AudioShocker

I’d like to start once again this week with something from several months ago, Portishead’s most recent album, Third. It is not my intention to write an album review here; rather, I’d like to point out something, which is obvious about it, that I find to be interesting, namely, its many tracks which straddle several genres of music. Now, I suppose it’s the case that genre-fusing is an aspect inherent to electronica music as a whole, so maybe it’s not that big a deal, but there are tracks on this disc that are incredibly solid examples of working up songs across several genres, while keeping the album itself a unified whole.

For example, the track 4, “The Rip,” a galloping Western. Sounds to me like a long version of any given Western TV show from yesteryear, but with just enough contemporary synth sounds to keep from being a mere exercise in retro-styled music. Again, I don’t want to go on and on about the music here; go listen to it, if you haven’t heard it already, it’s easy enough to hear. Another great example of what I’m talking about is the track 8, “Machine Gun,” aptly named for the rapid-fire sounds of its introduction. But this song sounds like it could have been lifted right out of Terminator (which, as you’ll recall from an earlier “Things it is Okay to Like” is one of Arnold’s finest movies). I’m actually a huge fan of the synth scores from the ‘70s into the mid-80s, and once this track switches into it’s final section with the epic melody rising up over the jarring underlying music, damn, it’s like the past’s future is here again. And finally, I’ll mention track 9, “Small” for its awesome organ-heavy stoner jams.

There’s something incredibly appealing—and I’m not sure how across-the-board this is for more mainstream-minded individuals—about genre-blending to me. Especially the kind of retro-future aesthetic that I think Portishead is a musical example of. So I guess I’m mostly talking about science fiction, but science fiction that doesn’t suck (just for reference, Star Wars (all of them) sucks). What keeps science fiction from sucking? Being smart. What’s a good way to be smart? To fuse genres.

Examples:

Brazil. One of the shining examples of the retro-future. What with those hats and all. It appeals to me since it manages to take into account the role that style plays in the shaping and progression of human cultures. And the baroque networks of duct-work; again, a way to tie your future to some past. The movie’s an interesting artifact in its own right, since it’s kind of a failure; something about it, in the end, doesn’t quite work or settle up well, but it’s vision alone makes it something of a masterpiece and probably Terry Gilliam’s best movie.

Cowboy Bebop. This is an obvious example, since music has so much to do with this one as well. It’s a better example of genre-mashing than Brazil, as well, since it more had a mind towards that rather than just a stylistic sense of retro-futuredom. Western + yakuza + noir +sci-fi = pretty damn brilliant. In the same breath I can mention Firefly here as well, since it’s a simpler, live action version of the Western-in-space (without any of the things that makes Cowboy Bebop “cool”) though I think it’s a lesser artifact than Cowboy Bebop, and can’t imagine that Joss Whedon hadn’t seen Cowboy Bebop by the time he came up with Firefly.

Several of Miyazaki’s movies, most notably Castle in the Sky, Nausicaa, and Howl’s Moving Castle. The worlds he builds for all of his movies are rather incredible and unique, but in many of them there’s definitely a sense of the retro-futuristic to the technologies that add considerably to the atmosphere of the work as a whole. It’s like technologies have continued to develop along certain continuums without any innovations—technology has advanced, but without any revolutions.

I think there are certain things that appeal to most humans, amongst which are categories and lineages. We tend to sort things into categories across the board; in culture, this is where things get sorted into genre. When cultural products defy our ability to sort them they earn additional consideration, thus increasing the amount of eidetic satisfaction that we can attain from them. Additionally, we like to know where things have come from; at least in the West, our culture has almost always built on what already exists. To call back to an example from last week, the fact that Nirvana sounds like Dinosaur Jr. + The Pixies is a good thing; it is enjoyable to be able to hear that. And when something is genre-mashing, it multiplies the number of lineages that backs it. If we can take a given movie, or song, and consider it first as a Western, and then as house music, and then as some version of contemporary notions of the cool or hip, with each consideration that song, or TV show multiplies as well the amount of satisfaction produced within us.

Things it is Okay to Like:

3) Radiohead. This is not as obvious as it seems. Up until just a couple of years ago, I was thoroughly ambivalent to The Radioheads, having written them off as just another mainstream corporate-label rock band. It generally seemed to me that they were overrated, and not nearly so intellectually satisfying as so many of their superfans seemed to think they were. In fact, it was probably not until 2004 or so that I even listened to a Radiohead album in its entirety (that was Hail to the Thief). And this is not a story about me having some kind Radiohead epiphany—I am still more ambivalent to the group than anything else, my point here is only that it’s okay to like Radiohead, if you do. But why did I suddenly give them this much credit? Because back when I heard the band Coldplay for the first time I almost immediately, upon hearing whatever song was a big enough of a hit leak into my awareness, I thought to myself “This is terrible... huh, I guess Radiohead is pretty good.” Some of their songs, at least once they got into the electronica thing are pretty damn catchy. Despite the fact that OK Computer was probably the single most overrated album of the 1990s, Radiohead still manages to be okay to like, at least for now.

Things it is Not Okay to Like:

3) NPR. I guess I’m thinking more specifically of Fresh Air/This American Life/All Things Considered here than anything else (that is, Car Talk is fine by me—if anything, Car Talk is probably something that it is okay to like). And to clarify, it is okay to listen to NPR. The stuff is designed to fill swaths of time with vacuous friendly voice-sounds, rather than C-list Baroque-era chamber music or what ever Adult Lite Hits are rocking out higher up the dial. What I take issue with are the people that actually think that NPR is of quality. Radio essays are not interesting. Though, I should also admit, I swore off NPR 5 or 6 years ago now, so maybe it’s gotten better since then, if they maybe finally ran out of migratory birdcalls to document and bore commuters with. The usual objections leveled against NPR come from two directions: 1) Conservatives, who claim that NPR is a bunch of ridiculously biased Liberal garbage, and 2) Leftist elitists, who claim that NPR is a bunch of bias-less Liberal garbage. Now, it’s probably pretty easy to guess which one of those angles I’m probably taking, but really, I’m coming from a more neutral pragmatic vantage. Radio essays are boring at best, generally annoying, and oftentimes offensively bland. If you commute, and maybe even in your office, it’s fine, I understand the need to have some kind of soothing noise on in the background. But if you find yourself starting too many conversations with “So I heard on NPR the other day…” reappraise your habits. Stop listening to, and please, stop liking NPR.