Settle Down

(Brief Kimbra Review with the necessitous connections to Tracie Morris)

I work for the Eastern Michigan Ticket Office. My job entails not only selling tickets but also working the events, running customer service and making sure events run smoothly. Most would say this job is a sweet deal, you get to work at school and see sports events and performing artists for free (this not being true because when one is at work one must actually work). However, I have never been one to get excited for mainstream sporting events. I know none of the school cheers or songs and I'm very choosey about what artists to get excited over. Even though Bob Segar is fun to dance to, he doesn't give me that special feeling I get when watching The Matches, or The Causalities (As he does, my mother). In brief, usually I am very work-oriented at work, not constantly distracted by the performances going on around me.

On Monday night, I worked the Gotye concert. I had heard some of his stuff and watched part of his music videos. I recognized him as an artist with a presence that would definitely be interesting to witness, but I was in no way excited (that is, however, measuring excited by the explosive excitement of his fans). Needless to say, I was prepared to keep my game face. You know the one you need to tell crazy, screaming stricken individuals to back away from the stage, hand over the air horns, and that I will call the cops on you if I smell alcohol in the green room. The opening act came on and within one song, I was stricken.

I am possibly building this up too much. But when I have what my middle school choir teacher would describe as a "magical (musical) moment" I feel the need to shout about it. I fell in love with Shira Erlichman after one poem (That poem being Daddy's Parking Lot Sermon, formally mentioned in this blog), I bought both Stilettos Formal's albums before even hearing them play a note, and after one song Gotye's opening act, Kimbra, had me listening.

I think what was so intriguing about her was not only her amazing voice, but the level of professionalism and passion with which she approached the performance. Usually when you think, pop singer (which is the best description of her genre, perse) you think Britney Spears, Katy Perri- singers that seem caught up in the glamour of Hollywood  materialism. "Sexy" women wearing slim to nothing, singing songs about "givin' it up" and such. Kimbra impressed me with her focus on the music rather than spectacle, while still putting on a fantastic show.

Another interesting facet of her performance was her use of "the loop," (and here comes the tie in to Tracie Morris). Kimbra's use of the loop to create many levels simultaneous sound. Many artists use the features of the loop to create their narrative... like Tracie Morris. 

When Morris uses the loop in pieces such as "Black but Beautiful," and "Chain Gang," she utilizes the loop, repetitions of words and phrases, to create a deconstruction of those phrases and ideals. In "Black but Beautiful" as in "Project Princess," she is fighting for the black adolescent, one who was told that they must be light skinned to be beautiful, they must be thin, less "booty-ful". Her language hints at the absurdity of such an ideal by breaking it down through the loop, whereas Kimbra's use of the loop in which she creates a palimpsest of sound. The loop allows for a break down of sounds. Half words, half tones live within the boundaries of the loop. Jazz thrives within the loop. And as we can see through studying Kimbra and Morris the loop can either be taken forward to create, or backwards to create through deconstruction.