The Beginning Is Near?

January 23rd, 2008

Sarah Boden on the “New Eccentric” movement in music. From the UK Observer:

In the space of 12 months, though, the story has started to change. The smart kids are looking further afield. These days, it’s practically mandatory for any self-respecting new band to stitch together dizzyingly idiosyncratic sounds. Listen to synthetic futurists Late of the Pier, or the acid bleeps of Canadian duo Crystal Castles, the day-glo synth hooks of Metronomy, the schizoid grindie mash-up of Hadouken!, Vampire Weekend’s ‘Upper East Side Soweto’ vibes or the avant-funk wigouts of Battles. Or perhaps you’d prefer Tigerpicks’ fairground-punk, perky Mancunian boy-girl duo the Ting Tings, the gaudy electronica of XX Teens, or the eclectic art-pop of frYars. Not since the mid-Eighties’ post-punk boom has indie looked so diverse and colourful, nor have there been so many bands with stupid names.

Frankly, the iPod/ MySpace/ Google generation – whichever sobriquet you care to slap on it – expect no less. For good or ill, the techno maelstrom has ushered in a new age of DIY discovery. The linear pop narrative which once saw Oasis neatly dubbed the Sex Beatles is a grizzled irrelevance: music history has collapsed in on itself. Everything, from Gregorian chants to Captain Beefheart, from Steve Reich to Stevie Wonder, from Sandy Denny to PiL, is fair game.