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Between dreams and our feet

When we go to the cinema or read a book we don’t always expect the same thing. The label of drama, comedy or tragedy, the categorisation of literary or cinematographic genres helps us to choose what we’re looking for: to laugh, to cry, to think… There’s light entertainment and there are stories which can change our lives, although it’s true that sometimes epiphanies can arise from the most unexpected places. For this reason, in the same way that it’s not possible to generalise when we talk about comedies (there are romantic, intelligent, absurd and even those which are no fun at all), nor can we simply say that the headline groups are the “festival music”. Not least because such a genre doesn’t actually exist, but also because it would be a tailor-made pigeon hole which doesn’t tell us anything.

In previous “This Is Our Music” we tried to give some clues to see beyond the names,  those threads which unite and separate them from behind, as if we were dealing with family trees or computer networks, because behind a sound there’s much more than music: there’s a story, influences, cultural elements and their possible influence on real, everyday life beyond the sounds (in art, fashion, politics, society…).

At the same time, as mentioned above, we don’t always seek the same effect in ourselves from  music and, although all of us who’ll be at Benicassim in a few days’ time will be enjoying concerts, there are many different ways of doing this. This is exactly why there’s such a varied offer: from pop songs with choruses to the most  experimental electronic music; from music to dream to, to crazy beats which make us forget where to put our feet.

“Isn’t life strange?” Music which echoes your dreams

In the first group there are people like The Clientele, with their precious and slow pop music wrapped up with chord arrangements and warm, but slightly phantasmagorical voices, as if filtered through a smoke curtain. Their last album, “God Save The Clientele”, includes enigmatic titles such as “The Queen of Seville”, “Carnival on 7th Street” or “Bookshop Casanova” and, having been produced by Mark Nevers of Lambchop, gives another good reason to discover them, if you haven’t done so already.

Along the same serene and melodic lines, although closer to the timeless pop music of their fellow countrymen Belle & Sebastian, Saint Etienne or the very Phil Spector, are Camera Obscura. They offer us melodies which are contagious but not simplistic, with more layers than is apparent on first sight. And from a bit further up north, from Stockholm to be precise, another name which reinforces how current classic pop is at the moment is Peter Bjorn & John. Yes, it’s those guys from “Young folks” , the song with a little whistle which surely got stuck in your head at some point, but they’re also one of the most outstanding names from the Nordic indie scene, alongside people such as The Concretes or The Legends.

Turning back to our country we can’t overlook Mirafiori, a name where echoes of The Field Mice, Family or Le Mans can be heard: cloudy songs which are bitter-sweet and, at once, optimistic and slightly disenchanted, live in a space inhabited by melancholy and memories, of Summer afternoons and hopes.
With all of these, and a handful more it’s possible to travel, put sounds to all those things we’ve never said out loud, forget about the heat and create a Winter break out of nothing.

“Sweatshop”. Music to free your feet

But man cannot live on pop music alone! We might feel like dancing to beat rhythms, from the most melodic electronic music to the most dirty and naked vibes.

Brazilian Girls, for example, are a highly contagious compendium of downbeat, jazz and bosanova with energetic themes such as “Problem”, “Le Territoire” or “Never Met A German”, hypnotic rhymes such as “Sweatshop” and ingenious lyrics as found in the song “Tourist Trap”. “Crammed into the swimming pool, pissing in the sea, taking your clothes off, losing in the casino, drinking wine and tequila, vomiting. Tourist trap!”. An anthem for any ‘all inclusive’ holiday resort which prides itself!

Datarock also move in murky waters, in the shifting sands which lie between rock and  electronic music. And, without sinking in them, they stand with one foot in punk music and the other in a playful funk sound (“Fa-fa-fa”) and a third in themes based on the framework of sounds from the eighties (“The Most Beautiful Girl”) or guitar solos which would make Europe envious (“Nightflight to Uranus”). Lo-Fi-Fnk also play in this league, specialists in creating an effective techno pop reminiscent of Röyksopp (“ADT”, “Louder”) and The Presets, with powerful base and eighties sounds (listen to “Are you the one?” or “Girl (You Chew My Mind Up)”).

Others who know a lot about being effective are Warren Fischer and Casey Spooner, better known by the combination of their surnames: Fischerspooner. At the beginning of the decade “Emerge” became the sure-fire hit on dance floor which no one seemed to tire of and now, some years later, it’s clear that they are a lot more than a one-hit wonder. They still drink from the waters of electro music and Giorgio Moroder  intelligently distilling dark themes for nights of insomnia.

Other night creatures are Simian Mobile Disco, 50% of Simian who decided to move over to analogue electronic music and, judging by the results, it was a good idea. Or Cassius, one of the essential names in French electronic music along with fellow Frenchman Vitalic.

Last but not least, we want to highlight the great fun to be had with Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, and their song “Thou Shalt Always Kill” , in which they order us to “not mention the name of Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer, Johnny Hartman, Desmond Decaer, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix or Syd Barret in vain” and not to buy products by Nestlé or Coca Cola. A whole catalogue of behaviour for the new millennium.