Dancing About Architecture

Introduction, Music in 2011, and More Recent and Upcoming Releases

First, an introduction: I’m Axel Kodat. This is a music blog. Ideally I’d like to be slightly comprehensive in my discussion of new music, but realistically I won’t be comprehensive at all, because I’m a single person, not a fully staffed music publication. Since individually I’m incapable of keeping track of all great current music I’d love comments or e-mails or tirades or desperate love-letters telling me about your favorite recent music, interesting labels, any release I missed that you feel is absolutely essential listening, how music is fundamentally a pointless waste of time, or how I incorrectly applied the subjunctive. Anything.

I’d like to start off with a short survey of some of my favorite releases from 2011. First and foremost among new LPs for me was Nicolas Jaar’s Space Is Only Noise. It’s comically eclectic — the lurching semi-hip-hop beat and soulful samples of “Specters of the Future” coexist seamlessly with the deliciously throbbing bassline of album highlight “Space Is Only Noise If You Can See,” the melancholic, spacious ambience and wobbling vocal melody of “Balance Her In Between Your Eyes,” and the midtempo (i.e. unusually slow) minimal house that threads through the rest of the album. And yet it remains, somehow, cohesive, a singular, sonically rich statement and comprehensive introduction to Jaar’s still-developing sound.

Other musical highlights of the year include: St. Vincent’s Strange Mercy, Sandro Perri’s Impossible Spaces, Tim Hecker’s Ravedeath, 1972, Shabazz Palaces’ Black Up, Kate Bush’s 50 Words for Snow, Oneohtrix Point Never’s Replica, Clams Casino’s Instrumentals (as well as his stunning unreleased beat “I’m God” and Rainforest EP), John Maus’s We Must Become Pitiless Censors of Ourselves, Wild Beasts’s Smother, Gang Gang Dance’s Eye Contact, Wu Lyf’s Go Tell Fire to the Mountain, Matana Roberts’s Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de Couleur Libres, Atlas Sound’s Para…

Read more…

January 19, 2012 | 1 comments

Why do so many people hate Lana Del Rey?

For those who have managed to miss the hype, Billboard cover, and general hysteria that have marked her rise, Lana Del Rey is a pop singer-songwriter who had a few Internet hits last year, whose debut album will be released on Interscope tomorrow and who has sparked a bit of controversy for reasons I’ll identify later. So now: Why do so many people hate her? What explains the hyperbolic derision that followed her SNL performance? Ok, LDR sounded really bad. And her low-register bleating, wildly unstable intonation, and sudden awkward shifts to and from falsetto appeared infinitely worse accompanied by her moody pouting and incessant preening. (Was she trying to look excessively sultry and vulnerable — it wouldn’t be the first time — or was she just extraordinarily uncomfortable?) So sure, she didn’t sound too great. But it’s not especially remarkable for someone to have a bad outing on any one of these late night shows, which invariably impose all sorts of peculiar expectations and anxieties on performers; in LDR’s case, this was her big introduction to a sizable section of the American public.

The overblown response to the SNL debacle seems to reveal an eagerness across an unusually broad section of the musically conscious public to see LDR fail. To many mainstream audiences, and especially those who were first introduced to LDR’s sound on SNL, LDR embodies the popular image of artsy-talentless-hack, colloquially equivalent with, in Brian Williams’s words, the “Brooklyn hippster [sic].”

Perhaps it is obvious that to some of the “Brooklyn hipsters,” LDR represents exactly the opposite stereotype. That is, LDR — oft-questioned authenticity, Interscope deal, hyper-sexualization, apparent lip-job and all — is a “singer-songwriter” who rose from obscurity to a major label deal with meteoric speed yet maintains an artful pretense and stylish aloofness that deliberately aligns her with a “counter-culture” increasingly conflicted about her music a…

Read more…

January 30, 2012 | 2 comments

Reviews: Leila, Cloud Nothings, The Caretaker, and more...

My reviewing system is pretty self-explanatory, but I’ll take a moment to explain why I’m reviewing the albums that I review and how I judge them. Ideally I’d only review albums that I like, but this system would neglect the central duty of a reviewer, and in fact it’s often much easier to write articulately about albums that I find disappointing, horrific, whatever. My comments and criticisms will frequently reflect my somewhat idiosyncratic musical priorities. I tend not to focus on lyrics as much as some, which might speak to my interests primarily as an instrumentalist. I generally dislike the trend towards more academic, rigorously researched music reviews, which often emphasize networks of influence, artistic trajectories, genre distinctions and strict categorizations. These are essential but almost universally overemphasized aspects of analyzing music. Albums should exist and succeed as distinct works of art, and what people primarily care about is whether the music is good. On the other hand, I’m sure I’ll violate my own rules and contradict my philosophical priorities many times in the future, so take what I say with a grain of salt. Here are this week’s reviews.

Cloud Nothings – Attack on Memory [Carpark]

Attack on Memory is slickly produced but raw (admittedly a stale and almost meaningless expression that still seems crucial in this context). It has some great songs. It is, as critics, commentators and the band itself have noted innumerable times, an “attack on [the] memory” that people had for what the band formerly was (its sound and, apparently, collective emotional state were radically different). I hope and suspect that the title has some less overt, more profound intended meanings. Opener “No Future/No Past” is a masterpiece of the restrained slow-build structure. A few tracks, particularly “Fall In,” edge a little too close to the generically bratty pop-punk aesthetic. “No Sentiment” is a rough hewn anthem that succinctly articulat…

Read more…

February 9, 2012 | 2 comments

The transformation of radio culture

Is radio relevant? It’s easy to view radio as an outdated medium, gradually supplanted by car CD-players and iPods and noise-canceling headphones and all other modern devices that make personalized, portable music consumption easier. Those accustomed to the age of Internet streaming and Pandora Radio and innovative iPhone apps with global radio feeds (Love China Radio, anyone?) might argue that radio has adapted completely and in fact exceptionally well to the Internet age. This sounds like the introduction to a particularly bad David Brooks column, and I don’t mean to suggest that there are only two easily simplified, equally valid viewpoints on this matter, but, naturally, I submit that the truth lies somewhere in between.

Yes, radio has in certain ways managed to adapt to the advent of the Internet, but habits of radio consumption and its cultural role today are fundamentally different from only a couple of decades ago. Back then, the medium still played a crucial role in shaping the spread and popularization of new genres, styles, songs, etc., and as recently as 2000 an Edison Research study showed that radio was the No. 1 medium among the musically hyperactive 12-24 year old demographic; the same study performed in 2010 indicated that radio had fallen to No. 3 in the same demographic, now behind TV and the Internet. New music sharing technologies, the rise of Internet musical culture, the collapse of the record industry and the declining centrality and power of radio have had profound consequences for the broader musical world. In his introduction to Best Music Writing 2011, Alex Ross observed that “with the rise of the Internet and the decline of the record business, the superculture has lost some of its mojo…. All music is subcultural; no music is everywhere beloved.” According to comparative record sales, even songs and styles that seem to saturate society today don’t approach the ubiquity popular music had when radio and major labels were more dominant—…

Read more…

February 25, 2012 | 0 comments