BeatRoute Magazine ON Edition - December 2019

More documents

Recommendations

Info

MIKAL KARLTHEZEN OFBECKBeck measures theweight of the worldand finds happinessin surrender onHyperspaceBy LUKE OTTONHOFOn the cover of BeckHansen’s new record,Hyperspace, the Californiaartist knownmononymously asBeck stands in theforeground in a dazzlingwhite suit, shielding his facefrom an impossibly bright light. Thebackdrop looks like a half-finishedjawbreaker with its layers of gauzypink and blue. Behind him sits acandy-red 1980s Toyota Celica.The effect is almost comical:the title suggests speed, precision,even perfection, but here Hansenis, towering in front of a gaudy,boxy car that now populates scrapyards across the world.“It was a cheap car,” Hansenrecalls of the mid-80s Celicamodels. Speaking over the phonefrom Los Angeles, his voice is lightbut authoritative in a way that feelsdistinctly Californian. “It’s the kindof car your friend’s mom had, itwas probably used, and they didn’thave air conditioning in it. But atthe same time, it was this sort ofspaceship: if you had the right songon the stereo, it could transportyou to another dimension andtranscend the everyday.”This is Hansen’s vision on Hyperspace:the clunky, unglamorous,pretenseless escapism we allrequire to function in a cruel world.These activities are our Hyperspace.“These ways we engage areour escape from the fact that theworld is kind of a big and overwhelmingand oftentimes scaryplace,” says Hansen. “We’re runningfrom it, we’re running towardsit, we’re trying to fix it, we’re tryingto destroy it. For better or worse,we’re doing the best we can in ourdeeply flawed, human way.”True to form (or lack thereof),Hyperspace is another aestheticdogleg in a career defined by them.2017’s bold, uncritically happyColors was a deliberate attempt atjoyous pop songwriting, a markedshift from 2014’s Grammy-winningacoustic record Morning Phase.Hyperspace sits between thesetwo releases. Compared to Colors,it’s austere, in part thanks toco-writer Pharrell Williams’ minimalisttendencies. (Hansen says thaton the first day of writing, Williamstold him, “We need to make a singer-songwriterrecord.”) It’s scrappy,too, with the brash twang of “SawLightning” and the raspy, distortedWe don’t getto leave withstatus or anythingthat we’ve acquired.We will all be inthe sameplace.fog of opener “Hyperlife” pairedwith corresponding mid-album cut,“Hyperspace.”Strangely, Hansen says thatcloser “Everlasting Nothing,” anacoustic-forward meditation ondeath and what follows, was thefirst song written. It’s a revealingspringboard: start from the factual,inescapable endpoint, and workbackwards. Hyperspace is in someways each moment between birthand death. “Ultimately, at the end,we are reduced to our selveswithout anything,” says Hansen.“We don’t get to leave with statusor anything that we’ve acquired. Wewill all be in the same place.”These observations are startling inpart because one would hardly expecta multi-Grammy-winning starto work with a cast including noted“Happy” person Pharrell, Coldplay’sChris Martin, and Sky Ferreira, thencome out with a relatively sparsemid-tempo record that feels attimes nihilistic. Hansen’s reject-anthem“Loser” could be played out astongue-in-cheek nihilism, but it wassardonic and cheeky.Hyperspace is decidedly more serious,maybe because 2019 and theyears preceding it in North Americaand abroad demand it. Colors wasshelved for a year after the electionof Donald Trump, and now, as wildfirestear through Hansen’s homestate (when we speak, he groansthat Los Angeles is about to enter aheatwave) and late-capitalism continuesits extractive patterns whilecommodifying clean air amid globalalarm bells, Hyperspace’s fretfultone is apt. (Sometimes, it’s too onthe nose: “Some days, I go darkplaces in my soul,” Hansen croonson “Dark Places.”)Hansen doesn’t intend the recordto be miserable. He explains that it’s“a record of wanting to find shelterand safety, something that givesyou a sense of, ‘Things are goingto be okay.’” These things can behard to come by. Hansen rattles offa list of possibilities: religion, drugs,sex, interior decorating, jogging,restoring old cars, “or, god forbid,firearms,” all ways to deal with whathe describes as the magnitude ofthe world. “How do we navigateour own past?” Hansen wondersrhetorically. “And the tools, the lackof tools, that we were given to dealwith this world?”When asked if he relates to thedesire to escape from this world,Hansen replies lightly, “I think thisis all escape, y’know? And I’m notsaying that in a negative way. It’s anatural instinct we all share. It’s notabout the game, it’s not even aboutthe athletes, it’s about somethingbigger. It’s about surrender. I thinksurrender is where we find happiness.”Hansen seems at peace with thisreality, and Hyperspace reflectsthis: it isn’t anxious, but resignedand cool. In the final moments of“Everlasting Nothing,” Hansen offersencouragement: “Nowhere child,keep on running/In your time you’llfind something in the everlastingnothing.”The imagery is profound, borderingon apocalyptic. At the tail endof a song about mortality, it feelsoff-key to offer advice on how tolive, but Hansen sees it as a usefulacceptance.“It’s not a bleak idea,” he saysbluntly. “It’s just sort of a truth, astatement as it is. This nothingnessthat’s always been there, and alwayswill.” ,34 BEATROUTE DECEMBER 2019
YYZ12.19SHAWN ROLLERAGO TALKS:WAYS OFCARINGBy JOSEPHINE CRUZIf a picture is worth a thousand words, thenthe Fade Resistance collection is truly priceless.This comprehensive group of Polaroidswas acquired by the AGO in 2018, and inanticipation of the photos’ exhibition in 2021,the Gallery will be hosting a series of eventsto help activate the exhibit, the first of whichis “Ways of Caring.”This extraordinary group of Polaroidsdocument African American family life fromthe 1970s to the early 2000s, and havebeen carefully assembled by award-winningCanadian photographer, physician andeducator Dr. Zun Lee. “Since its inception,photographic technology has been used todehumanize and surveil Black bodies,” Leesays. “At the same time, Black communitieshave used the same technology to documentand create genuine stories that do notcenter outsiders. For me, this collection is atestament to such homegrown practices ofresistance which I place alongside many otherpast and contemporary visual strategiesto control Black narratives.”“Ways of Caring” will see Lee will leada round-table conversation that examineswhat it means to hold this collection in ourcity in today’s current social climate, andthe wider place of institutions in caring forcollections of personal photographs. “I’d likefor us to think through how we might affordmore attention and intention to the ways weengage with everyday images, particularly inthis moment of rapid digital consumption,”Lee shares of the title choice for the discussion.Participants include Deanna Bowen,Michèle Pearson Clark, Dr. Stefano Harney,Dr. Fred Moten and Dr. Christina Sharpe.“I’m grateful that this collection has founda committed custodian in the AGO, preservingimages that offer a testament to Blackvisual self-representation,” says Lee. “I lookforward to working with the AGO to engageold and new audiences in offering their owntake on what it means to be seen.”AGO Talks: Ways of Caring // Wednesday,Dec. 18 // www.ago.caTORONTO’S ESSENTIAL DECEMBER HAPPENINGSkDECEMBER 2019 BEATROUTE 35
Page 1 and 2: THE YEAR (AND DECADE) IN REVIEWSPEC
Page 3 and 4: ContentsBEATROUTEBEATROUTEBEATROUTE
Page 6 and 7: BEATROUTETOPIN THE LAST TEN YEARS W
Page 8 and 9: NEW YEAR’SEVE BASHUNLIMITED GAME
Page 10 and 11: Official VODKA andVODKA Soda of the
Page 12 and 13: musicalinstrumentsgiftcardslessonsS
Page 14 and 15: BEATROUTETOP 10 ARTISTS OF THE DECA
Page 17 and 18: BEATROUTETOP 10 ARTISTS OF THE DECA
Page 19 and 20: The PlaylistBEATROUTERIGHTBEATROUTE
Page 21 and 22: RALPHMORE INFO AT: BEATROUTE.CA/BEA
Page 23 and 24: instrumental is a slow burn thatnev
Page 25 and 26: N O 9 SUNN O))Life MetalSouthern Lo
Page 27 and 28: JAY LOPEZN O 5 HAVIAH MIGHTY13th Fl
Page 29: N O 3TRAVIS SCOTT -LOOK MOM I CAN F
Page 32 and 33: BEATROUTE2010-2019:THE DECADE IN RE
Page 36 and 37: 12.19YYZAGENDAPARADISEOPENINGAfter
Page 38 and 39: 12.19YYZMUSICThe Cheat Sheet BR PIC

BeatRoute Magazine ON Edition - December 2019

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?