By Elias Soh
EchoElias@gmail.com
The Jonas Brothers, Lady Gaga and The Wonder Girls have all been the subjects of celebration and praise in the media, many times over. Top 40 radio, pop music television channels and teenage magazines enforce and reinforce the presence of pop superstars as these acts continue to churn out ample revenue for major recording labels.
Fans from all over the world rejoice every time an artist makes a tour stop, and album sales continue to rocket even as the Recording Industry Association of America tries to stop piracy around the world. Despite commercial success and worldwide recognition from mainstream audiences, many regard mainstream popular music to be bland and unsophisticated.
Daniel Sassoon, former lead guitarist of local band Electrico and entertainment lawyer said: “Pop music is predictable. It’s very obviously “manufactured” by staff songwriters at these major (recording) labels that have a template that the mainstream market responds to.”
“If one limits him or herself to mainstream stuff, it’s doing a disservice to yourself because there are always great artists that try not to conform and do a great job at it,” said Saiful Idris, frontman of local band The Great Spy Experiment and secondary school teacher.
This article takes a look at these boundary-defying, genre-bending artists that you should not expect to see grace the cover of Teenage magazine any time soon.
Flying Lotus
Flying Lotus, as his name suggests, is a producer with a unique take on various genres of electronic music. The nephew of jazz legends John and Alice Coltrane has been called “the future of electronic music” in the August 2009 issue of The Wire, an American music magazine focused on critically acclaimed musicians.
Despite the backbone of his approach fitting into the instrumental hip hop vein (once helmed in the mainstream by the likes of the late J Dilla and the prolific Madlib), Flying Lotus dabbles with experiments in crossing genre boundaries. His debut album on Warp Records (also home to electronic legend Aphex Twin) featured songs that dabbled with electronica, techno, jazz and even dubstep.
Pitchfork, an acclaimed online music magazine, has praised his ability to blend these different approaches on singular track.
Check him out at www.myspace.com/flyinglotus
Monsters of Folk:
Among celebrity “supergroups” that are popping up all over Hollywood (Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters recently formed a band with Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones and Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme.), this proves to be the most interesting. Interesting and unlikely, that is.
There are two reasons for this: most would expect a “supergroup” to be something closer to a Motley Crue reunion, but Monsters of Folk do indeed play folk music, and they are made up of extremely reclusive musicians. What is the unifying theme in the band? They are all critically acclaimed in their own bands. Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes), Jim James (My Morning Jacket) and M. Ward (She & Him) have all released albums that might not have done well commercially, but have all been praised by the likes of Rolling Stone magazine.
Listen to Monsters of Folk at www.myspace.com/monstersoffolk.
Battles:
From the cultural melting pot of experimental music that is New York city (home to Sonic Youth, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Velvet Underground) Battles is an instrumental rock band that deals in the avant-garde. This is only fitting as Tyondai Braxton, keyboardist and band leader, is the son of prolific avant-garde composer Anthony Braxton. Ian Williams, Dave Konopa and John Stanier complete the lineup. They are label mates with Flying Lotus, and are similarly quirky and boundary-pushing. Their debut album, Mirrored, is a rhythmically complex, guitar-based opus teetering between progressive rock (like Yes) and math rock (like Dillinger Escape Plan). Characterized by complex, atypical rhythmic structures (including irregular stopping and starting), angular melodies, and dissonant chords, these heroes of the avant-garde will not be gracing mainstream airwaves on Top 40 radio any time soon. It would be safe to guess that they like it that way.
Listen to Battles at www.bttls.com.
EchoElias@gmail.com
The Jonas Brothers, Lady Gaga and The Wonder Girls have all been the subjects of celebration and praise in the media, many times over. Top 40 radio, pop music television channels and teenage magazines enforce and reinforce the presence of pop superstars as these acts continue to churn out ample revenue for major recording labels.
Fans from all over the world rejoice every time an artist makes a tour stop, and album sales continue to rocket even as the Recording Industry Association of America tries to stop piracy around the world. Despite commercial success and worldwide recognition from mainstream audiences, many regard mainstream popular music to be bland and unsophisticated.
Daniel Sassoon, former lead guitarist of local band Electrico and entertainment lawyer said: “Pop music is predictable. It’s very obviously “manufactured” by staff songwriters at these major (recording) labels that have a template that the mainstream market responds to.”
“If one limits him or herself to mainstream stuff, it’s doing a disservice to yourself because there are always great artists that try not to conform and do a great job at it,” said Saiful Idris, frontman of local band The Great Spy Experiment and secondary school teacher.
This article takes a look at these boundary-defying, genre-bending artists that you should not expect to see grace the cover of Teenage magazine any time soon.
Flying Lotus
Flying Lotus, as his name suggests, is a producer with a unique take on various genres of electronic music. The nephew of jazz legends John and Alice Coltrane has been called “the future of electronic music” in the August 2009 issue of The Wire, an American music magazine focused on critically acclaimed musicians.
Despite the backbone of his approach fitting into the instrumental hip hop vein (once helmed in the mainstream by the likes of the late J Dilla and the prolific Madlib), Flying Lotus dabbles with experiments in crossing genre boundaries. His debut album on Warp Records (also home to electronic legend Aphex Twin) featured songs that dabbled with electronica, techno, jazz and even dubstep.
Pitchfork, an acclaimed online music magazine, has praised his ability to blend these different approaches on singular track.
Check him out at www.myspace.com/flyinglotus
Monsters of Folk:
Among celebrity “supergroups” that are popping up all over Hollywood (Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters recently formed a band with Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones and Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme.), this proves to be the most interesting. Interesting and unlikely, that is.There are two reasons for this: most would expect a “supergroup” to be something closer to a Motley Crue reunion, but Monsters of Folk do indeed play folk music, and they are made up of extremely reclusive musicians. What is the unifying theme in the band? They are all critically acclaimed in their own bands. Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes), Jim James (My Morning Jacket) and M. Ward (She & Him) have all released albums that might not have done well commercially, but have all been praised by the likes of Rolling Stone magazine.
Listen to Monsters of Folk at www.myspace.com/monstersoffolk.
Battles:
From the cultural melting pot of experimental music that is New York city (home to Sonic Youth, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Velvet Underground) Battles is an instrumental rock band that deals in the avant-garde. This is only fitting as Tyondai Braxton, keyboardist and band leader, is the son of prolific avant-garde composer Anthony Braxton. Ian Williams, Dave Konopa and John Stanier complete the lineup. They are label mates with Flying Lotus, and are similarly quirky and boundary-pushing. Their debut album, Mirrored, is a rhythmically complex, guitar-based opus teetering between progressive rock (like Yes) and math rock (like Dillinger Escape Plan). Characterized by complex, atypical rhythmic structures (including irregular stopping and starting), angular melodies, and dissonant chords, these heroes of the avant-garde will not be gracing mainstream airwaves on Top 40 radio any time soon. It would be safe to guess that they like it that way.Listen to Battles at www.bttls.com.
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