The Kalamazoo College dance company Frelon decided to expand their normally annual showcase to a Fall/Spring split.  Tonight, the talented group showed off their affinity for all things art, not just dance, but also spoken word poetry, music, and interpretive performance.  Frelon extended an invitation to all talented students within the Kalamazoo College community, giving them an opportunity to creatively express themselves in front of an audience in Dalton Theater, Light Fine Arts.  Not only that, but this year Frelon has created a grant to help students in the tricollege area complete any their art-related projects.   This grant was made possible through collaboration with the Arts Council of Kalamazoo (http://www.kalamazooarts.com/).  Katy Ehlert, one of Frelon‘s six senior-directors, says that “the big qualification for it is that these artists have to support Kalamazoo and have an impact on the Kalamazoo community in general.”

The short performance of “Arts, Feets & Beats” was divided into two acts, both of which contained a pleasing amount of every element the show had to offer (dance, song, etc.).  Although I want to avoid critiquing the individual performances, some of them really stood out, especially “Mercy”, choreographed by Katy Ehlert, “Crestfallen Angel”, an original song by Chris Hutchinson, and “Nightingale”, performed by Natalie Brazeau, Laura Fox, and Claire Lindley.

The dance numbers of “Arts, Feets & Beats”, of which there were six, were probably the least interesting aspects of the show, although they were far from boring.  With the exception of the “Mercy” tap number, most of the choreography was amateur ballet mixed with totally unexploited modern Tharpism.  Every time I saw something great and original, it was followed by a jeté or a plié, techniques which some of the dancers couldn’t perform very well, especially in strict unison.  The Frelon directors, Katy Ehlert, Anna Hassan, Kristen Jost, Laura Marshall, Blayne Milbeck, and Marina Takagi, performed in almost every dance.  They’re the directors for good reason: not only are they seniors at Kalamazoo College, but they were also the best dancers on-stage, always keeping positive energy and poise, which made them a real treat to watch.

The second act, which began with a reading by our very own Entertainment Editor Joseph Schafer, was outstanding.  Whether purposefully or not, the ambiance, the lighting, and the physical performances of the second half were much more cohesive than those of the first.  It was as though the pieces had fallen into place, which is not to say that the performances of the first act lacked in any way; it was the act itself that was trumped by its twin.  “I love you guys.  This poem is deep.  It’s about the ocean,” said Schafer, who beat out his second poem in a way that perfectly transitioned into Ben Cooper’s original instrumental “Oklahoma Revisited.”

Furthermore, the second act really utilized the space of Dalton Theater to its advantage.  Specifically, the “Rhinoceros” performance by the Kalamazoo College Theater Department and the song “Nightingale”, performed by those previously mentioned, truly allowed the audience to succumb to the experience and the abstraction of space.  This with the duller tones of the lighting (which deserves much credit) made for a positively eclectic experience.

Like all college student performances, however, “Arts, Feets & Beats” was hurt by its audience, who cat-called, yelled, and screamed out names at every available opportunity.  Although Frelon has a history of eliciting such reaction, it’s still unnecessary.  Whether or not it bolsters the performance and the performers, it cheapens the experience for those who are not screaming and cat-calling.  For example, the last dance “Green Light”, choreographed by Erik Aiken and Blayne Milbeck (another noteworthy performer) was a perfect end to the drabber tone of the second act.  It was upbeat, yet repressive.  It was ecstatic, yet exhausting.  And it was almost ruined by the people behind me.

All in all, “Arts, Feets & Beats” was a worthwhile show which deserves a second performance.  Every performer should be proud of themselves.  Frelon should congratulate itself especially for organizing such a wonderful show for such a wonderful cause.  If you missed “Arts, Feets & Beats”, make sure to see Frelon‘s regular Spring show at Kalamazoo College during Spring of 2010.

Our generation has been slapped with a label of apathy.  From this apathy, the definition of “cool” has become radically different from what it once was.  You couldn’t be cool in the 60s if you were apathetic, just like it’s difficult to be cool and proactive now.  But sometimes, very rarely, something remains cool over the decades.

It’s been 40 years, to the month, since The Beatles recorded Abbey Road, their last effort as a cohesive unit (although Let it Be was released later).  40 years later, this album can get just as personal as it ever could, more so than any other rock and roll album from that era.  Come on, do you have the same magical experience when you listen to Cosmo’s Factory by Creedence Clearwater Revival?  To us, everything that has filtered through the four interim decades is great music, but let’s be honest, nothing is better than Abbey Road.

One of the most fantastic things about this album is that everybody knows it’s great.  Going back to what I said earlier, a very significant minority of people have a) never heard Abbey Road or, even rarer, b) don’t like it.  It’s just cool, and it’s been cool for 40 years.

I highly doubt that any of The Beatles could have foreseen how consequential their careers together would be.  John Lennon is no god, yet we obeyed his command to come together, a song of lyrical augury which opens this timeless album.  The relationship between the songs on the album mirrors the adhesion that the album itself created on its listeners.  We must come together, we must take example.  Abbey Road is not a mere rock and roll album, it is rather a philosophical doctrine of love, loss, pain, and observation.  On The Beatles (The White Album), the lyrics continually stress that the band is not trying to change the world.  They failed miserably.

One of my favorite aspects of Abbey Road is the fact that it is an album, much like a novel is a representation of like events which culminate in a climactic fashion.  This may sound redundant, but think of most albums you listen to.  Are they cohesive bodies of work, or are they merely collections of songs that are similar because they’re played by the same five musicians?  Rarely is an album an actual album, and this is the best of them.  I urge modern listeners, such as myself, to find an old vinyl copy of Abbey Road (maybe your parents have one).  The album we love so much today is actually two albums, connected only by nomenclature and separated derisively between “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and “Here Comes the Sun”.  For the sake of continuity, we don’t get that on the CD version.  We also forfeit the tone of Abbey Road partially: side one begins and ends with dark, mellow songs, interspersed by brightly painted singles such as “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” and “Octopus’ Garden”.  Side two is totally different.  It begins and ends with messages of hope, this time interspersed with tracks that stress The Beatles’ ability to entrench philosophical subjects into mundanity (“Carry That Weight”, specifically).

Amongst dissemination that characterized the last half of their career, The Beatles recorded Abbey Road to end on a good note.  In fact, most of the second half of the album is accidental, contrived by McCartney and George Martin in late night sessions without the presence of the full band.  It is not a magnum opus; it’s The Beatles doing what they did best.  They aren’t deified, Apollonian muses; they’re just four guys with exceptional songwriting ability who were in the right place at the right time.  Abbey Road represents the culmination of their career together.

The greatest testament to The Beatles is the career of each individual musician post-1970.  Apart from John Lennon’s “Imagine”, can you think of one song from George, Paul, Ringo, or John himself that is more memorable than any Beatles track?  If you can, than you’ve had a maligned musical upbringing (Wings?).  The Beatles will exist long after its compositional materials are dead, and Abbey Road will remain its crown jewel and a the crown jewel of the rock and roll world itself.

A review of The Field – Yesterday & Today - Anti/Kompakt

Axel Willner – the Swedish Kompakt recording artist behind the Field – has made great strides in presenting techno in a manner that doesn’t put off the uninitiated. His landmark 2007 debut album From Here We Go Sublime got people in all corners of the music world excited and ready to overcome a fear of dance music and embrace a thumping bass drum and tweaked electronics. For his part, Willher turns in Yesterday & Today - his follow-up – which gestures back to the rockists by expanding his production to include live instrumentation.

Theoretically, the Field shouldn’t really work as a live band. The magic of the Field’s productions and remixes lies in a signature style of digitally warping and looping fragmented and clipped pieces of organic material until he could churn out lushly hypnotic loops that sound like they’re cycling in a washing machine. With such a beautifully manipulated sound it doesn’t seem like Willner’s music would lend itself well to a band jamming out.

Indeed, I had my reservations about this concept, but skeptics need not worry. This isn’t the Field “going rock” or anything equally dreadful. The songs retain Willher’s trademarks and gleams as pristinely as ever, but the template is supplemented with some added layers of texture that accentuate and amplify Willner’s conceptions (there is some great guest work from John Stanier – the mammoth drummer behind Battles, Tomahawk and Helmet).

Perhaps the title of the lead track, “I Have the Moon, You Have the Internet” offers some insight into Willner’s decision to move past a purely laptop-based format and realize the potentiality of integrating elements beyond the circuit boards. The track weaves a familiar skipping pulse through a quilt of delicately pulsating synths and ambrosial ambient layers that seem destined to perpetually soar until the mix is lowered to reveal a breezy steel pan and glockenspiel melody line that takes things back down to earth.

Thus establishes much of the tone of Yesterday and Today. Throughout the album there is often a flux of skyward ascension, cosmic spiraling and wistful earthiness. This means that the wide-reaching trajectory of the record charts quite an exploratory course.

“The More That I Do” – a clear highlight – offers an excellent case study in the Field’s method of song construction. The track builds off of several brief samples from the Cocteau Twins’ extraordinary “Lorelei” and creates a dizzying atmosphere through off-kilter vocal stabs derived from unsuspecting sections of the source track. Meanwhile, shimmering keyboard sequences and powerhouse drums are met with lingering vibes and guitar. Additionally, a tension-building keyboard sample from “Lorelei” is used with admirable precision to signal an oncoming second wind.

Taken side-by-side “The More That I Do” could be construed as a remix of “Lorelei” (there’s a very thin line between Willner’s remixes and originals anyway), but the elements are so transformed that it becomes its own unique entity (the album also features a cover of the Korgis’ song “Everybody’s Got to Learn Somehow” that is similarly transformative).

The Field doesn’t sample hooks or even melodies. Willner’s ears pick up on fractional glimpses within a note to be rearranged and given new meaning. This is his best trick, and it works wonderfully. His debut still stands a slightly more addictive example of his vision, but Yesterday & Today succeeds in fleshing out his sound for a richer and fuller presentation. This should have been tricky to pull off, but the Field proves that he can handle the task. New ideas abound and there is a newly harnessed level of torque, but the record still maintains many of the components that made its predecessor such a success.