Empowered Female Musicians- part 2- Santogold

Last time I reviewed MIA’s live concert. This time I review Santogold from Brooklyn, as a preview to a free concert that Santogold will be giving on Sunday July 20 in N.Y.C. as part of Central Park Summerstage (see www.summerstage.org). There are similarities in that both make powerful but not (usually) pretty electronica. Santogold has a strong song called Starstruck, M.I.A. has a strong song called Sunshowers. If anything Santogold’s music is more melodic and diverse.

Santogold is a collaboration between Santi White and former Stiffed bandmate John Hill. The CD cover has an image of Santi White with gold glitter coming out of her mouth. Santogold features production from sometime MIA collaborators Diplo and Switch. And like MIA, her music reportedly has elements of baile funk (dance music from Rio de Janeiro); perhaps it’s time to find out more directly about this stuff.

My favorite song of the CD is Creator (produced by Switch), probably the most original and the one that stays the freshest on repeated listening. She creates deep-resonating sounds not with instruments or electronics but with her voice. The lyrics twang too (you’ll need a crowbar to pry this song out from your inner resonating-chamber):

Me, I’m a creator, thrill is to make it up/The rules I break got me a place up on the radar

Me, I’m a Taker Know what the stakes are

I was chosen And I will deliver the explosion

Another strong song is “My Superman” about a liar “but I can’t count all the ways you woo me“.

L.E.S. Artistes showcases her voice. There must be a story behind this spelling of this title?

Say Aha has some unusual lyrics: Louder than they allow, Say Aha, Aha!

Unstoppable (produced by Diplo) has a jerky rhythm and an empowered attitude.

I prefer the remix by Switch and Sinden of You’ll find a way to the plain version.

Starstruck has the grunting male chorus that somehow really helps make this song for me.

The concert also features DJ Diplo, A-Trak and Kid Cudi.

Empowered Female Musicians- part 1- M.I.A.

Recently I attended a concert by the electronica musician M.I.A. and I plan to attend a concert in N.Y.C. on July 20 by Brooklyn artist Santogold. Both of these artists make powerful, complex, and original but not pretty music that is a must-hear. Part 2 of this article will be a review of Santogold's self-titled CD as a preview to her concert.

First, here is a review of the M.I.A. concert.

M.I.A. played the last concert of her current tour to promote the CD Kala Friday night Jun 6. Pity, because it was a wonderful live show in a very cool venue that itself resides in a fun neighborhood. The audience stands right within the former pool with traces of blue paint remaining on the bottom; the surrounding buildings have dramatic towering red-brick arches unlike any swimming pool or concert venue I’ve ever seen.

M.I.A. is an multi-talented artist that works well on many levels and at the same time has an unpretentious air about her; this is the first time I’ve seen her live and while the music lacked some of the complexity and purity of the sound on her CDs in this setting, she and her ample retinue more than compensated with her stage presence, fashion sense, movements, rhythms and visuals.

When we arrived in broad daylight the set comprised of plastic palm trees seemed tacky but in the dark was transformed into a colorful striking set. The concert started by playing a bitingly sarcastic and very funny speech in Japanese about a minority political candidate giving a speech saying elections don’t change anything; the only alternative is to destroy the country (perhaps a comment on the cloying patriotic and religious sentiments we hear so much in politics). The visuals continued as probably the strongest visuals to accompany music that I have seen. The strong graphic patterns and colors had a direct simplicity that fit in with everything else. So often I find the visuals detracting.

In retrospect it was probably a good thing when M.I.A. was denied entry into the States as she was working on Kala. So this album was recorded outside the Music Marketing Machine and has a very original and provocative feel. Some of the music is reportedly influenced by baile funk (dance music from Rio de Janeiro).

In my opinion the songs in Kala have progressed a great deal in terms of diversity and complexity of sound, and rhythmical pizazz from her first CD Arular but songs from both CDs were well represented. Banana Skit is a short but surreal and funny song. Jimmy has a strong Bollywood (i.e. the music of Indian films) feel to it. Come Around, Bucky Done Gun, Mango Pickle Down River, Hussel, Pull up the People, World Town were other highlights. What amazed me was when she invited at least 100 audience members on stage and sang in the middle of chaos while hugging and being hugged by her fans. For other songs she brought out unpolished but exuberant and diverse performers from all over the world (I thought she introduced some of the kids as from NY but my companion thought she said they were from Nigeria); at any rate I thought they added a great deal to the communal feel of the evening.

Sunshowers from Arular remains one of my favorites with the fun lyrics:

I bongo with my lingo
and beat it like a wing yo
to the Congo, to Columbo
Can’t stereotype my thingo

The evening ended with Paper Planes, another absolute favorite from Kala while people on stage threw paper airplanes with invitations for the after party into the audience. M.I.A. has no lack of style!

Review of a novel: The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult

This is already a well reviewed book but the overall slant of the reviews I've seen does not match my own so I thought I'd put in my 2 cents.

Firstly this is so far the only book that I have read by Jodi Picoult though it won't be the last. I was attracted by the idea of including comic-book excerpts in a novel. This did not disappoint; the images are powerful and add new material instead of rehashing the text. The graphic panels have an exaggerated style which fits in with what one expects of comics.

The novel is from the viewpoint of the father, David Stone, a graphical artist. It tells the story of the rape of his teenage daughter. This was a convincing portrayal to me, also a father.

David also talks a great deal of the "beast within"; his comic hero Wildclaw transforms into a uncontrollable beast under stress. The beast is something with positive as well as negative aspects. The unthinking, raging side of the beast surfaces at times in many of the characters who are pushed into desperate difficult situations.

Dante's Inferno plays a significant role in this novel as Laura, the mother in the central family is a scholar of this work and it is also featured in the graphical sequence. Interestingly Ficoult adds a new level of hell to the 9 levels described by Dante. I'll let readers discover for themselves the "sin" which Picoult felt had been under-represented in Dante's version of hell.

The novel returns David Stone to the place of his birth and his mother's death, Alaska. He had run away from there as a youth; now his daughter runs away to Alaska. The description of Alaska and the Eskimo culture was intriguing. David Stone portrays hell in his graphical work as like Alaska.

The rape is portrayed in it's complexity and multi-dimensionality. It is not easy to assign blame.

Another criticism I have seen in other reviews which I did not agree with are that the characters were not believable. I will say that the characters acted at times in surprising ways. The act of rape must be a very jarring event and should cause serious repercussions. The character of the investigating detective Bartholemew, also a parent added another perspective to the story. The ending really took me by surprise but in retrospect is believable.

I will say I am still a little confused by the front cover image of this book.

All in all this is a very creative work and deserves to be rewarded for that.

music from a bygone era

This is a series of Gypsy music from Romania, the land of the great band Taraf de Haidouks. I listened to Vol 2 Romica Puceanu & the Gore Brothers and Vol 3 Dona Dumitru Siminica. Both of these are Lautari singers; this is a quiet suburban 'blues' style influenced by the Greek, Turkish, Armenian, Jewish, Aromanian, and Gypsy sub-cultures of Budapest.

Both feature very good instrumentalists as well. This music was tolerated for a brief period by the Communist Government even to the point of Doan Dumitru recording a few songs in the Gypsy language.
Dona Dumitru was known for his falsetto voice, which is probably higher than Romica Puceanu's voice. His voice is ear-catching.

Victor Gore who sings on Vol 2 in addition to Romica also uses the falsetto in one of my favorite pieces Adu calu' sa ma duc. Needless to say I'm a fan of the falsetto voice.

Neither of these discs can come up to the standard of Taraf de Haidouks (which play a much more frenzied and rough style) but are none the less worth listening.

hideaway- The Weepies

This CD is a solid work of mellow melancholy. There is not much startling or unique here but it contains well crafted songs that hold one's interest.

Orbiting uses a nice metaphor for relationships:

you were a kind of moon outside my room
I feel you nearby, now I feel you gone

Hideaway is about knowing when to "honestly leave":

even the stars sometimes fade to gray

Little Bird is about those times where things aren't going well:

Sometimes it's hard to say even one thing true
when all eyes have turned aside
they used to talk to you

Likewise Antarctica:

I'll just remember the wind and the snow..
that it alone drowns out the inside of me

And Not Dead Yet:

There's another way I'd rather be
with all the ways I tried to keep in touch
that you will never know

And Lighting Candles:

Trying not to hope too hard ...
I'm still in the dark lighting candles

Other strong songs are Just Blue, Takes so long, How you survived the War
Somehow these songs sound to me like 2 separate songwriters, who don't quite integrate often enough. Both singers have beautiful voices but I'd like just a little more harmony. There is a little too much melancholy in this album even though they do it so well. And so it is finally, with a sense of relief, that the album ends on an upbeat song All This Beauty.

Share this place- Mirah and Spectratone International

This is an ambitious adventurous concept album by Mirah and Spectratone International (the original work was commissioned for an art gallery and included animation). These are songs written from the point of view of insects with accompaniment by a "chamber" group (of accordion, string instruments and percussion).
Mirah's voice can be stunning and passionate; the music is complex and unpredictable with sudden major shifts.
But I struggled with this album; it took a while to grow on me. Some of the songs grate on my nerves whereas others, where it feels like everything meshes, are exceptionally lovely. Many songs are based on dance forms and are surprisingly successfully danceable!
I would like to see a little more explanation of these songs; I feel like I may be missing something although I do like some mystery; the lyrics quoted below are by ear and may not be entirely correct and some songs I was not able to make out in their entirety.

My favorite songs are Luminescence (a love song with a relaxed Samba style where the voice and Accordion and humor of the lyrics shine) which starts:

Luminescence is ours; don't need a reason ...
shine like a beacon; I've got the brilliance to let him know
I am so ready to glow
This light is soft in the night like a sigh

brilliantly I oxidize
a belly fully of bright

Then there is Love Song of the Fly (another stimulatingly unusual love song between a fly and a human that has a beautiful romantic guitar intro):

I permit myself the nearness of you
Even just the scent of what you left behind
sends me in circles of lust
Please render me adoringly

Oh, why do you despise me, only criticize me
A Love that resides in kaleidescope eyes
you only think me base and dirty
you multiplying in my eyes

Ecclycis is tango-like (how can you not like a song with a name like this?)

Upside down, split from the ground
insides out and gyrate?
I begin to pupate
cause all my tissues to rearrange
green and gold is getting old
prepare to know my indigo
I'm getting out, I'm getting out

My Lord Who Hums (great atmospheric accompaniment) goes:

If I am killed and not understood
You will never learn what you could
I am the Lord of the flies
I have been swallowed and rebirthed
I am your kin

Supper (another song in dance form) goes as follows:

My villainy is rare
just like any other gadabout
I vanquish you with kisses, a dubious caress
in truth it is a poison
Liquefaction is a skill which I possess

Another is Song of Psyche (again Accordion and percussion and the concept shine).
Emergence of the Primary Larva (this accompaniment takes time to grow on one as it is so fresh-sounding)

In short I give this album the highest rating, for it's ambition and freshness. It may not all be immediately accessible but is well worth spending time with. Give it a chance to grow on you too!

The amazing writing of the Amazing Adventures

I recently finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon which substantiates Chabon's gift with words and extravagant plots if you had any doubts (another book by Chabon was previously reviewed in this blog).

What could be a more apt metaphor for the experience of Jewish survival in World War II then the escape artist? This novel is about 2 early comic book artists at the onset of the war who create the hero the Escapist among other great allegorical comic-book figures such as the Luna Moth. One of the pair, Josef Kavalier had escaped from Czechoslovakia having overcome comic-book-level complications and is forever scarred by the loss of the rest of his family and friends, in particular his brother Thomas. Thomas' escape from the Nazi's on the other hand was cut short at the last moment when his ship is sunk by a U-boat at the shores of America. This causes Josef to join the army but his experience of war turns out to be strangely life affirming though nonetheless difficult. Josef becomes psychologically stuck and unable to return to his normal life after the war; to his friends and lover he just disappears with no trace.

But this book is not a downer; it cannot be as it is infused with such a creative and playful spirit. Josef's son Tommy, born while Josef was off at war, without knowing about his real father, is also fascinated by comic-books and magic. How Tommy helps his father finally return from the war, in a hyper-plot worthy of a extraordinary comic book, is the crux of the story. Though this novel has elements of the comic book it also has depth, rhythmic writing, imagery, smoldering sexuality and sophisticated, complicated feeling. The other main characters i.e. the other comic-book artist Sam Clay (the man who is strong and loyal enough to not escape) and Josef's love Rosa are marvelously realized.

Here are just a couple of excerpts:

(Tommy in the city) He heard men swearing and singing opera. On a sunny day, his peripheral vision would be spangled with the light winking off the chrome headlights ..., the buckles on ladies shoes, ... the bulldog ornaments on the hoods of irate moving vans. This was Gotham City, Empire City, Metropolis. Its skies and rooftops were alive with men in capes and costumes on the lookout for wrongdoers ...

Tommy had his shoes off, his eye patch on, and half a pack of Black Jack in his mouth.

(children watching a superhero about to jump) The slow, dull, dark submarine of their lives in which they were the human cargo had abruptly surfaced. Their blood was filled with a kind of crippling nitrogen of wonder

This book has the same effect on my blood.

music with great visuals II

With the latest portable audio equipment, I believe Cover art will again take on more importance. There was a time with digital music that cover art was depreciated but the new Apple iPod touch makes me want to buy music just for the cover art, just to then see it while browsing my music via Cover Art Flow.

It almost reminds one of flipping through LP albums.

So what are my criteria for good cover art you ask? It should be eye-catching, simple enough so that it works from a thumbnail to larger-than-life scale. Unusual colors, design and humor are a plus. Basically the same things that make art stimulating and enjoyable. There is so much out there that one cannot help but overlook many great covers but it's still fun to try.

	Andrew Bird-Mysterious Production of Eggs
	Oswaldo Golijov

One Man's Slag

Again I have been on my way somewhere and been distracted by the slag on the path (see previous post).

These man-made rocks are beautifully iridescent like oil spilled in water. It is an unusual dark palette of grays and reds but with surprising splashes of cheerful warmth. I saw something on the rail-bed that I thought was a snail, then slag, no it was a snail; then I saw slag, or was it doogie-do, no, it was indeed slag, once a viscous semi-flowing mass. The color scheme reminds me of a bird I recently saw. I think it was a grackle, an outwardly black bird like a crow, not known for it's beauty, but with eye-catching iridescent greens and violets beneath the black surface.

Again, slag has the appearance of having been through hell, with a beauty and flowing bulbous shape that comes of intense pressures and heat. It is scarred with little volcanic eruptions. And again it surprises me that having lived here so long, having walked this path so many times, I had never noticed before. I think when people lived off the land they must have known their environments so much better.

And finally having gone through a lifestyle change (of being laid-off/retired from a demanding all-enveloping job), I wonder if there is an alternative to living productively other than pushing oneself (and being pushed) as hard and long as possible. As a cast-off byproduct, like the slag, scarred by the pressure to produce more and more, perhaps I have even more to offer then before though in a less material way. Our society needs people who have the time and breath to see the slag in a bed of gravel.

Slag under my nose

I call it slag. I don't know where I learned that word and can't remember ever using it before.

Slag is what I call that which I have found on a old railroad bed that I have walked many times over the 21 years I have lived here. It is a visually striking rock; it must have been molten once; it is bulbous and extravagantly pock-marked and tortured looking. It can have convexities in ways that rock rarely has. Perhaps it could be pumice or one of the other igneous rocks of that ilk though I suspect it is man-made. It is full of bubbles and cavities and can have a smooth shiny surface like a liquid frozen in it's tracks. It can have colors unusual for rock: a shiny red-brown with patches of bright powdery yellow.

Now that I have noticed it, I see it everywhere on that old railroad bed, never used by the railroad as long as I've been here. Perhaps slag is particularly subject to the frost heaving that happens this time of year, that force which churns up the usually solid ground; the same force responsible for potholes in our roads. I fill my pockets with it until I must look something like the squirrels fleeing bird-feeders with bulging cheeks.

Probably it was just waste, used as fill, used to build up the bed, from some long-gone industrial site. I am so curious where it came from and how long it's been there. There is so much of it that perhaps at some point I'll get sick of it, ignore it, even kick it out of my way.

And the reason why I finally noticed this noteworthy part of my environment? It is because suddenly I am outside the rat-race, a casualty of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. My pace of life has slowed and I have started to look again, like a child, at my world.

Music with great visuals

The following is an impossible task (which has never stopped me before). Here my first list of music with good cover art (more to come later):

	Frank Zappa-Sleep Dirt
	Robert Wyatt-Rock Bottom (and many others)
	Two Loons for Tea-Nine Lucid Dreams
	Dirty Three-Ocean Songs
	Putamayo Series
	Rough Guide series

Great article about Brooklyn Music scene

Ny Times Mar 8, 2008
Amoung the bands mentioned are:

Yeasayer
MGMT
The Strokes
The Rapture
LCD Soundsystem
Interpol
Dirty Projectors
Grizzly Bear
High Places
Psychic Ills
Gang Gang Dance
Dragons of Zynth
TV on the Radio
Flaming Lips
Vampire Weekend
Battles
Animal Collective

but there's many more exciting original bands out there in intimate venues. Some of which were mentioned here (and I have much more research to do) are:

Slavic Soul Party
Rachelle Garniez
TV on the Radio
JENNY SCHEINMAN
Las Rubias Del Norte

Fax

My desires have becomes faxes
grainy, smeared
beamed to another distant
hole-in-a-wall
the next waystation

while I deliver other's messages
over and over
my ink cartridge
un-refilled

Best Opening line I've read in a long time-

"For numberless years a myna had astounded travelers to the caravansary with its ability to spew indecencies in ten languages, and before the fight broke out everyone assumed the old blue-tongued devil on its perch by the fireplace was the one who had maligned the giant African with such foulness and verve."

This comes from Michael Chabon's novel Gentlemen of the Road. It also contains some great figurative language:

"his eyes womanly as a camel's"

I also enjoyed the titles of the chapters:

On Discords Arising from excessive Love of a Hat

On the Melancholy duty of Soldiers to contend with the messes left by Kings

On the Belated Repayment of the gift of a Pear

In short, this novel is high-quality fun; it has some great illustration as well.

Overcome

it whistled my winter
gurgled my en-garde
purpled my dignity

knocked me down
emptied my pockets
and filled them back up with sand
and a bent spoon

that's what your song did to me

My New Favorite

I just finished The Handmaid's Tale which I found fascinating with an thought-provoking open-ended finish. It takes place in a future with a declining birthrate and a repressive regime in America that came about by way of a bloodless coup. Not surprisingly this ultra-puritanical society has it's own corruptions and hypocrisies and it's own rationalizations for them.

I love the image of the Handmaids in long red habits with white wimples having built-in blinders; they look like nuns yet different and they serve a very different role. Somehow in my imagination this image is much stronger then in my memory of the movie version of this book. The image I do recall from the movie was the Ceremony which is introduced in a subtle startling way. In particular it was the image on Serena Joy's face when her husband, the Commander appeared to be enjoying the ritual. I guess both forms of this story have their strong points but I think the book is superior. Perhaps it was the blackness of the story that I found difficult to accept on first exposure, or perhaps it is just the realism/cynicism of a more mature perspective but I was even more enthralled with the written version of the story of Offred (she is of Fred; she has even lost her name in this new society), the Handmaid whose tale we are hearing (we never learn her former name or the name of her daughter who was taken from her). There are some very inventive touches such as the Marthas, the Unwomen, the Wives and Econowives dressed in blue, the Handmaids in red who are always in pairs, the Aunts, the colonies, the Salvagings and Prayvangazas , the Guardians, the Angels, and the Eyes. The irrepressible Moira is a well-formed character who gives yet another perspective on this society.
When the husband/commander commands Offred to join him surreptitiously, it is at least at first to play Scrabble and look at old outlawed magazines such as Vogue.
Another wonderful touch is the names of the stores of the town: Lilies of the Field, Milk and Honey, and All Flesh. Finally there is the store called Soul Drafts (formerly a lingere store) where you can buy time on a machine that reads prayers on your behalf.
This world is a well-wrought wryly inventive creation.

I have previously reviewed books by Margaret Atwood in this blog.

News-speak

What is it that I like about News Headlines?
-they're written to be provocative
-they often use idioms playfully
-they're written in an active voice rather than passive
-it is a style of writing that leaves out extra words, even subjects

Some favorite headlines from the New York Times:

Tit for Tat on a night where Spin is master

Zigzagging all day, Stocks resurface from a Dive

Side Deals in a Grey Area

Incumbents on the Ropes over Ties to Improprieties

Vice fills Void

Son of Privilege takes Baby Steps on Political Proving Ground

elbows

elbows
ground down from their former sharpness
to rounded
like river rocks

from the task of propping up
deadening weight

Margaret Atwood - at the outer edge of the work of a wide-ranging author

Recently I read Alias- Grace by Margaret Atwood followed by the novel Oryx and Crake.
I rate both books highly but the second one is the more gripping and stimulating of the pair. The two are very different in style and pace. Also the first one is set in the past and the second in the future.

Jimmy, also known as Snowman (named after the elusive Abominable Snowman), is the most interesting and developed character in Oryx and Crake as opposed to the flatter characters of Crake and Oryx.

The story is suspenseful although I haven't decided if the climax makes complete sense to me or not; it appears to be result of mutual misjudgements by the three main character or a suicidal impulse on the part of Crake (which is hinted at but does not quite jive with how I read his character). It has a touch of the deus ex machina plot device to me.

Nonetheless it is a rewarding book well-worth the read. I find it a conceivable extrapolation, however exaggerated, of the way things are going.

Jimmy especially rings true as a product of the modern times who as a word person ends up in advertising or Problematics or Applied Rhetoric as it's known in this book. It seems that in this world expressive writing for it's own sake (as Ms Atwood does so well)is not an option. How does the author portray his love of words? She does this by having him remember lists of unusual words perhaps as his own self-diagnostic test as he notices his mind deteriorating. Some of these words:

pullulate pistic trull grutch woad laryngeal

More lyrics from yet another source

I sing in the local community chorus; we have done an great variety of choral music some of which takes no back-seat for the power of the lyrics and their musical settings.
Recently we sang Handel's Messiah which includes lyrics like:

All we like sheep have gone astray
We have turned, everyone in his own way

The setting of the music suits the words so well, turning and going astray as expressed by the lyrics.
Then the music and mood takes a brilliantly abrupt turn to serious majestic measured contemplation:

And the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all

One of the best ways I know of to learn and appreciate music like this is to sing it with a chorus; it is so much more fufilling to be a part of the complex polyphony that to experience it from the outside. If you've never tried but have an interest in music/singing you must try this!
It would be interesting to search out other music that changes pace so dramatically and effectively.

A walk with a wound

I took a walk with a wound
we discussed
habits of successful people

and I saw
my dog nuzzling
my companion
and licking the wound

so it could bleed clean

My Father's Mind

Memory goes
in corrosive salt water
flaking off like bark
from driftwood


the ocean gusts
thigh-deep in it
seashells are whisked back from view
under the foam of a retreating breaker


If my father could just wave back at me
from the shore

paradigm of web development warps again

I have been meaning to create an idiom-dictionary application for mobile phones/organizers for a while. Recently I saw the Apple iPod Touch and was much more impressed then I expected. It is a beautiful interface that deserves the name Graphical user interface as sharp rich color images are effortlessly and smoothly shuffled right before your eyes like a card-sharp shuffles a deck of cards. To scan your music collection in 'Cover flow' is a thing of beauty. I was able to use the built in browser to use the web-app version of whirlword.com and everything worked beautifully. The only disadvantage of using a web-app this way is that it would only work if you are in a WIFI hot spot. It's true that in places other than good-sized cities, hot spots may not be that easy to find but this will probably change before we know it.

The apps that it comes with seem pretty complete and I don't know why anyone who is the least bit visually oriented would want any other smart-phone/organizer. This is more than a shift in a paradigm; it is a warp leap (a la Star Trek) ahead of anything I've seen up to now. Let me know if I'm missing something.

Idioms galore

This is an excerpt from a music review on allmusic.com for Clap Your Hands and say Yeah's second CD 'Some Loud Thunder'. I couldn't have made up a better example of use of idioms. Underneath please find a translations for those of you not familiar with the idioms:

A ton of people had their eyes trained on this sophomore release and it's difficult to give it a fair shake once you've muled-up to the "pre-order" download carrot and subsequent hype. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's debut was a decent, giddy first album - not the end-all, be-all, "best indie release ever" that it was willed to be by fans and critics. It was just a good record that fortunate events conspired to elevate beyond its own scope and capabilities. It was over-hyped, plain and simple, and (lord bless 'em) the guys in CYHSY soldiered through it all, and seemed well enough armored to take the gushing praise, smile politely, stick it under their collective hat and then get back to doing what they were doing. This is significant because history says that once your band is hyped that much, you're usually toast. Heads get big, sights get set too high and direction is lost. It's sad, but it's often the way these kinds of "best debut ever" stories play themselves out. The proof in the pudding is, without fail, the second record, with all of its anticipated greatness. Will it exceed expectations? Will it be a blunder? Sometimes it all hinges on number two, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's debut follow-up, Some Loud Thunder, comes to the plate, visibly sweating under the strain and stress. The opening song (and title track) "Some Loud Thunder," immediately divides the fan base with insanely compressed and distorted production that makes the rest of producer Dave Fridmann's work sound like purist, two-mic, chamber ensemble recordings. It's waaaaaay over the top (it actually physically hurts to listen to it) - it's not heavy, it's painful - and that will make it or break it for some folks right there. Hold up though, remember their debut recording started off with some crazy carnival banter - maybe this is just the weird opener here? It is. There's nothing else on the album that gets to "Some Loud Thunder"'s level of "ouch" and there's even a "non-distorto" version of the tune floating around the download sites for those who can't take the pain. Get past that, and you start getting into the real stuff - the bulk of which tends toward meandering tension builders that never really take off. Free from label prodding (and polishing) the guys in CYHSY seem to spend a great deal of this album screwing around on trumpets, accordions and prepared pianos. It sure sounds like they indulged every overdub whim that could be conceived and, at times, it's a bit off-putting for the listener. "Quit screwing around and get back to work...please!" Really, that's good solid advice because when CYHSY apply themselves, good stuff happens. The meandering tension builders ("Emily Jean Stock," "Love Song No. 7," the indulgent instrumental "Upon Encountering the Crippled Elephant," "Goodbye to Mother and the Cove" and "Five Easy Pieces") all have their moments but there's definitely an unfinished and tentative feel here. It sounds like a band accompanying a singer/songwriter who can't fully let go of that riveting coffee house spotlight. On the aforementioned songs, you could strip away all the incidental noodling and end up with a decent singer/songwriter record. It seems, in an effort to sound more sophisticated (read, serious) CYHSY have kind of
taken a step backward. It's not all like this though. There are moments of brilliance, both musically and lyrically, and they are all contained in the tunes that are the most realized. "Mama, Won't You Keep Them Castles in the Air and Burning?"makes this list, if only for the thoughtful lyrics of Alec Ounsworth. "Arm and Hammer" is where things really start to coalesce. There's still a lot of spontaneous creativity at work here, but it's wrangled in enough to give the tune a sense of purpose. Lyrically, this one's on a mission and it succeeds in being a nice, bitter "F***k Off!!" as well as an affirming manifesto. "Yankee Go Home" is quite good - maybe the most fully realized thing on the whole album. Great melody, great lyrics, somewhat more refined overdub coloration - and it's got guts. "Papa said get used to it/Papa said it gets so goddam hard but I get used to it" and "I'm calling upon North Carolina to help me out here" are but two of the fine bits of lyric on "Yankee..." and, when this song builds up to it's blow-out chorus, it sincerely rocks. "Satan Said Dance" certainly has the goods to be an indie-kid party bopper. All dissonant, demented disco bounce (à la the Cure) with that "guaranteed to raise an eyebrow" refrain of "Satan, Sa-tan, Satan, Satan, Sa-tan." It's fun, well played and slightly unsettling, a perfect disjointed dance number, but Ounsworth's lyrics here seem throwaway and that, sadly, lends the tune an air of novelty. "Underwater (You and Me)" also barely makes this list - helped in large part by Ounsworth's good lyric work, but hindered by a decidedly demo-ish sheen. Half the album is guilty of this, while the other half seems light-years ahead in the band development department. Is this an "age of the digital download" thing? Are CYHSY banking on a few "out of album context" downloaded singles to buoy this record? If they are, and it works out, it could be one of the most forward thinking business plans ever.

Translation:

Many people have been watching this sophomore release and it's difficult to judge it once you've pre-ordered it and heard all the speculation. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's debut was a decent, giddy first album -- not the absolute "best indie release ever" that it was willed to be by fans and critics. It was just a good record that fortunate events made appear beyond its own scope and capabilities. It was exaggeratedly praised, plain and simple, and (lord bless 'em) the guys in CYHSY continued on through it all, and seemed well enough armored to take the gushing praise, smile politely, ignore it while getting back to doing what they were doing. This is significant because history says that once your band is hyped that much, you're usually going to fail. Egos get involved, one gets too serious and direction is lost. It's sad, but it's often the way these kinds of "best debut ever" stories end up. The proof in the final product with all of its anticipated greatness. Will it exceed expectations? Will it be a blunder? Sometimes it all depends on the second release, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's debut follow-up, Some Loud Thunder, appears affected by the pressure. The opening song (and title track) "Some Loud Thunder," immediately divides the fan base with insanely compressed and distorted production that makes the rest of producer Dave Fridmann's work sound like purist, two-mic, chamber ensemble recordings. It over-does it (it actually physically hurts to listen to it) -- it's not profound, it's painful -- and that will decide it for some folks right there. Wait though, remember their debut recording started off with some crazy carnival banter -- maybe this is just the weird opener here? It is. There's nothing else on the album that gets to "Some Loud Thunder"'s level of pain and there's even a more conventional version of the tune floating around the download sites for those who can't take the pain. Get past that, and you start getting into the real stuff -- the bulk of which tends toward meandering tension builders that never really take off. Free from label prodding (and polishing) the guys in CYHSY seem to spend a great deal of this album playing around on trumpets, accordions and prepared pianos. It sure sounds like they indulged every whim that could be conceived and, at times, it's a bit disappointing for the listener. "Quit experimenting and get back to work...please!" Really, that's good solid advice because when CYHSY apply themselves, good stuff happens. The meandering tension builders ("Emily Jean Stock," "Love Song No. 7," the indulgent instrumental "Upon Encountering the Crippled Elephant," "Goodbye to Mother and the Cove" and "Five Easy Pieces") all have some good parts but there's definitely an unfinished and tentative feel here. It sounds like a band accompanying a singer/songwriter who takes oneself too seriously. On the aforementioned songs, you could strip away all the incidental extra experimenting and end up with a decent singer/songwriter record. It seems, in an effort to sound more sophisticated (read, serious) CYHSY have kind of regressed. It's not all like this though. There are moments of brilliance, both musically and lyrically, and they are all contained in the tunes that are the most realized. "Mama, Won't You Keep Them Castles in the Air and Burning?" makes this list, if only for the thoughtful lyrics of Alec Ounsworth. "Arm and Hammer" is where things really start to coalesce. There's still a lot of spontaneous creativity at work here, but it's wrangled in enough to give the tune a sense of purpose. Lyrically, this one has a purpose and it succeeds in being a nice, bitter "F***k Off!!" as well as an affirming manifesto. "Yankee Go Home" is quite good -- maybe the most fully realized thing on the whole album. Great melody, great lyrics, somewhat more refined overdub coloration -- and it's got courage. "Papa said get used to it/Papa said it gets so goddam hard but I get used to it" and "I'm calling upon North Carolina to help me out here" are but two of the fine bits of lyric on "Yankee..." and, when this song builds up to it's climatic chorus, it sincerely is affecting. "Satan Said Dance" certainly has the goods to be an indie-kid dance tune. All dissonant, demented disco bounce (à la the Cure) with that "guaranteed to raise an eyebrow" refrain of "Satan, Sa-tan, Satan, Satan, Sa-tan." It's fun, well played and slightly unsettling, a perfect disjointed dance number, but Ounsworth's lyrics here seem flimsy and that, sadly, lends the tune an air of novelty. "Underwater (You and Me)" also barely makes this list -- helped in large part by Ounsworth's good lyric work, but hindered by a decidedly unfinished sheen. Half the album is guilty of this, while the other half seems far ahead in the band development department. Is this an "age of the digital download" thing? Are CYHSY banking on a few "out of album context" downloaded singles to support this record? If they are, and it works out, it could be one of the most forward thinking business plans ever.

The version of the review with all the idioms has a lot of power even if one does not understand all the idioms and made-up words (such as non-distorto).

One of my projects, albeit a very challenging one, is to do this kind of translation of idioms programmatically.