This week, a quiet song of protest, a noisy song from quarantine, and an ode to the NYC subways.
PREMIERE: A Quarantine Music Video From Lisel
Lisel is the solo project of Eliza Bagg, one of the new breed of singer/songwriters who work in both the contemporary classical world and in some kind of fractured, futurist form of pop. We’ve heard her as the lead singer of the indie pop band Pavo Pavo, and as one of the fearless members of the vocal octet Roomful of Teeth, who have become the go-to vocal ensemble for many of today’s leading composers. (She also hosted a series of shows on our newsounds.org radio stream in 2018.) As Lisel, Bagg has produced songs that belong in the same corner of the sound world as bands like Son Lux and Dirty Projectors. “Specter” is her latest, and today we debut both the song and its video, which Bagg and film maker EB Landesberg describe as “a remote collaboration… made almost entirely using the computer camera and effects generated by mis-using Zoom.” That’s totally appropriate for a song that can sound like someone from an alien world examining a Western pop tune, pulling it apart to see its component parts and then putting them back together in a “wrong” but interesting way. Electronic artist Ben Babbitt did the arrangement, which moves from abstract metallic percussion to something resembling electronic art-pop before wooshing away on a wave of synthesizers.
Samora Pinderhughes Offers A Quiet Song Of Protest
Although he collaborates with pop icons like Common and Sara Bareilles, Samora Pinderhughes often produces songs that don’t reach for the cheap seats, instead drawing you in with his quiet, soulful vocals and often subtle arrangements. His new song “NO PLCE” is a remarkable piece of protest music, precisely because at a time when everyone seems to be shouting, he delivers his message in a voice that barely rises above a whisper. But quiet does not mean shy or self-effacing, and sad does not mean Pinderhughes is not angry: “NO PLCE” (pronounce it “no police”) says what it has to say in a way that is at once direct and poetic. “What if there were no police/And no jail/And no bail/Gimme chances to fail/And not get buried,” he sings at the beginning and end of the song – lyrics that, on the page, look like they should be angrily rapped but which he delivers in a soft croon. Most of the accompaniment consists of interweaving threads of electronic keyboards, but a steady, highly processed drumbeat appears about halfway through, and when Pinderhughes’ vocals subside, the formidable drummer Marcus Gilmore delivers a remarkable electronic drum solo that suggests a funeral march, gunshots, and an inexorable push to something better, all at once.
Rufus Wainwright Wants It All, And Gets It, In New Single
He’s written small songs and grand opera; he’s rocked out and recreated Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall; so don’t act all surprised when Rufus Wainwright shows up with a song that starts like a piece of classical music, then acquires an electronic dance beat, and gospel-soul backing vocals from his sister Martha. Or when he appears in white and blue makeup and a billowing, black, feather-laden ensemble singing about how “I’m gonna give myself away/To the monstrosities” while the video shows street scenes, fire, tarantulas, and chained naked men attempting to grapple with each other. The song is called “Devils And Angels (Hatred),” and Wainwright says it was inspired by the Baroque opera Armide where the heroine calls on all her negative energy – including hatred – to steel her for the battle ahead. Both song and video are not afraid of going over the top… after all, if you’re storming the castle, that’s usually where you need to go.
Rufus Wainwright’s new album is called Unfollow The Rules, and this is the first single from it.
Max Richter’s New Work Just Might Make You Nostalgic – For The Subway
German composer Max Richter has become a bit of a phenomenon in the classical music world. His pieces have millions of views on YouTube and he gained wide acclaim for his work called Sleep, an 8-hour long overnight work for an audience lying in beds. He’s produced albums for rock bands like The Twilight Sad, and made electronic music; but his newest piece, “Mercy,” is a simple, achingly beautiful work for violin and piano. It comes from a forthcoming album called Voices, a record inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Richter and his partner, the video artist Yulia Mahr, have created a project that asks us to consider creativity as a tool for activism. In their first single from the album, “All Human Beings,” voices from around the globe read the Declaration and the message is clear. But “Mercy” is smaller, quieter, and clears a space for introspection. Mahr’s video is created out of found footage – much of it shot on the NYC subways, and she says the train represents “the journey we are all on.” But for New Yorkers who have loved to hate the subways, it’s a poignant reminder that you can miss the things you took for granted.
Waylon Payne Reclaims His Song, And His Identity
Singer and actor Waylon Payne grew up in Nashville’s country music scene – his mom was Sammi Smith, who had a huge crossover hit with “Help Me Make It Through The Night” in the 70s. Payne wrote “All The Trouble” with Lee Ann Womack in 2017, and her recording of it was nominated for a Grammy. But all that doesn’t really say anything about Payne himself. For that, you need look no further than the title of his four-part album Blue Eyes, The Harlot, The Queer, The Pusher & Me. It’s a musical reckoning with a dark past, from a man who was ostracized from his family for being gay, worked at one point as a hooker, wrestled with addiction, and finally came to some understanding of who he is. And that’s a person who has faced trouble – some of his own making, some not. So it’s entirely appropriate that he reclaims that song, “All The Trouble,” for the newly issued second chapter in the album. (The full LP comes out on September 11.) The song begins squarely in country territory, but acquires a big string arrangement reminiscent of Bobbie Gentry’s work, and increasingly insistent, squalling electric guitars.
New and Old Trance Traditions Come Together in Music by Bab L’Bluz
Moroccan trance music, Tuareg “desert blues,” and Western electronic music all come together in the Moroccan/French band called Bab L’Bluz. Their new album, Nayda! (the name of the Moroccan youth movement), features lead singer Yousra Mansour writing lyrics in her native Moroccan Arabic that go “between the lines about current subjects and society’s problems.” Recorded in Peter Gabriel’s Real World studios in England, the album takes its cue from the Gnawa music of Morocco – the trance music that originally came north from sub-Saharan Africa and which has traditionally been used as a healing practice as well as a musical one. This song, “Yemma,” has the repetitive, bass-heavy sound of Gnawa music, and begins with the (electronically processed) sounds of the traditional guembri, or Moroccan lute; but the layered vocal harmonies are a purely modern addition, and the whole thing lopes along on the characteristic rhythm of the desert blues of Northern Mali and Niger.
And Finally… Avenue Beat Says What We All Want To Say To This Year, But Can’t In Polite Company
Avenue Beat is a trio of young singers from Quincy, Illinois who have a sudden hit on their hands with the song “F2020.” The “F” stands for – well, you know what it stands for. The video for the song gives away its roots on TikTok, but it’s on streaming services where the tune has become a kind of low-key anthem that, in a lovely, 3-part harmony way, tells 2020 where it can go and what it can do with that big stick it keeps hitting us with. No way this’ll ever make it onto the radio, and maybe you don’t want the kids to be singing along – but they probably already are.