Alan Palomo, Neon Indian, and the Emergence of "ChillWave" in 2k9
By Alex on October 21, 2009 in mp3blog
It’s been quite a year for Alan Palomo. Back in February 2009, when everyone was still reeling from Animal Collective’s pop opus Merriweather Post Pavilion and had just begun anticipating Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimst, Palomo released two very different singles onto the internet , attaching his name to only one. The first, “No Reasons”, comes from his other project Vega. The track is clean, crisp, loud, and all there; or, in other words, everything that Neon Indian isn’t.
When we received “Deadbeat Summer”, all that came with it was a funky picture of two Native Americans walking along the plains: no names, no background, no nothing. But then something special happened: While “No Reasons” merged smoothly into the blogosphere alongside all of those 80’s revivalist projects, “Deadbeat Summer” started to gather more and more attention (with good reason). I remember my first listening to this track back in February; I imagine the puzzled expression on my face must have resembled the way a dog looks when it hears it’s master’s voice on the answering machine. The opening to ‘Deadbeat Summer’ starts out sounding like somebody took all the film out of a cassette, pulled it all out of order, and then placed the cassette back in the recorder. One can only use the word ‘warped’ to describe the result.
‘Deadbeat Summer’ samples Todd Rundgren’s “Izzat Love?”, but unlike the original track the sound loops all over the place in a way that anyone after playing enough innings of Rotblatt can identify with. The sound was completely new, and before the summer hit many other artists that had been making similar music also begin collecting a lot of buzz: Washed Out, Memory Tapes, Weird Tapes, Memory Cassette, JJ, etc. Palomo managed to hold onto his anonymity until Neon Indian simply became too big to handle. By the time it was revealed that the same guy behind Vega is also Neon Indian, it was safe to say that Palomo had created a new genre of music.
All sorts of names were tossed around, from “GorillaVsBearCore” to “Glo-Fi”, until Internet music sources eventually settled on “Chillwave” (if they've settled at all, but this doesn't matter). By this point in time, two other Neon Indian singles had been released: ‘Should Have Taken Acid With You’, and ‘Terminally Chill.’ One could easily argue that within this community, the summer of 2009 belonged to Neon Indian. Everyone was talking about this new genre, and the Psychic Chasms LP still had months to be released.
Izzat Electronic? Izzat Psychedelic? “Izzat Music?” Absolutely, and fucking good music at that. Neon Indian takes the music of the Reagan period, albeit to a lesser extent then Vega, and twists it into a format that resembles a slow fade into obscurity and absurdity. At many points, Palomo’s distinctive brand of “chillwave” seems downright silly; at others, painfully detached. Perhaps this is why so many confused hipsters that are struggling to find something to hold onto after the commercialization of Indie Rock can find common ground with an album that simply floats by for about thirty minutes. As to whether the floating is through space, personal crises or just another acid trip, Palomo leaves that up to the listener. But what will make this album outlast all of those newly established Chillwave copycats is that underneath all this chillness bordering a farcical extent, there is a tortured presence presiding deep – way, way, deep – down that simply refuses to come out…at least while the acid is still going strong.
Deadbeat Summer
Terminally Chill
Should Have Taken Acid With You
6669 (I don't know if you know)
Post Comment
