« But first, some stats | Main | NEWS: Lady Sovereign is bad at stuff »
May 22, 2007
Spring Time Dance Party
I don't know why you still love me with all the promises I've broken lately, but I take pride in the fact that I did deliver a Springtime dance party while it was still actually Spring. Moral victories, people.
LCD Soundsystem - "Freak Out / Starry Eyes"
It's been no guarded secret that the MS gang has a big ol' man (and occasional lady) crush on James Murphy right now, but the dude keeps on sexin' it out and we can't help ourselves. The latest mind blower to trickle in from DFA headquarters (which I imagine as a nefarious moon base with a terrific espresso machine) is this twelve minute dance monster, "Freak Out/ Starry Eyes." It's actually two songs jammed together, held apart by a drum solo that lasts over two minutes. The first segment, or "Freak Out," is more in line with the cosmic disco goodness of the workout prompting 45:33 than Sound of Silver. The emphatic mantra, "If you do it again, I'm gonna freak out/ so do it again", repeats ad infinitum as the pitch perfect 70's cop show horn fanfares suggest a suave pimp strut over an invigorating jog. When the congo drums (somehow recorded to give them an almost steel drum-esque echo without the metallic clang) eventually morph into the afforementioned expansive solo, the mood is so giddy that "Aw shit" murmurings can be heard loudly in the edges as if this were a James Brown record. Then, out of the blue, comes "Starry Eyes," a sleek electro number that keeps gathering steam for the final four minutes. Nancy Whang takes lead vocals in her wide-eyed "Get Innocuous" voice, complaining of dance related foot fatigue. After this absolutely bananas club Frankenstein, you couldn't blame her.
Mmmmwa! (That's the sound of me kissing my fingers, as if to signify "Magnifique!")
// LCD Soundsystem - website
// LCD Soundsystem - "All My Friends" single pre-order
This infectious Norwegian pop chart abuser was posted a couple months ago over on Fluxblog, and although Idolator bit immediately, there's been shockingly few bandwagon jumpers from the wilds of Hype Machine so far. This absence of praise is empirically wrong. This is about as expertly constructed as a pop song gets. Sissy Wish, which is seemingly (and fantastically) the singer's actual name, hits every note with a rapid cadence that defies the helium lightness of her pure bubblegum voice. The delivery is so spot on that you barely notice the always evolving production touches keeping the insistent synthetic background from getting stale. Some light backing mews here and a touch of artificial brass there, and the replay quotient quietly elevates. Around the 2:15 mark, a sudden geyser of majestic bubbles shoots up from the song's center and Sissy's vocal takes on a much richer tone. Before you can catch your breath, the drums are at you again. Her voice splits in two, bobbing and weaving around itself. One voice is bratty, one is more cooly reserved. All of it is really quite good.
// Sissy Wish - website
// Sissy Wish - Beauties Never Die buy (you do know the conversion rate for kroner, right?)
I saw this Kansas City "band" (pronounced the shun) a few years back at the formerly cool and just flat out former Luxx club in Williamsburg. Though all of the outlandish details escape me at the moment, I distinctly remember the prominent use of Nirvana masks (not just Cobain, Krist was in there too!) as well as a lion costumed performer giving birth to a snake. It was like hipster Gwar. Despite such antics, the group's hilarious trashy pop songs never really caught on. It was a delight to recently discover that a new album, Fool's Gold, was a more polished if no less bizarre animal. For all of the music's superficial resemblances to Madonna's "Holiday" it's (male) singer Cody Critcheltoe's unbelievable lady voice that seals the Material Girl comparison. It's frankly unsettling. I can understand if folks out there aren't too keen on this, but the goony D.I.Y. approximation of 80's chart pop and Cody's willingness to risk being flatly ridiculous won me over pretty quick. Has anyone coined the phrase "hermaphrodite pop" yet?
// the Ssion - website, where you can buy the new album, Fool's Gold
The backing track for this, the most exciting track yet to emerge from M.I.A.'s August release Kala, is nothing but an abrasively minimal beat that sounds like a faulty slot machine paying off repeatedly. Like the cash fountain it resembles, this is not nearly a bad thing. Her shout-chirp delivery from Arular is firmly intact, keeping up with semi-current events by taking a pot shot at F.E.M.A. The real treat however is when she slips into her sing song "Amazon" mode and appropriates the unlikely "All I wanna do is a zoom zoom zoom" portion of "Rumpshaker." Shake they will. The best evidence we've gotten that our girl's house won't collapse under the weight of her debut's hefty accolades.
// M.I.A. - website
// M.I.A. - Arular buy
Posted by Jeff Klingman at May 22, 2007 04:10 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.merryswankster.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/983
Comments
Tuesday afternoon dance-party in the office! Who's with me!
Posted by: Sebastian at May 22, 2007 04:53 PM
man i love that sissy wish song. it is on my summer mix, and it sounds great while driving around.
Posted by: maura at May 22, 2007 10:37 PM
Awesome. Thanks.
Posted by: Bob F. at May 24, 2007 08:55 AM
Sissy Wishs real name is Siri Wålberg. Sorry to disappoint you.
Posted by: Dan from Norway at May 24, 2007 09:01 PM
Oh, that does disappoint me, but thanks for the fact check, Dan.
Posted by: Jeff K at May 24, 2007 09:38 PM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)
