LISTEN | WATCH The Highwomen – The Highwomen īeginning as a viral response to country music’s lack of female representation on airwaves and at festivals, the Highwomen have become quickly become a new staple and influencer of the country and Americana scenes. All of them come together for a record that sells a particular bit but is smuggling something far more real. Witness the shoegaze-tinged nostalgia of “Dead of Night”, the hazy radio love story of “Roses are Falling”, and “Take You Back”, a classic country kiss-off with major potential to unite more than a few disparate sorts of people. In its purest form, country can be a powerful host for tales of romance, heartbreak, wanderlust, death. What’s most impressive is the way that Orville Peck proves how suited country music is as a vehicle for the often complicated machinations of gay love. It is, however, notably gay – subversive in its mere existence in a genre landscape that’s just about as unsaturated as it can get. There’s something tangibly old-fashioned about the whole project, decidedly unhurried even on its few bangers – Pony is a proud mood record, doesn’t reduce itself to the lowest common denominator for the sake of more accessible genre pastiche. And then, of course, there’s that voice – deep and emotive, filling out every song with warmth and color that’s often missing from the twangy sneer of this decade’s most notable country hitmakers. The elevator pitch for Orville Peck’s debut for Sub Pop – gay country music by a guy who never takes his fringed lone ranger mask off – would seem gimmicky if the thing weren’t stuffed so full of genuine love and feeling for a genre that has often been so unforgiving of its themes.
Light bulb by ColiNOOB ( Pixabay License / Pixabay) Orville Peck – Pony Recorded using a phone in situ and ad hoc during Dawid’s travels and performances, the essence of The Oracle is as much about the music it carries-free jazz, funk, gospel, hip-hop, and blues channeled through Dawid’s looped and quilted voice, clarinet, electronic effects, and found sounds-as it is about imprinting the life force and struggles that inform it into a singular work of art. Instead, she frames her story into larger, inescapable narratives to capture and reflect what it means and what it has meant to be black in a world still haunted by racism and oppression. But the Chicago based artist doesn’t limit herself to just archiving an individual’s experience. It is a most powerful document, a spiritual field recording of sorts, of the life and work of clarinetist and composer Angel Bat Dawid.
0 kommentar(er)
