ISSUE #9
Ylang Ylang EP - FKJ
If you’ve followed this blog since the beginning, you’ll know that the very first show I was granted a photo pass to because of Bump was FKJ - the Paris, France-based multi-instrumentalist producer / general jetsetting heartthrob.
I even bit the bullet and threw myself into $4k of debt to get a brand new camera and lenses in time for the show (thanks Amazon prime). Safe to say this guy is near and dear to my heart.
FKJ at the Crystal Ballroom, April 2019.
You can then imagine my delight when Vincent Fenton announced the release of 6 new tracks last week, recorded in a breeze-blown room overlooking a tropical forest and cerulean ocean somewhere in Southeast Asia. FKJ’s music is undeniably equatorial, but this EP feels sleepier than the bouncy, sax-laden tracks that made up the majority of his 2017 self titled debut - more of a serene reflection than a celebration.
Ylang-ylang is the common name for the cananga tree, a native to India, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia. Its brilliant yellow bell-shaped flowers can be made into an oil which promotes relaxation, kills bacteria, lowers blood pressure and promotes sexual desire - a fitting analogue to an FKJ release. Ylang Ylang is also the name given to the room that this batch of songs was born in.
The first track, Earthquake features dreamy ambient vocal layers over pitched-down spoken word verses by Guillaume Héritier, a fellow Roche Musique artist. Playful, emotive saxophone accompanies a vaguely latin groove during an ethereal instrumental break before FKJ adds his own voice to the melancholic chorus:
Maybe I am ready to leave?
I have lived well for a loner
Track 2, Risk, features another guest vocal from rapper Bas, a rising talent recently in collaboration with the likes of J Cole, JID, A$AP Ferg, EARTHGANG and Rexx Life Raj. Delicate, hopeful fingerpicked guitar makes up the backbone of this track, with simple lo-fi drums and more vocal ambience from FKJ backing up the Bas’ unorthodox rapid-fire verses about a love that has slowly become unrecognizable.
I can recall when your lips
Used to contort into smiles
Bright as the sun that’s drawn an eclipse
I haven’t seen light in awhile
Hasn’t been bright in awhile
Next up is a tragically beautiful eponymous piano track that sounds straight out of a Joe Hisaishi score. Mournful and trusting at the same time, a simple repeating piano run is accompanied by half-time drums and affected vocal chops donated by Fenton’s wife, ((( O ))). As FKJ riffs and solos over the modest refrain, a string section gracefully doubles down on the melody to drain whatever tears were left in your ducts. Check out the beautiful video below.
Brother is a rarity for FKJ, featuring acoustic strummed guitars and a mostly unaffected vocal performance. Furthermore, the song doesn’t revolve around travel, falling in love or postulation on the wrongs in the world: it's a simple apology to a brother (whether literal or symbolic we’re left to wonder) for Vincent’s failings and missteps. The second chorus brings in a dazzling rhode solo that lends brightness to the deep blues of the track - yet another perfect encapsulation of the sad, happy vibes this EP captures so succinctly.
Brother, brother, we don't speak much
Brother, brother, we've been through a lot
Inside of us, we know, we know
It's been a while ago, a long, sad, happy road
100 Roses is perhaps the closest we come to the sounds of the FKJ LP, and the only song to break 4 minutes. After a forlorn intro featuring more fingerpicked guitar and tasteful string swells over an FKJ on the brink of tears, we’re treated to a beat drop. Lush bass thrums gently beneath heavily affected guitar runs and ghostly reverberating vocal stabs. Roses bloom as a virtuosic synth solo vines its way between percussion and looped vocals, bending up and around the trellises of a white house on a tropical shore. The string section takes us out on a fluttering dawn swell.
The final track, 10 Years Ago is a reflection on FKJ’s journey as a musician and as a human. A beautiful layered saxophone melody haunts this moody track as Vincent sings about being 15, alone in his room, letting his heart speak through the keys on his piano as time flows past, unnoticed.
10 years later
I’m a loner playing loud
Time runs so fast
I'm still the same
This room is on fire
My heart speaking louder
Ylang Ylang is a tragically beautiful look into the heart and soul of an enigmatic artist who seems to bear the weight of the world more heavily than most despite his paradisiacal surroundings. Melancholy lyrical content is so perfectly mirrored by chord progression, melodies and harmonies that one needn’t look up the words to understand the message behind this work:
Life is full. Full of beauty and sadness, mistakes and regrets and acceptance and forgiveness.
I’m brought close to tears listening to these songs - and when I think that we almost didn’t get this beautiful body of work.
♥ Zach
WXAXRXP Sessions - Warp Records
For today's issue of New Music Friday I wanted to do something a little different. Warp Records just dropped the WXAXRXP Box Set which features various live sessions recorded throughout the history of the label. In total, there are 10 sessions by 10 artists, so naturally, it was difficult as fuck to pick just one to write about. And considering how much we love and respect Warp Records as a label and their massive arsenal of artists (many of which have played a major role in my life), we want to take this as an opportunity to appreciate the collection as a whole.
The London-based label, Warp was founded in 1989 by Steve Beckett, Rob Mitchell and record producer Robert Gordon. Together, they established a home-world for artists that fall under the umbrella of electronic music and cover sub-genres from IDM, techno, experimental, and much, much more. With 125 artists on their roster, Warp is one of the most prolific labels of the electronic music scene. It's a legendary, unyielding force that is bursting at the seams with raw, unadulterated talent. And the WXAXRXP Box Set is nothing short of emblematic of this.
Aphex Twin, Plaid, Boards of Canada, Flying Lotus, Mount Kimbie, Bibio, Oneohtrix Point Never, Seefeel, LFO, and Kelly Moran are the 10 artists that make up the collection. These artists are sonic pioneers. Timeless artists whose initial releases were considered to be lightyears ahead of the game and recognized by Warp as artists who will and have changed the musical landscape until the end of time itself.
I don't think I know an artist as prolific as Aphex Twin (and his several other monikers). To many, including myself, he serves as a foundation from which explorations into the endless depths of the electronic music genre begin. Similarly, the Scotland-based recluses known as Boards of Canada (together with Aphex Twin) are grandfathers of the IDM genres and known for the genre-blending of ambient music, EDM, hip-hop, and so many other influences. I have no doubt in my mind that they've played a pivotal role as influencers of fellow label-mates Flying Lotus, Mount Kimbie, and Oneohtrix Point Never (some of Warp's younger additions), all of which undoubtedly deserve to be put on pedestals.
This collection represents 30 years of Warp music heard on the radio, vinyl and illegal internet rips - all compiled in hi-fi format and conveniently packaged together for the diehard electronic music fan. Not only does this box set cover a diverse sonic lineup of the label’s best, but the performances heard span the last 3 decades, from the early day Peel Sessions (1994-98) to WXAXRXP X NTS which took place this last June. These intimate recordings contain variations in production and performance that give us a rare look into the artists behind the music - a priceless commodity for a label representing artists like Aphex who shun the spotlight, making music for themselves and rarely giving press the time of day.
Some favorites amongst this most recent batch are the impossible jazz angles of a live Flying Lotus + Thundercat performance from 2010, the lush harmonies and haunting acoustics of Bibio’s countryside folk or Mount Kimbie’s haunting electro-garage-rock from 2019, and Boards of Canada’s legendary genre-destroying session from 1998. Each facet of this collection holds history within its waxy grooves and represents both the implacable greatness of a Warp artist and the ever-changing nature of the music the label represents.
Whether you’re a newcomer to the mystical strangeness that is Warp or a veteran jumping for joy with us at Bump, we implore you to dive in with us and celebrate the long history of musical experimentation that this collection represents.
Long live Warp!
♥ Mando
