Meanchelle – Communiqué

Electronic artist CVN Drops Emotional New Album “i.c.”

Today, Nobuyuki Sakuma (former member of Jesse Ruins) released his second full-length album as CVN. Though it feels like a logical departure from the darting techno doom-scape in Sakuma’s preceding album, Matters, the huge breadth of emotions channeled in i.c. makes for an unpredictable listening experience. Track by track, Sakuma calls for us to rely on our sense of imagination rather than direction, and follow him, unhurried, through the “mutating” cityscapes of Tokyo.

Kicking off i.c. with a pop track, “成分” consists of lullaby-ish melodies and kind, female vocals by NTsKi. It is followed by “Excuse” feat. Cemetery, which builds a sense of tension and curiosity through its steady beat, ambient diffusion of vocal samples, droning strings, nature sounds, and colorful synth blips. The track eventually wriggles free from its forward marching drums, as if to give us a chance to look around at the diverse soundscape that Sakuma has built before moving onwards.

With an ominous chorus and an abundance of industrial whirring, “You Argued for Justice” delivers a dark catharsis to the prior track’s buildup. Though the begin of “Snippets of Heaven” might lead you to believe we’ve reached a glitchy techno destination, it resolves to another moment of sonic reverence. Next, “Local Pain” feat. Le Makeup uses bright guitars to take an unexpectedly upbeat turn, and so it goes. Sakuma purportedly allows his mood to dominate the direction of each track. As a result, i.c. moves between heaviness and zen, while often finding a way to balance the two elements within the same track.

i.c. resembles its predecessor, Matters, through intricate and inventive synthesized sounds, and an untethered, winding, sense of motion. Both albums are experimental in their own right, but i.c. find chaos in moments of stillness, and each track’s organic undercurrent to shine through. Each beat finds a flow that is interesting and rhythmically unique, but not so heady that it requires technical appreciation in order to be enjoyed.

Like walking through Tokyo, there is always something new waiting to be discovered in i.c. Every layer that is peeled back gives us another clue about the place from which Sakuma is sending us his message.

When he’s not making music, Sakuma works as an editor at the online music magazine, AVYSS, and curates a mix series called Gray Matter Archives. So while the more avant-garde aspects of this album are likely inspired by Japan’s experimental electronic scene, tracks like “Excuse” and “下丘 Kakyu” utilize traditional Japanese instruments and reflect the juxtaposition of hypermodernity and history that exists within Tokyo.

CVN will be performing in Philly on June 19th at Berks Warehouse, along with label-mate Koeosaeme

Stream i.c. by CVN below!

Boiler Room announces new film platform, 4:3

On May 24th, Boiler Room announced their release of a new film platform, 4:3. Coined a “Netflix for the Underground”, the techno moguls will curate visual media that focuses on documenting club & dance music culture. The pieces on the site are sure to be entertaining, but more importantly, the collection will trace music history and likely inform its future.

Since their first broadcast in 2010, Boiler Room has become a keystone production company in the growth and international migration of dance music. According to their website, what began as a webcam taped to a wall in a basement has now become a collection of over 4,000 performances by over 5,000 artists.

4:3 refers to the aspect ratio commonly known as “full screen”. In this new era where screen-based media is accessible to a resounding number of people in the first world, Boiler Room hopes that this platform will fill the gaps between those 5 million actively involved in their social community and the 157 million that they connect with monthly through various media campaigns and networks.

But this visual platform won’t just exist online. Tackling themes like “performance, identity, youth culture and anti-establishment”, the company plans to facilitate a body of live events, making 4:3 “rooted in physical experience”. This will include “parties, smoked out film screenings and exhibitions around the world”.

May 29th was the official launch of the site, though there was a soft launch on the 24th, with artists Elijah Wood, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Peaches, and Jenn Nkiru featured as curators.

With the official launch, the site is holding a week long tribute to cult icon Arthur Russell, complete with unseen pieces from the artist’s personal archives and a sound installation by renowned techno artist Andy Stott. Boiler Room will also host a live screening of “Wild Combination (A Portrait of Arthur Russell)” featuring Optimo’s JD Twitch. The event will take place within a church.

As per the company’s website, “Everything [they] do is rooted in the energy of club culture and its ability to bring people together. Open dance floors; where music, ideas and people meet.” In an interview with Campaign, Stephen Mai, chief content officer at Boiler Room, touched on the impact that 4:3 could have on the influential members of Gen Z and Y. This type of foresight seems to speak to the importance of curation in the digital age.

When Google ranks the order in which websites appear in a search, its algorithm determines the likelihood of which the searcher will visit a particular website. Coined “filter bubbles”, these rankings can have a huge impact on our own individual beliefs, behaviors and understanding of the world, from our political affiliation, to what media we consume, and more.

This same concept can greatly impact music listeners and culture consumers depending on which platforms they use. If a listener relies heavily on Spotify in order to find new music, their discoveries can be limited based on what Spotify’s ranking algorithm puts in their suggested playlists or in the “related artists” section. (Maybe this type of thing something to do with the explosion in popularity of repetitive SoundCloud rappers in the past year or so….)

The many curators of 4:3 could bring together content which even the most savvy culture connoisseurs might otherwise have to scour the internet to find. From futuristic Audio Visual pieces to cross-cultural documentaries, providing audiences with films that are culturally rich, even educational, and artistically diverse has the potential to be highly impactful. 4:3 seems less like a musical Netflix, and more like a musical FilmStruck.

According to Mai, the website will “champion underground art movements across music, art, fashion, film and culture by curating and commissioning relevant content that brands can integrate with.”

Though this is worded to sound almost noble, the use of the term brand gives me pause. Market dominance is implicit in the extension of any company. While 4:3 appears largely beneficial to audiences, the idea of pushing the agendas of various brands seems to dilute the innocence of its mission. At the end of the day, Boiler Room is a private company. If plans for 4:3 include privileging content that promotes brand initiatives over that which is artistically significant, might this platform become bias to the point of disingenuousness?

What do you think about 4:3? Do you think other companies might follow in Boiler Room’s footsteps? Or that maybe Boiler Room will use 4:3 to create VR concert experience one day? Is 4:3 just a scam for Boiler Room to monopolize “underground” music?

OSHUN in West Philly

Screen Shot 2018-02-05 at 9.36.28 PM — Photo via Oshuniverse.com

On Saturday the thirteenth of January, Niambi and Thandiwe Sala and producer/DJ, Proda, walked in succession down the back stairs of a West Philly basement, to the front of an eager crowd. like foreign envoys Back in 2015 in an interview with Complex, the two explained that Oshun is the Yoruban deity after whom the project is named. “A West African, traditional deity, she’s a goddess, and she governs over sweet waters.” She’s a mother of love, fertility, wealth and diplomacy”.

Their presence expressed this vividly. From the time they walked towards the stage, until they took photos and thanked their fans after the conclusion, the air was full of love. Afrofuturism stands as the core value and inspiration for the group’s art. In fact, “love for [their] people and for serving and enlightening their people” is what brought the two together, when they first formed Oshun back in the freshman dorms at NYU. On Saturday these philosophies spread through the venue like a spell. In an audience comprised of primarily black/brown persons, the occasion was best described by Oshun themselves; a celebration.

The two wore matching camo jumpsuits, bronze crowns, and bronze tops which swirled over their bodies in winding patterns. Once the “takeoff sound” (a glittery, space-sound like something that would come from The Powerpuff Girls) was played, the beginning of a collective voyage into the “Oshuniverse” began. They began with a few track off of their upcoming series Bittersweet, before moving to songs from AFAHYE and ASASE YAA. With “Parts”, the two wielded a kind of sweet but powerful energy throughout the crowd. From the delicate emotional depths of Sango, to more energetic and beat driven tracks like “Blessings on Blessings”, they proved that every track in the discography is drenched in meaning. Their defiance and strength was expressed through sweetness and love; a testament to the paradoxical spectrum of a narrative which is too often flattened in our society.

With standout tracks like “Not my President”, both showcased their gifts for vocal improve, sounding better, and hitting runs more impressive than those than their recordings. The track included metal-inspired guitar riffs to replace the more jazz-like trumpet solo featured at the end of the original recording. As many genres as Oshun fits together in their music, producer Proda managed spread this idea throughout the set to add more energy to the performance.

Now that Niambi and Thandiwe are graduated from school, they have been able to create their album series Bittersweet, and embark on a two-month tour throughout Canada and the United States. A sort of Neosoul/Hip-Hop infusion, their music draws heavily on reggae, and multiplicitous forms of traditional African/root music. Mixing these sounds with progressive production and otherworldly sound effects/design, the Oshun’s art ends up somewhat like an enormously expensive musical history lesson/divination session. The two frequently express the spiritual nature of their goals and purpose in interviews and press. At their West Philly performance on Saturday they brought a message of peace and healing to a well deserving crowd.