|
|
 |
photo: Ian Hughes |
Vita Sexualis
crush_DLX | MICRO SEX TAPES Collection 1
by John Payne
I 行 yes, this I 行 am not one to shy away from anything new, unfamiliar, uncomfortable and etc. I 行 for one 行 like to dash into the void, to dart not like a drayhorse but a warhorse into the fray, feel myself in freefall, get knocked around on the rocky points sticking out on the way down. Bruised and battered but never bullied, not me, I then stride purposely forth as the bearer of potentially good news 行 and with hope a little insight about what all I誺e just been putting myself through.
I recently decided to re-immerse myself in the music
and, really, magic of the English multi-instrumentalist Pop Levi and his partner in artistic crime Bunny Holiday, with whom I see myself as sharing a roughly similar point of view on the forward-thinking use of what you might call trash culture for making smart and, more importantly, fun poppy-type music. Pop Levi I誰l mention I誺e known for years, having met him and engaged in wide-ranging chitchat with him re his excellent solo release Return to Form Black Majick Party in 2006 and then down the road a bit on his tremendous followup records Never Never Love (2008) and Medicine (2012); this trio of uniquely charismatic releases all came out on the Counter label, a part of the Ninja Tune conglomeration.
By the time Pop began doing these solo records
on
Counter, he誨 already been 詒ound the block pretty much, as a bass-playing member of Ladytron,
and before that as big boss man in the Liverpool-based Super Numeri, an avantishly rock combo
who did two records for Ninja Tune back in the early 20-oughts. And I could give you loads more
detailed info re Pop誷 past and even his future, but why bother? Just look it up on the internet.
The gist here is that Pop Levi has long been a valuable presence on the relevant-music scene,
one of those artists who inspire, in fact, just from your knowing that they誶e out there doing
what they do.
But it誷 the present we誶e mired in, and with Pop Levi right now, here誷 a guy who is at all times quite busy with projects and schemes, new ways of thinking 'bout how to be seen. For example, he recently produced and composed stuff for that Childish Gambino record that got nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Album. (It didn誸 win, but maybe it should have.)
The most pertinent thing at this moment is
Pop Levi and Lady Bunny誷 new duo project crush_DLX. They誺e got a new mixtape just out which i
s available in cassette and digital download forms, for your funktified 70s-type pleasure. The title of the mixtape is MICRO SEX TAPES Collection 1. You are encouraged to grab it at www.microsextapes.com. The mixtape stands proudly alone as just one potential crystallizing of a much bigger and quite amazing project that Pop 詎 Bunny have had going for a while, which is to create and post something like 370 songs in a similar number of days; they誶e at around No. 170 right about now. You誰l want to gorge yourself on much of this at http://soundcloud.com/microsextapes. Note that one track, 襇y Pleasure, features the one and only Ariel Pink.
Yes, but what誷 it sound like and what should we call it? Well, MICRO SEX TAPES comprises a choice wad of whatsit: This is a large (20 tracks), killer batch of music made by electronic means such as synths and electric keyboards, drum boxes and curious loads of digital and analog FX, plus guitars and voices and even curiouser loads of musique-concr弔e-type sound sampling from film, TV, radio and the ambient world without; most everything sounds as if it誷 been put in the blender and the orange Chop button pushed. One track, titled 襎ightrope, features Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire; Mallinder emailed Pop his vocal track and Pop roboticized it to smithereens; transmogrified it, as you might say.
What we have here is the sound of surprise 行 the single most important element in any kind of music. The sound of Pop & Bunny is exhilaratingly weird, for sure, but so earthbound 行 sexy, I mean 行 and while good-humored it seems to boast a finely focused intent on the very notion of using possibility, or the unknown and previously undiscovered or underutilized, as a means for creating, simply put, a new kind of music and art. Context? It誷 situated in that intriguing area where say dance music and body music and the whole of electronic music dating back to the early 20th century figures in; as such it誷 severely post-most things, utterly contemporary and will continue to reveal interesting things well into the next millennium, most likely.
I hope the utter pomposity of the above description of MICRO SEX TAPES won誸 shove you reeling backward, aghast, so I will say again that Pop & Bunny誷
music is fun. And sexy. And if it makes you think a bit, so be fucking it. 
Advertise @ Bluefat
Subscribe to our newsletter!
|
