[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: March 29 (Black City Lights, Orquesta de Perros, Unison)

From: Jeremy Schlosberg <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 22:14:39 -0400

*THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com>*
*March 29*

[image: Black City
Nights]<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/blackcitynights.jpg>
“RIVERS” – BLACK CITY
NIGHTS<http://www.starsandletters.com/downloads/black-city-lights-rivers.mp3>

I am a patient person—except when it comes to music. Songs that delay the
entry of sensible structure or noticeable melody tend to annoy me, if I may
be blunt. So I’m not sure how I managed even to listen to “Rivers”—with its
30 opening seconds of ambient electronic sounds and 30 additional seconds
of instrumental introduction—without hitting stop and delete and moving on
to the next thing. Sometimes, it seems, my ear hears things that my brain
doesn’t initially latch onto. And I am in any case very glad I didn’t throw
this one in the scrap bin, because that opening minute leads us into
something grand and memorable.

It turns out this song, musically at least, is all about delayed
gratification. After the long (long) introduction, the melody, in a series
of ways, keeps edging near resolution and backing away. You can hear it,
maybe, at 1:20, and then in an extended way at 1:40—note that Julia
Catherine Parr then literally starts singing about being “so lost,” as the
music retracts into background noise. We wait and wait and find deliverance
with the line she belts at 1:57. I can’t understand the words but the
music, at last, tells us the wait is over, and at 2:01 we plunge into
something that feels deep and grounded, while also kind of sparkly and
flowy. We are led to a point of resolution at 2:11 (on the words—no
coincidence—”take you home”) that feels both solid and liquid: we resolve,
and yet we keep flowing. The second half of the song is like that, at once
robust and feathery, and the fact that it leads to a coda of heavenly
voices seems exactly right. I suspect that not one moment of this song is
accidental. It’s a fine ride, and reminds me to be patient in music as in
life. At least sometimes.

Black City Lights is the project of Wellington, New Zealand producer Calum
Robb and vocalist Parr. Either a sign of the times or a complete
aberration, Robb just began writing and producing music late in 2010.
“Rivers” is one of six songs on the Black City Lights debut EP, *Parallels*,
released last week on Stars & Letters <http://starsandletters.com/>, a
small NYC-based label. MP3 via Stars & Letters.

[image: Orquesta de
Perros]<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/orquestadeperros.jpg>
“LOS POLACOS” – ORQUESTA DE
PERROS<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/Orquesta_de_Perros-Los_Polacos.mp3>

“Los Polacos” is an idiosyncratic winner—an edgy crooner with a stuttery
heart, a guitar-driven soul, and the capacity to make an unexpected amount
of noise. There is no doubt a bass player in here too, and obviously a
drummer, but everything I hear works in support of the guitars and the
singing, and centers around the pining drive of the cycling melody.

Similarly to “Rivers” (see previous
post<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/?p=10993>)
but in an entirely different-feeling song, the melody here offers a long
hesitant journey through an unresolved chord progression. When we finally
end up on solid ground, we don’t really get to rest there—listen, for
example, at 0:40, to how the melody resolves but then instantly resets
itself back to the beginning. Or, in another case, we arrive at resolution
only to have our minds are scrubbed clean by a wall of guitars (1:17). And
if the ongoing lack of resolution leads the ear on, the earnest playing is
what engages the soul. No doubt there are cultural influences at work that
go beyond my understanding, but I get such a strong sense of a group of
actual musicians interacting in real space, with their instruments and
their voices, in a way that feels ancient and true, transcending the
rock’n'roll setting entirely. Musicians making music, as they always have
and always will, long past the time anyone remembers what a laptop was.

Orquesta de Perros (“Dog Orchestra”) is a five-piece band from Buenos
Aires. “Los Polacos” is the lead track from *Roles y Oficios*, the band’s
first full-length album, released this month on Buenos Aires-based Uf
Caruf! Records. MP3 via the band. The entire album, worth a listen, is
available for free, from Bandcamp <http://orquestadeperros.bandcamp.com/>.

[image: Unison]<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/unison1.jpg>
“BROTHERS & SISTERS” –
UNISON<http://www.fanaticpromotion.com/projects/unison/mp3/unison-brothersandsisters.mp3>

With a clicky, sampled undercurrent and a seductive, eardrummy beat,
“Brothers & Sisters” is an effortlessly wonderful piece of electronic
pop—dreamy, determined, and enticing. The music is, in fact, as likable as
our current-day tendency to micro-label such music is unlikable. (There is
a whole side story here about Unison making music that is part of a genre
called “witch house,” which started as a joke and then became a thing, even
as debate continues whether it actually is a thing or not. Boring.)

Much of the allure lies in the substantive soprano of Melanie Moran. Don’t
let the airy whisper fool you; here is a woman who sings with the resolute
agency of an indie diva. (And I’m passing no judgment here on her
personality, just on the consequence of her voice.) In the context of
Unison, her voice is one of many sonic elements—some percussive, some
keyboardy—but note how, through the first two-thirds of the song, she is
never subsumed; even whether other sounds appear louder, Moran is always
given space. Her tone is weighty from low register to high, and I would say
it is precisely her authoritative tone that allows the band to throw all
the whooshy/clackety electronics onto the track so successfully.

And when, at last, the kitchen-sink background rises fully to meet her
(3:37), we may lose some of her articulation but her bell-like sonority
still anchors the swelling soundscape, which by now is full of beats and
ghostly backing vocals and something resembling a doorbell having a nervous
breakdown.

Unison is the French duo of Moran and Julien Camarena. “Brothers & Sisters”
is a song from their self-titled debut, which was released in France in
September, and arrives in the U.S. next month on Lentonia
Records<http://www.lentonia.com/>
.

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"The world is so loud
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Keep falling
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I'll find you....."
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[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: March 29 (Black City Lights, Orquesta de Perros, Unison)

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