6A — Monday, October 7, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Lately I’ve been haunted by Her’s.
The haunting started at second 28 of their Paste Studio’s
Performance; there’s this seamless moment of chemistry when
the duo leans forward, synchronizing their body movement. The
unity of their oscillation is both serious and full of jest. Stephen
Fitzpatrick takes on a Donald Duck-like nature in his voice
while Audun Laading (bass) goes for this wicked credit-card-
swipe-move with his head. These dichotomous, “bromantic”
mannerisms are characteristic of their debut album: Invitation to
Her’s, a project that dapples in both the real and the fictitious,
moving from an overtly melodramatic farewell for Fitzpatrick’s
cat to exploring love and loss through the perspective of made-up
characters.
As Daily writer Jonah Mendelson covered in April 2019, Her’s
died in a car crash while driving to Santa Ana for their North
American tour. Fitzpatrick was 24, Laading was 25. At this brief
moment when they drop into the bass line, it felt like they were
alive. I watched their souls at the control booths of their physical
bodies as they bop away to the bass — and they’re exuberant. In
the video, they’re performing the track “What Once Was,” a song
written in reference to a family member who passed. As these
spine-chilling lyrics left the space of the screen and soaked into my
brain, I found myself seeking explanations for the artist instead of
myself. I can’t help but think they are now what once was instead
of what is, as if they spoke their own fate into existence.
And so the haunting began. This following has nothing to do
with ghosts (although the eerie connotations are certainly there).
Her’s showed up everywhere, refusing to let go of me.
My roommate and I were dancing in our shabby, compact
kitchen. We leaned towards each other to bounce with the music.
She looked up at me, all five feet
of her, and scrunched her face
to the bass. We’re a dancey duo,
bouncing like Her’s did with
these little idiosyncrasies that
come alive with the music. The
dancing continued across the
kitchen tile and I thought about
how duos develop and wonder if
our duo gives, receives, teaches
and grows just like the duo of
Her’s did.
My days seemed touched
by Her’s. It’s a curious and
confusing notion, that listeners
seem
to
unite
in
phony
solidarity
when
an
artist’s
creativity is cut short, only
listening once an artist has
died, as if we seek that specific
post-death obsessing. Attaching to artists like Her’s after their
death, I feel like everything is liable to higher penalties. Any sort
of polarization seems to drop away from the comments section.
Perhaps Her’s now displays a vulnerability in their music that isn’t
preferential to a certain type of listener. It might be a universal
woe that they were only permitted a launching pad, and nothing
more.
I don’t intend to reconcile the repercussions of Her’s tragedy.
I don’t know how to do that. But I think by situating music as a
beseiging of the mind, I suddenly create a creature that has a lot
to teach me about the persistency, magnetism and unification of
music.
The personal, spine-chilling lingering of Her’s jangle pop
sound took me over, and in doing so it presented lessons for the
experiential roots of listening. I listened to the bop and it showed
up, braiding itself into my things, my people, and my objects. And
we lean into music’s supernatural ability to draw parallels into our
own realities. That unearthly quality of music showed up while
dancing in my shitty kitchen, while swinging on the porch with
my friends, while walking up to my apartment after an awful
day. And simply put, Her’s ability to hit a bass like Johnny Cash
and then seamlessly soothe the listener with an Ariel Pink sound
deserves to be carried and weaved.
With Invitation to Her’s we were invited to only glimpse Her’s
potential. But now more than ever, music seems nostalgic and
nagging, as if Stephen and Audun have invited me to feel music’s
most gripping traits. October is the month of haunting, so let the
music creep in.
What I’m Listening To: A haunting, courtesy of Her’s
SAMANTHA CANTIE
Daily Arts Writer
WHAT I’M LISTENING TO
HEIST OR HIT
Even 20 years after its heyday, the rallying call “junglist
massive” is sure to raise hell in certain circles. One of the
main appeals of jungle music is the variety of its appreciators
(colloquially known as “junglists”) beyond the London youth
who first championed and created it. From (fictional) Irish
priests to many more beyond the British Isles, thanks to the
internet and a brief revival, the manic energy that jungle
can still conjure today is one of the main reasons behind its
enduring popularity.
Jungle, like the hundreds of genres all sprouting up in
the early and mid-1990s in North America and Europe, can
loosely be traced back to house music, invented by black
DJs in Chicago in the mid-1980s. Eventually, house jumped
the pond and grew in popularity in the United Kingdom,
especially among youth in urban centers such as London and
Bristol. Already existing in these urban music scenes was
the influence of Jamaican musicians through the form of
dub reggae and dancehall. Jungle was the result of natural
crossovers between the nascent House-influenced scene and
these existing genres.
While house is characterized by familiar repetitive 4/4
beats, jungle redefined what it viewed as a rhythmic focus.
Pioneers of the genre took breakbeats from a variety of
genres and sped up, chopped and transformed them beyond
recognition to lay the foundation for the aggressive raves
where their tracks would be played. Combined with these
breakbeats was heavily distorted, earth-shaking bass. This
was a genre made for DJs to play around with at the (mostly
illegal) raves in which the genre was first introduced to the
public. And unlike a lot of music from the era, the genre still
sounds fresh and futuristic, with much room to revive and
experiment with today. Even fans of Aphex Twin, ostensibly
someone who makes a widely differing form of music, can
appreciate and recognize the unpredictable, intoxicating
percussion of jungle in tracks such as “Flim.”
Moreover, jungle retains a sort of utopian aspect to it, in that
it is inseparable from a political ethos of multiracial equality,
unity and anti-austerity against the Tory (conservative)
government that held power in the United Kingdom in the
1990s and today. Ben Murphy of DJ Mag notes, “Jungle,
though occasionally peppered with funk, reggae and euphoric
rave samples, tends to be moody and dark … it’s a heads-down
sound that revels in hypnotic or sometimes fearful vibes.”
Jungle practitioner Dead Man’s Chest, in the same feature,
says, “That it should be back at the fore when America is run by
a bigoted businessman and political uncertainty reigns across
the globe, propagated by duplicitous governments through
social media, makes a certain kind of sense.” Jungle at its core
is a form of rebellion against the divisive, harmful politics
that the Trumps and Boris Johnsons of the world peddle
against the increasingly multiracial societies their countries
have been and are becoming. Part of the genre’s decline in
popularity was its dogged refusal to become commercialized
and to be used in peddling advertisements.
Even though jungle is long past its prime, its influence
has reached far and wide. The even more chaotic energy of
drum and bass comes out of the original jungle sounds, not
to mention the early works of grime pioneers such as Dizzee
Rascal and Wiley as well as more modern practitioners such as
Skepta, who have gained worldwide notoriety. Encouragingly,
small revivals have been popping out. Producers who never
actually lived through the scene are trying their hand at
making jungle, and younger DJs are themselves introducing
the classics into their own sets, proving the timeless nature of
the genre as well as its uniting power.
Jungle’s history: Appreciating an influential genre
SAYAN GHOSH
Daily World Music Columnist
WORLD MUSIC COLUMN
Part of the genre’s decline
in popularity was its
dogged refusal to become
commercialized and to be used
in peddling advertisements
The University of Michigan School of Music, Theater & Dance’s Jazz
Showcase by undergraduate and graduate jazz music students was
presented at Hankinson Hall in the Moore building Thursday night.
I was blown away. I was absolutely elevated to a more professional
level of artistry than I have ever experienced at this University.
(Actually, seeing Audra MacDonald at Hill Auditorium was the very
top, but these students gave her a run for her money.)
When I asked trumpet player/vocalist Ben Green from the
band Sabbatical Bob why these showcases are so important at the
University, he said the showcase “gives people perspective on where
90 percent of pop music they listen to is coming from. America’s entire
music tradition is built on Black music, and ... that’s super important.
Like what we were playing, the funk music and the big band music,
everything we were playing tonight, it all stems from Black music.”
Upon walking in, I was greeted with big band number “Without
A Song,” with lyrics by William Rose and Edward Eliscu and music
by Vincent Youmans and arranged by Rick Stitzel. My attention was
immediately transfixed on the conductor; faculty member Ellen Rowe.
Her back turned to the audience, Rowe reminded me of Edna Mode
from Pixar movie “The Incredibles,” with her petite yet fiery frame
commanding the Jazz Ensemble to an unmatched vibrancy.
This was immediately followed
by a performance of “Old Folks,”
with lyrics written by Dedette Lee
Hill and music by Willard Robison.
The song, performed by music
faculty members Ellen Rowe on
piano and Dennis Wilson on a
bluesy trombone, demonstrated
a simple sense of humor and
confident mastery of the artists’
craft.
Original
composition
“Milkshake Boy Est Mort” by
senior
Mohan
Ritsema
was
the
most
traditionally
“jazz”
composition, and it was really
intriguing to see a brand new piece
of music on its feet for the first time. I’m excited to see how it evolves.
The most enthralling performance of the evening had to be Horace
Tapscott’s “To the Great House” with graduate jazz student Zekkereya
El-magharbel leading the piece on trombone. Even counting my time
in jazz clubs in New York City, I have never witnessed a performance
quite like his.
El-magharbel played the trombone like it was a true extension of his
body, like he was giving his entire human will to perform with; to say
I’m eager to see where he goes next is an understatement. He elevated
the room, and fellow jazz students also performing the number around
him were lifted up due to his professional artistry which provided an
all around fabulous performance.
Another standout was a bluegrass number titled “As Yet Untitled”
written by Grant Flick and performed by jazz students Grant Flick
on violin and Matt Davis on banjo. The complexity of the music and
upbeat nature of bluegrass which I have only heard before in Nashville
gave great variety to the show.
“There’s something special about U-M, especially, that doesn’t really
hold true in other places. You’ve got a funk band, a bluegrass band, a
Bill Evans style piano trio, and a free improv group all in one set,” Cole
Abod, a senior studying Jazz piano, said.
The final numbers of the night were performed by funk band
Sabbatical Bob. Jazz was originally my uncle’s favorite musical
medium that he passed down to me, and he has since passed away.
The majority of my childhood was spent following him in and out of
jazz clubs near his home of New
York City. When I met Ben Green
of band Sabbatical Bob, it felt like
a wink from the universe that the
University’s Jazz ensemble is a
program to be remembered.
The name Sabbatical Bob came
out of “the spirit of Bob (Jazz
faculty member and acclaimed
bassist Bob Hurst) on sabbatical.”
Originally a band primarily playing
small gigs and house parties,
Sabbatical Bob are now performing
at venues like The Blind Pig and
Ziggy’s (their next show is there on
Nov. 22) in Ypsi and have music on
all streaming platforms.
An unforgettable Jazz Showcase
NATALIE KASTNER
Daily Arts Writer
COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW
Jungle, like the hundreds of
genres all sprouting up in the
early and mid-1990s in North
America and Europe, can
loosely be traced back to house
music
When I met Ben Green of
band Sabbatical Bob, it felt
like a wink from the universe
that the University’s Jazz
ensemble is a program to be
remembered
By Jeff Stillman
©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
10/07/19
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
10/07/19
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Monday, October 7, 2019
ACROSS
1 Only president
who was also
chief justice
5 Storage structure
for 30-Across
9 Hindu social
division
14 Go back, on a PC
15 Arizona tribe
16 A, in Greece
17 Match audio and
video
18 Frat Pack actor
Wilson
19 Fish stories
20 Diane Keaton’s
role in “The
Godfather” films
23 Embitterment
24 Raid targets
25 Gave speeches
27 Desert plant
30 Lawn cutters
32 Southwestern
crocks
33 “Maude” star
36 Boston Celtics’
org.
37 Harness racing
vehicle
38 Nest egg letters
39 Fitzgerald’s
“Great” title
character
42 Until now
44 Jai alai ball
45 Soft-hearted
46 Japanese
religion
48 Sheltered, at sea
49 Halloween
headgear
50 “Maleficent”
actress
56 On __: going wild
58 Miniature image
to click on
59 Symphonic wind
60 Bond portrayer
Roger
61 Fitted with
footwear
62 Final or midterm
63 Private, as
thoughts
64 Stew cookers
65 Former spouses
DOWN
1 Elephant tooth
2 Author Seton
3 Gp. responding to
Big Apple blazes
4 Bach’s “__ and
Fugue in D
Minor”
5 15-minute films,
say
6 Coyote cries
7 Blunt sword
8 “The Flintstones”
pet
9 Wedding hire
10 Pie-mode link
11 Workday with
a longer-than-
typical break
12 Over yonder
13 Let up
21 Heavy burden
22 “You gotta be
kidding!”
26 Humanities major
27 “Nor” or “or,” in
a dict.
28 “Sin City” actress
Jessica
29 Trapshooter’s
target
30 Word before
toast or after
peach
31 Like wines aged
in certain barrels
33 Head-and-
shoulders
sculpture
34 Eurasian border
river
35 Red in the
middle, as steak
37 Seat at the bar
40 Pentagon VIP
41 Editor or tailor,
e.g.
42 Perceived
43 Lacking variety,
musically
45 Pituitary and
thyroid
46 Hindu guru
47 Discover, as a
solution
48 In progress,
as Sherlock’s
“game”
51 Speech problem
52 Repeat
53 Curly-horned goat
54 Sniffer
55 Acquires
57 “How __ you
doing?”