Yeasayer
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
Tags: indie, experimental, psychedelic
Yeasayer’s third album, Fragrant World, is a hulking beast of a record. Keyboards clank and wheeze, tiny claps stumble against busted drum machines, and there’s very little obvious guitar. It’s an album that grapples with the schizophrenia of the modern world by gathering piles of electronics and molding them into something huge and often gorgeous.
After touring endlessly in support of 2010’s Odd Blood, Chris Keating, Ira Wolf-Tuton and Anand Wilder holed up in Gary’s Electric Studios in Greenpoint, Brooklyn to record Fragrant World, working away as the borough transitioned from fall to winter. While Odd Blood played with electronic textures and future paranoia, Fragrant World fully immerses itself in those themes, virtually dripping with worry, love, and concern for the planet we live on. Keating bleats and yammers his lyrics—sometimes, like on “Longevity,” piling so many effects on his voice that the music takes on an otherworldly sheen. In direct contrast are Wilder’s vocal contributions, which hover serenely over droning synths on “Blue Paper,” and later weave in and out of staccato hand claps, and what sounds like a vintage computer dying, on “Devil and the Deed.”
Across Fragrant World’s 11 tracks, genre mashing is taken from a broad spectrum of sources: updated takes on dusky pop, jittery funk, exotic keyboard experimentation, haunting whirs of backward organ, exuberant bass, etc. “I wanted to make a record that was legitimately, to use a bad word, funky,” Chris Keating told Under the Radar magazine. Even at it’s darkest, that statement holds true. On their first single and album centerpiece, “Henrietta,” Keating is in great form. The track is loosely based on Henrietta Lacks, a woman whose cells were cultured by a doctor in the 1950s without her permission. Those cells would later go on to be the most commonly used human cell line for medical research. Keating teases out universal ideas from bizarrely specific moments in history, repeating the refrain, “we will live on forever,” referencing Lacks’ story directly, contrasted against a darkly optimistic worldview. It’s a risky move, but it pays off.
It’s a testament to their sound and the unique identity they’ve carved out for themselves in the music community. They’ve managed to grow and expand into what they are now without losing touch with what made them so compelling in the first place: their willingness to pull from every musical source imaginable. Whether it’s the warped and clipped alien-dancefloor banger “No Bones” that has strong ties to Timbaland’s most experimental work for Aaliyah and Missy Elliott, or the gothic, almost industrial pulse of “Reagan’s Skeleton,” Yeasayer are truly making 21st century music. Couched in healthy fear, yet unafraid to move forward and expand, pulling in new influences just as frequently as new worries, Yeasayer have created a difficult, dense and beautiful record. It’s as much a synthesis of the last three decades of pop music as it is a new way of grappling with the end of time.
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TheOwlMag on Yeasayer
4 months agoYeasayer Fragrant World [Secretly Canadian]
Fragrant World kicks off with the electro-pop filled delight of “Fingers Never Bleed.” Definitely one of the standout tracks on the album. Along with the synth heavy, easy on the ears approachability of the album’s previously released singles “Longevity” and “Henrietta.” The band seems to be channeling a bit of Hot Chip on “Blue Paper” and “Devil And The Dead” with their simple electro-funk beat topped with Chris Keating’s whimsical delivery. While some of the genre bending tracks on the album might still be easy to follow, like the electro ’80s flavor of “Regan’s Skeleton,” and the funk-filled electro-pop twist of “Damaged Goods,” others might prove to be a bit too avant-garde for the average listener.
Constantly testing their boundaries by experimenting with and tweaking their sound, just like a rebellious teenager, Yeasayer set out to prove with every new release that they can’t be so easily labeled. They do need to be careful how far they push, however. In the case of Yeasayer, having someone else take on the task of production might help ground the band and steer them to a much more clear direction. After all, most petulant teenagers benefit from a bit of guidance, someone to reign in all that rebellious energy.
Check out the video for “Henrietta” here:
And don’t forget to peep our recent chat with Anand from Yeasayer HERE.
more at theowlmag.comQuit Mumbling on Yeasayer
7 months agoTweet Anyone who knows "Kiss From A Rose" knows Seal's place in 90s music canon. Brooklyn band Yeasayer stopped by an Australian radio station a couple days ago to premiere a cover of his 1990 hit "Crazy", and damn it's good. The trade-off of earthy tamborine and carefree guitar for the original's outdated jazz-synth beats grounds and legitimizes Seal's lyrics with vocals that are pretty flawless, revealing a rather thoughtful song. Their version brings the previously overshadowed verses to the more here
Quit Mumbling on Yeasayer
7 months agoYeasayer put out a new song from what is the presumed follow-up to 20102s Odd Blood this week. "Henrietta" starts out with those familiar vocals in reggae adornment ( Ras Trent! ) before it shape-shifts into the ethereal refrain " Oh, Henrietta/ We can live on forever " that ends on the smoother, more meditative side of their psych-pop tendencies. Check it out below. more here
Quit Mumbling on Yeasayer
7 months agoSince last month's release of a new Yeasayer song , the Brooklyn psych-pop trio has announced their album along with new track "Longevity" today. This one hops and pops along a line of clicking glitches before reaching a chorus of steadier transmission that finds Chris Keating's melting vocal imploring you to " Live in the moment/ Never count on longevity " — the basis of a journey through swirling, trippy consciousness that eventually travels back to a hopefully more aware present existence. The band's third album Fragrant World is out August 20. more here
KCRW's Chris Douridas on Yeasayer
8 months agoPlayed "No Bones" 10/01/2012 8:08 pm
Quit Mumbling on Yeasayer
8 months agoTweet Anyone who knows "Kiss From A Rose" knows Seal's place in 90s music canon. Brooklyn band Yeasayer stopped by an Australian radio station a couple days ago to premiere a cover of his 1990 hit "Crazy", and damn it's good. The trade-off of earthy tamborine and carefree guitar for the original's outdated jazz-synth beats grounds and legitimizes Seal's lyrics with vocals that are pretty flawless, revealing a rather thoughtful song. Their version brings the previously overshadowed verses to the more at elbo.ws
Quit Mumbling on Yeasayer
9 months agoYeasayer put out a new song from what is the presumed follow-up to 20102s Odd Blood this week. "Henrietta" starts out with those familiar vocals in reggae adornment ( Ras Trent! ) before it shape-shifts into the ethereal refrain " Oh, Henrietta/ We can live on forever " that ends on the smoother, more meditative side of their psych-pop tendencies. Check it out below. more at elbo.ws
Quit Mumbling on Yeasayer
9 months agoSince last month's release of a new Yeasayer song , the Brooklyn psych-pop trio has announced their album along with new track "Longevity" today. This one hops and pops along a line of clicking glitches before reaching a chorus of steadier transmission that finds Chris Keating's melting vocal imploring you to " Live in the moment/ Never count on longevity " — the basis of a journey through swirling, trippy consciousness that eventually travels back to a hopefully more aware present existence. The band's third album Fragrant World is out August 20. more at elbo.ws
covertcuriosity on Yeasayer
over 2 years agoI've always heard that human beings have an uncompromising urge to go out and get a little crazy whenever there is a full moon. more at blogspot.com
pitchfork on Yeasayer
over 5 years agoBrooklyn's Yeasayer are the latest entry to this group of Byrne disciples, and one of the better bands to put a new spin on his polyrhythmic convulsing...more at pitchforkmedia.com
anonymous on Yeasayer
over 5 years agoIra has a van with a cage in the back. What is it really for?