DESTROYERFacebook [https://www.facebook.com/Destroyer/]
ABOUT THE SHOW
_Doors: 7:00pm / Show: 8:00pm_
_Tickets on sale Friday, 10/25 at 10am_
Dan Bejar initially conceived of Have We Met, his 13th album as
Destroyer, as a Y2K album. He was already active during the era but
not heard overhead in a cafe or salon, which is perhaps what the idea
of the Y2K sound evokes nearly two decades later. Bejar assigned
frequent producer and band-mate John Collins the role of layering
synth and rhythm sections over demos with the period-specific Björk,
Air, and Massive Attack in mind, but he soon realized the sonic
template was too removed from Destroyer’s own, and the idea of a
concept was silly anyway. So he abandoned it and gave Collins the most
timeless instruction of all: “Make it sound cool.”
The result is not a startling departure from 2017’s new-wavey,
Thatcher-era yearning ken, but unlike that more band-oriented
approach, the only actual instruments that appear here are bass and
electric guitar. MIDI instrumentation will of course invite Your Blues
and Kaputt nostalgia, the two other John Collins-heavy affairs, and to
some degree that’s valid. Each contrasts cavernous empty space and
synthetic sounds, but rather than whimsical theatrics or sleazy
orchestral pop, Have We Met is buoyed by precise, plasticky guitar
shredding three-dimensionally across massive percussion -- the loudest
and dirtiest drums on a Destroyer record to date.
Thematically, the songs do seem to point at a very modern dread -- one
that heightens the more you consider it. Maybe it’s a remnant of the
Y2K idea, although many would argue it’s even more applicable now.
Opener “Crimson Tide” is an instant classic, a six-minute journey
that takes its rightful place alongside other Destroyer epics. It
welcomes you at first with a sparse rhythm until percolating synths
and propulsive bass make it all a reality with unsustainable imagery
-- oceans stuck inside hospital corridors, insane funerals. You
“open your mouth just to watch your teeth shudder,” as the
narrator suggests, powerlessly gawking at your surroundings.
On “The Television Music Supervisor,” we’re reminded by
trickling keys, glitches, and “clickity click clicks” (a variation
on the standard Bejar “la da das”) that those with the power to
dictate our relationships with music and media are susceptible to
error, a most 21st century concern. Perhaps the most audacious
Destroyer track yet, “Cue Synthesizer” steps back to address the
rote and often detached mechanics of music, while the waltzy and woozy
centerpiece “University Hill” drifts even further and applies that
logic more broadly, insisting that “the game is rigged in every
direction” and “you’re made of string.” Final track
“foolssong” is like an encyclopedia of Destroyer neatly contained
in one track -- there’s mention of a woman’s name, celestial
trumpets, signature “la da das,” an ambient fade. There’s even a
bit of a resolution, that you can dread all day but you still have to
keep yourself entertained.
Atmosphere and loose approximations of a place or feeling are what
we’ve come to expect from any new Destroyer record -- certainly not
an easily defined and stridently adhered to theme or concept. Have We
Met manages to meet somewhere between those disparate Y2K reference
points and Destroyer’s own area of expertise, gliding deftly into
territory that marries the old strident Destroyer with the new, aged
crooning one of late.
DESTROYER
Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/Destroyer/]
ABOUT THE SHOW
_Doors: 7:00pm / Show: 8:00pm_
_Tickets on sale Friday, 10/25 at 10am_
Dan Bejar initially conceived of Have We Met, his 13th album as
Destroyer, as a Y2K album. He was already active during the era but
not heard overhead in a cafe or salon, which is perhaps what the idea
of the Y2K sound evokes nearly two decades later. Bejar assigned
frequent producer and band-mate John Collins the role of layering
synth and rhythm sections over demos with the period-specific Björk,
Air, and Massive Attack in mind, but he soon realized the sonic
template was too removed from Destroyer’s own, and the idea of a
concept was silly anyway. So he abandoned it and gave Collins the most
timeless instruction of all: “Make it sound cool.”
The result is not a startling departure from 2017’s new-wavey,
Thatcher-era yearning ken, but unlike that more band-oriented
approach, the only actual instruments that appear here are bass and
electric guitar. MIDI instrumentation will of course invite Your Blues
and Kaputt nostalgia, the two other John Collins-heavy affairs, and to
some degree that’s valid. Each contrasts cavernous empty space and
synthetic sounds, but rather than whimsical theatrics or sleazy
orchestral pop, Have We Met is buoyed by precise, plasticky guitar
shredding three-dimensionally across massive percussion -- the loudest
and dirtiest drums on a Destroyer record to date.
Thematically, the songs do seem to point at a very modern dread -- one
that heightens the more you consider it. Maybe it’s a remnant of the
Y2K idea, although many would argue it’s even more applicable now.
Opener “Crimson Tide” is an instant classic, a six-minute journey
that takes its rightful place alongside other Destroyer epics. It
welcomes you at first with a sparse rhythm until percolating synths
and propulsive bass make it all a reality with unsustainable imagery
-- oceans stuck inside hospital corridors, insane funerals. You
“open your mouth just to watch your teeth shudder,” as the
narrator suggests, powerlessly gawking at your surroundings.
On “The Television Music Supervisor,” we’re reminded by
trickling keys, glitches, and “clickity click clicks” (a variation
on the standard Bejar “la da das”) that those with the power to
dictate our relationships with music and media are susceptible to
error, a most 21st century concern. Perhaps the most audacious
Destroyer track yet, “Cue Synthesizer” steps back to address the
rote and often detached mechanics of music, while the waltzy and woozy
centerpiece “University Hill” drifts even further and applies that
logic more broadly, insisting that “the game is rigged in every
direction” and “you’re made of string.” Final track
“foolssong” is like an encyclopedia of Destroyer neatly contained
in one track -- there’s mention of a woman’s name, celestial
trumpets, signature “la da das,” an ambient fade. There’s even a
bit of a resolution, that you can dread all day but you still have to
keep yourself entertained.
Atmosphere and loose approximations of a place or feeling are what
we’ve come to expect from any new Destroyer record -- certainly not
an easily defined and stridently adhered to theme or concept. Have We
Met manages to meet somewhere between those disparate Y2K reference
points and Destroyer’s own area of expertise, gliding deftly into
territory that marries the old strident Destroyer with the new, aged
crooning one of late.
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03/03/2020 Last update