SEAL OF APPROVAL – (DC) SHERELL ROWE – Red Palace – 1/6/11

We at True Genius Requires Insanity enjoy dancing nearly as much as we enjoy breathing. We also have an extreme affinity for pop music. As well, we’re also at a point with our twin loves of dance and pop where we feel that there are two acts who deserve time to shine. If you’re a reader of the site, you already know how we feel about Baltimore’s Lazerbitch. Libby Picken and Maxwell Houston have an evolving pop sensibility that only improves by the track. We’d also like to take the time to introduce everyone to DC’s Dark Planet Records’ own dance pop diva, the wonderful Sherell Rowe.

LISTEN TO SHERELL ROWE’S SINGLE “SEX TOY”

In 2011, TGRI is all about reforming standards in a slumping music industry and standing behind who and what we believe in. In 2010, we featured Sherell and her mix of sultry sounds and enticing charisma as the vocal performance during our Soul Train Happy Hour at U Street Music Hall. Her presence was not just limited to this performance though. She was a feature performer on a number of occasions at wildly popular gay/lesbian dance night Pink Sock at DC’s Wonderland Ballroom, and was a feature performer just a few nights ago at Brightest Young Things’ New Years Eve extravaganza. She also released an EP with an excellent lead singles in “Sex Toy” and “Ordinary” that has begun to get critical acclaim from music industry insiders and numerous key players in the blogosphere.

On Thursday night, we’re happy to sponsor Sherell, alongside fellow Dark Planet Records acts that we’ve featured before like the dance/rap hybrid of the Roll Wit Us All Stars, Cyra and the excellent and developing heavy and hard electro style of producer/DJ DJ Lemz at the Atlas District’s Red Palace. We urge all of you in the DC area able to come out for the show to do so, as the Dark Planet family of performers are easily the most criminally underrated in the city. It’s a guaranteed good time out for all involved, and even better, there’s an iPad being raffled off by the label.

Enjoy!

MIA’s "Vicki Leekx" and the nature of medium, technology, censure & disappointment

Upon the release of MIA’s latest mix Vicki Leekx, I advocate that it’s time for MIA to stop talking. The “bad bitch who came from Sri Lanka” (tip of the hat to Nicki Minaj) has had a troublesome transition from being an agitated indy pop princess to being a mainstream pop diva. Her raucous brand of rabble rousing politics have proven to have nearly disastrous effects on a public relations front, as from calling out Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber to advocating for political freedoms while eating french fries dipped in truffle oil, she has become an inauthentic advocate for everything from artistic freedom to civil rights. Her third, and most mainstream release MAYA suffered from this, as, when she crossed over to the public at large as a  faceless voice on  film advertisements for pot comedy Pineapple Express, or sampled deftly as a preaching point on the swagger of Lil Wayne, T.I. and Kanye West, she was a winner. She was foreign, strange and pop friendly, a 21st century Kajagoogoo or Question Mark and the Mysterians, three minute cut out bin memories of mindless youthful glee. Unlike MIA, we heard from both of those acts only once in the American public, and they both faded away. MIA, still very much here, and doing a disservice to herself, art and music at large, and needs quite simply to shut up.

DOWNLOAD THE OFFENDING “VICKI LEEKX” AND JUDGE FOR YOURSELF

This is not to say that silence is a golden negative. Maya Arulpragasm is a wonderful artist. At the beginning of her rise, she was an aspiring clothing designer, graphic artist, filmmaker and last but not least, singer. It was her ability to wield music as a weapon of artistic design that attracted me to her. In aligning with producers like Blaqstarr and Diplo, she was able to use their colorful production styles to paint vivid images of lifestyle and politics. Her early output was the kind of art that inspired a generation of open minded free thinking youths to accept modes of intellectual freedom they felt were not there. However, somewhere along the way, it feels as though the messenger has become encased by her medium, and in doing so, has outmoded herself.

Cyberterroristic electronic dance music is something that absolutely never EVER needed to happen. It’s not because of sonic style, as MIA is always surrounded by the finest progressive pop minds in underground music. It’s because of access. Large portions of MIA’s latest creative output deal with the nature of government control of social media. From Facebook to Wikileaks, she advocates an uprising against the system. The only problem is that it’s no longer 2007 where “Paper Planes” was an artist having a relevant take on a fresh issue. In 2011, we’re at a point where between Twitter, Youtube and Facebook alone, the entire universe is able to comment, repost, @ reply and like a statement or newsworthy occurrence within seconds of it happening, thereby going from intellectualizing and contextualizing a response to crafting important knee jerk responses. The vocal quotient of Wiki Leekx is null. From a production standpoint, it’s quite excellent. From the inclusion of the work of Baltimore local DJ Pierre, to a Nicki Minaj shoutout and new Blaqstarr tracks, it’s dance ready. But if you listen to the words, it’s a classic case of sound and fury unfortunately signifying nothing.

Patti Smith. MIA’s creative doppelganger.

In final, I equate MIA most often to Patti Smith. In both being progressive, creative, of a punk mindset and undoubtedly talented, MIA may want to consider the following:

Between 1967-1977, Patti Smith released volumes of incredible punk rock artistry as a woman who used music as an outlet of her poetic excellence. After an unfortunate accident in 1977, she took time away from music to reassess her life, and from 1979-1996, she released virtually no music, and instead enjoyed marriage, painting, travel and writing poetry. Her output during this period is just as emotive and noteworthy, but in not being musical allowed her incredibly creative senses to sharpen.

Between 2000-2009 Maya Arulpragasam released volumes of incredible progressive dance artistry as a woman who used music as an outlet to illustrate her socio-political view of humanity. After outing herself to the mainstream as well, an avant garde artist instead of a pop diva, she needs to take time away from music to allow Rye Rye, Blaqstarr and the Sleigh Bells, acts far better equipped to be mainstream pop icons to advance her cause on NEET Recordings, her Interscope distributed label. Enjoying marriage, motherhood, clothing design, graphic design and film making as creative outlets for her politics could prove just as emotive and noteworthy as music.

In summation, MAYA and Vicki Leekx are a lyrical void, and proof that MIA needs to cease recording music for the time being. As an artist of importance to this generation, her recent musical output is a vast disappointment, and immediate censure of that creative outlet is an absolute necessity.

On Britney Spears, James Blake, cultural shift & dubstep’s American breakout

The face of American dubstep?

Sometimes, due to cultural factors, a sound just isn’t meant to go pop in the United States. 2010 was the year that dubstep was expected to break in the US. It did, but none of our heroes bathed in bass heavy dark wobble truly crossed over. It was an intriguing test at best if dubstep would make the move, but, on domestic shores, it just didn’t happen. One of the main problems of the blogosphere is that in many ways, due to a seeming self-loathing hatred of American radio and American pop concepts, many bloggers decry America and turn to the UK for answers. Britain’s musical tradition is far more aware and inclusive of non-traditional dance concepts and the importance of the international flavor of the country’s history. The UK has been extremely welcoming of the Afro-Latin history of it’s former national conquests into it’s mainstream musical style for a number of generations, whereas the US, on a mainstream level, is far more cognizant and unwilling to part with the antagonistic values of it’s historic cultural and social transgressions, much to the detriment of progressive musical concepts.

In 2011, Britney Spears releases her latest project. Say what you will about her issues as a parent and human being in general, her albums always find a way to be tasteful public expositions of the stress and pain of her existence, while at the same time featuring production that is always advancing a new pop standard. Speaking of dubstep’s American breakout, it’s rumored that UK expatriate to LA, dubstep’s #1 pop star producer and dubplate demon Rusko has tracks on the record. In the UK, dubstep’s biggest stars are Magnetic Man, a production triumvirate who perform live and float onstage in magnetized suits. In the US, our big dubstep queen? Likely to be a woman who just 12 years ago was prancing around in school girl plaid. Yes, it may appear to be an embarrassing statement for some, but, it’s the American way.

http://player.vimeo.com/video/15624524

James Blake – Limit To Your Love from James Blake on Vimeo.

On the male side, if you’re a dubstep purist who likes indie dance nights and the sounds of Joker warming the cold cockles of your heavy beating heart, it may be worse. Let’s introduce you to James Blake. Blake is a UK producer who released three EPs in the last year that Pitchfork couldn’t define. Well, let me help our friends out. Starting somewhere in the tradition that leads from Depeche Mode to Massive Attack to Portishead, then taking an important deviation through Kanye’s 808s and Heartbreak, Blake’s heavier take on coldwave and trip hop is an eventuality.

Mainstream American ears aren’t going to take well to aggressive dudes promising death by wobbles. Nor are they going to take well to dark skinned brothers making heavy moody blues or unwashed hipsters with scary names making idle threats and sampling hip hop. But, boy oh boy are they going to love a fresh scrubbed, innocent appearing white Brit making emotive covers of Feist. James Blake isn’t a dubstep artist. But, in taking the impulse of dubstep and adding it to a number of sounds that people do know, are familiar with, and have critically appreciated, Blake stands at the precipice of what could be the most major of years. Having listened to a leak of his February 7th debut LP, it’s not just the blog hit and aforementioned Feist cover “Limit to Your Love” that  stands out, but it’s Blake’s ability to distill the qualities of the last decade of heavy bass into pop ready, melodic ballads that highlight his passable voice, melded with excellent production.

The evolution of dubstep is one of the most telling stories of the post-hipster generation. Baltimore club and electro’s crossover was to be expected. Domestically, we have aural experience with both sounds and understand their mainstream appeal. Dubstep was a tougher sell, and had to be distilled and added to far more commercially acceptable modes for success. The American pop game is brutal, cold and unusually uninviting of sonic uniqueness invited by cultural difference. The hipster generation possibly melted these emotions. Dubstep’s acceptance is possibly the first story to watch regarding this shifting cultural ideal.