Saturday, April 09, 2005

Knew you'd be here tonight.

Somehow, I've always been able to connect emotionally to electronic music in a way I can rarely do with, I don't know, 'traditional' music. Much as I love the pour-your-heart-out catharsis of all the Rufuses Wainwright and Eds Harcourt, there'll always be a hole in my soul only that can only be filled by the likes of Kraftwerk, The Art of Noise or Sigur Ros. There's a purity, and a blankness there that lets you fill in the space with whatever's in your own head, very much like I imagine talking to an angel would be like. I'm talking about your proper terrifying androgynous, alabaster-winged, flaming-sword-holding messengers-of-the-Almighty-type angels, obviously, not the crap hippy ones that hang around crap hippy women in MBS sections in bookshops, invisibly whispering nut-roast recipes and Alanis Morissette lyrics.

My point is, if you get the chance to listen to anything by the above-named a hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle, standing knee-deep in snow while reindeers wander about in the pine trees behind you, making quiet raindeery noises, you should definitely take it. Currently I really want to go back. Basically repeat the whole experience, but this time with an iPod so I don't have to rewind compilation tapes with a pencil to save Walkman batteries.

And to that list of musical loveliness you can add Four Tet, for whom Mark Heap's only gone and done a video, over here. And a lovely piece it is too, well worth the many bruises I think he may have received during the making of (via stereogum, with links to other formats if QuickTime doesn't work for you).

Which leads me onto posting this sombre, beautiful, slightly-threatening track, a Four Tet mashup/soundclash/bastard pop/whatever by Poj Masta, which seamlessly incorporates Kylie's 'Slow' into.... well, a song by Four Tet. Not sure which one, annoyingly, but if I go through my CDs to find it, I'll get distracted by Aphex Twin remixes and will never be seen again.

Of course it completely stuffs up my earlier point (whatever the fuck that was), by using sung words by an actual live human person, although Kylie's voice is so disembodied here it may as well have been sung by an frost-covered robot angel anyway, so I think it all works out again. Hurrah.

Seriously_Slow.mp3

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you heard/seen the "Kraftwerk" version of the Hokey Cokey?
That one's probably less like talking to an angel, though.

James Henry said...

Ah yes, the Bill Bailey interpretation. V. good. Nice to see the lovely Kevin Eldon having a dance, as well.

patroclus said...

"frost-covered robot angel" - oh, that is *good*. Four words that belong together if ever there were.

James Henry said...

Best description I ever heard of Bjork's voice was that it sounded like a 'heat-seeking dolphin', a description I try and use at least twice a year...

patroclus said...

On balance I prefer the robot angel. Puts me in mind of Donna Haraway (oh, someone stop me!)

James Henry said...

Yeah, mine's better.

I'm going away to look up Donna Haraway now.

You've read Snow Crash, haven't you? Just discovered I've got two copies, so if anyone wants to try some SF that's both profound and funny, there's a free copy on its way to the first person to ask...

patroclus said...

oo, don't miss out on this exciting offer, everyone! Snow Crash is *highly* recommended.

Donna Haraway famously said she'd rather be a cyborg than a goddess, but "I'd rather be a robot than an angel" works just as well.

James Henry said...

Now if only I could work out how to do polls on Blogger, we could put this whole cyborg/goddess/robot/angel question to rest once and for all...

patroclus said...

Leave it to me...I know just the place for polls with five options or fewer.

Anonymous said...

I took great pleasure in showing the Bill Bailey Kraftwerk spoof to a number of friends round here : Kraftwerk are, after all, from neighbouring Düsseldorf.

He's managed to get the words very close as well... "Man macht die Hokikoki und man dreht sich herum..das ist die ganze Sache."

James Henry said...

Bill Bailey's ruthless demolition of the Edge's guitar technique was the highlight of that DVD for me.

Snow Crash now has a home, and will be going in the post tonight.

Summer said...

Four Tet is one of my favo(u)rites; "My Angel Rocks Back and Forth" is sexily, slowly, and dreamily perfect.

My boyfriend and I are headed to Coachella at the end of the month, specifically to see Four Tet (he plays very few US shows); I cannot wait.