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I had the pleasure of seeing Bon Iver live at the Capitol Theater a few weeks back and I still haven’t fully grasped the experience. It was like being in the presence of God. Loud, booming voices all around, euphoric saxophone choruses, flashing scripture phrases and sacred symbols across the stage screens. It was ethereal, with every single eye fixed on Justin Vernon center-stage. The audience was in awe, feeding off the energy before us. The lighting was seizure-inducing. The bass shook the floor, vibrating through my body and changing the rhythm of my heartbeat. Truly an incredible experience.

For me, I think part of what made the experience that much more incredible in retrospect was learning the meaning behind the album. “22, A Million” really does challenge higher thinking, but in a more divine sense. From what I could collectively gather after reading from various forums and doing some biblical research of my own, the album is supposed to represent a conversation between man and God. Each side of the conversation is characterized by a different kind of sound, with the voice of the man being higher in pitch and easily manipulated by the accompanying instrumentation while the voice of God is deep, booming, and layered. This “voice of man” is best demonstrated in songs such as “22, OVER SOON”, “33, GOD”, and “21 MOON WATER”. Conversely, this “voice of God” is best seen in songs such as “715 – CREEKS”, “8 (circle)”, or “00000 Million”. The reoccurring idea of divinity is also seen in each of the songs seemingly-obscure titles. Many of the numbers in the titles seem to correspond directly with a specific psalm. For example, the album opens with “22, OVER SOON”, which introduces the high pitched voice of man in a seemingly vulnerable way. Accordingly, Psalm 22 reads “My God, why have you forsaken me,” or as it is written on the accompanying song book to the album’s physical copy “why are you so FAR from saving me – PSALM 22”. But some numbers carry different sacred meanings aside from Psalm correlation. Perhaps the most interesting number to look into comes from “33, GOD”. This particular song seems to project itself as the most holy in the entire album, given that it has the word “GOD” in its title. However, the number 33 also allegedly carries strong religious connections. It is believed to be the age of the dwellers of heaven, the age Jesus was at his death, the dimensions of the Flower of Life, the number of deities in the Vedan culture, as well as the number of vertebrates in the human spine. This information blew my mind upon discovery. At first glance, the random numbers and symbols assigned to each song in the album can look like absolute nonsense. But in reality, the album is a masterpiece. It’s a carefully planned out project that holds so many puzzles and keys to the way the universe works on a sacred and emotional level. It is beyond artistic expression. It reaches closer to ideas of research and discovery, in a way that brings listeners closer to the world around them rather than the music industry.

This year, I survived finals. In retrospect, I owe a lot of it to producer and artist Jamie xx. As someone who needs to be listening to music 24/7, I’ve always struggled to find music for studying that’s a good fit; maintaining interest enough to initiate studying while not decreasing productivity. This has proved to be a very thin line, as I have often found myself vacillating between Radiohead and Brian Eno, or even Mozart. However, Jamie xx’s “In Colour” hit a homerun with me, changing the game of studying forever. With a consistently upbeat tempo, the music enhanced my desired aura of focus and efficiency. Also, given that the album is primarily electronic, minimal words came through my speakers, allowing me to hear my own thoughts and tend the written information that needed to be absorbed. Yet, the music itself is still interesting! With each song, Jamie xx effectively introduces standout rhythms that are built up from the bottom, as different layers of sound are added throughout the song. I think part of what makes this album especially interesting is the use of vocals as something more rhythmic than what is usually heard. In a lot of places where synthesizers could just as easily be used to add layers of ambience and intricacy, there are instead vocals. However, most of these vocalized lines don’t showcase words, just a variety of syllables, making them enough to catch my attention without distracting me. Each song presents itself with a different tone or idea, which gets further enhanced as it plays along, effectively achieving the visualization provoked by the album’s title, “In Colour.” The album really does offer quite the palette, creating interesting imagery while straying from painting the picture that requires excess contemplation to enjoy. Overall, it kept me engaged in the studying process without making me want to fall asleep.

While I could rave about this album as a means of focus, it has more than proven its versatility as a means of fun as well. This past summer, I had the opportunity to see Jamie xx live at the Governor’s Ball Music Festival at Randall’s Island Park. His act was by far the most memorable and some of the most fun I can say I’ve ever had at a music festival. He presented audience members with the perfect collection of music for all kinds of dancing, jamming, and vibing, with an eye towards showcasing quality music. It was fresh and exciting at all moments as the crowd embraced the variety of musical and visual colors that surrounded them, bouncing off the walls of the Bacardi House and formulating the carefree memories of a lifetime.

Jamie xx’s “In Colour” is a must-listen for all purposes, studying and raving aside. The album’s versatility is truly amazing as a means of both focus and fun, while displaying electronic originality and authentic creativity with an eye towards quality.

The concept of the social outlier has lived on for an extensive portion of United States history. However, in the late twentieth-century, society’s outcasts converged and discovered how to characterize their differences in creative ways, particularly through music. Thus, the birth of “the underground” as a place of refuge for the offbeat sensibilities and perspectives of an inherently different group of people and creators. Relishing in its authenticity and uncensored expression, genres such as punk and disco developed and thrived under the radar of commercial music, but naturally found their way to the mainstream due to gradual social acceptance of differences through the seventies. It was then that the music world realized the value and significance of the underground, where music and new ideas were cultured and collectivized through experimentation, away from the expectation and judgement of society. This emphasis on the desired outlook of uninfluence and creation from a different sphere of influence surfaced in its most prominent way during the post-punk movement of the late nineteen-seventies and eighties, as artists adhered to the complete upheaval of musical influence and industry in an effort to preserve the underground. For these reasons, the post-punk movement and its accompanying ideas and sound represent a major turning point for modern music and expression. Continue reading The Late Twentieth-Century Creative Underground: Post-punk and Beyond