CHVRCHES, Bones, and Synth Trends of the Teens

Review and discussion on The Bones of What You Believe, a 2013 release from CHVRCHES.

Relevant links

A bit about nostalgia
A bit more about nostalgia and M83 

 

FM-84's "Atlas:" Resonance and Nostalgia

Review and discussion on FM-84’s album Atlas (2016), with a special focus on nostalgia.

Relevant links

A very early post on M83

A bit more about how M83 uses nostalgia

Fall 2019 Album Overview Part 2: Something Old, Something New

Overview of recent listening for late Fall 2019, Including:

Iron Maiden – Powerslave (1985)

Daniel Johnston – Is And Always Was (2009)

The New Pornographers – In the Morse Code of Brake Lights (2019)

Opeth - In Cauda Venenum (2019)

M83 - DSVII (2019)

Jakub Zytecki – Nothing Lasts, Nothing’s Lost (2019)

Relevant links:

Fall 2019 Preview Part 1

Jason Falkner / Daniel Johnston

Letting Up Despite Great Faults and the Emerging Synthgaze

It was the second morning of my CrossFit level-1 certification program, and I was feeling pretty euphoric. I had gotten up early, eaten a well-rounded paleo-zone breakfast, and studied my materials while listening to the Asian shoegaze compilation Half Dreaming. Stepping out of my hotel room, I was experiencing gratitude for the life I have, as well as the obstacles that were in my way that grant me the perspective to appreciate my good fortune. I was even thankful for the questionable cup of freshly brewed hotel coffee I balanced in my hand as I juggled my bags and keys.

Untogether, an album by a band called Letting Up Despite Great Faults, was in the CD player. This was a conscious, deliberate decision that I had prearranged the evening before. It seemed a fitting soundtrack for the weekend, because after all, the album was in my hands entirely due to CrossFit.

Activities like aikido and CrossFit are good for introverted people who like to be social (people like me!). In the dojo or at the box, a person’s identity in the “real world” matters less than what they bring inside. It’s possible to get to know people in these environments without really knowing much about them. In the course of my training, I discovered that a fellow CrossFitter in my box plays keyboards and sings for Letting Up Despite Great Faults. She was kind enough to give me a copy of Untogether, and I immediately put it into rotation.  Here's a "fan video" of sorts for the lead track, Visions.



In the weeks prior to my cert, I had already developed a strong appreciation for the way that Untogether buys into the romance of late 80s synth-pop with its conspicuous use of analog synth and gated drum sounds. The breathy delivery of the vocals and their transparent placement in the mix, however, is sullen and isolated in a way that is clearly reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine. I had heard a similar juxtaposition on M83’s masterful tribute to 80s nostalgia Saturdays=Youth, but Letting Up Despite Great Faults differentiates themselves by steering clear of grandiose cosmology. Instead, their overall sound is noticeably more reserved, engaging the more intimate potentials of an emerging “synthgaze” style.



On this specific occasion, however, I had an Indonesian contribution to Half Dreaming, a track called Unperfect Sky, still ringing in my ears from the hotel room.  Unlike many artists on that collection, Elemental Gaze prominently features keyboards.



Distracted as I was by exciting visions of perfect air squats and push presses, when Untogether burst forth from the stereo I thought that, for a fleeting instant, Half-Dreaming had somehow transported into my car. The impression was conveyed in nothing more than a momentary wall of timbre and passed at once, but it was visceral.

The roots of shoegaze extend beyond My Bloody Valentine, and although guitar effects were prominent in many of the bands that wore this moniker, many employed synthesizers, as well.  Despite coming from opposite sides of the planet, the timbral relationship between these particular bands is a reflection of a common interest in the potentials in their shared heritage.  Contemporary synthgaze projects like Letting Up Despite Great Faults seem to explore a parallel reality in which alternative music wasn’t overrun by Nirvana and, subsequently, grunge. Untogether is an appealing excursion into these potentials, and on that particular Sunday morning, it brought the prospects of the day ahead brimming to the surface of my awareness. 

"Before the Dawn Heals Us:" A Rift Amid Real and Imagined

I was blown away by the songs I knew at M83’s recent concert, but there was also a lot of unfamiliar material that caught my attention. I walked away with a new appreciation for Saturdays=Youth and Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, as well as an intense and perhaps financially dangerous curiosity about M83’s back catalog. The next day, I took a stack of unwanted CDs to Waterloo and traded them in for Before the Dawn Heals Us. This has turned out to be a good move, because it sows seeds that come to fruition in M83’s current work.

I'd like to elaborate on some of my previous observations about the ways that disparate influences uniquely converge in M83's music.  Especially after getting to know Before the Dawn Heals Us, I think that Jean-Michel Jarre's ubiquitous influence on French synthesizer music is a factor. Despite his sometimes melodramatic stage presence, he did have a unique gift for thematic, ethereal composition that harnessed the limits of 70s synthesizer technology. He had his moments of intensity, but Jarre’s style was mostly ambient, which, at the time, defied categorization.

When you turn the volume up on ethereal, however, it evolves into the cosmic, which aptly describes the splendor of Before the Dawn Heals Us.  I think that My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, an album that just recently clicked for me, is the inspiration for this radiating intensity.  Before the Dawn Heals Us is a similarly beautiful work of sonic sculpture, but, in addition to its predecessor’s use of detuned and distorted guitars, it’s also carved from massive walls of organ and synths.



Before the Dawn Heals Us isn't really music to dance to, and it’s not music to sing along with, but it is music to take refuge in. This “synth-gaze” approach heads straight for that liminal space between the real and the imagined, where the listener can be empowered by a romanticized notion of the world, and also be justifiably disappointed and perhaps angry when the world doesn’t fit that ideal. This dissonance makes Before the Dawn Heals Us seem intensely personal, allowing it to translate particularly well to the inherently sullen isolation of IPod culture.



In retrospect, I’m sure fans of Before the Dawn Heals Us had difficulty accepting Saturdays=Youth. It is overall less concerned with songwriting and 80s nostalgia than its immediate successor. Its immense grandeur, however, lays the groundwork for Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, and in some ways it might even be more successful as a unified listening experience. It certainly provides perspective on a larger arc in M83’s creative path. Coupled with the concert, Before the Dawn Heals Us has clinched the deal on one issue - M83’s creativity and vision has moved them up in ranks amongst my all-time favorite groups, which, at this stage in the game, is a difficult echelon to break into.

M83 Live: Floating Above Stubb's

All of the video footage that I have ever seen of M83 indicated that their live performances matched their epic recordings, earning them a place on my bucket list of “bands to see.” M83 has come to town three times since Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming came out last year, though, and each time, tickets were snatched up within hours. Since I have a profound issue with supporting the ticket scalping industry, I missed them. As this pattern repeated, I was becoming increasingly concerned that I would miss out on this tour. Fortunately, my wife’s principles are not nearly so limiting, so I was pleasantly surprised when she told me that she had gotten us some tickets. I was ecstatic.  Let the date night commence!

Stubb’s outdoor amphitheater was packed, and with all the people in the street asking about tickets, it seemed that M83 might consider booking a larger venue. I get that the club and amphitheater setting is more personal, but at some point an artist kind of owes it to their fans to play at an appropriately sized space. M83’s music would certainly translate well into an arena, but that type of venue is far too unhip, aloof, and 1985 for today’s indie-conscious music consumer to accept.

Regardless, as I looked out onto the crowd, I noticed the anticipation brewing among the groups of young people who had obviously come to the show together. M83 has the same potential, I think, to appeal to both intellect and aesthetic that Rush had in the 80s. I bonded with many of my friends through our common musical interests, and despite the inherent isolation of IPod culture, these young people seemed to share a similar bond. I wondered what they might be doing when they reach my age, and what they might be listening to as they look back on this evening at Stubb’s.

After the opening band I Break Horses, the lights finally dimmed and the inexplicable purple-furred alien that graces the liner notes of Hurry Up, We're Dreaming appeared out of the darkness, raising his hand to bless the crowd. M83 launched into their now-iconic opening track Intro. The guest vocals of Zola Jesus are integral in the original, so I would not have been surprised if they were reproduced in playback. I appreciated seeing regular band member Morgan Kibby take the vocals and make them her own.



In fact, since the production of Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is so profoundly epic in scope, I would not have been surprised if M83 had significant “play-along” component in their live show, where the sequencing bears the burden of performance and the band just follows along. I was pleasantly impressed to find that they were much more live than I expected. Although there is certainly a component of automation it doesn’t hold the band back in any way. In fact, these often simple ostinato riffs that lead man Anthony Gonzalez manipulates from his mysteriously wired black and neon box seem to act as a tether during the performance, keeping the band from being swept off the stage by their own impassioned delivery.



I thought that their set would focus primarily on Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, but they played a wide variety of songs from their entire catalog. Although they have had some changes towards more direct songwriting on their more recent works, listening to them jump around in their catalog made me notice just how cohesive Gonzalez’s oeuvre actually is. 



My wife asked me if anyone else had made music like M83 before, and I said that what makes M83 so compelling is that they recombine familiar things in a new way. I pondered this question for awhile as their expansive sound indescribably floated, up, out, and over above the crowd before I realized: although M83 has a wall of sound that is similar in structure to the one erected by My Bloody Valentine in 1990, this wall is constructed by the explorations of French synthesist Jean-Michel Jarre – a palpable connection that I felt dumb for overlooking. Neither of these obvious influences emphasized songcraft too strongly, however, so with M83’s increasing interest in composition and songwriting, they are emerging as a unique entity.

M83 has, in the last three years, clawed their way up in my personal ranks.  Saturdays=Youth has become a latter-day classic, and the further artistic success of Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming last year was pushing M83 into the ranks of my all-time favorites.  Their transcendental performance at Stubb's last night has clinched the deal: with Gonzalez’s strength of vision, I consider them to be the best musical find that I have encountered since Mew in 2005, as well as a show worth attending if you have the interest and opportunity. Just don’t wait, though, because the tickets will sell out – I guarantee it.

"Hurry Up, We're Dreaming:" M83's Perfect Nostalgia

Music is often described as “dreamlike,” a description that points to music’s capacity as a medium to re-imagine and perceive reality in alternative ways. Conceptually, M83’s most current release Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is a grandiose exploration of dreaming's elusive nature, so it seems a little too easy to resort to this tried-and true description.

But when M83 mastermind Anthony Gonzalez dreams, he dreams the dreams of Donnie Darko. Awash in synth and reverb, Hurry Up, We're Dreaming turns the pop conventions of the past into a distinctly 21st century psychedelia, in which the saxophone is somehow more epic than the guitar and the arena is more intimate than the club. If nostalgia had its own melody, played on a complex instrument of sight and sound, M83’s recreation of idealized 80s teen angst would be a virtuosic symphony. 



Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, however, isn’t really an 80s rehash - certainly less so than its 2008 predecessor Saturdays=Youth. It’s far too expansive and bold to be authentically of that era. However, like Pink Floyd and Sigur Ros, M83 ‘s music harbors the capacity to suggest that there is a more subtle narrative hidden within its distinctive atmospheres. The melodic and structural shape of M83’s compositions infuse the simple, everyday task of driving down the highway at sunset with a vivid, romantic emotionalism that is, predictably, difficult to verbalize.



The album’s nostalgia influences its physical shape, as well. The CD is printed as a double album, a notoriously difficult format that has no real meaning in our evolving "media cloud" culture. Gonzalez, however, intends for the listener to listen to Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming as a whole experience, rather than consumed in a shuffled playlist. The album has several instrumental viginettes that connect its more anthemic "singles," and this connective tissue might seem like filler when taken out of context. Within the framework of the album, however, they create narrative depth and unity that connects Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming with the concept album tradition. If there were a more direct segues between tracks, this trait would be even more noticeable.

Nostalgia, in and of itself, is not a negative phenomenon, but it can be limiting. Music is often a trigger for memories that are linked to a particular moment in time, which are the fuels that fire nostalgia.  As much as music cultivates these fond recollections, their idealized reconstruction can obscure the potential of the present.  This is when people get in a musical "rut," listening to the same old stuff.  M83 intentionally travels through the present to the past. Whether the 80s succeeded in predicting the future or nostalgia caused this prophecy to be self-fulfilling is probably less important than the overall success of Hurry Up, We're Dreaming in bridging this gap.  I also predict that the album will reveal deeper musical layers as the months and years imbue it with its own nostalgic value.

The French Connection: M83 and Phoenix

To animate a recording within my imagination, I often do YouTube searches, read reviews, and read Wikipedia listings.  Although you guys get to see the end results of this rather obsessive practice, I never really know when it will work out, and sometimes the results create abstract connections between unrelated things.  For example, last February I was listening to several new albums during the annual road trip to TMEA in San Antonio.  The hotel room at the La Quinta where I stayed had wifi, and in the evenings as I got ready for bed, I did a little online piddling into some of the bands that were then currently grabbing my attention.  The access was intolerably slow, resulting in a stuttering, halted “streaming video” experience that seemed more like an upload on dial-up.  Despite this, several clips “came to life” and I kept them up in my browser to rewatch during the isolation of this stay.  Two of them stood out as being particularly good, neo-80s retro and, by coincidence, French. 

For those of us that were in the 80s, it is no secret that the music largely sucked.  We don't like to admit it, and there were lots good songs, to be sure (the visibility of which was largely decided by the attendant video), but good “albums” were hard to come by.  When we look back on that era, however, the “rose-colored glasses of nostalgia” allow us to look back fondly.  Apparently, sailors of yore who spent long periods at sea would sometimes suffer from profound homesickness that they called “nostalgia.”  For us, though, it is not so much homesickness, but a longing for an idealized version of the past that may not even be our own.  Today, we live, eat, and breathe the stuff.

Pontificating at length on nostalgia probably deserves its own blog post (possibly one with a warning label).  I’ll spare you for now….

In any case, it’s hard to say exactly how I got into Phoenix – they just kept “coming up.”  I saw their name here and there and put “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix” on last year's Christmas list.  I found it to be a pretty compelling and consistent set of mid-80s style synth/power pop.  Although I initially did not crave it, I certainly enjoyed it every time it came up in the player.  Then I found this performance clip of them on David Letterman:

Blam! Oh, yeah – that song.  You probably heard “1901” all over the place last year.  It was even in a car commercial.  Although Phoenix’s work has a studio polish, it seems that they have the capacity to reproduce this polish in a live context is a way that, due to technological differences, was not conceivable in the 80s live setting.  They, in the words of my good friend John, "kill it" on this vid.  For me, the entire album sounded different after I saw this clip and abstracted an idea of how they potentially execute their songs in performance.

With M83, on the other hand, I had slightly different experience.  I first heard them during the closing credits of Horror Remix, and proactively sought them out.  I bought “Saturdays=Youth” simply because it was the most current album by M83 that Waterloo Records had in stock, but it turned out to be a good one.  It’s an explicit tribute to the 80s, and it does a hauntingly compelling job of capturing the standard-issue radio ambience of this timeframe.  It seems to have “instant nostalgia:”  it immediately began to bring back discolored visions of my high school hallways and heartaches, even though none of the songs served as the soundtrack to (or even existed during) that era of my life.  Even weirder, I eschewed mainstream music in high school, leaning towards my own youthful progressive rock elitism.  Regardless, I was quite enamored of “Saturdays=Youth” by the time I found this clip:

While this live clip of "Kim & Jessie" may not have the flawless execution of “1901,” it certainly shows a nostalgic 80s style.  That these bands are both French and spontaneously came to have meaning to me on a solitary trip to San Antonio a year ago connects them in only my imagination and experience.  In any case, both of these examples come from albums that are now consistent favorites, so much so that I have been hesitant to get deeper into their catalogs.  If anyone has feedback on any other albums by M83 or Phoenix, please give me a shout-out.