The first few seconds you might think that you have put on one of those warped synthpop records from the eighties. Or maybe you just play it at the wrong speed. You couldn´t be more wrong with the Zeitgeist, it is London´s next buzz band called MOVIE. Unlike some other upcoming bands, their identities are known: the trio consists of Theo Spark, Jamie Stiby Hirris and Ollie Tobin. As befits a good buzz band, they have already acquired quite some features and airplay on national UK radio, even before their first offical release, which is scheduled for the coming week.
They currently have two songs online, of which 'Ads' their first single. Normally we like to skip commercials during the film, but this time we are willing to make an exception.
Enjoy!
Anna: generally I feel a lot of entrance/interlude tracks are self-indulgent wastes of space, but this is so overtly “nature recordings for meditation” I can't help but get behind it
you need something to get you into how magical "It All Feels Right" is going to be
hang on here we go with the percussion
wedding quartet on a beach or something
Mike: yeah i've always listened to it and
i am actually kind of stoked on it
like it's not as if you can't tune it out and the transition is so good
Anna: the week I got this album I was dealing with some serious disappointment/angst and I put it on because I knew it would calm me down
and boy oh boy did it
Mike: read a lot of interviews where he brings up how this was the album w/acoustic guitar and upright bass and this 'really warms up the sound' or some bullshit like that
i actually really agree with that and i like it quite a bit more than the album before this as a result
Anna: this song has some of the best-calibrated dopamine effects
Mike: idk about dopamine effects, doesn't do much for me
it just feels like
first ep + years of experience
like it's so well-recorded but the vocals stay the same
Anna: you know how some songs have dance instructions in the lyrics? this song is just, "music's playing so loud" "it all feels right"
like how much simpler can you make it
and the verse/chorus contrast is designed to be as aurally rewarding as possible
never noticed these vocal samples until the last time i listened
which is kind of interesting to put this faux-live element into such a highly produced album
Mike: you know the nature sounds are like
from the garden outside his house
Anna: might have remembered reading that
i just consider It All Feels Right and Don't Give Up to be two halves of a movement
they feel like two of the most similar songs on the album and there isn't really a distinction
Mike: i mean he is still talking about things feeling right
95% sure this whole album is about getting really high and making out
Anna: OVA HERE
the crowd samples at the end are the same as the beginning btw
Weightless isn't bad but it is kind of the mellow come-down track
I was just listening to some older Washed Out right before this and the amount he's expanded his sound is p impressive
Mike: the mellow come-down track
you mean
mellow come-down album
Anna: the mellow come-down track ON the mellow-come down album
Mike: but YEAH 100% agreed
like that's i think what actually has me psyched on this album
it has so much going on but it's all sort of sneaky and hard to notice if you're not paying attention
and the synth sounds are like flawless
speaking as one of the untold millions of white boys who has fucked around with synthesizers
they do not sound like this normally
Anna: when I saw him I was really impressed and enjoyed it a LOT more than seeing Toro y Moi for example
that was more than a year ago but I think that expansion was already becoming evident
I've seen Toro y Moi I think three times and every time I can't remember if I've seen him before
whereas I'm so hyped for the Washed Out show
Mike: i would not actually mind seeing this dude
Anna: it's good!
Mike: again, obsessive interview reading
he spends a Lot of time
even in the earliest interviews i could find
talking about how he's trying to figure out how to translate his work to a live setting
it almost always comes up
and this last round of interviews he talks about how he thinks he's finally getting it
Anna: i just got an album from an artist who's been touring with Toro y Moi and his sound got kind of Toro-ified and i'm bummed about it
omg you're getting me so pysched
this whole sound just goes so far beyond what "chillwave" used to mean and he's gone farther than anybody probably
are you ready for one of the best songs!!!!!
Mike: yes duh
and idk i feel like chillwave became very codified and there were bands that rolled with that and bands that were like wait hold on we're actual creative human beings not parts of some movement
Anna: hahah this is a little Ray of Light too isn't it
Mike: OH I MEANT TO TELL YOU
influences he's mentioned are generally kinda obvious but mid-tempo early 90s pop is
a big deal for him
and i found this pm dawn band he mentioned and um anna
it is kind of uncanny
Anna: the little maraca/bass thing here ooooof
oh shit i forgot to look that up! i will
Mike: put this on on mute
and imagine what it would be like if it actually synced up with the song
for real though the music too is
obviously not the same but you can hear one in the other
Anna: excited
i liked #2 and #3 so much when i first heard the album that i overlooked All I Know but!!
Mike: this song doesn't really seem high-energy but it totally is
reminds me of hang-gliding
timelapse videos of plane flights etc.
Anna: it's that piano riff and the laser beams
i don't know half of what he's saying but it doesn't seem like it's terribly important
if there's a weak element to this album it's probably his voice, honestly?
Mike: going back to interviews
has repeatedly said lyrics are a total afterthought for him
and mentioned in one interview i think that he's been processing his vocals/doing the harmonies the same way the whole time
Anna: there's not a whole lot of musicians I'd accept that from
because I tend to be pretty lyrically oriented
Mike: i mean i barely care what he's saying
Anna: and really admire great songwriting
but
not here
Mike: implying great songwriting means great words
um have you heard the killers
'human' is the perfect example of a song that makes literally no sense but also conveys a very specific feeling/sense
Anna: Great Escape is the other not-crucial track in my book, not that the pacing would work without it but it's not like, my jam
Mike: the track your dealer puts on over and over and over again while you're undergoing a mandatory hangout sesh
Anna: oh god, the most awkward social interaction known to man
have you ever had a dealer who kept pet tarantulas bc if not you can't begin to know the meaning of "get me out of here"
Mike: no and i also sort of relish awkward conversation
since i'm from space and it's nice not having to pretend like i'm not
Anna: i think i want to go on a camping trip with Ernest Green rn
on the cover of the CD and the vinyl the flowers are embossed and it's so nicely done
with the whole idea of lush tropical texture
Mike: interviews again
he has that kanye thing going where he sees every aspect (packaging/merch/whatever) as contributing to the image and therefore wholly worthy of his attention
Anna: it's always funny to me how paperbacks with embossed letters are usually pulp-quality writing but so many good albums have fancy embossing things going on these days
Mike: i think it's because in general embossing is some real expensive shit for the sort of runs that washed out is doing and not for james patterson
Anna: it's time for another one of my favorite songs!! that is 6 and a half minutes long
this intro feels like the soundtrack to the butterfly house at the zoo
Mike: omg are we both thinking of peggy notabaert or whatever
because yes
Anna: oh i only ever went to the brookfield one
Mike: lame
Anna: butterflies love redheads you know
but yeah the repetition of that one butterfly/video-game sound
it's like it has its own life outside of what else is going on in the song
a paracosm is an invented world also so
Mike: yeah i read abt that!!!!!!!
such a good name for things
and the idea of a tiny world where this is the only music anyone listens to appeals
Anna: synecdoche for how his language is so simple but the amount of sounds going is so complex
bc it's operating on some kind of platform that exists beyond this one
Mike: or maybe the sort of absolute cohesiveness of the album
it doesn't sound quite like anything else and it sounds like itself
all the time
that's a dumb thing to say but as i remember he is very careful about writing songs and then pruning the ones which don't fit the overall image he has in mind
no matter how good they are
Anna: i like that, it's more like a project less like a band
and ohhhhh my god this song
the guitar is totally stolen out of some feel-good 60s song
Mike: beach boys
intro to sloop john b
dead serious, listen after
Anna: shit maybe this is the best song
how will i ever decide
Mike: i don't even want to single any of them out
they don't really single themselves out you have to work at it
Anna: like i said i had high hopes when i put this album on the first time but i didn't expect it to be this good
Mike: i had exactly no hopes
i remember listening to washed out when i was in hs and getting bored and then thinking well this guy's never going to do shit
Anna: the way he says "falling back" sounds almost like "euphoria" and i just love that
Mike: man isn't the human voice rad
Anna: one of my favorite things about rapgenuis is the level of confidence the critics have with saying "this phrase sounds like that phrase therefore it is valid to connect them"
which is something i'm used to in visual analysis but not as much music analysis
Mike: reading rap genius
don't you have a suburb lawn to mow or something
go look at the latest hood by air collection maybe post a look from it on your tumblr
Anna: i don't know what that is
this glockenspiel thing fuck
Mike: glockenspiel??????
Anna: i don't know any fucking instruments mike
the bell thing
Mike: vibraphone i think
glockenspiels are clinky
Anna: i had to look up vibraphone vs. marimba on youtube the other day to get it right
clap clap clap clap
those were kind of synced up like people clapping for an encore, right?
Mike: yeah
i am ALL about the semi-unrelated piano outro
layla, etc.
Anna: but it's such murder when you're trying to make mix cds!!!
anyway okay on to the encore track
Mike: did he do this on the last album
Anna: i still think it's sort of dumb and self-indulgent to call your outro track "It's All Over Now" but I want to be able to forgive him
Mike: last one blends together a bunch in a kind of bad way for me
oh come on
he could have called it 'outro' or 'epilogue' or 'deadening' or whatever
accept that here is a man who does not really give a shit about words
but gives enough of a shit to at least put the title of the song in the song
also it sounds like 'song over now'
Anna: LOL
does this ever feel like a breakup album to you
Mike: no but note that i am a breakup album aficionado
Anna: idk though, "it's so hard to let go because you're all i know," "don't give up," and then this
Thanks so much to all who came out last night to support us at Music For Missions! We had a great time meeting new bands and chilling with y'all. Though there are currently no new gigs scheduled, we'll be back soon and can't wait to play music for you again!
