8/10
... Does explicitly self aware commentary on the body translate well to music?
You can ask many artists this, and the answer is yes. Many believe they can use their instrument, whether it be a tactile apparatus (guitar, sax etc) or human voice to evoke a sense of oneness they believe can translate to their music.
There's a small camp of musicians in the last 7 or 8 years, who have been able to achieve this. If you look at Pharmakon's recent releases, you will see that the music is dominated by body themes, the throaty noises quite often used to unsettle listeners, the samples of heart beats, the subject matter in the songs (the whole 2014 release Bestial Burden is centred around human organs, inspired by her surgery which abruptly halted a european tour schedule).
It is no coincidence that Jenny Hval's latest album continues on with the feel of this micro genre. Hval's previous record, last years "Apocalypse, Girl" looked at capitalism, and the modern female's efforts to make sense of the world around them. There's lyrics alluding personal gratification (via masturbating), big companies stranglehold on labour forces and the overwhelming sense of smallness in a big city filled with skyscrapers.
Hval often tries to submerse us in an aural art installation, and successfully paints images in our minds with her choice of accompaniment and often half sung-spoken lyrics. Like all effective art projects or concept pieces, there is just enough content, to have you thinking about the underlying concepts behind the project, but not too much as to be condescending and over the top. She gives you a small framework to work within, and evokes enough to be engaging throughout.
Blood Bitch, has a clear concept, at least according to Jenny. "It's about vampires" she says when asked in a mock interview in the middle of the album. The concepts are broader than that, but the framework has certainly been set for us, and we can use this for our own interpretation of the songs.
During a moment in "Untamed Region", she whispers "there's blood on my bed, didn't think it was time yet", then a few lines later "i have blood powers". So there again, we are given two things which can have different meanings, is the first about menstruation? or has she feed last night after her metamorphosis, leaving blood on her sheets.
"In the red", the third track, we can a hyperventilating Hval going through the changes of a mortal human through to blood sucking vampiress. The constant breathing on this track, is so unnerving but effective, and brings you through the transformative process like you have entered her via a musical worm hole she created just for the listener.
"The Great Undressing" presents us with an ode to yearning.
"Like capitalism
It works like unrequited love that way
It never rests
Just like I need the love
I'm not getting from you"
Jenny is alluding to the struggles of relationships and commerce, at least in this writer's opinion.
She is choosing the evil that she knows will keep her going. It's almost as if she is accepting capitalism as a way of life, even though she doesn't like it. Much like the love she isn't getting, which seems to be hard laboured and begged for if it ever eventuates.
If Hval has turned into a vampire, we could see this representing a moment when she asks for acceptance from her lover, acceptance of her new form.
"Any recognition is a reward", again maybe emoting the disillusionment that many women have when trying to be seen or heard, even if it is just the recognition of one man.
"In these ikea white walls", from the track "Period Piece" recalls commentary on the generic nature of consumerism.
In all of her work, Hval creates phrases, rather than concrete coherent lines. They have an impressionistic quality, relating back to idea of giving the listeners the bare bones concept.
The instrumental arrangements are used as a backdrop, and really don't do a lot to further enhance the ideas or lyrics on the tracklist. It is standard fare for Hval's output. Although there are moments of brilliance in the sounds contained on Blood Bitch, overall it is there to create a mood. Lots of industrial slowed beats and dark synths linger around but never impose themselves except for a few tracks, namely "Conceptual Romance", where we hear the lead single which is probably the most straight forward track on this album.
It's not to say that the instrumentals are buried in the mix, everything is brought up to the front, but they don't often feel like a focal point for the tracks structure.
"The Plague" pretty much conjures the most obvious thoughts you may have before you listen to it. Lots of layered demonic screaming, chaos stewing.
As we track along the album, we are already immersed in the idea, that this set of tracks is centred around vampires. We have constant references to blood, eating other people, body metamorphosis, alienation.
In the closer "Lorna", we have the last verses of the album. They paint a picture of someone stuck in an existential crisis, and to add insult to injury, this self realisation has come at a big price. It captures the poignancy of realising you are not who you were, but what you are now. What she is now is something she doesn't like, and it seems she needs help:
"No one ever told me
Or taught me not to contain
Or kept existing
But there was no language
Does anyone have any language for it?"
Can we find it?"
This album is an enigma, it's monumental but not earth shattering. It speaks in volumes, and says very little sometimes.
Jenny asks if we can find the language, the language to help her communicate with the world around her, to help ourselves do it too.
Maybe we can't, but in the meantime we can have a transcendental experience trying to.
Callan Cummings
No comments:
Post a Comment