Sound affects: what three contemporary SA artists are listening to

Very few groups devour contemporary music quite as passionately as the visual art world does. So frequent are the crossovers, connections and interplays between these that, on both sides of the North Atlantic, it’s a standing joke that art schools spawn far more professional musicians than professional artists. Syd Barrett, various members of Franz Ferdinand, Brian Eno and even John Lennon all traipsed off to art colleges around the UK, only to trade the paint box for the fuzz box. In the States, Kurt and Krist (Cobain and Novoselic, Nirvana singer/guitarist and bassist respectively) allegedly bonded over macaroni collage at a community college in Seattle; a little further south, Michael Stipe majored in art at Georgia University before REM kicked off.

Locally, a number of artists seem keen to make the formal connections between art and music the stuff of their studio exploration. Here, three artists for whom music and sound play integral roles in their practices tell us what they’re currently listening to.

JAMES WEBB

James Webb apparently resists the title ‘sound artist’. Perhaps Lloyd Pollak said it best in 2007 in the SA Art Times: ‘James Webb is usually hailed as its principal South African pioneer and exponent (of Sound Art), however the artist demonstrates such nonchalant mastery of conceptual strategies, that his work transcends all rubrics.’ I met Webb at the 2011 FNB Joburg Art Fair, where he was cheerily jamming cellphone signal with a hidden device planted on an unnamed accomplice. You couldn’t have your telecoms ruined by a nicer guy…

Wing

The world would be a much poorer place without Wing. Wing Han Tsang is a Chinese-born, New Zealand-based singer in the grandest karaoke tradition. She is justifiably a cult cultural star, with a guest spot on South Park to prove it. Propped up by off-the-shelf synthesized backing tracks, Wing smothers delight all over the pop canon of the last 40-years. 18 albums down and still marching on, she gives us Elvis, Abba, The Bee Gees - pretty much all the greats – like they have just been beamed in with homemade radiophonic equipment. Nothing is sacred, and Wing owns them all with the kind of childlike sincerity that makes you feel that she is singing just for you. We all need more Wing.

Francisco López

I have had the privilege of working with Francisco López over the past 6-years on a number of performances and recording projects, as well as many very memorable recording expeditions to remarkable and often remote locations. López’s work is characterized by its use of field recordings and the artist’s sui generis transformation of this material. Drawing a veil across meaning and interpretation, López invites his audience to supplicate and listen without association or categorisation. This may come across as willfully abstruse, but the practice of deep listening is a genuinely liberating experience. Surrender to albums such as Through The Looking Glass, Untitled (2007) and Addy En El Pais De Las Frutas Y Los Chunches and you will discover vast worlds of intricate texture and colossal scale. Without conventional melodies or rhythms to confine you, nor words to narrate your experience, this work creates a sensorium allowing visitors to roam unleashed as far as their minds will allow.

The Cure

Naturally one starts from the position that The Smiths were the greatest band of the 1980s and that Morrissey remains the finest lyricist to walk the earth. However, lately, I have been rekindling my respect for The Cure. Their inky atmospheres and sense of unguarded urgency create a pulling swell, becoming something to succumb to, possibly even drown in. In my mythologies, they inhabit a shadowy, caffeinated society, animating lonely Saturday afternoons with a host of eldritch characters. Even with some effects that have dated by now, albums like Faith, Pornography, Kiss me, Kiss me, Kiss me and Disintegration remain phantasmagoric experiences for the imaginative ear.

Houria Äichi

I am an admirer of many singers from the Arab world as well as the numerous traditions of instrumental music from the region. But if I had to choose a favourite, Houria Äichi is my idea of perfect. Born in the Algerian Aurès, Äichi sings Arabic and Chaoui Berber spiritual songs from northern Africa with subtle instrumental backing allowing her voice to stretch and curl like calligraphy. Records like Hawa and Songs of the Aurès yearn and cry, filled with the histories and geographies of love and dispossession. I don’t understand the words but I can see and feel all the images expressed in a voice as crucial as this. There are more famous singers, singers with bigger discographies and armies of Facebook fans, but there is only one Houria Äichi, and from where I am listening she eclipses everyone else.



SANELL AGGENBACH

In her 2011 show ‘Some Dance to Remember Some Dance to Forget’ at blank projects in Cape Town, Sanell Aggenbach ‘mark[ed] a personal point of transition and suspension between states of youth and adulthood. In a tribute to music as muse, seminal albums and iconic rock images are reproduced in a series of monotype prints. Pennie Smith’s epic photo of The Clash’s Paul Simonon smashing his bass guitar, Peter Saville’s Joy Division covers and PJ Harvey’s Rid of Me, among others, are offered as both adopted comrades and transient markers of rebel identity. Aggenbach’s installation photographs and allusive paintings are a haunted critique of Afrikaner identity from a generation inspired by post-punk musicians and their performance art’ (Roger van Wyk).
 

I constantly listen to music while I work, otherwise I tend to wander off, lose concentration. As you can tell from the LP covers from Some Dance show, I have a very eclectic mix of influences... my 'youth' was fairly dominated by darker forces... Ian Curtis/Joy Division, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey, The Smiths, etc. I came from a small-minded Boland town and Worcester was to me what Manchester was to the eighties. Besides that, I dated the only 'Goth' on campus... cheery stuff.

15 years on, I still meddle in the above mentioned from time to time, but mostly I listen to well-penned, well produced music. I have no time for the Gagas and pop riff-raff, give me Howlin' Wolf and Ali Farka Toure any day of the week. I don't download music -  still prefer to buy original CDs. My earliest infatuation with music started in the Worcester public library. I was in a very strict boarding school, no radios or Walkmans allowed on weekdays, only on weekends. When I did get to go home on weekends I waited for my mom to pick me up at the library and every such weekend I would take out Kate Bush's Hounds of Love and Synchronicity by the Police. That set the tone for my youth: otherworldly daydreamer vs. stubborn rebellion.

So here is my top 5:

Nénette et Boni by Tindersticks (1996)

I know what you think... this a soundtrack, but although I am a big fan of this Nottingham outfit, this is not your average soundtrack and it is unlike any of their other releases... a melancholic, slightly off-key, mostly bass, organ and xylophone. Beautiful.

Is this desire? by PJ Harvey (1998)

It's hard to single out any one album of hers, but what I admire about her most is her incredible growth from angsty art-student feminism of the delicate, subterranean White Chalk to profound anti-war sentiments of Let England Shake (2011). An incredible writer and a huge influence... I have seen her live twice and she does not disappoint.

101 by Depeche Mode (1998)

An old standard, when they were at their peak.

Rumours by Fleetwood Mac (1977, although I prefer the re-mastered 2004 version)

This cool Californian rock masterpiece is great for painting to. Wonderful harmonies, and the unmistakable voice of Stevie Nicks is timeless. The 2004 edition has great out-takes and B-sides, stripped down and bare bones.

Jukebox by Cat Power (2008)

This is what I listen to most. She is no stranger to the industry but this mature/sultry album is very seductive and extremely cool. Not unlike Brian Ferry when it comes to covers, Cat Power sways comfortably
between vulnerability and sensuality.    

Another artists I am currently enjoying is Fink (AKA Fin Greenall), a renowned Bristol-based Ninja Tunes DJ-turned acoustic guitarist. I first saw him live at the Assembly 3 years ago and I've been hooked since. Finally (keeping up with the kids), there’s nothing wrong with a bit of the XX.


PAUL EDMUNDS

Paul Edmunds’s latest mode of working in drawings explores the notion of sound and music in visual form. One of his concerns is around questioning why abstraction in music is accessible, while the parallel process of abstracting the visual image presents viewers with more of a challenge.

The Sadies are ordinarily good enough to make up for all Canada’s musical shortcomings (Rush, the Crash Test Dummies, Celine Dion), and their latest, last year’s Darker Circles, is unequivocally their best yet. They are the true bearers of what Gram Parsons called Cosmic American Music, and it’s all on show here. From surf and rock n’ roll to Appalachian folk and, most clearly, country. All this is characteristically bathed in a soft, psychedelic glow. Yip, no one rocks, picks and sings like the Sadies, it’s true.

Jenny and Johnny are Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis and her boyfriend Johnathan Rice. This is bad news, in the sense that Jenny has a boyfriend. In a musical sense, however, this is a good thing. I’m Having Fun Now features 11 tracks of agile, astute and highly addictive guitar pop. It’s as if - someone said - Evan Dando was a girl and a boy. (And, I’m adding: ‘not dysfunctional’.) If you know these two separately, you’ll know that Jenny sings a bit better than Johnny (Google some live performances for evidence of this), and consequently, I reckon, they’ve toned her voice down, particularly when the two trade leads.

Johnny, however, is clearly not intimidated by the company and sings, plays and writes with ballsy confidence. While it might be very catchy and pleasant on the ear, lyrically the album is not all sugar. Sharp blades and serpents abound, and there are some barbed observations about the US in general, and California in particular. My favourite lines? Johnny’s ‘For God and for country/ For Michael Jackson’s monkey’, and Jenny’s ‘You make bedroom eyes/ At a test tube.’

Jenny and Johnny are not to be confused with Jonny. The latter is an even poppier confection by another duo: Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci’s Euros Childs. I’m not that familiar with Gorky’s, a folky, psychedelic Welsh pop outfit, but the Fannies are one of my enduring favourites. It’s not clear how a Welsh/Scottish duo go all West Coast on us, but both are gifted songwriters majoring in melody and harmony, and these are given free and gorgeous reign on this album.

There is something of a ‘workshopped’ feel to some of the tracks, but others – Candyfloss, Circling the Sun - are as concise and complete a pair of pop songs as ever there was. It really is sweet and quirky throughout, but this is more sugar than saccharine, which is an important distinction if, like me, you value authenticity. I’ll take all the twee there is because of the harmony, and the competence with which it’s delivered. I might not like it in a year’s time, but pop isn’t always about endurance.

As I grow older I find myself drawn to what you might call ‘canonical’ works or artists. Last year I tried to get into Exile on Main Street but it just sounded shouty, and I remain indifferent to Bob Dylan. However, I have been treading the Gram Parsons/ Byrds track for some time, and spend long enough there and you inevitably end up at Alex Chilton’s Big Star. I’ve always read a lot about this band and amongst my favourites are several who claim Big Star as a major influence. The aforementioned Teenage Fanclub and Minneapolis’s Replacements are prominent amongst these, but I’m unashamed of my taste for Crowded House too.

I picked up a Big Star twofer at Amoeba Records in San Francisco and am just starting to listen to it. First impressions: a melodic sensibility worthy of the Byrds played with the attack of early Kinks or Faces. And if you were already of the opinion that Oasis is unoriginal, wait until you hear 1973’s Radio City. Like The La’s (There She Goes anyone?), Big Star was also led by a genius who seemed to hijack his own success. And both loved a big, crunchy guitar sound. Chilton died of a heart attack last year, unable to afford basic healthcare.

I recently watched ‘Darkness at the edge of town’, a doccie about the making of that album by Springsteen, and I see myself gravitating towards it in the near future. In my current quest for this kind of authenticity (as much a function of my age as due to the fact that I know taxidermy and plaid are really hot right now) we saw Steve Earle in New York. He really is an original and deeply textured character. He was backed by the Dukes (and Duchesses) and the concert was more akin to watching a band than a solo artist. Allison Moorer (Mrs Steve Earle) was particularly impressive and the three tracks on which she sang lead and played guitar were among the concert’s highlights.

I’m pretty sure they won’t take over the world but the Shook Twins from Portland Oregon are quite spectacular. I saw them by chance there last week. Will it mean anything to you if I suggest they are a combination of Kate Bush at her most beautiful and Violent Femmes at their whackiest? And did I mention the unearthly twinly harmonies, the giant rhythm egg and the ghostly telephone vocal effect?