or The 
Chainsmokers that blasphemously 
crack The Billboard Hot 100. 
These songs certainly reached a 
wider audience, but they seemed 
to falter in quality and integrity 
accordingly; 
OG 
Louis 
fans 

were left scratching their heads, 
quietly in denial that their go-to 
for accessible EDM had sold 
out. Fortunately, this downward 
trend was eventually stifled by a 
SoundCloud-only release of EDM 
instrumentals that represented 
a return to Louis’s roots, letting 
these puzzled fans rest easy 
and forging an afterglow of 
contentment that lasted through 
Louis’s next string of pop releases.

From 
here, 
an 
interesting 

pattern arose: Louis The Child 
would grow their fan base with 
increasingly accessible and catchy 
pop tracks, and just before EDM 
purists would jump ship, the duo 
would drop sonically progressive 
music to quell the outrage. This 
back-and-forth between pop hits 
and EDM bangers became part 
of Louis’ identity; the duo could 
make your party pop and make 
your head spin. Now, with Kids At 
Play, the duo’s dual personalities 
operate on the same project and 
oppose one another on a track-
by-track basis, as opposed to the 
previous dichotomous releases.

“Interstellar,” the EP’s opener, 

features a wide, synthetic pre-
chorus 
reminiscent 
of David 

Guetta or Calvin Harris in the 
early 2010s, masterfully dropping 
into a video game-esque beat with 
the perfect blend of space and 
sound, characteristics of the Louis 
The Child of years past. After 
faith in the duo’s EDM production 
prowess is reaffirmed, the project 
jumps to the other end of the 
spectrum with two pop tracks, 
“Breaking News (with RAYE)” 

and “Better Not (with Wafia).” 
While these songs might be poppy 
and shallow, they’re certainly feel-
good tracks whose superficiality is 
less noticeable when preceded by 

“Interstellar.” “Ohhh Baby” hops 
back over to bangerville, and then 
a 3-song pop streak follows. The 
EP ends with a track featuring 
another 
EDM 
powerhouse, 

Big Gigantic, followed by an 
“instrumental” (it’s electronic) 
that parallels the projects opener.

At the end of it, whether you 

hopped on the Louis bandwagon 
in 2015 or 2018, you’re left with 
mixed feelings, as you were 
delivered a very mixed sound; 
either the heavy EDM made you 
uncomfortable, or the campy 
pop made you cringe. With that 
said, the duo is clearly capable 
of catering to more than one fan 
base, and given EDM’s diffusion 
into mainstream popularity and 
general development of many 
subgenres in recent years, you 
can’t blame Louis for riding the 
wave and diversifying its sound. 
Doing so is certainly better than 
the alternative, in which part of 
the group’s fanbase is unsatisfied 
and alienated in the midst of its 
demand for new content. For now, 
Louis The Child’s double-dealing 
works well.

Louis the Child (mostly) 
return to form on new EP

MIKE WATKINS

Daily Arts Writer

Kids At Play

Louis the Child

Interscope Records

There’s 
something 
about 

a director who could have 
used slow motion in so many 
scenes, 
but 
chose 
not 
to. 

Jimmy Chin (“Meru”) is one of 
those directors, and his 2018 
documentary “Free Solo” is 
his successful experiment in 
such measures of directorial 

restraint.

“Free 
Solo” 
follows 
the 

physical, mental and emotional 
journey 
Alex 
Honnold 

undertakes to become the first 
person to climb Yosemite’s 
3,000-foot wall El Capitan 
free solo, “free solo,” meaning 
without ropes or other safety 
gear. 
However, 
viewers 

expecting a familiar, feel-good, 
man-versus-nature epic should 
beware. While “Free Solo” is 
about a major feat of mankind, 
it resists audience expectations 
for such a film at every turn.

The 
vignette-style 

storytelling 
in 
the 

documentary, 
for 
instance, 

may 
surprise 
audiences. 

Adherence 
to 
chronological 

momentum seems only natural 
for such a story: man dreams 
of something all his life, man 
trains, 
man 
overcomes 
set 

of obstacles, man prevails. 
Instead, the narrative advances 
like patchwork, scenes stitched 
together to illuminate aspects 
of 
Honnold’s 
personality, 

background 
and 
motivation 

in an unregimented fashion. 
Chin’s use of vignettes thus 
removes the pressures of time 
and sidesteps the contrivance 

of climax that might have given 
cause for some eye-rolling and 
undermined the authenticity of 
Honnold’s struggles. This mode 
of storytelling respects not 
only the subject of the film but 
its viewers, too; freed from the 
condescension of melodrama, 
the viewer can focus on what is 
in front of them as opposed to 
what is coming next.

Some of the questions the 

film poses — as well as those it 
must flout in turn — might also 
come as a surprise to viewers. 
Take, for example, the role 
of Sanni McCandless in the 
documentary. McCandless is 
Honnold’s girlfriend, and let 
us first note that, in another 
display of Chin’s directorial 
prudence, she receives the 
respect 
secondary 
cast 

members 
in 
documentaries 

rarely receive. The centrality 
of Honnold’s role in the film 
is not used as an excuse to 
define her strictly in relation 
to him. The filmmakers avoid 
the obvious questions — reality 
television questions, like “Will 
Alex’s free spirit be tamed by 
Sanni’s desire to settle down?” 
— and instead, ask something 
much more compelling: If, like 
Honnold, you are hopelessly in 
love with what you do, what is 
left for the people you love? Do 
you still need another person’s 
love?

Chin 
engages 
another 

particularly 
compelling 

question in “Free Solo” — a 
question a more self-important 
director 
wouldn’t 
dare 

address. Chin himself makes 
multiple appearances in the 
documentary, more often than 
not confessing his reservations 
about the making of the film 
itself. 
In 
one 
particularly 

telling interview, Chin voices 
his 
gravest 
fear: 
Honnold 

falling out of the frame to his 
death through the lens of his 
camera, and not being able 
to do anything but watch. 

The director questions his 
role in the documentary in a 
self-aware, humble way. How 
complicit is the documentarian 
in the events he captures? If 
the very real possibility of 
Honnold’s death were captured 
on film, what would that mean 
for Chin and his crew?

While these deliberations 

of Chin’s were purposeful, 
in another respect, he just 
got lucky: Alex Honnold is a 
character. Perhaps one has to 
be to climb a 3,000-foot rock. 
Yet Chin was wise enough to 
recognize this and let Honnold 
be himself. He could have 
exploited him, overwrote him. 
Instead, 
he 
respected 
him 

enough to let him inflect his 
own story with his own voice 
— his own sardonic, witty and 
ever-memorable voice.

The 
carefulness 
of 
this 

documentary 
culminates 
in 

the final climactic sequence, 
capturing Honnold’s successful 
climb of El Capitan. Perhaps 
the 
most 
telling 
detail 
of 

the 
composition 
of 
this 

sequence is that the dramatic 
score one would expect to 
accompany astonishing shots 
of the grandeur of nature is 
perforated by the sounds of 
Honnold’s 
labored 
breath. 

The elegant inelegance, the 
intimacy that makes “Free 
Solo” a standout documentary, 
is encapsulated in the radical 
passion Honnold’s lives and 
literally breathes.

And 
what 
is 
this 
the 

culmination of? A viewing 
experience that feels more 
like reading a personal essay 
— the paragon of idiosyncratic, 
humbling, precious intimacy 
— as opposed to recycling any 
tired formulas of this genre 
of film. In other words, a 
viewing experience like no 
other, and, in this increasingly 
oversaturated, 
overfiltered 

world, a viewing experience 
desperately needed.

‘Free Solo’ has intimacy 
of a wildly personal essay 

JULIANNA MORANO

For the Daily

FILM REVIEW

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

INTERSCOPE RECORDS

“Free Solo”

State Theatre

National 

Geographic

I’ll admit, I’m a sucker 

for 
stylish 
British-political-

conspiracy 
thrillers. 
From 

Bond to BBC’s adaptation of 

John le Carré’s “The Night 
Manager,” even the most over-
the-top and ridiculous plots are 
polished with those damned 
accents and impeccably dressed 
agents. BBC’s “Bodyguard” is 
another familiar addition to 
this canon, and while it is not 

‘Bodyguard’ paves topsy 
turvy, thrilling journey 

SAYAN GHOSH
Daiy Arts Writer

TV REVIEW

groundbreaking, 
its 
nearly 

flawless execution makes the 
miniseries a worthwhile watch.

Over the pond, “Bodyguard” 

has broken records one after 
the other. Its finale was the 
most watched episode in UK 
television history, seen by over 
17 million viewers. An easily 
bingeable six-episode thriller, 
it 
stars 
Richard 
Madden 

(“Game of Thrones”) as Sgt. 
David Budd, a police officer and 
Afghanistan veteran who gains 
notoriety after preventing a 
deadly terrorist attack in a 
train through a combination of 
diplomatic skill and compassion 
to the unwilling bomber. He 
ends up being promoted to the 
role of main security officer for 
Home Secretary (the British 
equivalent of Secretary of State) 
Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes, 
“The Missing”), an ambitious, 
hawkish conservative politician 
whose views are completely at 
odds with Budd’s own.

The opening 20 minutes of 

the first episode are the show 
at its strongest. Tension slowly 
escalates as Budd hunts for 
the suspect, while trying to 
protect the train’s passengers, 
including his own children. 
Budd is the familiar stoic, 
steely-eyed agent for most of 
the series, but his solo scenes 
are effective in showing the 
kinks in his armor. Madden, 
while not quite given free rein 

to showcase his range as much 
as he could, delivers a nuanced, 
understated performance that 
meshes 
well 
with 
Hawes’s 

portrayal 
of 
Montague, 
a 

fierce politician not afraid of 

making enemies in her own 
cabinet. Both are difficult to 
completely pin down in terms 
of personality. Montague in 
particular straddles a line of 
seeming genuine and seeming 
like 
an 
extremely 
skilled 

manipulator. 
Even 
Budd 

is shrouded under a veil of 
mystery, which gives hints to 
explain his present PTSD but 
prevents viewers from fully 
being able to empathize with 
him.

While some cliché turns, 

such as Budd and Montague’s 
eventual 
romance, 
don’t 

add 
much 
to 
the 
story’s 

development, 
they 
don’t 

hamper its breakneck pace, 
either. From the second episode 
onward, “Bodyguard” seems 
determined to keep viewers 
on their toes. Perceptions of 
characters can change within 
the space of five minutes, 
multiple 
times 
within 
one 

episode, in a manner which 
at times can feel disorienting. 
Nonetheless, this aspect was 
probably the most powerful 
in terms of keeping viewers 
hooked when it first aired. The 
turns require more and more 
suspension of disbelief, but the 
series never devolves into the 
tackiness that plagues so many 
American imitations. 

“Bodyguard” 
sometimes 

veers into the territory of being 
too convoluted for its own 
good, but for the most part, it 
is easy to see why it attracted 
so much attention. Impeccably 
produced, brilliantly acted and 
effectively paced, “Bodyguard” 
is a perfectly quick yet engaging 
watch.

“Bodyguard”

Netflix

Episodes 1-4

Impeccably 

produced, 

brilliantly 

acted and 

effectively paced, 

‘Bodyguard’ is a 

perfectly quick yet 

engaging watch

You can’t blame 

Louis for riding 

the wave and 

diversifying its 

sound

6A — Monday, October 29, 2018
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

