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.

Neil Rolnick - 60! RPI, November 17, 2007.

Composer Neil Rolnick was celebrated on his 60th birthday at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, with a retrospective concert of works going back 30 years. His work is known for successfully linking technology to conventional instrumentation. He was born in Dallas, but studied at Harvard, Aspen, San Francisco, and Berkeley, Stanford and IRCAM, eventually landing a teaching post at RPI. His works have been increasingly performed in New York and the world over the last 5 or 6 years. His work is characterized by infectious rhythms, and melodies that are a pleasure to follow. All of the works performed this evening except one had an electronic ingredient.

Requiem Songs - for the Victims of Nationalism (1993), is a set of highly focused songs written while the composer was in Yugoslavia. The songs were influenced by the indigenous Central European musical idiom. The vocal parts, provided by silvery tones of Amy Fradon and Leslie Ritter, explored rustic counterpoint. The lyrics by Rolnick and Ed Sanders, based on folk songs, addressed the political turmoil of that part of Europe. Gently rocking meters like 4+3 contrasted with vigorous playing in the tragedy of ethnic cleansing and its victims. One piece addressed the role of the artist in war - the cellist who plays in the street despite the shells that fall around him.

Hammer and Hair (premiere) - During this piano and violin duo the pianist's hands muted strings emulating the pizzicato of the violinist. The 20 minute work shifted between brusque and percussive interplay with some lovely jazz inflected passages by violinist.

Ever-livin' Rhythm (1977). One percussionist with an arsenal of instruments played along with what would have been a taped part in 1977. The somewhat dated synthesizer sounds were not the composer's fault, the piece is 30 years old, after all. As a "student" work, it was quite impressive. It had a "modernist" tint (in other words, "old fashioned"), but hints at the infectious African rhythms that inspired the piece.

Shadow Quartet (2003). Cast in a more or less traditional form, and despite the influence of the death of his father, this quartet for strings rocked with a bluesy grittiness the players convincingly dug into.

Digits (2005), written for and performed by Kathleen Supove, was truly unreal as she interacted with a computer part generated in real time along with her playing. R. Luke DuBois's video, captured with cameras perched on either end of the keyboard, played with the building and disassembling of grid forms taken from images of Supove's performance. The video, while accomplished, seemed extraneous to Supove's unearthly command of this demanding work.

It was exciting to see every seat in the hall taken for this event. Rolnick's work deserves the attention it now receives. He has developed a style that comfortably integrates conventional instrumentation with electronics, and has fashioned a language that is both contemporary and accessible.

The Pipettes. We Are The Pipettes (2007).

Gwenno, Riotbecki, and Rosay, are from Brighton, just like Electrelane, and they are signed to the UK label, Memphis Industries, as is The Go! Team, so they should feel right at home here at the Bunny Ears HQ. To make this bubbly cocktail you need a jigger of Ronettes , a dash of Shampoo , a pinch of B52s and just a sprinkle of Spice Girls.

When The Pipettes take the stage, they're brash and vivacious, flaunting a sense of humor, abundant polka dots, and sassy synchronized dance moves. They spiritually channel 60's girl-groups, exude an edgy punkishness, and they're not afraid to yell at boys and tell them to go stuff it...

Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me:

After a number of listens, it's evident that The Pipettes are not some novelty act, despite their calculated emphasis on presentation. Their songs are simply good pop, even classic pop, framed in girl-group stylings. The makeup is retro but the face has classic bone structure. Some of the tunes are quite simply superb indie pop dressed up in a nostalgic frame of reference. A great song like Tell Me What You Want could have been done by Saint Etienne, or Birdie. When they're not shouting like the B52's they can sing in bright harmony, as in A Winter's Sky, which would be a great tune done in any style.

There seems to be a trend in the UK for recycling vintage sounds (Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse), and there is an audience for that when it's done well. As with the others mentioned, there is the wink of nostalgia with an underlying heart and an earnest love for the sublime, yet succinct, pop moment musicale. For that authentic production sound, the guitars are set on the bridge pickup, there's a string section (a real one!), horns, as well as the occasional glockenspiel and Farfisa organ, and plenty of reverb on the drums. If these tunes were actually released in the 60's they couldn't help but be AM radio hits. The Pipettes were planning to come to a town near you, but their work visas got messed up and sadly, they had to cancel the first 18 of 24 dates on their US tour - que c'est tragique!! Buy the CD on Amazon for only $9.98 - at 16 tracks that's only 62 cents per track, a much better deal than downloading them on iTunes. Plus you'll be able to hold The Pipettes close to your heart, or put them under your pillow, as needed.