The title of The BQE, Sufjan Stevens’ ambitious new multimedia project, stands for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, a poorly planned knot of a roadway built in the 1950s. Stevens’ visual and musical rendering imagines the structure as the triumphant feat of human ingenuity it was intended as.
The BQE is, for one, an orchestral suite, commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music and adapted from a 2007 performance at the Howard Gilman Opera House. Now it’s also the soundtrack to Stevens’ homemade film of the same name.
Of course, the package includes all sorts of eclectic goodies, from View-Master disks to a 40-page color comic book. “Maximum” is the word with Stevens, from his early electronic work to the widely lauded orchestral pop of his 2005 offering, Illinois.
Thus the expressway is a strange but perfect muse for the artist. Throughout seven movements, The BQE weaves a day in the life of the roadway, including a tranquil sunrise (“Movement I: In The Countenance of Kings”) and the whirlpool of exits and interchanges (“Movement III: Linear Tableau with Intersecting Surprise”).
The influences (mostly classical) are countless, but Steve Reich looms large over many of the suite’s best moments. In fact, for the first time in his prolific career, Stevens sounds more like a modern composer than a pop star.
Visually, The BQE is devoted to the bleached, tidy aesthetic of any Wes Anderson film. Like the expressway, the hula-hoop serves as bizarre symbol of futility and frivolity. The result is a vibrant, slightly pretentious ode to urban sprawl; it’s a wholly singular work.
So, the entire affair is something of a red herring, but what isn’t with Stevens? “Movement IV: Traffic Shock,” is the prime example; it pairs 8-bit synthesizers with a chorus of flutes for an unexpected thrill. On the heels of an orchestral reworking of his 2001 electronic album, Enjoy Your Rabbit, it’s clear the artist is arranging his past for the purpose of a new weird future.
There’s a popular mashup sloshing it’s way around the good ol’ web right now combining the talents of indie-electronic rocker Miike Snow and rapper Drake.
Incase mathematic symbols cause your head to spin, I just said that the mashup is the base track of Cult Logic with the vocal part of Forever, minus the Eminem section.
If anything, I’m just going to treat this song as something that helped bring Miike Snow to my attention. I’m huge on electronic-pop and this guy delivers.
So I hope that you find something of worth on this fine remix day. I hope your ears are satiated. Ω
Yes that’s right. Ben Folds, the musician, and Nick Hornby, the writer, have teamed up to write an album together. While the album is still untitled , we do have a few tracks for you to preview. Apparently they feel that the legend of Levi Johnston needn’t die, along with Palin’s political career. Head over to the Huffington Post to have a listen to the ridiculous, yet hilarious “Levi Johnston’s Blues.” (Warning: explicit)
This actually isn’t the first time that Folds and Hornby have written together. Back in 2004 the duo co-wrote the song “That’s Me Trying” for William Shatner’s album Has Been.
The organ stabs on “Splitting the Atom,” the title track from Massive Attack’s new EP, are almost so self-conscioiusly spooky that one wonders if the group is performing with a wink instead of a grimace. The song, with its twirling synths with whispered harmonies, is Dracula’s hoedown sing-along.
It’s still Massive Attack’s world-weary sense of foreboding, but something has changed. The group has upgraded from eerily organic to starkly dystopian.
It’s been six years since the group’s last proper album and Robert Del Naja (3D) and Grant Marshall (Daddy G) have spent the time listening: to their new spouses, to British politics and to the rock band TV on the Radio, according to a recent interview with “Under the Radar.”
Little remains the same. Gone are the Eastern flavors of Massive Attack’s past work, replaced by disfigured click tracks and ominous sheets of digital sound. The clumsy thud of the two final tracks (both of which are throwaway remixes) is just lazy coming from the production team that crafted “Teardrop.” The songs stalk around in circles, eternally builing up to nothing.
It’s odd then, that this lonely dance music was such a collaborate effort. The group shares vocals with longtime friend and dub legend Horace Andy on the title track and the results are familiarly unsettling. TVOTR’s singer Tunde Adebimpe guests on “Pray For Rain,” the release’s best song, while Guy Garvey and Martina Topley-Bird whine the EP to a close. So much talent, but where is the songwriting?
Not here. Splitting the Atom is a release that vainly searches for humanity in spite of its own electronic trappings. The band has finally escaped to the club scene that their past work merely flirted with, to make the kind of monochromatic dance music that floats in and out of listeners’ minds. Massive Attack, for the first time in their career, holds tone above song.
If Splitting the Atom is a taste of Massive Attack’s next full-length, which is set for a February release, it’s like to sound unlike anything the group has released. That’s a shame.
The title of The BQE, Sufjan Stevens’ ambitious new multimedia project, stands for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, a poorly planned knot of a roadway built in the 1950s. Stevens’ visual and musical rendering imagines the structure as the triumphant feat of human ingenuity it was intended as.
There’s a popular mashup sloshing it’s way around the good ol’ web right now combining the talents of indie-electronic rocker Miike Snow and rapper Drake.
