Earthquake Orphans

As the death toll in China's Sichuan province has surpassed 55,000, consider that thousands of the survivors are children who have lost their parents - read the story.

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Interview: Mia Clarke

As guitarist with Electrelane, Mia Clarke provided a critical element to the group's sound, holding down rhythmic parts, contributing supportive counter melodies and delicate arpeggios, as well as rocking out with heavy riffs. Her extended solos during live shows were riveting improvisations that included glorious distortion and escalating squeals of feedback. Mia has also published extensive music criticism in a variety of outlets, notably in The Wire, and Pitchfork, among others. After about 10 years together, the band has taken an open-ended break that they are calling an "indefinite hiatus." While in Brighton, awaiting a visa to return to the US, Mia had time to answer a few of my probing inquiries about her early musical influences, the working method with Electrelane, guitar gear, and her newly adopted hometown of Chicago. Off the road for the first time in over a year, she is already very busy with a new band, as well as some exciting new projects and collaborations.

Who or what influenced you to pick up the guitar? What made you keep playing? What were some of the first things you tried to play?

When I was 15 I saw Fugazi in my hometown of Brighton, England. It was the first time I went to a show by myself, and remains one of my strongest memories; it was the beginning of everything in terms of my love of music and desire to play it, and that feeling was so exciting. The day after the show, I went to the pawn shop down the street and bought an electric guitar for about 30 pounds.

I never really took to playing other people's songs, although I did give a few Bob Dylan covers a shot. I became bored practicing alone in my bedroom and wanted to be in a band, playing with other people. Then, a little while later, I joined Electrelane. I consider that as the time I really began playing guitar, and I still think that writing music with other people, and getting comfortable improvising, is one of the best introductions to learning an instrument.

What was the first band you ever saw perform live?

Radiohead, 1996, in Brighton, when I was 13.

If you hadn't pursued a career in music what might you be doing otherwise?

I probably would have focused on writing, or become a zoologist.

When I saw Electrelane perform I don't think I noticed you using any ear protection - any thoughts or concerns on extended exposure to volume?

That's very perceptive of you! Foolishly, I never used earplugs when I rehearsed or played live shows with Electrelane, as I found them very difficult to get used to. It felt like playing music inside a fish tank! However, I now have a proper pair, fitted to my ears, and use them all the time-- in fact, I can't imagine playing without them.

The sound that Electrelane came up with was quite unique, not entirely "rock" or "pop." To what do you attribute the unique style that the band achieved?

I think it was a combination of everyone's musical background and interests. Ros and Verity were classically trained when they were younger, whereas Emma and myself were not. I think this produced an interesting dynamic when we were writing songs together, particularly in terms of the structure of songs. At times there could be conflict, but I think it generally kept things interesting. And, although we shared a love of many of the same bands, we each had our own areas of interest, and I think this came through in our ideas when improvising together (which is how almost all of our songs first took shape).

How do you view the role you had in helping to shape the Electrelane sound?

I'm really not sure! I think the 'Electrelane sound' developed as a result of the four of us writing music together, and playing off one another's ideas. It's hard to say exactly how much a particular instrument affected the overall sound, as it was part of the whole.

Are there unreleased items by Electrelane that might see the light of day, interesting demos, alternate takes, videos?

There are a couple of unreleased songs knocking around, but not many. We recorded lots of different radio sessions over the last few years, so there's quite a bit of material from those, plus personal video footage that we shot while on the road. We released 'Electrelane: Singles, B-Sides, and Live' a couple of years ago, which complied a few previously unreleased tracks. It would be great to release a disc of live material one day, or even a DVD, but we don't have any plans at the moment.

What were your feelings toward the end of your last tour about the band and the future, knowing the end was eminent? How well are you adjusting to not being on the road now?

I felt it was the right time to move on and, personally, I needed the change. Of course the last tour was emotional for everyone, and it was a very surreal experience-- sometimes sad, sometimes fun. Our final show, in Brighton, was very intense. I miss the momentum of touring a lot though and would love to get back on the road soon. I get 'itchy feet' very quickly!

An Electrelane show seemed to slowly build on rhythmic propulsion until it would have to stop, or just explode from its own momentum. What was it like to have to come down from that level of intensity night after night?

It was generally a real rush, and could be so much fun. We often felt exhausted after playing, especially headlines shows. There's rarely much time to relax after playing though, as we'd usually have to sort out the merch stall, pack up, load the van etc. A few beers would help though! It was always rewarding to play a show after a long day driving, or being stuck hanging around a venue.

I know you used your Hagstrom guitar on tour, and I think you were using a Vox amp. Can you give us a list of the equipment you used on tour?

I used the Hagstrom, which replaced the Gibson SG I had been using for years, and the Vox Amp. The only other gear I had were pedals, all Boss: Overdrive, Tuner, Digital Delay, Compression Sustainer, and Tremelo.

Do you suffer from "gear lust?" Do you look through instrument catalogs and go to music stores and look longingly at amplifiers and guitars?

I never really look through gear catalogs. However, I am longing for a Les Paul Custom. I've been borrowing one from a friend from time to time but would love my own. The sound through the Vox is beautiful. I'd also be thrilled to own a HiWatt stack-- but that's about $4,000, so it's out of the question at this point in time! I also tried out a Fulltone Overdrive 2 Mosfest, which I prefer to the Boss pedal, so that's a more affordable addition to the wish list...

You've written quite a bit music criticism, would there be a book in your future?

I don't think I'll write a music book, but I plan to concentrate more on fiction writing, so we'll see what happens...

You've reviewed a wide variety of music, how do you keep up with new music, where do you find it? What bands are you enthusiastic about right now?

I mostly find out about new music through friends, reading blogs, or records that are sent for review. Some of my favourite new-ish music at the moment is: Nalle, James Blackshaw, Disappears, Awesome Color, Hauschka, Anni Rossi, Birthmark, Entrance, No Age, No Blue, Head Of Skulls, Tiny Vipers.

How would you characterize the style of your new band? Who's in it and what do they play? Does the band have a name yet?

Well, it's early days, and we are still in the process of working on songs (no name yet, either). The material so far is pretty heavy; it's been great to let go a bit more and also have the challenge of playing with different people. The band is myself, Tony Lazzara (ex-Atombombpocketknife, Sterling) on drums, Colin DeKuiper (ex-Russian Circles) on bass, and Eric Chaleff (also of Sterling) on guitar. A friend of ours recently commented that this new band sounds like a conglomeration of all our previous bands, which is accurate and makes sense.

How do you find Chicago as a city for Indie music? What are some of the good places to hear music there?

Chicago is an excellent city to play music in. First off, it's relatively inexpensive, so it's possible to find a place to rent and a decent practice space for not too much money. Secondly, people involved in the music scene are just so supportive of their community, which is not something I experienced while growing up in Brighton, which was a much more dog-eat-dog environment. It was so refreshing when I first started spending time in Chicago, seeing how much bands are willing to help each other out and be supportive when others do well. It's very positive.

As for venues, well, there's a basement space called Mr. City, which often puts on really great shows, as well as lots of punk rock lofts on the Southside. And there are good regular venues such as AV-Aerie, Schubas, and The Empty Bottle...

Did you ever meet Sarah Cracknell of Saint Etienne? She has mentioned she's a fan of Electrelane, and even says "I believe in Electrelane" in the song "Finisterre."

Yeah, I know that song! We were really touched when we heard it. I haven't met Sarah Cracknell, but we were once interviewed by Bob Stanley for a piece in Mojo magazine a few years back.

I know Verity jumped into another music project already, what are Ros and Emma up to?

Ros does a solo project, called Ray Rumours, and plays in quite a few other bands as well, such as SiSiSi SiSiSi SiSi, which is so great. I don't know what Emma is doing, but I think she plans to keep playing music too.

You've been in a critically acclaimed band and toured the world, what goals do you have now?

I definitely want to keep playing music. I actually just got back from Amsterdam, where I recorded a guitar improvisation (or 'guitargument' as we were calling it) with Andy Moor of The Ex. That was great, and I'd really like to collaborate more with other people as well as working on this new project. Music aside, I am hoping to go back to school next year, but in the meantime plan to keep writing. I also co-edited and compiled (with Sara Jaffe, formerly of Erase Errata) a book of photography, artwork, and writing done by musicians while on tour/inspired by touring, which is going to be published by Yeti this autumn. We've been working on it for a while, so it will be very exciting when it finally comes out!

Thank you so much Mia!

Goldfrapp

Goldfrapp's second album, Black Cherry (2003), seemed a jarring departure from their debut, Felt Mountain (2000). When the duo's third effort, Supernature, emerged in 2006, it continued in the same the disco-glam electro stylings, which seemed to render the eerie uniqueness of their premier disc as an anomaly in their output.

Black Cherry and Supernature were accomplished and successful, yet Felt Mountain remained as a creation of singular majesty and originality. On it, they created a magical world of beauty, ranging from creepy darkness to Alpine coolness, all infused with a sense of impending menace. The lyrics, instead of telling stories, or even painting scenes, dropped queasy, half-lit images, hinting at unsettling enigmas. The music didn't sound like much of anything else in pop music, drawing mostly on folk and classical genres, which speaks to both the absorbency, and meaninglessness, of the umbrella terms, "pop," or "rock." Ethnic sounding instruments mixed with lush string orchestras and, in one disturbing track, Alison's voice was fed through something like a gated filter which, when active, sounds as if her larynx is turning to melted rubber. Listening to the album from beginning to end left one with the impression of having journeyed through an enchanted fairyland, managing somehow to have just eluded the wicked witch.

A Trip To Felt Mountain:

One of the most memorable tracks, Paper Bag, with the bizarre refrain: "When the world stops for snow, When you laugh, I'm inside, Your mouth," has the recurring chord progression: i, vii7, iii7. A sequence of minor chords, the second and third of which introduces an unexpected flattened note from outside the scale, is a little trick of harmony epitomizing much of what makes Felt Mountain breathtaking: subverted presumptions turning corners on surprising loveliness.

Paper Bag:

The new album, Seventh Tree, has almost not a trace of the previous three. It's a relaxed and personal affair. The lyrics are reflective of interior observations, and the instrumentation is folksy, even when its electronic. It's hard to imagine "selling" these tracks in the arenas that Goldfrapp has become accustomed to performing in. These songs seem more suited to small theaters or intimate spaces. Some tracks, such as Caravan Girl, are more straightforward than we've ever heard from this duo. However, it's all very lovely and suggests a welcome retreat to more introverted spaces than they've explored in a while.

A&E:

Musicians of Ma'alwyck. "Moonstruck," Union College. March 1, 2008.

Anne Marie Barker Schwartz conceived an inspired program for an expanded edition of the Musicians of Ma'alwyck ensemble, combining two demanding works from the 20th century, and a new work by Hilary Tan.

Pierrot Lunaire, by Arnold Schoenberg, looks both backwards and forwards. Schoenberg accepted the offer to create a melodrama for the actress Albertine Zehme, and it was premiered in 1912. The work sets 21 poems by the Belgian Albert Giraud for recitation and a small chamber ensemble. The poems themselves are ridiculously decadent and profane, filled with macabre images and gallows humor, and are axiomatic examples of Symbolism, written in the midst of that movement's heyday in the 1880's. For 1912, the poems would have been long out of fashion. Schoenberg's atonal musical treatment, colorfully inspired by Pierrot's nightmarish escapades was, however, on the cutting edge, although it predates his dodecaphonic basis of composition. Schoenberg's conception of a small chamber ensemble with vocal soloist would be influential for decades to come, notably in the work of Stravinsky (who, never to be outdone, used three narrators in A Soldier's Tale), Boulez and Crumb, among others. The prickly pointillism prefigures a style that would be further developed by Webern, and a host of post-WWII composers decades later.

Soprano Jean Marie Callahan Kern, was dressed in black and white, emulating the costume of Pierrot, and used minimal props to emphasize the theatrical aspects. The recitation is notated in the score as sprechstimme, where the performer is asked to approximate intonations somewhere between speech and song. Kern's performance vigorously addressed the dramatic content as her powerful voice, swooping and diving, delivered an appropriately exaggerated embodiment of the melodrama. This was, as far as anyone knows, the first and only performance of Pierrot Lunaire in this region. Kern only rested her voice for about 10 minutes before launching into the Strauss songs.

Put in perspective, Webern was already dead three years, and John Cage had completed his Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano, when Richard Strauss finished the Four Last Songs in 1948. Filled with images of sunset, autumn, rest, and the soul in flight, they are explicitly about the patient anticipation of death, and they were in fact completed close to Strauss's own. The vocal melodies soar on harmonies functional yet dizzying in their shifting of a perceived tonal center. These songs were written in such a highly evolved rhetoric of late-late Romanticism that it exists on a plane above "style." Although the Four Last Songs are well known, Strauss is most renown for his extended (overblown, perhaps?) programmatic tone poems. Here, Strauss gets to the point, immediately delving into the sublime, crystallizing his ideas, instead of dragging them around for 40 minutes. The effect is overwhelming, not overpowering. Beauty is not always pretty, but these songs are pretty on the surface and deeply beautiful as well. Originally written for a large orchestra and voice, this chamber arrangement by William Carragan, for piano and half a dozen instrumentalists, amazingly loses none of the impact of the original. To the ear, everything remains intact, but is now more transparent and intimate in this new setting and, in some ways, even more appropriate to the subject matter.

The writing in Hilary Tann's piano trio, Nothing Forgotten, itself resembled the gnarled trunks of trees depicted in the accompanying photographs by Lawrence White. The trio is modal, organic, with bumpy rhythms, and chromatic notes adding irregularities to the expectations of the emerging motifs. The views of the Adirondacks showed macro and micro views of natural scenes, eventually revolving around images of trees that appear to have grown their roots around and above enormous boulders.

The musicians, led by conductor Lanfranco Marcelletti, appeared remarkably at ease with this program of the new, relatively unheard or, in the instance of the new Strauss arrangement, the unfamiliar. The capacity audience had an obvious appreciation for their effort. Here's hoping our ears will be treated to more fascinating and unusual repertoire by this masterful group.

Bodyrox featuring Luciana. Yeah Yeah (2006).

Neither the duo Bodyrox nor musician/actor/artist Luciana Caporaso have an album out yet, and they have only collaborated on two singles, but the outcome has been startling.

Yeah Yeah consists only of a few tightly detailed elements: a single synthesizer line which functions as the bass, hook, and harmonic content, with a little vocorder fill, and a drum track that pounds out simple quarter notes. The synth line is a tricky, off-center riff comprised of mostly dotted eighths and some quarter notes, and it's as taut and steely as a cable on a suspension bridge. At the heart of it all is an extraordinary vocal performance by Luciana. At first listen, her vocal seems like a tossed-off, mindless string of cliches. A closer listen reveals how the nimble flawlessness of her vocal line fits as an exquisitely independent counterpoint to that oddly subdivided synth part. Luciana's artistry is evident in how she was able to integrate a strongly grounded part into an existing grid which is continually challenging the natural feeling of the downbeat. The subtle offset of syncopation hints at a mix of 3 against 4, but with a pop/house swing. Luciana's warm and sensual sprechstimme is the beating heart in this music box of chrome and glass. At first impression, her performance appears to be elastic and free, but underneath there is a skilled and conscious composer in complete control.

April March

Despite having her 1999 CD, Chrominance Decoder, named one of the best 10 CDs of the year by the New Yorker magazine, I doubt April March is suffering from overexposure. That might change as her 10 year old song, "Chick Habit," has been resurrected for the Death Trip soundtrack. She released about 12 albums or EPs previous to Chrominance Decoder during the 90's, ranging from punky outbursts, and garage rock, to authentic replications of early 60's French pop music, while having a "real" job, as Elinor Blake (real name), doing animation for the Ren and Stimpy show and Pee Wee's Playhouse.

With Chrominance Decoder and the follow-up, Triggers (2003), Blake achieved a more mature style working with futuristic/retro French producer Bertrand Burgalat. He polished her newer songs with a subtle, intricate and sophisticated veneer of electronica, tinted by out of fashion styles of pop, as well as the discernible influences of jazz and classical music. April March's songs had always been wry and witty, but on these two albums she delved into deep territory, dealing with dysfunctional family systems, alcoholism, madness, rape, higher powers, and the social impact of television. If it sounds heavy going, it isn't. The music, arrangements, and Blake's vocal style, are all so captivating, quirky, and light that one can listen again and again, charmed by the experience as a whole, without actually listening to the words for meaning. Almost half the time she's singing in French, anyway. If you tune out all the ear-tingling details, and the sound of Blake's tiny, bird-like voice, and listen closely to the lyrics, it finally hits you that she's singing about some very dense and dark stuff. It adds up to a prismatic, funhouse version of pop music, where we recognize the structure but the details are askew.

I've admired April March's sense of style, which is that of a Seventeen Magazine co-ed, circa 1961:
(If that doesn't give you chills from the sheer delight of it, how long have you been dead?)
She has a new project out now with Steve Hanft, which is available to download from her Myspace site. April March is performing tonight at the Bowery Ballroom with Au Revoir Simone, a dreamy double bill of girly pop that was surely conceived in heaven, but sadly, I have to miss it :(
Que c'est triste.

Dusty Springfield. Nothing Has Been Proved (1990).

Sometimes, certainly not often enough, a song is discovered by accident that just completely floors you from the very first hearing. I came across Nothing Has Been Proved by Dusty Springfield on YouTube:


I am a big fan of Dusty however, the song she is most known for in the States, Son of the Preacher Man, has always made me cringe. Otherwise, the album Dusty in Memphis is deservedly considered by critics as one of the greatest albums of all time.

Nothing Has Been Proved is from her 1990 UK release, Reputation, re-released in the US with bonus tracks (and inferior cover art) in 1997 as Reputation and Rarities. Four of the tracks were written and produced by the Pet Shop Boys, and this track, the best on the disc, was used in the film Scandal. The Pet Shop Boys loved Dusty's legacy and they made an effort to create works worthy of her. I can't think of a more fortuitous partnering than Dusty and the team of Lowe and Tennant. This stunning tune highlights the gold-dusted upper register of Dusty's voice. Combined with the sophisticated and understated arrangement, and Neil Tennant's urbane lyrics, you have a recording that seduces with its subtle glamour and luxurious sheen. Dusty's vocal enhances the atmosphere of privilege and guilt that links the song to the movie, and lends a tint of regret to its unfolding.