Punks, proggers, pub rockers, … everybody wants to sell records. Back in the day, long before we all went online, bands and record labels would have to draw attention to their latest offspring through print advertising. Considering the inventiveness and atmosphere of some of these vintage music ads, it now seems a bit of a lost art. Let’s start off with my favourite example …
Lou Reed – ‘Rock n Roll Animal’ (1974)
Miles Davis – ‘At Fillmore’ (1970)
Elvis Costello – ‘This Year’s Model’ (1978)
Rush – ‘2112’ (1976)
Kraftwerk – ‘Man Machine’ (1978)
Jeff Beck – ‘Blow by Blow’ (1975)
Iggy Pop – ‘Lust For Life’ (1977)
Queen – ‘News of the World’ (1977)
Television – ‘Marquee Moon’ (1977)
Caravan – ‘If I Could Do It All Over Again, I’d Do It All Over You’ (1970)
Ian Dury – ‘New Boots and Panties!!’ (1977)
AC/DC – ‘Highway to Hell’ (1978)
David Bowie – ‘Heroes’ (1977)
Captain Beefheart – ‘Trout Mask Replica’ (1969)
Bruford – ‘Feels Good to Me’ (1978)
King Crimson – ‘In the Court of the Crimson King’ (1969)
The world is a tough place. You can’t deny it. At least when you allow Jenny Hval’s ‘Apocalypse, Girl’ to spread its tentacles into your mind – and I did. The artwork features a woman tripping over a space hopper rather clumsily. Face down.
If we may believe Hval, such uncomfortable situations dominate our lives. The pressure not to make a fool out of yourself is unbearable. A phenomenon the Norwegian chanteuse analyses with an almost painful self-awareness.
Championed by Michael Gira
When in September 2014 noise guru Michael Gira (Swans, Angels of Light) agreed to do a brief Q&A session before steamrolling Brussels’ Ancienne Belgique, he turned up at the eleventh hour. Luckily, he picked some interesting music for the eagerly waiting audience.
Not particularly extreme-sounding, the combination of a fairylike female voice and some seriously disturbing words, was surprising. Later on, back home with ears still ringing, buzzing and roaring from Swans, Google told me the singer was Jenny Hval.
Deceivingly innocent
Hval’s writing style is rather, erm, carnal. Involving a small army of cunts and ‘soft dicks’. Mastering a sense of drama likely learned from childhood idol Kate Bush, Hval sets her angelic, deceivingly innocent voice against a spiky musical backdrop. You’ll understand it doesn’t take ages before ‘Apocalypse, Girl’ totally disorients you.
Hardly a melodic piece, opening song Kingsize immediately shows Hval is capable of tremendous mental leaps. In a matter of moments she mentions bananas rotting away in her lap, cupcakes and a “huge capitalist clit”. Ominous strings and spoken word set the tone. And it’s a grim one.
Fierce social commentary
Take Care Of Yourself dissects what people do to keep themselves happy. Which apparently comes down to: meeting the expectations of others (“shaving in all the right places”) and … masturbating. Hval sounds in turns joking, elegiac and unpleasantly disturbed. While synths paint the scene in ever darker tones.
Only after that there’s room for a more or less accessible song: That Battle Is Over. Hval’s voice might sound heavenly, but excells in fierce social commentary. Specifically about the burden on today’s women’s shoulders:
“Statistics and newspapers tell me I am unhappy and dying
That I need man and child to fulfill me
That I’m more likely to get breast cancer
And it’s biology, it’s my own fault.”
Washed up from a wild sea, Heaven takes the tempo to a mild trot. With pounding electronics and strings and harps spiraling around Hval as she climbs to a higher register. But again, her words are arresting: “I never was a girly girl, forgive me”, reveales that it’s damn hard to swim against the tide.
The pains of being a female outsider
The velvety Sabbath is dominated by the feeling that we have zero control at all. Self-doubt is the starting point for Angels and Aenemia, while the lengthy Holy Land culminates in Hval violently gasping for air.
Despite her unfiltered stream of consciousness, Hval’s message is crystal clear: people are constantly judged – even more so being a female outsider. Taking herself as an example, Hval exposes her inner self as few did before.
A few days ago, Steven Wilson played the Montréal Jazz Festival in Canada. During a public interview he shared some passionate words about discovering music. As well as the treasure he most recently dug up.
I’ve been on the road now for four months with this band. And the last thing you want to to do when you get home is going to a show. It’s like going to the office. But I do still – voraciously – devour music.
[…] The thing about the history of music is: just when you think you’ve heard everything, something else will come along and surprise you. And I think also your musical taste changes as you get older. Things that didn’t make sense to you as a teenager suddenly click.
[…] I’m always amazed by how much fantastic music is available and still there to be discovered. Even at my age. So i’m still very curious and passionate about discovering music I’m not familiar with.
Steven Wilson is notorious for listening to everything from the most delicate pop to the most brutal noise. You can tell by browsing through his playlist archive, an virtually inexhaustible source for great music. Where did Wilson pick up this wide-ranging musical taste? Like so many people, he listened to his parents’ records:
You know, my parents were very electic in their musical taste. I grew in up in a house where we’d be listening to quite serious intellectual rock music, but then also to Abba and The Carpenters and The Bee Gees. And I still … to this day I love pure pop. When it’s done beautifully …
On his latest discovery:
I was listening to an old jazz album by a guy called Les McCann, ‘Invitation to Openness’. Early seventies Atlantic jazz record, very inspired by Miles. Kind of ‘In a Silent Way’. And again, that was just a record I was introduced to only the last few weeks. And I’ve completely fallen in love with it.
Thanks a lot for the tip, Steven. I safely transferred the album to my Discogs wantlist!
