Choose Rush. Choose The Who. Choose The Antlers. Choose John Lennon. Choose a fucking dose of Led Zeppelin, choose Bear In Heaven, Pulp, The Divine Comedy and Creedence Clearwater Revival
Jaar was born on the 10th of January 1990 and so missed out on being born in the eighties, which frankly disgusts Calvin Harris. Born in NY, Jaar spent most of his childhood in Santiago De Chile. He was interested in music from an early age and credits his movement into electronic music with his early days of tampering with a midi keyboard and Reason.
There is another anecdote about the web which tells of his conversion to electronic music. Apparently aged 14 he heard Tiga's DJ Kicks mix playing. He decided on the spot that he was going to like electronic music. His father around Christmas time obviously moved by his sons interest walked into a record shop and said 'Give me the most forward-thinking electronic music album right now.' He was given Ricardo Villalobos' 'The Au Harem D'Archimede'. He lists composer Erik Satie, the minimalist modernist who is often tagged as the Godfather of ambient music as his primary influence along with Ethiopian jazz legend Mulatu Astake.
With such a varied smorgasbord of influences it is perhaps easy to see why Jaar's music is as, well, Nicolas Jaar as it is. His album 'Space Is Only Noise' is almost unclassifiable genre-wise and I always struggle to compare them to anybody else when trying to explain what they are like. There are in my opinion two signatures to his music a very deep funky bassline and the percussion which takes slightly irregular beats and seems to skit around the basslines.
Below is the title track; Space Is Only Noise (If You Can See)
Morning, evening, night open the links in new tabs.
How is your eye? Mine is fine, 20, as is the other one. I skip and jump across the interweb trying to find something to listen to a number of times any given day. Mid skip and jump the other day I peered down at the screen and saw the big blonde head of Erika M Anderson. She shortens it to EMA when releasing music, which makes googling her a no-go zone, you just get loads of hits for the European Medicines Agency. This all means that when she gets picked up, polished up and handed repetitive dross to record she will have some brand new google friendly moniker. However right now she has released a corker, an absolute stonker of an album; Past Life Martyred Saints.
Pitchfork gave it a pretty good rating, so good that it made their uber cool 'best new music' section. Clipper Johnson (who will be sharing his thoughts on Nicolas Jaar soon) also e-mailed me with a youtube link to the track California.
Leaving aside how epically cool Erika is behind that lies a brilliant song resplendent with dark lyrics and a strong and booming sound. The runaway tempo of the vocals runs perfectly on a slower treadmill of deep drum beats, deep key chords and a wandering synth line.
The album as a whole is a powerful experience too, from the echoes of the Fake Plastic Trees bass line (1 minute or so in until it kicks in) present in the opening song; The Grey Ship.
To the impressive vocal harmonizing present on Coda to the six minute closing epic Red Star. As I listen to it and write this the Radiohead comparison jumps out at me again. The drone and synth opening could very easily be that of a song on In Rainbows minus the cymbals maybe. Erika's vocals then take over and she sings of a beautiful boy with green eyes. This is further augmented by the introduction of some gentle guitar interspersed around the song at the perfect time it seems.
I am still only in the very dormant stages of getting to know this album hence the slightly loopy feedback thusfar. She will be back here though!
Catching the other sectors of my eye, and ears of course, this week is Jeremy Messersmith. I have been listening to him quite extensively and am going to see him soon.
July 20th Hotel Utah 500 4th St (between Harrison St & Bryant St) San Francisco,CA94107 Neighborhood: SOMA
That is where it as at folks. I'll buy a drink for anyone who actually goes having read this, email me for details, we'll call it a competition!
Rounding up tonights three is Nicolas Jaar. You will be getting to read a piece about him in the next few days. His unique brand of laid back techno deserves more than this cursory mention.
