Spread the Social Love:
Earlier this month George Lewis Jr, better known by his moniker Twin Shadow, released his much anticipated second album, Confess, and fans by-and-large were not disappointed. Continuing in the vein of earlier favourites such as ‘Slow', lead single ‘Five Seconds’ is an intense, fist-pumping would-be anthem, complete with a mini action-movie promotional video (opened by an uncomfortably earnest spoken word intro).
The video, along with the cover-artwork for Confess (a disarmingly serious Lewis Jr, smoldering away in a leather biker jacket) left a similar impression on me as felt when I first heard his debut ‘Forget’. As much as I enjoyed it, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d seen and heard this kind of thing before. The production seems intent on evoking a certain sense of nostalgia for a time which many look back on in pride, shame, adoration and humiliation in equal measure. To borrow, perhaps aptly, the articulate words of James Murphy, this is one of many cases of .
This could well coincide with a now well-established trend in a certain culture (discussed with such needless scrutiny by those averse to it that even mentioning its adopted name seems tedious). The culture, arguably in an effort to seem indifferent to the world and all its fallacies and failings, establishes itself not by displaying new inventions in style and dress, but by borrowing from old, iconic trends of the past in new ways. Fashions that have burned out and disappeared over the years discover new life as a post-modern ironic statement, an aesthetic display of just how little an individual cares about their looks in this image-obsessed world (the very irony in that not always apparent). Though interesting on occasion, and with wavering popularity, the scene is ultimately far more dull and far less thought-provoking than it would like to be. The parallel musical trend may prove to be the same.
The premise is simple. What was once “cool” briefly and then blatantly “uncool” will be “cool” once again because of how “uncool” people think it is. The ‘Buddy Holly glasses’ (though, admittedly, his had glass lenses) and Hells-Angels-come-Twin-Shadow biker gear are two examples of this in fashion. In music, people had to look no further for their goldmine of was-cool-but-now-isn’t vignettes than this ‘unremembered eighties’. I can’t claim to have the authority of experience here, seeing as I was born at the very end of this fascinating decade. However, the impression left on me from the cultural footprint of this MTV-age seems to be one of outrageous bombast and eccentricity. In other words, it was an ironic jackpot in waiting.
With the nineties came the popularization of a movement unofficially known as ‘sulking is cool’, and brought with it a change in mood that killed the energy of the eighties dead. Remembered fondly, but only to be repeated in fancy dress parties, raves, and the general appearance of the late Jimmy Saville. Its determined rise from the ashes could not have been foreseen by anyone.
The first band that seemed to me personally to be reminiscent of this eighties were The Killers. The synth-pop sounds of breakthrough single ‘Somebody Told Me’ declared to the world that keyboards may well have a place once more in indie-guitar bands. The Bravery quickly followed suit with instant guilty-pleasure ‘An Honest Mistake’, a proud homage to the New-Romantic era. It unashamedly carried the sounds of New Order and, in particular, Duran Duran. Charting at number 7 on the UK singles chart, the consensus certainly seemed to imply that the British public at least were hungry for an 80s revival. Nostalgia can be a powerful thing.
The Killers would continue this trend of borrowing with later albums. Day & Age could well have been a glossy remastering of any old 80s synth-pop album, whereas its predecessor Sam’s Town had evidently narrowed its range to focus purely on brining back the sounds of Bruce Springsteen.
The revival, far from the unified, instantaneous catharsis hinted at by these two examples, became a slow burner, being embraced cautiously, and with varying levels of awareness. It wasn’t until 2010, when I first listened to ‘Forget’, that I realized just how strongly it had taken hold of popular music. With R’n’B tightening its grip on the charts, its time in the limelight became sporadic, left mainly to the occasional Lady Gaga indulgence and La Roux’s brief stab at fame. Thus, the revival largely cast its most engrossing net across the far reaching landscape of subversive indie, and it has landed with force.
Some embody the revival with sincerity, excitedly creating new sounds and melodies within a well established but forgotten framework. The infectious disco spirit is as alive in Cut Copy now as it was in any Human League or Erasure floor-filler. Destroyer’s fantastic Opus ‘Kaputt’ instantly brings to mind the chilled pop sensibilities of Roxy Music, occasionally even veering towards The Pet Shop Boys. M83’s impressive synth-laden catalogue could work perfectly as the soundtrack to the climactic, heart-pounding scenes of every epic 80s action blockbuster. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart meanwhile, while occasionally flirting with beautiful pop styles akin to The Cure, mainly root themselves in the woozy, overdriven sounds of My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus and Mary Chain. Matthew Dear pulls off such a flawless David Bowie impression on his brilliant ‘Black City’ that he could easily turn out to just be another alter-ego. School Of Seven Bells, Chairlift, Telepathe, Tanlines, Games, Still Corners, Robyn - the list of artists dedicatedly embracing the electro-swirl of the 80s is overwhelming.
Then there are those who wear its charm with a slight sneer, aware of the indulgence and audacity of claiming the pastiche of such a well worn era so boldly for their own. The most striking examples include Ariel Pink, Gary War, and John Maus, each of whom wear the extravagance of the 80s so overtly it sounds like parody. Coupled with an often sarcastic style of singing, the effect is as uncompromising as it is inviting, creating a sound that fully explores the reach of that most unique and paradoxical of 80s qualities - sounding both dated and timeless simultaneously. Its statement on popular music as a whole wasn’t unnoticed, and the genre was seized by the young would-be-intellectual scenesters as their definitive sound.
The result was ‘Chillwave’, a genre that grows to sound so different from the bands who inadvertently created it as to become meaningless (this very notion is parodied by Travis Egedy’s ironic invention of the term ‘Witch-House’, to describe a micro-genre without any tangible definition). It is possibly the conclusion of this 80s revival, a genre that is laced with synth and echoing 80s drums, but with a modern, arguably more ambient approach to the songwriting. The catchy bass-lines and danceable beats are present in Toro Y Moi, but so are sophisticated looping and sampling techniques, and atmospheric vocal melodies displaying a modern influence. Glowbug recognizes the 80s masters (most evidently on his brilliant EP Covered in Lights, which contains covers of 80s staples The Smiths and The Pixies), but mixes this influence with intense, droning guitars, and a more thematic song writing style. Washed Out, arguably the definitive ‘Chillwave’ artist (if there can be such a thing), weaves yearning, echoing vocals, spaced-out synths and beautifully relaxed yet hard-hitting rhythms. Other notable examples include Neon Indian, Com Truise, Total
Warr, Nite Jewell, Memory Tapes, and Small Black, to name a few.
And then of course there’s Twin Shadow, the man who first drew my attention to the whole thing. Ever since I first became obsessed with his fantastic first album, I have been hugely excited to hear what else he could do, and Confess certainly sounds like an obsession of mine in-the-making. But I can’t help but feel that the 80s vibe he seems so determined to continue is starting to outwear its welcome. As much as I love all the artists I have mentioned so far, the ambiguous statement of the 80s revival, being torn between a celebration and condemnation, is either wearing thin, or being lost altogether. More than anything else, it is the cherry-picking and re-hashing of old standards that is beginning to grow stale. Indie music has always prided itself on innovation and imagination, but the current trend seems to refocus the talents of musicians not onto “where can music go from here” but “how can I reconfirm the strengths of old styles”. With the new artists of hip hop (ironically a genre that grew from the sampling of old songs) performing hugely innovative and imaginative leaps (headed by the likes of Shabazz Palaces, THEESatisfaction, and Death Grips), and the ever-seductive developments of electronic music (from the post-dubstep likes of Jamie xx and James Blake, to the mind-blowing jazz-experimentation of Flying Lotus and the LA Bass scene), we are reminded of the vast potential music has to surprise and excite.
The 80s brought with it hugely influential movements, from the frustration of post-punk to the boundless energy of disco; the androgynous pride of the new-romantics to the introversion of shoegaze and grunge, the decade celebrated the individual and their capacity for new ideas. This was the decade that gave us some of the greatest developments in relatively new genres such as hip hop, dance, techno and house music. For those of us who cannot claim to have lived it, we can only look back in wonder. If any lesson is to be learned from the music of this time, surely it is to explore the new, exciting, and undiscovered potentials of the movements around us. The nostalgic 80s relapse we have witnessed, in repeating the trends of the past, may well have missed the point.
The video, along with the cover-artwork for Confess (a disarmingly serious Lewis Jr, smoldering away in a leather biker jacket) left a similar impression on me as felt when I first heard his debut ‘Forget’. As much as I enjoyed it, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d seen and heard this kind of thing before. The production seems intent on evoking a certain sense of nostalgia for a time which many look back on in pride, shame, adoration and humiliation in equal measure. To borrow, perhaps aptly, the articulate words of James Murphy, this is one of many cases of
“borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered eighties”
WATCH // 'Five Seconds'
This could well coincide with a now well-established trend in a certain culture (discussed with such needless scrutiny by those averse to it that even mentioning its adopted name seems tedious). The culture, arguably in an effort to seem indifferent to the world and all its fallacies and failings, establishes itself not by displaying new inventions in style and dress, but by borrowing from old, iconic trends of the past in new ways. Fashions that have burned out and disappeared over the years discover new life as a post-modern ironic statement, an aesthetic display of just how little an individual cares about their looks in this image-obsessed world (the very irony in that not always apparent). Though interesting on occasion, and with wavering popularity, the scene is ultimately far more dull and far less thought-provoking than it would like to be. The parallel musical trend may prove to be the same.
The premise is simple. What was once “cool” briefly and then blatantly “uncool” will be “cool” once again because of how “uncool” people think it is. The ‘Buddy Holly glasses’ (though, admittedly, his had glass lenses) and Hells-Angels-come-Twin-Shadow biker gear are two examples of this in fashion. In music, people had to look no further for their goldmine of was-cool-but-now-isn’t vignettes than this ‘unremembered eighties’. I can’t claim to have the authority of experience here, seeing as I was born at the very end of this fascinating decade. However, the impression left on me from the cultural footprint of this MTV-age seems to be one of outrageous bombast and eccentricity. In other words, it was an ironic jackpot in waiting.
With the nineties came the popularization of a movement unofficially known as ‘sulking is cool’, and brought with it a change in mood that killed the energy of the eighties dead. Remembered fondly, but only to be repeated in fancy dress parties, raves, and the general appearance of the late Jimmy Saville. Its determined rise from the ashes could not have been foreseen by anyone.
Nostalgia can be a powerful thing
The Killers would continue this trend of borrowing with later albums. Day & Age could well have been a glossy remastering of any old 80s synth-pop album, whereas its predecessor Sam’s Town had evidently narrowed its range to focus purely on brining back the sounds of Bruce Springsteen.
WATCH // 'Somebody Told Me'
The revival, far from the unified, instantaneous catharsis hinted at by these two examples, became a slow burner, being embraced cautiously, and with varying levels of awareness. It wasn’t until 2010, when I first listened to ‘Forget’, that I realized just how strongly it had taken hold of popular music. With R’n’B tightening its grip on the charts, its time in the limelight became sporadic, left mainly to the occasional Lady Gaga indulgence and La Roux’s brief stab at fame. Thus, the revival largely cast its most engrossing net across the far reaching landscape of subversive indie, and it has landed with force.
Some embody the revival with sincerity, excitedly creating new sounds and melodies within a well established but forgotten framework. The infectious disco spirit is as alive in Cut Copy now as it was in any Human League or Erasure floor-filler. Destroyer’s fantastic Opus ‘Kaputt’ instantly brings to mind the chilled pop sensibilities of Roxy Music, occasionally even veering towards The Pet Shop Boys. M83’s impressive synth-laden catalogue could work perfectly as the soundtrack to the climactic, heart-pounding scenes of every epic 80s action blockbuster. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart meanwhile, while occasionally flirting with beautiful pop styles akin to The Cure, mainly root themselves in the woozy, overdriven sounds of My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus and Mary Chain. Matthew Dear pulls off such a flawless David Bowie impression on his brilliant ‘Black City’ that he could easily turn out to just be another alter-ego. School Of Seven Bells, Chairlift, Telepathe, Tanlines, Games, Still Corners, Robyn - the list of artists dedicatedly embracing the electro-swirl of the 80s is overwhelming.
LISTEN // 'A Forest'
Then there are those who wear its charm with a slight sneer, aware of the indulgence and audacity of claiming the pastiche of such a well worn era so boldly for their own. The most striking examples include Ariel Pink, Gary War, and John Maus, each of whom wear the extravagance of the 80s so overtly it sounds like parody. Coupled with an often sarcastic style of singing, the effect is as uncompromising as it is inviting, creating a sound that fully explores the reach of that most unique and paradoxical of 80s qualities - sounding both dated and timeless simultaneously. Its statement on popular music as a whole wasn’t unnoticed, and the genre was seized by the young would-be-intellectual scenesters as their definitive sound.
The result was ‘Chillwave’, a genre that grows to sound so different from the bands who inadvertently created it as to become meaningless (this very notion is parodied by Travis Egedy’s ironic invention of the term ‘Witch-House’, to describe a micro-genre without any tangible definition). It is possibly the conclusion of this 80s revival, a genre that is laced with synth and echoing 80s drums, but with a modern, arguably more ambient approach to the songwriting. The catchy bass-lines and danceable beats are present in Toro Y Moi, but so are sophisticated looping and sampling techniques, and atmospheric vocal melodies displaying a modern influence. Glowbug recognizes the 80s masters (most evidently on his brilliant EP Covered in Lights, which contains covers of 80s staples The Smiths and The Pixies), but mixes this influence with intense, droning guitars, and a more thematic song writing style. Washed Out, arguably the definitive ‘Chillwave’ artist (if there can be such a thing), weaves yearning, echoing vocals, spaced-out synths and beautifully relaxed yet hard-hitting rhythms. Other notable examples include Neon Indian, Com Truise, Total
Warr, Nite Jewell, Memory Tapes, and Small Black, to name a few.
The 80s brought with it hugely influential movements, from the frustration of post-punk to the boundless energy of disco; the androgynous pride of the new-romantics to the introversion of shoegaze and grunge, the decade celebrated the individual and their capacity for new ideas
The 80s brought with it hugely influential movements, from the frustration of post-punk to the boundless energy of disco; the androgynous pride of the new-romantics to the introversion of shoegaze and grunge, the decade celebrated the individual and their capacity for new ideas. This was the decade that gave us some of the greatest developments in relatively new genres such as hip hop, dance, techno and house music. For those of us who cannot claim to have lived it, we can only look back in wonder. If any lesson is to be learned from the music of this time, surely it is to explore the new, exciting, and undiscovered potentials of the movements around us. The nostalgic 80s relapse we have witnessed, in repeating the trends of the past, may well have missed the point.
LISTEN // 'Golden Light'
Words by Trystan Kent
![Review: Bonobo - First Fires [Single]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/altthumb.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fhangout.altsounds.com%2Fgeek%2Fgars%2Fimages%2F3%2F7%2F1%2F7%2F1%2Fbonobo-first-fires-leif_800.jpg&h=75&w=75&zc=1&q=70)
