This year was plagued from beginning to end
with images of Armageddon, the apocalypse and the end of the world. It began
essentially in the Micro Mutek festival
back in February and appeared and reappeared at various intervals until last
week’s poor and/or misunderstood prediction of the end of time by the ancient
Mayan civilization. Check out three end-of.the-world science videos at The Guardian.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Kicking off this feeling musically was
Lucrecia Dalt playing at Mutek to an edited Werner Herzog film of oil fields on fire
in Iraq. Her intriguing album "Commotus" followed with its beautifully poised and
intense cover image of dust storms in great depression era America. Although
she claims it has no significance to the crisis, the influence of the crisis and
its sinister Thatcher-esque methodology on Spanish culture in particular was
heavy and profound (and still looms like the picture frozen in time).
Personally, Lucrecia became and unwilling symbol of the apocalypse for this and
more: when I did a still unfinished interview with her back in July (apologies
Lucrecia) I had been told the same day that I would lose my job by the end of
the year. We were bitten intensely by mosquitoes up in the park and then I had
an attack of jealousy from my girlfriend as a result that was also another
unnecessary blow. All resolved now, except for the interview, but for me then,
it was hard to separate Lucrecia from the feeling of doom and certainly for
this and more her music carried a strong personal resonance throughout the
year.
It is somewhat ironic then that my career
did finish only days before the Mayan apocalypse was predicted, coming to an
ugly head on the 19th. I will post more ideas on this in the coming
weeks as there is a number of general issues related to science that are
important for me to express and for a broader public to begin to understand. In
looking for a music to represent this I am drawn again and again to Oppenheimer Analysis
who are one of the few artists I have encountered to deal directly with the
idea of science as a theme, and not just a symbol. Their track “Radiance” comes
to mind particularly when thinking of Armageddon.
It shouldn’t need much context in terms of
modern politics with plenty of tension between Israel and Palestine and their
neighbours that will not go unnoticed in Iran especially, and the forever
unstable Egypt, whereas the bizarre North Korean government continues to test
missiles capable of attacking invisible enemies. In the same year we also had
continuing fall-out (sic) from the nuclear disaster provoked by the Tsunami in
Japan. I noticed that Fushitsusha’s Keiji Haino was complaining about the
Japanese protestors with an anti-nuclear agenda who were still content to go
home and plug in to their electrical world afterwards. The key here is
lifestyle. We have reached, in my opinion, the point of turning back. The
future does not exist without a change in lifestyle, or a cultural recognition
of wrong and wholesale changes to the pace of living. Time to slow down.
Musically then it is possible to relate all
this anger, repression, protest, hopelessness and absurdity to the dominance of
noise in techno music this year. This is a phenomenon that had a first flutter
back in 2010 with artists like Ancient Methods, Traversable Wormhole and the
like, but seemed to grow quiet in 2011 before achieving an explosive fusion in
2012. The two defining incidents must be Dominic Fernow’s Vatican Shadow project
releasing an acclaimed album “Ornamented Walls” on Modern Love, although to
many the “September Cell” EP on Bed of Nails was perhaps even more of a
highlight. The marriage in reverse saw Sandwell District’s Juan Mendez aka
Silent Servant release his exceptional and concise “Negative Fascination” album
on Fernow’s own Hospital Productions label.
That many of the artists pushing such a
harder and more industrial sound should be UK artists is also curious and
deserves attention in the year that also saw the final death of Throbbing
Gristle. Highlights from the UK scene are clearly Shifted, who combined
elegance with brute force, AnD from Manchester, Blawan for crudity and Pariah
for balance (his remix of Lucy on the recent Curle single is as sublime as the
original). One cannot also forget Ren Schofield’s second untitled album for
Spectrum Spools as Container. 2012 also saw the return of the British Murder
Boys (Surgeon and Regis) as well as the most vocal praise for the Birmingham
Downwards imprint, completing the cycle that Sandwell District initiated many
years ago. Speaking of Sandwell District, while many of their offspring went
harder and harder, many also continued to adopt and develop, while others
merely imitated their sound. While many of the influenced artists produced
great albums, like Spanish producer Oscar Mulero, there were many more that
faded into the background while not necessarily being bad. It is also worth
mentioning that US art rockers The Swans seem to have exerted a particularly
profound influence over both guitar and electronic music over the last 18
months. One reason is the growing fame of their live show which works off
noise, power and transformation, similar ingredients to the success of good
psychedelic techno, whereas their noisy and lengthy album “The Seer” carries a
similar torch of inspiration to the noise-techno artists. A critical aspect of
their image and performance is the idea that Michael Gira is also some sort of
shaman, or indeed, has taken the Seer role of the album name. This is a concept
that was lightly flirted with in techno as well, particularly on the Prologue
label with Dino Sabatini being most obvious, whereas Voices from the Lake
clearly aimed for and achieved a trance state of mind. African rhythms and magic
also snuck their way into fringes of other releases from Cut Hands “Black mamba”,
Demdike Stare, Shackleton, Emptyset, Innervisions (last year as well) and
perhaps even Juju and Jordash’s “Techno primitivism”.
Industrial and noise music has always
somehow been the political arm of electronic music, particularly to techno as house
has always had a proximity to protest, just as it has its side far removed in
the realms of triviality. It is tempting to interpret this rise in
noise/industrial techno as a parallel to the ascendance of the protest movement
(Time’s Person of the year 2011) and the dissatisfaction with the current
political system and the political class. However, the dancefloor and a party
are still not the best places to have intellectual discussions and even the
idea of this incites scorn in many people whereas others still complain that
clubs are for escapism and not confrontation. But the absence of an intelligent
dance floor is a hell too frightening to consider: just listen to Teengirl
Fantasy’s “Do it” with vocals by Romanthony released on R&S this year and
you will be in that bad place.
The groups name should tell you all you
need to know, but the cringey and vacuous autotuned lyrics could be Black Eyed
Peas or Rebecca Black they are as bad as the plodding and comfortable music.
Besides, if I am unemployed and lucky enough to afford entry into a club, I do
not want to escape my life by listening to something as trivial as that. I
would rather some positive reinforcement in hearing noise and industrial
techno, turning the machines against themselves and against society for its own
good.
A less social association of this trend may
also be in the improvements to sound design across the board and the
possibilities that noise, force and silence have to play in the listening
experience. Bedroom studio production has now reached an important and perhaps
critical level of quality. While there is still a plethora of by-the-numbers
producers, who still seem to top all the charts, there has clearly been an
exponential growth in quality and diversity of production stimulated at first
by dubstep and now in the post-dubstep era where genres blur more than ever, it
informs all fields and genres of production. While not considered industrial or
noise, the work of Rene Pawlowitz is certainly only one step away. The bigger
numbers off “The Killer” like “Ride on” and “I come by night” are a case in
point, gruff, granular and forceful.
Many other artists have also created their
own sound world where high fidelity and texture is just as important as volume
or functionality. The success of Ricardo Villalobos’s “Dependent and Happy”
across the board, from Resident Advisor to The Wire is the most obvious example
(remember last year they also had Margaret Dygas’s under-appreciated album as
well, also from Perlon). Still close to the dancefloor, Andy Stott and Claro
Intelecto made plenty of space by slowing things down a lot whereas It is also
interesting to note that many albums making the top of the best of lists are
fairly experimental as well as packing good sound design, suggesting that (a)
the critics are ahead of the game or that (b) the audience has finally caught
up (more on this point below). Actress is well known now, but he still stands
apart from so many for his vivid imagination. Raime as well as Emptyset can
feel like very dry music at times, and yet their appeal seems fairly universal.
Plenty of other artists made an impact without hitting the lists: Ricardo
Donoso’s second electronic album rightly caused a bit of fever on its release,
whereas Bee Mask must be poised for greater things too. Australian Oren
Ambarchi seemed everywhere in 2012 and many of his releases have become
essential and on occasion left me reeling with surprise at their invention and
execution, the long track “Knots” on “Audience for one” on Touch being a
particular delight. Another man who seemed everywhere and anywhere in 2012 was
Mark Fell, who just played an amazing night here in Barcelona with Lee Gamble
who, alongside his colleagues in the PAN label, seemed to somehow reinvent
electronica late on in the year. Fell in particular pushed the boundaries of
experimentation and the dancefloor like no other and will hopefully have a show
of his own soon on Cabeza de Vaca.
We also have heard over the last year or
two about how Mike Dehnert and others have forced people to consider upgrading
their Hi Fi set up in car or home to get the most out of their music. Ben Klock also stated recently
that DJing can be hit and miss for some artists depending on the capacity of
the sound system and requires an open mind to tailor the set accordingly and to
tease out the best frequencies. Many artists also still make music and tailor
their sound for the legendary Berghain sound system,
amongst them the aforementioned duo AnD. Given this, and after seeing the
aforementioned Fell/Gamble show and still feeling the positive effects of the
LEV Festival this year it seems more and more clear that club culture is at a juncture.
While volume is essential and while it is also true that many artists do not
strictly need high fidelity, there is a nagging sense that sound systems in
clubs are becoming incredibly inadequate. One reason is their apparent and
alleged lack of sensitivity and directionality for reproducing such beautifully
constructed and intricate music in a special manner. The other is space and
architecture. Electronic music still feels obliged to exist in the club
setting, but somehow a club feels like a ball and chain as well. Where are the
venues for ambient music? Why does the club have to always be a party at night
time and not earlier or during the day (at least for older people like me?) Why
are there no high fidelity listening places for concerts and even “reproduction
parties” for new releases, for example? Listening to music live is about
sensation and experience, not only hedonism. Why is it not possible to invent a
Hi Fi Lounge where people would pay to go and hear a new album, for example, in
all its stereo glory at volume as well as a live show?
This brings us to the next concept which is
the live performance in electronic music. Two issues came to the fore in 2012,
one an old one and a never ending one it seems, which is the issue of playing
live versus pressing play. Back in June Deadmau5 made the allegation in Rolling Stone that
many artists are pressing play and there is less live performance in electronic
music than appears. This may be true for some and more so for those who involve
the use of complicated visual elements in their shows, like Amon Tobin,
Squarepusher etc who require complicated synchronization to make the show work.
Indeed, this brings us to the second point which is the tendency for over
reliance on a visual element to make an impact as a live electronic show. Sure,
there is nothing worse than watching a person hunched over a laptop during a
performance, but there is something not right about seeing an artist swamped by
an overblown and over conceptualized set up. My thoughts go to Tom Jenkinson
aka Squarepusher who had his huge banks of LEDs and his custom designed helmet
at Sonar to accompany his neo-rave IDM, but a paltry audience, who were all
sadly at Fatboy Slim, a mere DJ with no special live show, or indeed music, at
all. Intriguingly, the best live show of all at Sonar this year was Mouse on
Mars who clearly do not press play, jamming on stage as a three piece and even
changing instruments. They use only a minimal, but effective visual display.
The LEV Festival clearly aims to fuse the visual and audio elements of electronic
music with as much an artistic approach as they can allow and can afford. Yet
there appears to be a tendency, perhaps growing, for the visual to trivialize
the music or at least supersede it in importance. 2013 could be a critical year
for this phenomenon in which it may arrive at one step too far or become
inseparable forever. The subtext of this is a growing divide between the
classic club and the festival, where the former can work just as effectively
with a red light in a room whereas the later seems to depend on visual
spectacle.
A parallel element this year has been the
return of the real vocalist. The impact of Burial over the last few years has
been profound, but his trope of the pitch shifted and cut-up vocal had reached
epidemic proportions in recent times and now feels hideously overdone (Holy
Other’s album had one foot in this trap while also somehow managing to break
free of it). Thankfully then, 2012 saw the predominance of real singing.
Highlights were Cooly G’s sensual album “Playing Me” and her astute and
captivating performance at Sonar. Laurel Halo’s “Quarantine” album seemed to
finish in all the lists. While it didn’t quite do it for me as much as the rest
of the world, its sung vocals were nonetheless an important touchstone of the
year. Jessie Ware was a personal favourite for her voice but also for the sheer
surprise I had in myself for finding so much in music that on surface I should
not be so close to. The myriad of excellent remixes also helped to cement
“Devotion” as stand out for the year. There was also Brackles, Julia Holter, Nina
Kraviz album with guests, San Proper going it alone with mixed results on
“Animal”, Lucrecia Dalt (of course; I say her here as well since I think she
would be a great collaborator for a dance project too) and more.
Looking through the best of lists in the
different media sites it seems clear that there is almost a consensus as to
what was the best in 2012. Furthermore, if you scroll through the comments
lists you also get the sense that the public agrees, with a certain exception
(see below). First thought would be to say that these were indeed the best
albums of 2012, but perhaps the consensus also comes down to the fact that they
were in many ways the only good albums of 2012. This is harsh and a bit of an
over statement, but it did feel that this year took a long, long time to get
going and then it all seemed to get exciting in a flurry at the end of the
year. The albums making the list are also hardly ground breaking in many ways,
although good, and there were also plenty of decent, but not amazing albums by
big artists. I am thinking of Redshape, Christopher Rau (I would also add
Smallpeople although they did end up on the proper lists), Tinman, Emeralds, Forward Strategy Group (great in moments, but a
little stilted at times), Holy Other, Juju and Jordash (intriguing and worth
going back to, but somehow unfulfilling or a bit clumsy at times), Sigha and
Scuba amongst others. One noticeable trend was the absent of many real (or
should I say classical) dubstep albums in the final lists with the exception of
perhaps Jam City. Peter van Hoesen’s “Perceiver” is a good example of a totally
cohesive and well-made album that really doesn’t add much more to the
IDM-styled techno that has been prevalent for the last two years or so. The
Prologue label stuff seemed a breakthrough this year as it combined home
listening depth as well as dancefloor functionality without sounding like this
IDM-techno or post-Sandwell District techno. Similarly, PAN really caught the
imagination by reconciling complex experimentation with the compelling urge to
listen. Their emphasis as well on collector records and design was also
fundamental. As an aside, there was a modest trend for picture discs to emerge
as well, with the CLR label doing it for the Motor releases and also the
Deepchord “Summer night versions EP”.
L.I.E.S. was by far the best label for
quantity and quality. Their importance as well comes from breaking Rush Hour’s
stranglehold over the retro house sound, now moved from Chicago to New Jersey.
Using the same palette they somehow broke through to the other side and in the
process expanded their A&R remit to dislodge the label from any simple
classification. Just look at Torn Hawk’s filthy space rock sound or Professor
Genius’s hashish inspired ambient album “Hassan” to see how far the label has
gone. It is also worth mentioning how much of this stuff sounds like "hipster house" and gets closer again to the dirtier, lo fi sounds of the Not Not Fun underground. The caveat of this is that judging by the comments pages, many listeners
were strangely unaware of many of these labels even until the end. This is
perhaps no surprise looking at what charts and what DJs made the top of the
list suggesting that there is a great divide between critical acclaim and the
real audience.
In short, 2012 was not the vintage year that
2011 was and saw more a stabilization of current trends than important
advances. Predictions for 2013: I predicted the return of drum n bass this year
and was almost right. Certainly it returned to the consciousness, but still
lacked a really big cross over album or single. Lee Gamble’s “Diversions
1994-1996” was probably the closest. But the trend will continue and drum n
bass to keep making a bigger impact in 2013. I also predict a big increase in
the number of Asian producers influencing the scene next year. Resident Advisor
has been in Japan since 2011, but it might be time to see some rewards from
that connection. Techno will continue to get louder, faster and harder on one
side, but on the other will develop into a more elaborate, long-form electro
style as the continued influence of the Drexciya reissues becomes consciously apparent
while the urge to copy the Sandwell District style diminishes (see Delta
Funktionen and the recent Killekill label compilation for the first steps). House
music will pursue the New Jersey garage line, but take up Mark Fell’s cut up
vocal line style and angular melody structure from the Sensate Focus series to
another level, like Huxley and Bicep gone hypercolour (sic) and hyper
geometric.
Peace and tranquillity.
