NO FEAR OF THE NEW: The Sidepeices, KAVARI, Backengrillen
By John Warlick
In today's globally connected, genreless music world, it's a rare pleasure to discover music that feels like a genuinely new spin on things. In this column, I write about 3 new albums or songs I got into last month that I think push music in interesting directions.
The Sidepeices (heavensouls x stickerbush) - Darklight
heavensouls & stickerbush's collaborative albums as The Sidepeices [sic] are what this column is all about: unabashedly DIY, interplanetary genre explorations, all fundamentally idiosyncratic (and in some places psychotic), yet still in conversation with the forefront innovators of the genre. In simpler terms, they're a couple of glitch-happy rapper-producers with a fantastically modern approach.
Similarly to their previous full-length, last month's Darklight puts duo stickerbush and heavensouls' knowingly funny but true-technician raps over balls-to-the-wall sample cataclysms. Some listening communities would resign to labeling it "epic collage", but that term is particularly reductive for Darklight because the pair's glitchiness has never been more musical. You might hear the post-post-chipmunk soul of the first 10 seconds of album opener "Understand Me" and flat-out disagree, but if you consider how stickerbush describes Oneohtrix Point Never as his favorite artist (courtesy of this wonderfully thorough interview by Joshua Minsoo Kim) and Darklight as "really just an IDM record", sidepeices' sound becomes a fascinating proposition for the future of online rap music. That is, especially considering how a lot of this project is just these two cracking jokes about FL Studio. It's a dizzying mix of high and low effort, but it's not just fun to hear these two repeatedly challenge each other to a crazier sample flip or more ridiculous line; it starts to feel like you're right there in the room with them.
Perhaps the most intriguing result of Sidepeices' everyday approach on Darklight is how it yields tracks that tangent the most fashionably forward-thinking production of the wider genre: "drop a couple" channels 8-bit rage by way of Los Thuthunaka, and the blown-out bleeps of "treehouse music" sounds like a cross between turn-of-the-century Aphex Twin and something xaviersobased would go in on. And then you also have stuff that's equally great but just inscrutable, like the microsampled noise of "shorty sweatshop" or how "bomb mix" ends in grandiose prog rendered like a forgotten dream. However you cut it, the tableau of musical connections made on this record is just amazing. Can I even explain how refreshing it is to hear someone heavensouls' age talking about The Residents in an interview? I hope these guys never stop making music.
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Kavari - “Iron Veins”
I've been fascinated by KAVARI's music and art for a minute now, so it was a very cool surprise to see an EP announced at XL and a single like this, which encapsulates so much of what she does well. For those unacquainted, I guess I'll start by saying KAVARI's art ain't for the faint of heart; this is an intense artist who goes there in every aspect of their work. On the visual side, that means abstract, body-centric imagery somewhere on the M. Ambromovic - A. Jones continuum, along with a transfixingly mean mug (that's gotta be one of the iciest stares in electronic music two minutes into the "IRON VEINS" video). And then on the musical side, it means found-sound collages and industrially-tinged breakbeats so inventively rendered that Aphex Twin himself can't get enough of them. How's that for an early-career endorsement?
On her XL debut, KAVARI's sound arrives intact: "Iron Veins" is huge, all deliciously distorted drums and sinister, blown-out bass among webs of spiky glitchwork. It's a neat single: there's a clear melodic core and undeniable big-ticket producer instincts set against incendiary, absurdly heavy breaks and ballistic-missile bass. The thrilling subtlety of that combination reminds me of Quirke's "Break a Mirrored Leg", but then in juxtaposition with the heavy IDM sections, you have these disquieting, uncomfortably placid passages built from domestic murmurs. I want to say they're giving evil Burial, but they really just sound exactly like KAVARI. Truly, KAVARI is one of those artists with so much personality and such a fully-formed identity that whatever they do drips with their own essence, so I'm sure the whole EP will be the same way. I'm just hoping the honchos at XL keep giving her the resources to do her thing exactly how she wants to do it.
Backengrillen - Backengrillen
If you're in the mood for something really different, the guys from Refused got you. The Shape of Punk to Come was required listening for my sputnikmusic-reading friends in high school, so I was a little shocked I missed the formal announcement of Backengrillen by a few weeks, but it's not hard to hear why that might be - this project is pretty much the opposite of fan service. That said, it's not like the erstwhile Swedish punks of Refused were ever oriented toward pleasing anyone, and true to their constitution, Backengrillen sees Refused's singer, bassist and drummer hanging out with a saxophonist and making "anti-fascist, anti-racist, free form death jazz."
On initial listens of Backengrillen's late-January self-titled debut, that description may ring true. Take a snapshot from any part of this record, and it might seem like Backengrillen are intentionally provoking their audience for daring to assume this project could be remotely digestible. But rest assured, the record is well worth the investment; every track on this is a journey, with some perhaps a bit skronkier than others. If you need to ease yourself into it, "Repeater II" probably comes closest to recalling Refused with its rollicking bassline and direct writing. Meanwhile, the eponymous "Backengrillen", my favorite and perhaps the calmest track here, pits jazz flute and a slowly-treaded, almost doom-y momentum against each other, providing a stark, sardonic backdrop for singer Dennis Lyxzén's seething rage. It's amazing to hear such a trained, precision-deployment vocalist pour himself into such extemporaneous music on this project; it makes everything around him feel more deliberate, like how a bright light beaming onto an impressionist painting highlights the brushstrokes.
The album's Bandcamp blurb reads "Record no 2 is in the making, less stupid, more ugly. Stay tuned and fuck the pigs." I wouldn't call this material stupid; maybe they mean that it's a bit off the cuff, but you can tell they're going somewhere with this project. Exactly where is unclear, but there's a throbbing intensity unleashed here, like a nascent, radioactive blob awaiting its next mutation. In our strange present, where traditional punk subgenres no longer sound anything like that description, Backengrillen feels particularly potent and extremely punk.
