Veering Off-Course with MGMT’s MGMT

Shafira Desliara — Sun, 15 Sep 2013 16:03:36 +0000

The long wait is over. MGMT’s third studio album is officially released today.

Of course, for those of you who have streamed the full album through the band’s website, the wait has been over for more than a week. In case you missed it, MGMT offered a stream of the new album, the self-titled MGMT, on their website. It’s also accompanied by a visual treat called ‘The Optimizer.’

In their latest interview with the Los Angeles Times, published earlier this September, Benjamin Goldwasser himself admitted that this album sounds less and less pop than its predecessors. And you’ll find that he wasn’t exaggerating things. You can barely make out the chord progressions in each song. Everything is just so thick with layers.

The first track, Alien Days, is no stranger to us since it was released last April, even though having been listening to it for months doesn’t necessarily make the song sound any less odd and unconventional, because that’s just how MGMT do things. Front-man Andrew Vanwyngarden had explained the song as a feeling when “a parasitic alien is in your head, controlling things.” And it seems like it really is what the song does to you. The parasitic alien from the song has now taken hold of your subconscious to prepare and then navigates you as you listen to the rest of the album. The slightly spacey tune of Alien Days also gives you the illusion of taking off to deep space, setting off to the farthest end of the galaxy.

The reverberating Cool Song No. 2 is fuzz-toned and cryptic, while Your Life Is A Lie is no doubt going to be the sing-a-long anthem in the upcoming MGMT gigs. It’s a garage rock chuck, sounding like a jumbled, schizophrenic musical masterpiece. And then there’s Astro-Mancy with its smooth, tribal freak out.

While there’s not enough taste of psychedelia heaven in it, MGMT still has the lush, rich, and thoughtful electronic tone that distinct it from the typical chart-topper electronic music. It’s heavy with hallucinogenic vibe, resulting in the album sounding like a trippy, notional tune—a different sound from MGMT’s most widely known hits like Time to Pretend or Kids (of which are psychedelic dance rock songs that are easier for the ears to listen). It’s a fact that would confuse the people who are still reeling over those two tracks, and get them all bummed out. But to fans of the band, whimsical and outlandish is how they identify the band as. They bask in the bizarreness of the music, sometimes even longing for more dose of odd and quaint.

MGMT is a genuine and well-thought-out quirkiness. It’s a masterpiece of the wacky, an acid-induced whizzing wonder; it’s how the psychedelic bands from the 60′s would probably have sounded like if they had the same technology and equipments as the ones MGMT are presented with today. Unlike Oracular Spectacular and Congratulations, you can’t just pick out one song from MGMT and listen to it individually. You will have to listen to all of the tracks to even pick up on the abstract beauty of this album. Each song feels like a continuation from the other; it’s like reading a book—you’ll have to read all of the chapters to really get it.

A Night of Feels From Ólafur Arnalds

Zafran Aqil — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 12:04:04 +0000

It has been raining quite frequent off late, being the only two ‘seasons’ of weather that we have in Malaysia : Rain, or shine. Rain, day after day after day and it does not look like its about to end anytime soon. What would usually be best thing to do on a post rainy evening? Sit in your room snuggling under your favourite blanket, drink your favorite tea and watch your favorite movie would usually be part of the list, but on the night when Ólafur Arnalds came down to Malaysia for his “For Now I Am A Writer” tour fans all over evidently would rather choose to be at The Bee, Publika instead of watching their favorite movie with a mug of tea at home.

No opening bands, no shenanigans, and no Air Conditioning (Oh No!), Ólafur hit the stage straight to his grand piano with the assistance of a cellist, Paul Grennan, violinist, Victor OrniArnason and with the help of his trusty MacBook, they hit the stage. Needless to say, there was pin drop silence in the venue waiting for the composer to hit his first note. Well, at least till someone asks for an order or somebody dropped something in the kitchen. Other than that the ambience was serene, justifying why the air conditioners were switched off.

Opening the set was ‘GleypaOkkur’ , a track from his previous album “And They Have Escaped The Weight Of Darkness”, a subtle start to his set. Enthralling the audience with every note haunting them from within. Personally, it even gave us chills down our spine. Moving on to his next piece, took a bit of time to show off his persona on stage by sharing a story of how the next song was written; “Poland”. The song related to his adventures to Eastern Europe enjoying what they are famous for, of course nothing other than, Vodka. Progressing into his set, several The pupils who were with us this Tuesday had a great time exploring the free school supplies and getting involved in a range of activities created by Mrs Tait and Mrs Wallace. other notable songs were played from his found songs collection to his latest album, even Victor (Violinist) and Paul (Cellist) slotted in a solo of their respective instruments to flair up the night.

Ólafur’s uncanny humor gave a more gleam feel to the gig (Its funnier with his Icelandic accent really) he took pauses in between songs to interact with the crowd, telling them stories like how he used to be in a punk rock band so the heat doesn’t effect him at all or that he actually wrote a song about bath tubs, ‘Ljósið’ and people misinterpret it to be something deeper than it actually is. Or that he’s seen nothing but his hotel, the highway and the mall that we were in leaving him to only be able to say “You guys have nice highways”. He has his eccentric sense of humor but when he started playing the piano, every stroke of the instrument is a haunting experience. Making your mind travel deep into a lake of emotion. Especially with the absence of lyrics, you are free to interpret how the music touches you on your own. It could be empowering, joyous or even just down right depressing.

Other notable songs to the night would be ‘Alltvarðhljótt’ , a song that Ólafur wrote for a film where “The main protagonists kills her friends” thus summing up the entire movie of, The hunger games. His finale to his set was “Near light”, a song that gave him a standing ovation from the entire room wishing they could have more to hear but to only leave them with nothing but what the internet people would say , “The Feels”. (Zafran Aqil)

SVANAPAPER » Andrew Vanwyngarden

Veering Off-Course with MGMT’s MGMT

A Night of Feels From Ólafur Arnalds