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?”