The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Wednesday, February 26, 2020 — 5A
With his pale white skin and deep red
hair, Archy Marshall is more like a human
embodiment of a cigarette than he is a singer/
multi-instrumentalist. He’s got the voice to
match, too: gnarled, deep and gruff. Rather
than let his unconventional appearance and
voice hold him back, he leans directly into
it, using the combination to create stunning
visual art and haunting recorded music.
His work under his given name is great, but
his work under the moniker King Krule is,
somehow, even better.
As
King
Krule,
Marshall
creates
a
moody, visceral amalgamation of punk and
jazz (among countless other genres) and
incorporates various art forms into his
products, specifically his music videos. His
videos alone are works of art; add music to
them and they become transcendent. Each
of his album covers are designed by him,
too. He even included a 208-page book filled
with visual art for his 2015 release A New
Place 2 Drown. His career under the moniker
took flight after the release of 6 Feet Under
the Moon in 2015, carried by underground
hit, “Easy Easy.” His next release, 2017’s
sludgy and dark The OOZ, catapulted him to
alternative stardom.
Marshall’s most recent release, Man Alive!
makes his state of mind apparent immediately.
It opens with “Cellular,” a glistening, bass-
heavy rocker marked by weird horn blasts
and electronic gurgling. While not outwardly
downcast, the lyrics detail the disintegration
of Marshall’s relationships with loved ones
and his relationship with the world around
him. The ominous atmosphere defines the
first few songs of the album, reaching its apex
at “Stoned Again.”
“Stoned Again” is Man Alive!’s crown jewel.
The guitar-driven instrumental is sludgy and
scuzzy, not unlike Southern stoner metal.
Marshall’s voice is raw and downtrodden, if
not angsty, delivering disheveled lines about
the aimlessness of youth with drunken,
stumbling precision. “Down in the dirt / I
used to surf with my bucket from Kentucky
/ I had a scratch card, I scratched so hard
/ ‘Cause I’m feelin’ fuckin’ lucky, boy, I’m
feelin’ so lucky,” he sings (shouts?) in the first
verse, his disconnect with society around
him almost palpable. With this song taken in
the context of the previous two, it seems that
Marshall is only going to spiral deeper into
this hole as the album progresses.
However, it’s not so. Immediately after
“Stoned Again,” the tone shifts. “Comet Face,”
similar in sound and delivery to “Stoned
Again,” marks a realization in Marshall that
his mentality is not sustainable. The angst
and disconnect with society completely fades
away by the time “Alone, Omen 3” begins to
play. Man Alive! comes at a pivotal time in
Marshall’s life — he and his girlfriend and
frequent collaborator had their first child in
early 2019. “Alone, Omen 3” is a representation
of this change. It is a somber revelation that
the path of life you choose doesn’t matter —
all that matters is you got to this point at all.
His words are confident, yet his voice still
seems unsure, with
lines like: “The ache
and thunder in the
storms of your mind
/ Soak it in, for
the rain will pass
in time / nothing
wrong in sinking
low / You’re omen
of paradise.” It’s as
if he knows that his
life and everyone
else’s is going to
turn out fine, but he
just needs to see it
in action before he
can believe it.
The
remainder
of
Man
Alive!
continues delving into Marshall’s revelation
on “Alone, Omen 3,” reckoning with his new,
uneasy outlook on life and trying to figure out
how he will move forward. Unfortunately, the
songs begin to wallow in lethargy, exacerbated
by the fact that each song runs seamlessly into
the next. But maybe that’s what makes Man
Alive! special — it shows a man wrestling with
his thoughts in real
time.
As
the
album
comes to a close,
Marshall
drops
one
more
gem:
“Energy Fleets,” a
sparse,
beautiful
song about turning
the pages of life,
eager and unafraid
to
see
what’s
next. What makes
“Energy
Fleets”
special,
though,
is Marshall’s slow
devolution
into
nothing more than
a
distorted
voice
slowly chanting, “Such a funny life,” as if to
say that it’s worthless to try to make sense
of it because life is just going to keep getting
funnier.
King Krule grows just a little bit on ‘Man Alive!’
MUSIC REVIEW
JIM WILSON
Daily Arts Writer
WIKIMEDIA
I heard the piano’s haunting melody before
I opened the door. Melancholic chords echoed
through the Dance Building’s underground
practice room. The production crew, director
and choreographer stood against the floor-to-
ceiling mirror while the dancers’ bodies moved
as if suspended in water. All I could hear
was their feet skidding on the floor, labored
breathing, the snapping of Hannah’s camera
and the piano. There was a sign to remove
shoes, transforming the subterranean space
into sacred ground.
On that Friday night practice, the entire
cast rehearsed for “And We Look On,” a
puppetry and dance performance focused on
environmentalism. Music, Theatre & Dance
and LSA senior Isabel Olson described the
show as “a 30 to 40 minute piece that touches
on both the natural beauty of our world but also
the decay and dilapidation that is being caused
right now by humans.”
This
week,
Olson’s
vision is coming to the
stage at the Duderstadt
Center Video Studio this
Thursday, Feb. 27 and
Friday, Feb. 28 from 7 to
8 p.m.
The
performance
is a journey through
an
idealized
world,
our
current
reality
and the wasteland — a
representation
of
our
future. Conceived by Olson this past October,
“And We Look On” uses screen projections,
puppetry, dancing and original music written
by Cole P. Abod.
“Puppetry, to me, simply means animating
an object and realizing that almost any object
can come alive,” Olson said. “That became
a really good metaphor for this show where
everything we touch in this world is trash. So
it is bringing to life the beauty of this world
through waste just spoke to me, as that could
be puppetry so easily.”
In her role directing the cabaret dance show
in the fall of 2018, Olson met Music, Theatre
& Dance senior Johanna Kepler, a dance major
and now the “And We Look On” choreographer.
For Kepler, the scenes depicting the “shadow
world” presented the biggest challenge (but
were also the most fun). Staging the transitions
between having dancers in 3-D and also
behind a screen required her to stretch her
imagination.
Kepler listed packing peanuts, Meijer bags,
umbrellas and cellophane as just some of the
recycled items used in the show. She found that
art through movement and dance is a radically
different experience from reading a headline
or statistics, which can desensitize the public.
“I want the audience to be confronted, to
reflect and be uncomfortable,” Kepler said.
“And by uncomfortable, I mean, opening up
a dialogue that is important to have, but may
not be something you talked about with your
friends on a day to day basis.”
While choreographing the piece, Kepler
wondered how we evoke emotion to spark
action.
“The way I’ve been doing that is making
superhuman moments where there’s a clear
human connection on stage,” Kepler said.
Olson was floored by the cast and crew’s
willingness to take risks and help her bring
this small idea to life.
During their break, I sat with the dancers
on the floor as they stretched, tired but still
smiling at 7:30 p.m. on a Friday. Senior Matthew
Standerski, sophomore Atticus Olivet, junior
Alana Pollard and sophomore Claire Vogel,
all Music, Theatre &
Dance majors, spoke of
their passion for their
performance’s message
that combines activism
and theatre.
All
the
dancers
mentioned the cross-
disciplinary nature of
the show, with members’
majors
ranging
from
history, theatre, dance
and art. The group’s
cross-disciplinary
membership is a feature they consider one of
their greatest strengths.
“Because it’s a piece that didn’t exist before,
it feels deeply personal. You can point to and
say, ‘Oh, I remember the day that we decided
that was going to be in the piece,’” said Pollard.
“I think the whole piece feels so deeply rooted
in collaboration. And that’s what makes it feel
really special.”
Standerski found that though “And We Look
On’s” uses minimal resources, a production
can still do so much with so little. He noticed
how it’s easy to slip into feeling helpless, but
art is able to show the profound ways in which
people can make a difference.
“The cool paradox of it is we’re making
something beautiful out of the trash and the
recycled material. And that will live in people’s
minds longer than the trash that they throw
away every day.”
“And We Look On” will perform at the
Duderstadt Center Video Studio Thursday, Feb.
27 and Friday, Feb. 28 from 7 to 8 p.m. It is free
to all audiences.
‘And We Look On’ on the
world’s beauty and decay
NINA MOLINA
Daily Arts Writer
COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW
“Man Alive!”
King Krule
True Panther Sounds
COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW
Black-and-white ‘Parasite’
enhances the Oscar winner
92 years after the creation of the Academy
Awards, the acclaimed South Korean film
“Parasite” made history as the first non-
English language film to take home Best
Picture (in addition to Best International
Feature, Best Original Screenplay and Best
Director, a sweeping victory that ties Bong
Joon-ho, “Memories of Murder” director,
with Walt Disney for most Oscars won by
a single person in a single night). To the
delight of fans, “Parasite” was re-released
in theaters across the U.S., with distributor
Neon hoping to capitalize on the inevitable
surge in interest that follows any Best Picture
winner, let alone one of such historicity.
Alongside this re-release is the special
opportunity to see “Parasite” in a brand-new,
yet old-fashioned manner: Neon has greenlit
the release of a black-and-white version of
the film, done on the special request of Bong.
Some might scoff at this practice — at one
point it was all the rage to colorize old films,
and now we’ve reached the point where we’re
decolorizing new films. But this trick isn’t
completely novel, having been done by recent
films such as “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015)
— a movie which director Bong has declared
himself a big fan of — in addition to Bong’s
own film “Mother” (2009) back in 2013.
So what’s the point? It isn’t some creative
choice vital to the artistic vision of the film;
“Parasite” wasn’t made with a monochrome
palette in mind, unlike 2019’s Best Foreign
Language Film winner “Roma” (2018). In
an interview at the black-and-white film’s
premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival,
director Bong explains how he, his director
of photography and the film’s colorist had
to go back over each frame and correct
grading in order to make it look pristine. No,
the answer is not so auteurist, but it’s still
a matter of personal vision — in the same
interview, Bong explains that part of the
decision to decolorize was simple vanity, a
sort of childhood wish fulfillment. To him,
many of the classics are black-and-white, so
why not make his crown jewel project a little
more classic?
Casting the world in grayscale didn’t
magically transform the film into some new
creature; it’s still “Parasite,” with all the
same thrills and laughs and gasps. This was
my third viewing of the film, and it remained
as powerful as my first, and that’s thanks
to the masterful direction, writing and
performances — elements that unsurprisingly
proved stronger than the realism that color
adds.
But the decolorization does have its
consequences, and some of these effects
were delightfully appropriate to the film’s
portrayal of class conflict. With only white
and black and the grays in-between, the
contrast between the affluent Parks and the
crafty but low-on-cash Kims is substantively
starker (the film’s promotional materials,
with black or white bars placed over the eyes
of both families, comes to mind). The palatial
home of the Parks is all the brighter, with
the glass walls and wide windows letting
in buckets of whitewashing light. While
the affluent are graced with lighter tones,
the Kim sub-basement home is noticeably
drearier, the dim light beam that leaks in
from the narrow window feeble in contrast to
all the deep gray that surrounds it. Without
the distraction of color, movement and
performance became more important, the
sound of Min’s feet sticking to the unclean
Kim home floor becoming distinct. All these
elements were there in the color film, but
in the monochromatic makeover they are
underscored and augmented.
Other aspects of the film are more or less
in line with Bong’s aspirational musings.
He’d be happy to hear that being black-and-
white did lend “Parasite” a slightly more
old-timey, prestigious feel. At the same time,
the image quality was anachronistically
clear and well-defined, lacking the grainy
texture and slight haziness endemic to that
era. This visual discordance isn’t a nuisance
though — in fact, it imbued the film with
something of a timeless quality. Despite
being set in and specific to Seoul, “Parasite”
has resonated with audiences across the
world.In an interview with Birth.Movies.
Death., Bong himself credits this to the fact
that “essentially, we all live in the same
country: Capitalism.” The strangely classic
yet modern feel of the film made it all the
more universal.
JACOB LUSK
For The Daily
“And We Look On”
Thursday, February 28 @ 7PM
The Duderstadt Center
NEON
But maybe that’s what makes
Man Alive! special — it
shows a man wrestling with
his thoughts in real time
While not outwardly
downcast, the lyrics detail
the disintegration of
Marshall’s relationships
with loved ones and his
relationship with the world
around him