Jenny Hval
Innocence Is Kinky
Jenny Hval is a Norwegian artist/musician whose sophomore album Innocence Is Kinky is…well, a lot less subtle than you would think. The title is exactly what it sounds like: experimental, erotic spoken word resting on a bed of music that sounds like Hanne Hukkelberg or a gentler EMA. I’m liking it so far, but this song stood out right away.
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i dont want my words to be taken out of context
i dont want to be infantilized because i refuse to be sexualized
i dont want to be molested at shows or on the street by people who perceive me as an object that exists for their personal satisfaction
i dont want to live in a world where im gonna have to start employing body guards because this kind of behavior is so commonplace and accepted and I’m pissed that when I express concern over my own safety it’s often ignored until people see firsthand what happens and then they apologize for not taking me seriously after the fact…
I’m tired of men who aren’t professional or even accomplished musicians continually offering to ‘help me out’ (without being asked), as if i did this by accident and i’m gonna flounder without them. or as if the fact that I’m a woman makes me incapable of using technology. I have never seen this kind of thing happen to any of my male peers
I’m tired of the weird insistence that i need a band or i need to work with outside producers (and I’m eternally grateful to the people who don’t do this)
I’m tired of creeps on message boards discussing whether or not they’d “fuck” me
I’m sad that my desire to be treated as an equal and as a human being is interpreted as hatred of men, rather than a request to be included and respected (I have four brothers and many male best friends and a dad and i promise i do not hate men at all, nor do i believe that all men are sexist or that all men behave in the ways described above)
im tired of being referred to as ‘cute,’ as a ‘waif’ etc., even when the author, fan, friend, family member etc. is being positive
G R I M E S: I don’t want to have to compromise my morals in order to make a living
Grimes’ now famous blog post where she vents about sexism and the difficulty of being a “solo-girl-who-makes-electronic-music.”
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I have to say, Twitter #Music’s suggestions aren’t too far off the mark.
But I think it’s strange that no social networking platform has replaced what Myspace was like for music back in 2007/2008. Although most people had already flocked to Facebook back then, it was still the best portal for music. The fact that Myspace never capitalized on its sudden foray into the music business was probably one of their biggest mistakes (I know they tried with the whole Timberlake relaunch, but they waited too late). With Myspace gone/dead, the closest replacement I can think of for musical artists is Bandcamp and maybe Facebook. And, judging by the looks of Twitter #Music, it doesn’t look like Twitter will be taking that spot either.
There needs to be a platform that not only centers on the artist but also provides a community where musicians can discover each other. I remember back in 2007/2008 being able to track certain music scenes through Myspace (like the bedroom pop scene, for example). And I didn’t even have a Myspace account, but all I had to do was track one artist which produced this “down the rabbit” hole effect where I discovered everyone else, who was collaborating with whom, who was touring with whom, etc. I don’t know if I’m making sense, but it would be nice to have something like that again.
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Lizzy Mercier Descloux
Mambo Nassau
I’ve been listening a lot to The Knife’s Shaking The Habitual, and one thing I noticed was the strong tribal component in songs like “A Tooth For An Eye” and “Without You My Life Will Be Boring.” It made me think of other artists who had conquered that whole tribal/electro sound, and I immediately thought of Lizzy Mercier Descloux whose sophomore album Mambo Nassau came out way back in 1981. She was excellent at combining her experimental electro-pop with an underscore of tribal/world influence. This album is actually one of my favorite albums of all time. Unfortunately, it was her only great album.
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Shaking the Habitual’s problem is that the Knife seem to have dismissed the idea of making your point concisely as merely another affectation of a decadent and corrupt society. The album lasts for over an hour and a half: the impact of a track such as Full of Fire – distorted drums, horrifying shrieks – is dissipated by the fact that it rambles on for nine minutes. Things reach a head on Old Dreams Waiting to Be Realized: a dark, ambient track based around a single note, it’s over 19 minutes long. Making music as willfully intellectualised as this comes with an inbuilt safety net: if you don’t get it, you’re too thick to understand it or, worse, you’re a symptom of the institutions it’s set out to critique. But Old Dreams Waiting to Be Realized gives the lie to those responses, simply because there’s a lot of music like it around at the moment. From Greg Haines to Hacker Farm and the Haxan Cloak, plenty of artists are dealing in what you might loosely term unsettling ambience and making music no less challenging, but infinitely more engaging and interesting than this.
The Knife: Shaking the Habitual – Review
To be honest, if the album was 45 minutes shorter, it would be almost perfect. And the 20+ minute track should be at the end, not in the middle of the album sandwiched between the best tracks. Just messiness all around.
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Hidden Orchestra
Archipelago Mixtape
The new Archipelago mixtape from Hidden Orchestra is fabulous. Stumbled across it a few weeks ago and have been playing it regularly. I don’t know anything about Hidden Orchestra (real name Joe Acheson), so I’m not going to say too much about this. But if you’re looking for a long mix to listen to at work or whatever, then this is it. You can stream the whole thing here.
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Soap&Skin
Sugarbread
A few weeks ago I posted Soap&Skin’s creepy new video for her track “Sugarbread,” which appears on her new EP of the same title. But I just recently got around to hearing the EP in full and this track is infinitely better than “Sugarbread.” However, like most Soap&Skin tracks, she has a problem with ending her songs tastefully. It’s like she throws in the towel as soon as she crosses the 3 minute mark. Regardless, the song is solid and shows a lot of growth and blah blah blah and all that stuff.
Anyways, other stuff I’m listening to. (Nothing I’ve been listening to lately has been that good. Items in bold are worth a listen, though.)
Moon B - Entropic Feelings
Boris - Präparat
Lapalux - Without You EP
Ulfur - White Mountain
Girls Names - The New Life
Karen Gwyer - Needs Continuum
Benoît Pioulard - Hymnal
Miguel Baptista Benedict - Super(b)-Child-Ran
Lusine - The Waiting Room
Sally Shapiro - Somewhere Else
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Woodpecker Wooliams
The Bird School of Being Human
Haven’t really listened to anything new that’s worth posting, so I’m posting something old this week. This is a track from last year’s bi-polar-ish The Bird School of Being Human. Woodpecker Wooliams (real name Gemma Williams) has a great sound but seems to be in a tug-of-war between these cool electro-type tracks and her straight folk-ish tracks, which is why I didn’t love Bird School... But “Sparrow” is a nifty track and catchy to boot.
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Palmbomen
Night Flight Europa
Here’s a cute track from Palmbomen (a band I know nothing about and am too tired to look up; it’s been a busy week). The song is sickeningly catchy, but its initial charm wears off as quickly as it catches on. Regardless, I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t my most-listened to track this week.
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