It’d be pretty easy to pun on the “tropicalness” of Madame Claude’s tiny basement room (particularly in relation to these recent pioneers of like-it-or-not, plastic palm tree lo-fi) but SHEESH; this was one sweaty room! Belgium experimenter Lieven Martens, aka Dolphins Into The Future, probably reveled in the vision-quest-inducing heat of the place with his Hawaii-obsessed drones, tapping less into the overly aquatic focused ambience of …On Sea-Faring Isolation for a more rhythmic and Ferraro/Clark sort of almost-pop.
Draped on a microphone stand at the front was his “Hawaii” trucker cap; he wore a ’90s floral jacket. A postcard of Hawaii with grass-skirted dancers leaned in front of his sampler. He has a moustache, wears aviator sunglasses, and sips from a bottle of red as he moves gradually into liquid-y, exotic textures, part intrepid explorer and part washed-up cruise-ship veteran, perpetually in search of an “ultimate” form of leisure and relaxation. The cruise ship (cf. David Foster Wallace’s Esquire essay re: the cruise ship as perverse/forced leisure) is the perfect vessel for the unlikely but not really ironic spirituality that these oceanic loops and isolation-tank spaces tap into; while ostensibly tacky and stuck in the hypnogogic mode of recently failed futuristic ideals, Martens employs this certainly “cool” set of ideas to strive for (and often gain) a sort of genuine transcendence and relevant spirituality.
If fans of Dolphins and experimental music are only familiar with Eckhart Tolle or indeed the absurd-seeming book after which he swiped his name through ironic, outsider points of view, this plastic New Age stuff, vapid and unbelievable, becomes poignant and real when assimilated into the lengthy and repetitive loops more easily equated with esoteric and noise tropes. It dropped out just before the end into a furry tape sample of some sort of Tahitian luau, replete with outdoor chants recorded with a colonial enthusiasm, cementing a positively lucid set in a very plastic system of borrowed exotica and personal insight. It’s an appropriate template for contemporary existentialism; the Do U Believe In Hawaii? (i.e. Hawaii or similar locale that is grimly hedonistic and humorously distant in its paradisiacality) school of relaxation or freedom; good-humoured but aware of the need for some meaning amongst the paradox. Anyway …
Next up, Idiot Glee’s one-man kaleidoscopic, merry-go-round ballads maintained their plasticity while being stripped back and hammed up with the wobbly, one-man-band vibe and a couple of obviously cheap Casios. Utilizing his preset drum-machine to super-endearing effect, Idiot Glee is woozy. Apparently he is a mormon, or at least was raised by mormons, but I’m not sure if that is what gives his songs a stoic, loner quality; it’s more abandoned carnival really, the stark but colourful loops.
The basement heat seemed to have increased a whole bunch by the time Matt Mondanile began his Ducktails set with guitar and sampler, splitting vibes straightaway between the Ridgewood neighborhood pop and the more delirious, beach-styled loops he initially experimented with a few years back while living in Berlin.
Most of the set was marred by sound issues. My friend riffed hilariously on how the ill-aligned Mondanile’s annoyance with the sound guy was with “chillwave,” but I could feel his frustration, as the latter obviously preferred smiling and nodding to requests rather than actually doing anything to fix them. It didn’t stop the obliquely “nice” pop sensibilities from shining through. Whether his ultra-cosy and suburban half-memories took the form of recent jams like “Hamilton Road” or older rhythmic warblers like “Beach Point Pleasant,” it came off lucid, warm, and pretty delirious in the heat. Like Dolphins’ Tahitian samples and general vibe, the trademark hand drums evolved the fake paradisiacal imagery and atmospherics into an engaging blur.
New material seeped out later in the set, coming off substantial and more structured than usual; one had a Panda Bear kind of metre, with his trademark mesmeric synths packing more punch than usual. Another (called “Sit Around With Ya”) laid slow surf guitar twangs over a sample of waves (splashing every 3-4 seconds), a total end-of-summer lament. It wound down an evening of at least partially manufactured nostalgia, sure, but one full of proof of the virtues of reappropriating those lost tropes.
[Photo: Darius Sabbaghzadeh]
