One of my favourite new tunes to come out in 2020! Plastic Ivy is a one-woman project consisting of Lira Marie Landes, based out of Philadelphia, just like the author of this blog. (Howdy, neighbour!) The focus of this single is of course the art movement--or anti-art movement--of Dada, a vital force in visual art, literature, and indeed music at the turn of the 20th Century. The Dada Centennial has brought renewed focus and interest to the period, as has the drift of popular sentiment back towards the same post-modern, absurdist ideals of the arch-dadaists. Much as Dada captured the nihilism, ennui, and abandon felt by a generation scarred by the carnage of World War I, the anti-culture of the almighty meme has united our new lost generation crushed beneath late capitalism. In response to the maxim, “art is dead, long live Dada,” Landes bequeaths us the chant of “Dada Lay Dying,” a screed checked by the affirmation that Dada, indeed, never concluded, and remains poignant to this day. Between the gorgeous cover illustration, reminiscent of the early photo-collages of German Dadaist Hannah Hoch, and the stuttering hook, “da-da-da-da...” apparently riffing on the meaninglessness of the name itself, it’s impossible for me not to fall in love. I am, after all, an art historian who also adores a cold mechanical beat...
