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penguin-music-bites · 4 years

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In colour Jamie xx - 2015

Released 29 May 2015 by Young Turks record label

Today I am visiting my cousins’, the little penguin, nesting burrows on Phillip Island (Near Melbourne Australia). I have been dug a custom made guest room to fit my larger size - these tiny penguins stand at a tiny 30cm and weigh only one kilo. It has been a welcome holiday on this bustling island to write my penguin’s take on Jamie xx’s album ‘In Colour’:

In context the album shows the extent to which Jamie xx has separated his solo work with that of his band and band members in The XX. At the time of ‘In Colour’s’ release in 2015 The XX had recently released ‘Coexist’ (2012). Far less successful than the self titled debut album of 2009, ‘Coexist’ lacks any zest, and relies on breathy vocals and washy melodies to draw up some uninspiring indiepop tracks. The few similarities that I can draw between the group and Jamie xx’s solo work is the canny ability to forge airy atmospheres. The outcome’s success is wildly different. The removal of depressed vocals allows his slick production the limelight. A more blatant parallel is the featuring of fellow band members Romy Madley-Croft and Oliver Sim as vocalists on tracks ‘See-Saw’, ‘Loud Places’ and ‘Stranger in a Room respectively’. Jamie’s skills as The XX’s percussionist and producer is reflected marvelously through bassy, beat-oriented production, the steel pan drums in Obvs being a classic example.

Pitchfork writer Mark Richardson named Jamie xx a “Memory artist and sampling artist”. This seems like the best way of explaining the importance of Jamie’s influences, and how the sounds he creates are a spin of those he has already heard. His music transports you to his vision of a setting we have all been to. For instance, ‘Loud Places’ includes the brilliant sample from jazz drummer Idris Muhammad’s ‘Could Heaven Ever be like this’. The release of the single ‘All under one roof raving’ was the album’s precursor and set the tone for the heavy garage, rave, 90s, pirate radio, electronica, house, and London dance influences.

There is a brilliant focus to the album: to take you on a warehouse club night. You hear music from seemingly different artists, laced together with breaks in the music, vocal moments and chatter samples. With the effect of walking past a club smoking area or outside bar or toilets before heading straight back in for the next set. Dance sounds from throughout the last 35 years are woven over a bittersweet atmosphere which sits in a cloud like the dust of a crowded festival tent.

The first track ‘Gosh’ takes you by the scruff of the neck through the front door, and fills your ears with the sounds of pumping hearts and clapping hands and Jungle MCs. Jamie xx has set the scene for a rave and you’ve been thrown in at the deep end. With the entrance of a high pitched synth Jamie xx has begun the creation of his utopian night out, tinged with the melancholia of its inevitable ending.

Highlights from the album include ‘Obvs’, ‘I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times)’ - Young Thug and Popcaan and ‘Girls’. ‘Obvs’ comes out of the ending of the previous song with a stuttered ‘I just…’; words spoken by someone in the heat of a sweaty night. We hear not the sounds of music booming from balancing speaker stacks, but the sound of a drunk, high and tired clubber’s brain whirring. This song is a soundtrack for a club goer's mind. ‘I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times)’ - Young Thug and Popcaan sweeps you up in bubbly vocals and compelling upbeats. Young Thug’s unusual voice cuts through the bullshit of usual dance track “edginess” and Popcaan’s dance hall singing makes it particularly addictive.

In our opinion the album is successful, however there are aspects of the album which arguably have been compromised by Jamie XX’s pursuit of such a polished and stylised sound. Criticism can be found in its ‘overly tasteful’ character, which leads to unfavourable questions being asked like ... is it under ambitious? Too smooth? Too balanced? Most damaging of all is the sense that in his perfection seeking he has stripped his tributes to Jungle and Garage of their grit, their soul and their off the cuff slip ups. Yes, the songs are balanced almost mathematically, high octane moments countered with subdued tracks, vocals intermittent, and ‘The Rest Is Noise’ (penultimate track) appears to function as a flipside to ‘Gosh’ but the album does not fail to do what it set out to. Jamie xx has captured some of the spirit of London raving, equality, platonism, unity, and love. You are lifted, relaxed, pumped, excited, saddened, calmed and bopped.

Emperor Penguin xx

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penguin-music-bites · 4 years

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Photographed by Brian Ward in monochrome and re-coloured by Terry Pastor

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penguin-music-bites · 4 years

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Hunky Dory 1971

Recorded in Trident Studios in July 1971, with RCA record label.

In our opinion this album fundamentally speaks of resolve. Despite Bowie being only 24 the album feels mature, born out of the flux of Bowie’s work prior and the Sci Fi psychedelica single ‘The Man Who Sold The World’. The album is acutely aware of the imminent birth of Bowie’s first son, Duncan Jones/Zowie. Prior to the album Bowie’s success was limited, ‘Space Oddity’(1969) was his only breakthrough, and it was with the help of guitarist Mick Ronson injecting glam rock flair, and producer Ken Scott that the album flourished.Important also was the three week tour of America just before recording (Jan 1971) - giving Bowie’s lyrics new character and perspective. The impact of the tour is most evident with songs: ‘Andy Warhol’ and ‘Song for Bob Dylan’, tributes to American icons of the time.

Whilst many have commented on a whiff of arrogance to the album, to me what shines through more is a feeling of ‘Bowie’ momentum. From the starting song - ‘Changes’ - there is a buoyancy, despite the song’s nostalgic notes, which remains throughout the album even in slower tracks. This expresses itself often in the album where songs are lyrically reflective/contemplative but retain vitality. Bowie does not rely on a layering of riffs, or snappy drums to push songs onwards in Hunky Dory but uses stresses to undulate his songs forwards with a distinct Bowie flair. The piano aids this buoyancy, both providing a melody to songs and pronouncing where Bowie’s voice diverges.

Songs ‘Changes’ or ‘Oh!You pretty things’ or ‘Life on Mars’ compete amongst themselves for 2nd place in any penguin heart worth knowing. ‘Kooks’ is the real favourite, only the Fiordland Crested or Yellow Eyed ‘guins begin to debate this. Bowie’s first success is the premise for the song. A note to his newborn child inviting baby Zowie to stay with these kooks despite his candid explanations of their wacky ways. Saturated with affection the song reeks of family love. It outlines those bits of growing up that a parent is aware of their child needing them for, and aware of how those very parents might make it more difficult. Charming lyrics like “Don't pick fights with the bullies or the cads/'Cause I'm not much cop at punching other people's dads” make this letter to the baby oh so aware and oh so endearing. You can picture David and Angela cooing this lullaby down at the newborn in the very crib they talk of. You lean into the line “And if the homework brings you down/Then we'll throw it on the fire and take the car downtown” wishing for some alt parents yourself for a moment. The song more than earns the phrase “The anthem for the outsider” coined by Justin Parkinson in 2016 .

The gibberish lyrics “Bipperty-bopperty”, or references to Nietzsche line the album with Bowie easter eggs. However the album is ultimately accessible and its warm tone leaves you feeling lifted and fresh and resolved. No matter how many times you listen to it this never seems to change.

Emperor penguin xx

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penguin-music-bites · 4 years

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Three Albums Penguins keep revisiting

To start off, we penguins want to talk about the albums that time and again we keep coming back to. I’m writing from Magdalena Island Chile visiting my cousins the Magellanics. Whilst the weather is better than at home it is difficult to understand their partiality for squid which seem intent on puckering to my flippers.

These albums are in many ways disparate. The influence of having been made decades apart is acutely obvious in their often polar instrumentals/sounds, drums/beats, harmonies/synthesisers or realist/psychedelia lyrics. However each is impossibly listenable. Should you want to tweeze out the meaning behind the minutest of toiled over inflections I’m sure there is more than enough material, but the joy of these albums lies in needing no magnifying glass or PHD in tonic notes. Let's dip into this starting with Hunky Dory/David Bowie, then In Colour/Jamie xx and finally Screamadelica/Primal Scream, we do hope you enjoy.

Emperor Penguin xx

#music #davidbowie #primalscream #jamiexx #incolour #hunkydory #screamadelica #penguins #musicblog #musicvideos #musiccommunity #music commentary #lockdown

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