Melancholy on toast

El Perro Del Mar - From the Valley to the Stars [2008]

A bit of the way through El Perro Del Mar’s new album, From the Valley to the Stars, Swedish vocalist and songwriter Sarah Assbring repeatedly sings “Don’t cast away your inner island”. It’s a line with metaphorical reverberations throughout the entire album.

El Perro Del Mar told us that she set out to record a good hearted album free from cynicism, and she’s succeeded with From the Valley to the Stars. But not in the way you might think, because we’re not talking about sunshine and lollipops here. For one, Sarah’s haunting voice precludes that. But beyond that, in many ways this album is a dark piece of work. Melancholy is El Perro’s bread and butter, and despite lighter moments such as “Somebody’s Baby”, the introspective gloom can’t help but seep in.

Happily, it works. This is a funereal piece of music, and Sarah sings like a brave widow. The sunny optimism of the lyrics of “Happiness Won Me Over” are put to the lie by sighing Church organs. Opener “Jubilee” uses those same organs to convey the joy that Christians are supposed to feel about Christ’s crucifixion – a joy fixated upon slow, violent death.

Then there’s that line, “Don’t cast away your inner island”. Much like the album, the lyric sounds sweet, corny even, upon first listen. But it’s really about solitude – while no man is an island, we all have an island in us. Maybe we go there to die, alone.

SUPER MUSIC NERD STATUS CHALLENGE

Girl Talk - Feed the Animals [2008]

Girl Talk has finally dropped the follow up to 2006’s non-stop party machine Night Ripper. It’s called Feed the Animals, and about 45 seconds into my first spin this week I got that tingly feeling in the spine that means that everything might just be right with the world.

I’m not even sure what a mega mix is, but Girl Talk takes the mega mix to the next level. Let’s call it the ultra mix – no, even better – the mega ultra mix, the multra mix. Girl Talk is the multra mega phat pharty-starting white boy, Leisure Suit Laptop, the Sheik of Beat, the Cherry on Top of the Pops. He doesn’t so much mash up as mash on down – sure, there’s mash ups galore, but each lasts for about 5-25 seconds before being drowned or devoured by the next indie riff, rap beat, hip hop flow, pop hook, dance... thingo.

It’s hard with words to convey the sheer weight of hedonistic sampling that goes on in Feed the Animals. So here’s what I done. On my third spin the record (yes, first would have been better, but it’s too late now, isn’t it?) I conducted an experiment and a challenge. Of the 300 or so samples on this three quarters of an hour, could I name 100 songs, either by title or band?

Girl Talk draws so thick and fast from the last couple of decades of popular music, any music nerd worth his salt would anticipate a walk in the park in naming a mere 100 samples from Feed the Animals. But would I be up to it? In the days leading up to SUPER MUSIC NERD STATUS CHALLENGE, as it came to be known, I massaged my lobes raw and obsessively studied Spicks and Specks in anticipation. The stakes: any future claim to musical knowledge, and the enviable MUSIC NERD status that it entails.

The Rules:
Target: 100 points.

The Purported Nerd may name either band or song title, or both, of any song sampled. Each successful guess is rewarded with 1 point. A band and title combo is worth 2 points (yes, I'm cheating).

Random comments in (parentheses) will be tolerated.

Markers comments will appear in [square brackets].

No google. No mobile phones. Laptops ok. Girl Talk uses two.

And the result:

Track 1: "Play Your Part (Pt. 1)" - 4:45

“My Sharona” [ed: not actually sampled on this song, apparently. Way to false start]
Kiss: “We’re Not Gonna Take It” [ed: It’s by Twisted Sister. At least I got the men in heavy make up bit right]
(“Gettin’ some head; Gettin’ Gettin’ some head”)

2 "Shut the Club Down" - 3:07

Avril Levine: “You Don’t Need a Boyfriend” [ed: It’s called “Girlfriend”, but close enough]
Butthole Surfers [ed: song’s called “Pepper”]
NWA: “Fuck the Police” (Ice Cube rocks in right at the end here with a “Wit a little bit of gold and a pager”, some other rapper responds “We don’t give a damn, we don’t give a fuck”) [ed: Actually a Cool Kids song which samples NWA. Girl Talk samples Cool Kids sampling NWA. How postmodern]

3 "Still Here" - 3:57

(“Flash…lights”) [Ed: Kanye]
(“I like the way you work it (No diggity) I got to bag it up”) [ed: BLACKstreet feat. Dr Dre]
(That “20 dollar bill” club hit, over some country song)

4 "What It's All About" - 4:15

(“Na na na na na” song)
Faith No More [ed: song’s called “Epic”]
“Say a Little Prayer” [ed: No such song, apparently]
(“I grew up on the crime side/The New York Times side/Stayin’ alive was no jive”)
Outkast: “Miss Jackson”
Jackson 5: “2 and 2 is 4” [ed: It’s called “ABC”]
Queen: “Bohemian Rhapsody”

5 "Set It Off" - 3:42

Radiohead “Paranoid Android”
Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five [ed: Song’s “The Message”]

6 "No Pause" - 3:12

(That annoying road trip song) [ed: Len: “Steal my Sunshine” Bad song, but Girl Talk works it.]
“I want you to want me”
Eminem (This is a fucking great Eminem rap. Whatever happened to that guy?) [Ed: Song’s called “Shake That”. As for Eminem, isn't he dead?]

7 "Like This" - 3:21

Beastie Boys: “Bodymovin”
“Ghetto Superstar” over Yo La Tengo: “Autumn Sweater”
Metallica: “One” (the super fast guitar bridge bit - matched with this awesome chick rapper) [ed: She’s called Lil’ Mama]

8 "Give Me a Beat" - 4:12

Air: “Sexy Boy”
Of Montreal (“foooorgeeeet” goes the lyric, apt because I’ve forgotten the song name) [ed: “Gronlandic Edit”]
“America’s Most Wanted” [ed: it’s “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted”, but close enough]

9 "Hands in the Air" - 4:20

“Woop there is it” [ed: Apparently it’s “Whoomp”]
Cardigans: “Love Fool” with Hot Chip
(a dance sample – that fucking song with the video clip of the kid running around with a model airplane that gets sampled fucking all the time!) [ed: Stardust “Music Sounds Better with You”. Der.]

10 "In Step" - 3:23

(A hella Jane Fonda workout song, oh hang on, it’s):
“You got it!”
(That wacky whistling sound. Can’t believe I can’t remember the name of this) [ed: Deee-Lite: “Groove is in the Heart”]
Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit” [ed: “Lithium”, you tool]
“Dancing in September” [ed: Just “September”]
The Beatles: “God only knows” [ed: Beach Boys! Lennon is rolling over in his grave! I hate you!]

11 "Let Me See You" - 4:04

(woo-oo, wee-oo)
(Sounds like a young Shaggy singing “I’m a flirt”) [ed: it’s R Kelly]
Daft Punk: “Harder Better Faster Stronger”
Devo: “Whip It” [ed: nope.]
MIA: “Boys Say” [ed: “Boyz”. Close enough]
(Some new wave revival wonderfully mashed up with MIA) [ed: It’s the Cranberries: “Dreams”]

12 "Here's the Thing" - 4:46

“Choo choo Ride” [ed: It’s called “C’mon Ride It (The Train)”. Perhaps even more inane a title than “Choo choo ride” would have been]
Skank Ho: “Since U Been Gone” [ed: Correct! Two points. Also would have accepted Kelly Clarkson]
Prodigy: “Breathe/Firestarter” [ed: yep, Firestarter. Those songs are indeed indistinguishable, so no penalty]
“Jessie’s Girl” (Best call and response sample mix ever. Faggy white boy [ed: Rick Springfield] sings: “I want Jessie’s Girl”. Rapper responds: “But I’d rather get some head”)

13 "Don't Stop" - 2:58

Underworld: “Born Slippy”
The Cure [ed: Nice! “In Between Days” is the song. The Cure’s “Close to Me” also sampled on earlier track “What It’s All About”]

14 "Play Your Part (Pt. 2)" - 3:25

Red Hot Chili Peppers: “Under the Bridge”
ACDC: “Thunderstruck”
(very Family Ties opening sequence piano bit with lage scale synth action… Whitney Houston?) [ed: It’s Journey “Faithfully”. Interestingly, David Chase also chose to end the final episode of The Sopranos with a Journey song. Coincidence?]

The Score:

Named 29 bands + 31 songs = 60.

A “pass”, but shatteringly short of the target. See the work of a real nerd here. Download the album (pay what you want) here.

Religion and death

Swedish pop minstrel El Perro Del Mar (“The Dog of the Sea”) came to indie prominence a couple of years ago with the release of a beautiful and melancholy self titled debut. It was a record that carried with it the air of having been discovered in a grandparent’s musty basement – a sepia time capsule by a long-dead pre-War starlet. Her second album, From the Valley to the Stars, has just hit Australian shores, and it confirms El Perro Del Mar (Sarah Assbring by birth) as a rare talent. I spoke to Sarah on the phone as she sipped a double espresso in her kitchen.

What was the process of making From the Valley to the Stars?

It was a long process. It was different. I wanted it to be different, I knew that I wanted to make a conceptual piece – an entity, a unity of songs, I wanted to make something that was almost expressionist in some kind of way.

I started with that idea, and with these theoretical ideas in my mind I felt I needed to work on a theme, so I started to do research for that while I toured.

When I finally got the time I connected a lot of ideas and impressions and theories. I had them in my notebooks. When I got back to Gothenburg and started writing music I had all these ideas collected and I just started to put the ideas down and put them into music.

It was a different kind of process and a process I didn’t know would be possible… I had all these ideas for songs – I had very specific things written down for the songs – this song will sound like this, this song will sound like this… and then there will be a part of the song where this happens… blah blah blah…

I didn’t know if it was ever going to sound the way that I envisioned or even going to be an actual song – it was all a risky thing.

I was really happy to find pretty fast after I started writing music that it was possible and I was very happy that I made it.

You say the music came after the language. Does this include lyrics? Do you keep a diary or write a lot?

I have tons of notebooks. I separate things a lot. I have a personal diary where I would never ever write any ideas or inspirations – I’m very meticulous about that… I’ve always made that kind of distinction with things.

I know when I go to the place I work or write, if I stumble on a diary note when I’m writing music it distracts me or annoys me so they have to be kept separate.

I keep 3 or 4 notebooks. Some contain inspiration, people, events, other music. Page after page of names, dates, buildings, historical events. Other books contain quotations, poetry. Others contain my own stuff.

So you find a lot of inspiration in places beyond music?

When it comes to music, all the music that means something to me has a very clear heartfulness and soul. That’s what I look for and what I instantly hear and love when I listen to music. I think it’s the same when it comes to other things. I draw inspiration from a lot of different things – architecture very much, literature, photography and math – and art. And a lot of inspiration from various people… Peoples’ lives.

It’s all about the soul and the heart of those people and what they made and the imprints that they left on this world, I think, that I’m drawn to.

You instantly see it when you look at a painting or a building – you see the person behind it and that’s what fascinates me.

There is an innocence about From the Valley to the Stars, which you’ve said before is a conscious thing. Is modern music too cynical?

Yeah… It’s in a lot of modern music. The feeling that I had and wanted to rid myself of was… when you’re into pop music and the short lived world that pop music is about – about fashion, and it’s so well studied, you tend to get cynical and bitter when you’re involved in pop music.

I wanted to make something that wasn’t about that, something good hearted that didn’t have ideas of anything else besides being loving and good hearted… I didn’t want to be a part of the complaining department.

There’s certainly a few religious references on this album, and I think the use of the organ gives it the feeling of a mass, or a wake. Did you have a religious upbringing?

No, definitely not. But I’ve always been – especially in the last few years – drawn to religion . I wanted to explore the reason why that was.

The last few years I have been very – there’s been a lot of deaths taking place – I lost a lot of people the last few years – and I started to think about what relation death had to religion. For me religion was so closely linked to death… the only reason we have religion is because people have always needed and will always need an explanation for why their loved ones disappear, so I wanted to explore that and to see if there was a religion for me or if I’m even capable of believing in something

I realised that I’m not - probably not. Not in a religion per se but maybe [I can believe in] a religion that is simple and almost childlike for me in the way that children celebrate life and celebrate nature.

That’s what I ended up believing when I wrote the album, and that to me is what the album stands for – this simple, naïve celebration of living and being part of the world and part of nature.

You’ve said you wanted to make an “unfashionable” album. Do you think drawing from Christianity is one of the more unfashionable things you could have done?

It is probably yeah. That’s what inspired me as well – why is it [unfashionable]? What’s the reason? I’m always drawn to doing things that people would initially think is weird or not so fashionable maybe, but to me it’s the only thing that I could do, the only thing on my mind, the only thing that I wanted to express, to talk about, so I had no real choice but to be unfashionable.

Are you immune to fashion?

No. I love fashion and trends – I’m very weak when it comes to fashion. But if your meaning is to be a serious artist – or if you take yourself seriously when it comes to your art or your music – I think you have to kind of separate yourself from what goes on in fashion and trends – a little bit at least – if you’re going to really have your own voice, and your own soul and your own heart, if it’s going to be heard through the trendiness.

I try to keep them separated because I thinks that’s the point – by the time you’re done with what you’re doing, something else has happened and the wind has changed, so you really need to have an idea that what you’re making is your own regardless of what is going around.

Any chance you’ll work with Jens Lekman again?

Definitely – I hope so. I’ll probably spend some time in his summer house in the south of Sweden this summer. We’ll probably make something during that time.

Any plans to make it over to Australia in support of the album?

There are, but nothing set. I’m hoping to come in winter. Hopefully.

I’ve never been to Australia, but I’ve been dreaming about it.

It's a giant freaking ball of yarn

Guillemots – Red [2008]

There’s got to be some limits to the notion that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Having endured Guillemots second album, Red, five too many times, I can confirm that one of those limits is a cover photo that features a giant freaking ball of yarn in some kind of corrugated iron tunnel road. It doesn’t help that the yarn is, you guessed it, red, just like the album title. It’s fucking yarn. Seriously.

Guillemots are the musical equivalent of a United Colors of Benetton billboard, featuring a cast of musicians from three continents with funky-ass names like Fyfe Dangerfield and MC Lord Magrao who play lots of instruments, have lots of sex with teenage groupies and, you can only assume, have perfect Colgate smiles and black, black hearts. Red is overproduced, earnest and saccharine – in short, sickening – the kind of record you’d catch your mum secretly adding to her ipod shuffle for those lonely Tuesday afternoons of self-loathing on the treadmill.

Don’t believe me? Download “Cockateels” and when those syrupy strings rise 80 seconds through and Fyfe sings “Cuz deeeeeeealing with the real world/Is sometimes not too fun/When baby says she loves you/Whilst holding up her gun”, just see if you can keep your lunch down.

Dangerfield’s lyrics provide a pretty good microcosm of how craptastic Red is overall. Oblige me another quote, this one from masturbatory lamefest “Standing on the Last Star”: “So Cinderella sold her soul/There’s no such thing as rock n roll/We all stood in the queue and sold our hearts”. There’s so many layers of crapness in these three lines, thinking about it too much is like peeling a rotten onion. And these are just three of dozens of rotten lines to be found on Red.

But it’s not just the lyrics. With their debut, Guillemots proved that they are actually capable of penning a decent tune (see “Trains to Brazil”), but on Red the band is out of ideas. The solution, it seems, was to drench the whole thing in super-slick production and turn the bells and whistles up to 11. The problem is that underneath all the guff, the songs suck.

The Verdict: 3 rotten onions: