Music, Mayhem, Moments
· stormy high school · blind marches · moments · math rock ·
Wa’am star, how nah?*
Maybe unusually for me, all the pieces in this dispatch are ‘current’, me being moved to write by something new to our times- a song, a statue, some music, but also resulting in a little discovery from two decades ago. Then again, in this cafe of ours, discoveries and rabbit holes are not bound by recency nor time, are they now.
Come then, let’s grab that cup and get into it.
May The Fourth Be With You,
Shakey
Storms: boys will be boys?
Blinded by cloth: a subversive step
A moment?: where I ramble on a unit of time
Polka Rock: a rock duo makes me pause
With: · saree snowboarding · salmons on cocaine · grief ·
*one of apparently many ways to greet someone in Guyanese creole.
🎧 Prefer to listen? Hit play above to hear this week’s dispatch in my mellifluous tones.
1. Storms
I don’t know Gener8tion, a moniker under which French electronic music artist Surkin releases some projects.
I don’t know Yung Lean. He is a Swedish artist (rapper? singer? actor?), born Jonatan Aron Leandoer Håstad.
I do- barely- know Romain Garvas. A cinematic director who helmed (the only one of his works I have seen) the movie Athena- probably remembered most for its stunning one-shot opening centred around a riot in Paris.
The three have come together for a darkly compelling, captivating-despite itself film which serves as a combined music video for two new songs from Gener8tion- ‘Storm’ Parts 1 & 2.
Set in a posh British boys school in 2034, this is a schoolboy rampage of violence, drugs, and solidarity. There are dares, challenges, fights, and bullying- with not an adult in sight. Yung Lean plays the central character, a dominating, fearful young man. His performance is disturbing, menacing… and captivating.
I can’t take my eyes off the screen. Via not so much a storyline as a visceral mood, I see a boyhood that is distantly familiar, yet dialled up to be objectively f**ked up. This is unsettling, even frightening; it is inevitable that zeitgeist words like ‘toxicity’ swirl in my head. I keep watching, mesmerised by the chaos, hoping vaguely that somewhere, somehow there is some turnaround. But if it’s redemption I hope for, I will remain unfulfilled.
Instead, we arrive at the second track to behold a brilliantly choreographed oner (single shot). Here is the class of 2034, its graduation photo metamorphosing into a powerhouse display of unity, rebellion and somehow, staggeringly, of hope. We are unlikely to have rooted for this wild bunch, we have likely despaired for them.
Yet, when Lean sings, “we stay united through the storm… lay all your love right on my door,” and the boys around him- ‘his boys’, I now feel- have that manifesto streaming through their veins, something else surges. “Go take the darkness out my heart” he drawls, just as limbs around him move in a coordinated storm of anger and togetherness and aggression and disregard and brotherhood. I wonder if the point was madness, anarchy, unity… or something else entirely.
This is Storm. And you should watch it.
Adolescence and high school is a storm for so many young people. Often, it is a sense of belonging that feels like a safe harbour. Where does a group, a bond stop being a solace, and become a menace? Or can it be that both live together, side by side. Destroying and building, hating and loving, giving and taking away, hurting and healing?
The songs have a raw, anthemic feel. ‘The internet’ is abuzz with this. But are we all talking about the beats? This music could have had a very different music video, a very different feel. That is the power of storytelling, the power of collaborative creativity, where the jarring vision of Gavras carries with it the rebellious ‘fuck you’ of Lean, built on the energy of a Surin track that finds itself elevated by the desire to… say something.
Most of the attention is (rightly) going to the second half/second track, the one-shot choreography. That’s being shared a lot. But it holds only (great!) aesthetic value without the first half, which sets the tone- disturbing, confusing, layered and visceral.
I am father to two boys. I went to an all-boys school. I distance myself from real-world violence. I abide and even enjoy on-screen violence. I abhor what is happening with young men and the misogynistic, aggressive world view pandered to them in some circles.
These are the multitudes in me that are slapped awake or swirled around when I sit with a creation like this.
I now know a little more of Gavras, and am nudged to find more of his work.
For one, I discovered a video for a song that has flicked around my playlists for about 15 years. For MIA’s blistering track ‘Born Free’, Gavras made this controversial music video which stopped me cold. It is searing, but be warned-it contains graphic violence, some nudity. His recent English language movie debut also featured Yung Lean, in an ensemble cast including Anya Taylor Joy, Chris Evans, Salma Hayek and Vincent Cassell.
I now know of Surkin, born Benoit Heitz, a French musician, producer, DJ and art director who’s pretty big in the electronic music scene, but also did that Nike Da Da Ding track from a decade or so ago. With his ‘Gener8ion’ persona has created some anthemic tracks, as well as the soundtrack to Athena, which I listened through to.
And I now know of Yung Lean, who found prominence back in 2013 with Ginseng Strip 2002, and has since released multiple mixtapes and albums. A rapper but really a multi-hyphenate leaving many a mark, one headline already talks of his ‘EGOT arc’- the acronym used for an artist who wins accolades across sound, screen and stage- Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tonys.
Can’t help but feel we’ll be seeing more of him.
2. Blinded by Cloth
Banksy has some new art.
The anonymous street artist with a long history of making statements, has conjured up a statue near London’s Trafalgar Square. Banksy installations are rarely UK-only news. This time, we are given a pompous looking politician-type striding forward with his flag, which wraps his face, obscures his vision, making him unaware he is stepping right off into an abyss. Blinded by a cause, oblivious of where he/we are all headed.
Reactions? “The resurgence of nationalism in the world and this country”, “a compelling statement on collective blindness”, “Art and politics surely do mix”, or simply, “a Fool for our times”. Many have just named the statue ‘Blind Patriotism’.
The artist’s Instagram posted a little snapshot of what they pulled off.
The creator of The Banksy Story podcast said “We’ve got to face up to the fact that Britain has an imperialistic history full of takeovers and part of that is the sort of extreme nationalism that Banksy absolutely abhors.”
Of the location, the BBC (a tad surprisingly, I must say) says “Waterloo Place, St James’s is an area designed to celebrate imperialism and military dominance in the 1800s.”
Fits right in with the purported message, then.
As meaningfully for me as seeing this, was being tipped to a poem from circa 2004, left as response in the comments. ‘Flag’ by British-Guyanese poet John Agard is powerful and apt (listen to the poet read at the link, too, if you wish). It could well have been an oral companion to this statue.
FLAG
What’s that fluttering in the breeze?
It’s just a piece of cloth
that brings a nation to its knees.What’s that unfurling from a pole? It’s just a piece of cloth That makes the guts of men grow bold.
What’s that rising over the tent? It’s just a piece of cloth that dares the coward relent.
What’s that flying across a field? It’s just a piece of cloth that will outlive the blood you bleed.
How can I possess such a cloth? Just ask for a flag my friend. Then blind your conscience to the end.
3. A moment?
I recently rambled a little about the word ‘moment’. More specifically, its usage, which I find has stretched and morphed into meaning anything from a few seconds to an entire age, decades, centuries even.
What?
Is it me or….what!
4. Alien? Math? Rock.
Angine de Poitrine slipped into my stream recently (from, of all places Linkedin).
A Canadian rock duo. Quebec. Rock. Microtones. Lots of bass. Drums. “Math rock”*.
Weird AF costumes. Polka dots and masks and dangly noses that are vaguely phallic. Gimmicky, but I heard them before I watched them, so was not entirely swayed either way by their visual shtick.
People are loving them for all kinds of reasons. One interesting filter they are viewed through is… AI. Not because they have used AI in their music. Because they have not.
They are being touted as symbols of anti-AI creativity, like this is great because hey, “AI could never do this”.
Listeners/viewers think their distinctive sound makes them a good symbol of the anti-AI , the real, the unique, the humanly expressed. It is worth pausing over to contemplate that weird, creative freedom might well have a phase of shining through.
If it’s your thing, this is the performance on Youtube really had them exploding.
I actually also really enjoyed the most entertaining comments section I have read in a while. Sample these:
“this performance smoked all my weed”
“So this is what the crew of Artemis 2 brought home”
“Think my brain just got a factory reset,”
“It’s 2026, I’m 43 and still can find music to love that will annoy my father.”
“I came back from the year 3056 to witness the birth of our music.”
“Absolutely insane usage of free will”
“Fuck Mars. I’m staying.”
“I’m 61, and I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life for this.”
“Everyone is glad that they come in peace”
“This is what aliens in a Star Wars cantina should be dancing to.”
“Frank Zappa’s science experiment escaped the kitchen.”
* Math rock, I have learned, is a sub genre characterized by “complex, atypical rhythmic structures (including irregular stopping and starting), counterpoint, odd time signatures, and extended chords.”.Ok, then.
Oh, I also did a video on this.
Shoutout
A story about a very clever stunt called mumumelon (yes, that’s almost what you think it is), a London old-timer’s search for Tarantino, and a bloody, non-violent project from Kotex well worth your time- read & watch.
These and many creative, branding and entertainment goodies over at my other newsletter, The Colour Bar.
Masala Peanuts
(where I share stories or tidbits I find interesting).
Do you like sarees? Or snow? Or action? Or all? Take barely a minute of your time to enjoy this clip of snowboarding in sarees.
Scientists Gave a Bunch of Salmon Cocaine. You read that right; who said science is boring? But no, this was not some random test. Water around the world is contaminated with substances consumed by humans. “As global demand for cocaine skyrockets, traces of the drug are flowing into lakes and rivers where they can be absorbed by wildlife.”
A few minutes of your time to peruse this beautiful little comic/text entitled, ‘Grief, Maybe’ by Alexander Naughton.
