Slow Violence
It’s all about this track ‘Kidz’. There’s a guitar string slightly out of tune and the whole thing only goes for 1 minute 46 seconds. The lyrical phrase ‘I don’t know exactly where I’m going, but I’m right here right now’ is sung whisper-thin, only once. It’s a cliche but it doesn’t matter because this is a musical photograph. A disposable photograph. It’s not trying to be perfect or enduring, it’s just a short-cut to an honest moment.
New Teen Angst 2. is the debut release by Slow Violence, out on Canberra label Dream Damage. According to old mates at Mess&Noise, Slow Violence is the recording project of Advait Thakur, a Canberran currently studying at Rhode Island School of Design. This incidental fact brings to my mind the only other person I know to have studied there, Talking Heads frontman/musical wizard David Byrne. In a way, the two artists have nothing to do with one another. But another way of looking at it would be that they have EVERYTHING to do with one another. Check it out: the weird thing is that when I first sat down with this EP, before researching Slow Violence enough to know the RISD thing, I was actually reminded of a section in David Byrne’s recent book ‘How Music Works’, where he uses the phrase ‘meta-music’ to describe modern electronic sample-based compositions that are filled with ‘musical quotations piled on top of one another’. It is in the ability of Thakur to combine musical quotations from different sources to create new meanings that this EP’s appeal lies. He tastefully weaves together influences from ambient music, R&B, lo-fi indie, and other genres that never existed except in the pious ramblings of some Pitchfork intern.
Like the guileless wandering vocal line about a minute into Crushin’, there are so many unique sonic flourishes in these tracks that easily could have been stretched out or repeated (and robbed of significance), but instead exist as glorious singular events. This ability to hold back is a real strength of Thakur’s production and creative vision. It’s a free download on bandcamp. Go ahead and enjoy the moment.
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