Bon Iver, "For Emma, Forever Ago" (4AD, 2008)

            

                   Contrary to popular belief, Bon Iver is not a name of an artist, nor a person, but a deviation of the French phrase Bon Hiver, or “have a good winter.” Appropriately named so, just looking at the snowy, frozen landscape on the cover is enough to chill the bone, complimented by hand written name and title. Brainchild of Bon Iver, Justin Vernon suffered a major nervous breakdown, lost his long-time girlfriend, his band DaYarmond Edison broke up, and began suffering with mononucleosis. After these conflicts, Vernon relocated from Raleigh, North Carolina, to a remote cabin in Eau Claire, Wisconsin during the month of December. Planning to hibernate and recoup from his disease, Vernon did not intend to record any music while in seclusion. It was when another band he was recording with, The Rosebuds at the time returned his equipment. Months later, an album emerged spilling his guts over the snow in which he was encased in.

                “For Emma, Forever Ago” is a testament to a soul in seclusion, very similar to that of “Pink Moon” by Nick Drake. It an album recorded almost entirely alone and solo. The rickety recording process sounds that of absolute professional done on a shoe-string. Bon Iver brings the listener into the cabin of which the album was recorded, around the time of the winter solstice. The mantra of the painfully cold Wisconsin season can be heard in the chilling echoes. The skeletal notes echo throughout the recording, resulting in the tangible feeling of utter seclusion.

                “Skinny Love,” the third track on “For Emma, Forever Ago” is an utterly stripped down solo performance from Justin Vernon. Recorded only with an unplugged hollow-body guitar, lack of insulation to disguise the echoing throughout the track, and Vernon’s desperate falsetto voice come as internal cry addressing the pains of heartache. His voice pierces through the quiet guitar track as innocent chords strummed suggest a docility, meanwhile, the high-pitched wails and cries reveal a beaten and tormented individual, “I told you to be patient, well I told you to be kind,” are sung as if in a losing plea in an argument with a loved one, conveyed perfectly in a brilliant vocal performance. The lyrics rely on the music as minimally is it is: Vernon is defeated, alone, and desperate, his magnum opus is vocalized torment.

                The track beforehand, “Lump Sum,” displays Bon Iver’s eclectic use of over-dubbing. Vernon lays over several vocal tracks giving the impression of distant echoes, mixing it with thumb-strumming. The gentle coup of the guitar is nurturing, the echoing almost distant, and make for comfort, even at ease in performance. This gives the feeling of sitting in the middle of the forest, being one with nature, while the still enveloping falsetto shriek the pains of internal conflict as the echoes both come and go. The guitar is crisp all the while cascading minimal synthesizers paint a picture reminiscent of northern lights in the distance. Powerful, as the feeling of sitting in front of Vernon, yet the theme of isolation is alluded to in distant noises, backed by riveting use of fading echoes and dubs that come in and out. Brilliant the use of effects are, recorded in mono it eludes the difficult description of open air, with a theme of content in resting through isolation.

                Not only does the human element become evident Vernon’s song writing, “For Emma, Forever Ago” captures all the feelings of escaping into a reclusion only to reflect on the prior elements. Bon Iver’s masterpiece concludes the unanswerable human conflicts into verbose, honest singing. Justin Vernon does not hold back his emotions, nor does he regurgitate them, planning them dolefully through lyrical temperament and musical compliments. Bon Iver delivers a vocal tribute to the human condition of suffering in this quaint, snowy, dark album.

Review of “The Ides of March” (Directed by George Clooney, 2011)

              There has been a rise in the amount of ‘political drama’ as of late. With Clooney as a director, it seems to be his main forte’ having previously released the smash hit “Good Night, Good Luck” (2006) but he seems to be lacking political satire or actual three-dimensional characters. A similar affect is present in “The Ides of March” as the enabler ‘political’ allows for an interesting plot and ‘drama’ and a subplot, however, the movie seems more of a callous and boring wreck.

              George Clooney aptly casts himself as John Morris, a brilliant liberal politician from Pennsylvania with shrewd good looks running for president. The ever handsome Stepehen Meyers (played by Ryan Gosling) as his campaign manager, is poised with the challenge of winning him the Ohio primary as he is methodical in media culture, a valuable asset to the Democratic Party. The problem with this is that Ryan Gosling has a hard time making anybody believe that even as an actor he would know anything about politics. Problems arise when he meets with Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti) at a bar to discuss switching sides on the grounds the Republicans have Ohio in their pocket.

              Later, as the drama promises, Meyer’s starts an affair with intern Molly Stearns (Evan Rachel Wood) after having sex on the campaign bus. Through the awkward affair came really strange chemistry, Gosling’s character acting more like a teen heart-throb rather than a savvy political manager. Even commenting about the dangerous affair, it’s a media death-sentence, but why meet several times then?

              News of the meeting between Meyers and Duffy are threatened to be published by Ida Horowitz (Marissa Tomei) of whom Meyer’s has a rapport with. When asked to comment, he declined, asking who broke the story as the met in secrecy. Meanwhile, during Meyer’s and Stearns last meeting, she received a call at three in the morning from none other than Morris. Breaking down, she admits to an affair, and pregnancy. With all these elements and catalysts, the suspension of belief is slowly trickling down when Gosling’s character sets up a meeting in the office (though he never speaks it) to meet in an empty stairwell, saying he’ll simply ‘take care of’ the situation, and borrows campaign money ‘off the books’ to pay for ‘the procedure.’ How cookie cutter, to not make the good guy out to be a sinister baby-killer, nor damage the image of the Democratic party.

              Later, Meyer’s is fired by his senior mentor Paul Zara, who is played by the talented Phillip Seymour Hoffman, the only believable character in the story thus far. He set up the meeting to bust open the case of him meeting with the opposing side. It was out of confidence that he was fired, that he thought about switching, paranoia even. Gosling seems sad, and hurt, so playing up to the teen-heart throb character again, he tries to switch back to Duffy, a move of which is reasserting that Meyer’s isn’t a savvy political entrepenuer, but rather a hot-headed twenty year old stuck in a thirty year olds body.

              The main problem with the story is apparent: Too much going on, too hard to believe, too boring to care. The acting in the film is far from believable, the film is poorly casted (other than Phillip Seymour Hoffman), and too convoluted for even a simple plot summary. The twists in the story come in two layers as two different stories are being told: One, Gosling is playing an internal conflict, and a political one. The relationship with Wood’s character is ridiculous: this is hardly relevant in the film until Morris’ affair begins, it’s a useless scene, its a useless romance. It’s not until Stephen Meyer’s get a chip on his shoulder when the intern commits suicide after the ‘procedure’ due to fear of being hailed by the press and becoming exposed in the affair. Later on, Meyer’s confronts Morris, gets his job back, Zara is fired, he is made into the senior advisor, and Morris wins the primary. ‘Why?’ is the question, why does Gosling’s character even care anymore?

              It’s a movie that’s is more like an abstract painting in moving format: other than way to much going on, it also lacks a central focus. “The Ides of March” tries hard to comment on the media dictation of politics by using real, fictional events, however, fails to deliver any sort of message or story.

The Knife, "Silent Shout"

                Like any niche genre, bands set to fill and satisfy a popular demand to only a host of common beats, rhymes, lyrics, and above all, tone. Darkwave is an emerging trend amongst the niches, and is undeniably garnering attention in clubs, even receiving praise on the radio with minor play. Its predecessor: New Wave, was a substantial genre from the eighties building off the punk platform in less edgy harmonies and synthesizer. It was a hit, widely successful, everybody was idly humming “Personal Jesus” by Depeche Mode, dancing to New Order and crying with The Cure. Darkwave satisfies the niche of Goth music meeting the Indie electronica trend, headlined by no other than The Knife.

              Their previous album “Deep Cuts” was a substantial hit back in 2003, going gold in Platinum in Sweden and scraping the Billboard charts in America. The Duo of the band, Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer received eight Grammi nominations, winning five, but declining the awards as protest to the award ceremony. Their identities remain hidden in their persona’s: Hidden behind masks, obscure lighting, and lack of public appearances and rare live performances, meanwhile, their music continues to garnish success. After the monumental release of “Deep Cuts” came a three year hiatus, followed by the highly anticipated release of their new album “Silent Shout.” Skeptical as public was, they announced a departure from the more ‘chill’ aspect of their sound to return to a more gritty, darker tone.

              “Silent Shout” is a almost an experiment of poly-rhythms, booming low beats and a more raw clear delivery of what seems to be a shift into the industrial genre. The album radically differs from the previous releases, the dramatic opener of the eponymous song “Silent Shout” is driven by conventional quarter notes driven by bass-beats reminiscent that of hip-hop styling, with another layer of higher treble beats, giving the inference of a human pulse, and a melody by a phaser style synthesizer that compliments the tone of the bass. The spooky and murky voices of Karin come as a whisper, later climaxing to her almost primal scream, well suited for the dramatic and quiet opener to end on a heavy platform.

              All of these atmospheric tones shift later in the album with the single “We Share Our Mother’s Health” which is a straightforward aggressive industrial tone. The familiar styles of industrial are present, along with The Knife’s otherwise ‘spooky’ demeanour of gradually rising and falling bass, jaunting, otherwise sharp melody coming as catchy as it pulses against the rhythm of the song. Andersson’s voice is accompanied by Olof as his operatic voice is called and responded to the lyrics like that of an old Jazz song. The Knife is not only satisfying the niche, but comes as challenging and welcoming, the new façade is coming departure from their previous material, embracing a new tone that leaves the foot tapping and the chest pounding in cadence. It is a breath of fresh air to a still genre, breaking the conformity and experimenting quite successfully with darker riffs and a more aggressive approach.

Review of The Knife, "Silent Shout"

The Knife gained their buzz back in Sweden with the full album “Deep Cuts.” Released in 2003, it has been a testament to dark-wave and Goth scene with dark ambient tones reminiscent of funeral music meets bubble-gum pop, much like Depeche Mode having a child with Elvis Presley. With the song “Heartbeats” being covered by fellow Swedish singer/songwriter Jose Gonzalez, it was aired in a commercial by Sony, and broke into an international success back in 2005. With their underground persona flourishing in nightclubs across the world, the mystery of group remains highly prolific, as the siblings of the group Karin Elisabeth Dreijer Andersson and Olof Andersson remain behind masks or extreme juxtaposition in dark lights and distractions, their true identities hidden. Controversy surrounded the group when in 2007, the pair was nominated for eight Swedish Grammi’s, however, after winning six of them, they declined to retrieve them, instead sending some of the New York City based feminist group ‘Gorilla Girlz’ out to collect them. Their spot in the media remains a protest to the modern media culture as they rarely perform despite their popularity; still declining interviews, most live concerts, and refusing any awards they bestow.





“Silent shout” begins with their eponymous track, a quick track written in thriving triplets. Its dark base echoes with the adding of staccato synth and Karin’s sharp vocals lulled out to echoes make the music danceable, intense, progressive, and otherwise intense. However, their main single “We Share Our Mother’s Health” nesters a many different styles of music. The insatiable polyrhythms from both the calling low rhythms, to the responding treble beats mash up with the intimidating fuzz-base line become utterly surreal. Followed later by Karin’s again loud, otherwise jarring singing that can pop open the ears of the listener, the lyrics “We share our mothers health—it is what we do best” come as elusive, confusing, yet driving and extremely energetic.





The mash of both synth and the almost rap-like 60kz beats sound almost dangerous. In “One Hit” off the album, the song is almost entirely sung by Olof which is a rarity as Karin is the main vocalist of the band. His quivering voice both deep with a familiarly thick Swedish accent come as forceful with its swing style rhythm, mixed with a chorus similar to that of an early blues or jazz sound, making use of the ‘call and response’ trait. The ‘How-how-how-how’ and ‘who-who-who-who’ creates an illusion of singer-versus audience singing with subwoofer like beats; it is as if Cab Calloway rose from the dead and paired himself with Ian Curtis.





“Silent Shout” is everything satisfying for any listener looking for a new genre. It does not insult the listener with easy lyrics and boring beats, nor overwhelm with obnoxious amounts of distortion. It is homage to early new-wave bands with a style that of post-punk mixed with of course, danceable Goth music. While it may be out of the circle of common genres, it does more than satisfy the listener, it will inspire.