Emerging Fervour

So I’ve been meaning to share my thoughts on current music with you since January, but a combination of winter induced stupor and fingers too numb to type have prevented me from putting words to paper sooner. That said, blue skies have magically re-appeared, day-light is now visible past half-four and so I feel moved to finally share some thoughts on great music that you should be listening to.

The rule of the day is eclecticism. When it comes to artfully arranged sounds, what works, works – rather like paint. One additional caveat – one or two of these have been out for a few months, so before you get all “Hey, didn’t that one come out in like October?” please understand that I’m taking liberties with you, dear reader. Let’s get involved.

Charlotte Gainsbourg, IRM

A dream collaboration that pairs of French model/ actress/ chantreuse Charlotte Gainsbourg and the original mashup king Beck whose cunning pastiches of folk, punk electronica and hip hop haven’t seemed genuinely cool since the early naughties.

Gainsbourg’s vocals are exactly what you’d expect from the daughter of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin – paper thin, whispery and achingly cool. ‘Le Chat Du Café Des Artistes’ comes closest to the stylings of her father, but Beck mostly sticks to familiar territory – folksy electro pop, psychedelia and the odd Dadaist freakout all of which feel fresh and engaging with Gainsbourg singing. He keeps the arrangements spare and effective – small stabs of dissonance and electronic noises that subtly embellish guitar and piano arrangements.

As for Charlotte, her thin voice isn’t the ideal vehicle but when it works, it soars. Lack of vocal range makes a bluesy number like ‘Dandelion’ a bit flat, but it transforms the sunny folk of ‘Me and Jane Doe’ into a bewitching cross between Joan Baez and Nico. She deploys it most effectively when her whispery monotone drones over some of the darker songs to be found here. ‘Master’s Hands’ revels in S&M undertones while ‘the Collector’ leaks unnamed dread. IRM sounds like Kraftwerk, Sonic Youth and Nico stuck in an elevator, and believe me, that is a very good thing. Overall, the album is delightly moody and sparkling pop that sees Beck find new life as a svengali to a French icon in the making. Charlotte Gainsbourg album IRM is available on iTunes.

Vampire Weekend, Contra

I’m going to make this very clear. Vampire Weekend are the best thing to happen to bands with guitars in a mighty long time. Their debut fused energetic indie power pop with the hypnotic rhythms and patterns of West Africa, a style they called “Upper West Side Soweto”. Their approach was rhythmically inventive, sublimely melodic and showed a knack for genuinely obscure lyric. Their influences include “Graceland”- era Paul Simon and Talking Heads.

Contra, which went straight to number one upon its US release sees Vampire Weekend growing in every way. The world music influences are woven into their songs with greater subtlety than before and the heightened presence of twinkling electronica, sweeping strings pianos, xylophones and in one delirious instant at the climax of the lead single “Cousins”, church bells, mark this as a band embracing the magic of recording studio and reveling in the possibilities.

Released in January, I wouldn’t be surprised to find this album taking its place many of 2010’s best of lists at the end of the year. While this album doesn’t exactly groove as much as their debut, ‘Cousins’ packs all the energy and inventiveness of their debut into a hyperkinetic and irresistible three minutes. By the time they do briefly lapse into a conventional rock rhythm on “Giving up the Gun”, it only serves to remind the listener of just how badly indie rock needs their approach. Vampire Weekend’s, Contra is available on iTunes.

Hot Chip, One Life Stand

The London electropop alchemists return for a fifth album that sees them embracing traditional song structures and arrangements more openly than I’ve ever heard them do before. Sonically it’s way more paired back and rather more earnest than the Hot Chip I’m used to. But it’s still a very interesting album.

Their thirst for experimentation is undiminished and as with all their albums, there are four or five songs I adored instantly. The title track rides a slinky electro beat before steel pan harmonies surface and then embrace a huge chorus that would make Human League proud. “Alley Cats” is a gorgeous love song that is far and away the most realised of the more live instrumental based songs on this album and the obvious high point.

My problem with this album is that without their sense of sonic irony and subversion, Hot Chip sometimes manage to sound a bit too much like their influences. I’ve never doubted their ability to disguise accomplished songwriting and naked emotion in sly Shoreditch jacking house backdrops. I guess I just prefer my earnest 80’s pop stylings over twitching dance beats. If “Made in the Dark” was the sound of a huge night out, this emotionally delicate day after needs to get its seratonin levels righted again or it might start to blubber. Especially on a song called “Slush”. Sorry, that was mean. I love Hot Chip, I do. Still worth checking out. Available on iTunes.

Blakroc, Blakroc

Hip hop and rock collaborations aren’t anything new – check the original Aerosmith and Run DMC version of “Walk this Way” back in the 80’s which blew my tiny little mind. But after that auspicious start, they have had a spotty history. Too often the bands involved try too hard to play as tightly and robotically as the samples and programmed drums they are replacing, which replaced those very bands to begin with… which is a bit pointless as you can see.

That’s why Blakroc – a collaboration between a who’s who of NYC rappers and the Black Keys – gets things so right. It’s as if the Black Keys took the Roots’ song “the Seed”, arguably the greatest rap-rock collaboration of this century, as a template and just ran with it. They bring squealing guitars, woozy off kilter beats and plenty of hammond organ to the party and then just dare the MC’s to do their thing. It works brilliantly as the looseness of the rhythms challenges the MC’s to worry less about lyrics and focus on their delivery.

On “Coochie” the lascivious musings of Ludacris and the late ODB are irresistible over drums could have been lifted from “When the Levee Breaks”. Mos Def, no stranger to dabbling with rock is on typically awesome form on “On the Vista” and “Ain’t Nothing Like You” as is Q Tip on “Hope You’re Happy”. Rza and Pharaohe Monche are just two more of the rappers who do well here.

Throughout the whole album, the Black Keys weave a tapestry of whisky-soaked lo fi blues that convincingly takes these MC’s off the block and into a juke joint somewhere in Mississippi. But what’s more amazing is that the result sees both the band and large cast of vocalists sounding so utterly at home. Let’s just hope they do a tour to support this album, because it would rock. Blakroc’s album is available on iTunes.