Grimes/Claire Boucher thread

I just got the press release.

Moving to Montreal from Vancouver in 2006, she developed Grimes among the city’s burgeoning DIY scene; a scene where both punk ethos and pop music collide, resulting in a distinct sense of community, religiosity and psychedelic revelry.

Were it not for the word "psychedelic" that description brought to mind mall punk.

This new set incorporates influences as wide as Enya, TLC and Aphex Twin, whilst drawing from genres like New Jack Swing, IDM, New Age, K-pop, Industrial and glitch resulting in a record that is both otherworldly and futuristic.

That mix of references simultaneously makes me cringe and curious.

lists of "influences" are always cringeworthy

an accelerated hype-cycle is a bad thing

It's interesting you'd say that! I'm excited for her success, in a "get money, find rat-free living" sort of way. And although I def feel there's going to be success for Arbutus in the next couple years, I can't say that cash flow + hype is going to have a necessarily positive effect on that scene

's musical output.

Well BRAIDS has already jumped up out of that scene and into hype, and Native Speaker was a gorgeous record. Curious to see if/when/what Blue Hawaii release next.

i am not sure i can get with this girl's voice

I'm listening to the split with d'Eon from last year at the moment and this is my main issue, although it's only a couple of tracks where it sounds annoying.

I listened to Halfaxa and wasn't really feeling it - did I start in the wrong place?

Yes, i've got an album by her and it's OK, but not much more

Geidi Prime is stronger than Halfaxa, imo.

But I dunno, it depends on what part of it you aren't feeling.

I think "Oblivion" - the first single from the 4AD album - is better than almost anything she's recorded.

"Oblivion" is awesome. Those synths sounds like universes collapsing on themselves.

Huh, weird, coz I think Halfaxa >>>> Geidi Prime, it's less focused but it's more ambitious and better realised. I don't hear Enya or TLC or Aphex Twin in her music, but it does give an idea of the scope of her range. But then again, at other times, I like her coz she reminds me of those 4AD 4-track weirdoes like Danielle Dax or His Name Is Alive.

Quite pleased that certain elements dislike her (heh) but it is distinctly odd to see her popping up in the NME every now and then. I think she might actually have the ability to sustain making good music despite the hype cycle - someone's third album is a much better place for the hype to kick in, rather than, y'know, the third song.

Damn, I wish I'd saved other links from my arty experimental gothy electronica sandbox thread. The only other artists I can remember having a consensus on were Emika and maybe Laurel Halo? I don't feel like starting it up again.

Barbara Panther, Niki & the Dove, Gazelle Twin, Julia Holter, and iamamiwhoami also got shoutouts.

And Austra.

this leaked. and it's good, but I don't think it will convince anyone who wasn't prone to be convinced by the previous stuff.

i really don't know what i think of this album

there are bits of it that are OH FUCK YES, and there are bits that i am just not down with and a lot of the time it's like she's nearly hitting the spot and then nothing happens

I'm loving the background vocals on Vowels = space and time.

Skin is also an early favourite.

Be A Body (侘寂) is totally going to be the next single, right?

This is an album of wonderful moments. Not all of them are 'songs' for me yet, but a lot of them are.

I quite like "Oblivion," not sure yet about the rest.

When is this out, properly? Really want to hear this, the comments are piquing my interest.

really digging this myself

from what I understand, this is out on either the 21st of this month (Arbutus, US and Canada) or the 12th of next month (4AD, most everywhere else). and I hope that previous comments did not imply that I lack enthusiasm. I love Visions a lot, but despite all of the pop aspirations it feels like it was built to inspire obsession from a limited audience.

She definitely has the charm and hooks to pull to a wider audience but her songwriting could use some editing... many times it does sound like the songs drift without any specific purpose and as a whole it drags.

For legit consumers, Visions streaming in its entirety

Can't. Don't have the bandwidth!

*cries*

Why couldn't this have been available 2 weeks ago when I still had all you can eat broadband?

Given there's nothing on the album I'm bored by, I think editing would inevitably mean reducing the idiosyncratic facets I'm charmed by.

Best thing about Grimes: she has such disinterest (contempt?) for lyrical content as she chirps through her baby birdsong. She might as well be the electropop version of Juliana Barwick..

yeh this is excellent

"skin" is very pretty, but a bit insubstantial, tho i guess "insubstantial" is kinda the point. soft, sweet, ghostly. don't hear no afx, but enya sure. and i don't hate enya, but i don't love this. got bored before the 6 minutes were up.

"oblivion" is much more immediate. the nothing lyrics are kind of selling me, "look into my eyes and la la la la la, see you on a dark night". that's great! love the synths at the end, too.

want more songs like "oblivion"

Be A Body (侘寂) is totally going to be the next single, right?

dunno, but it's v nice. enya influence is even more prominent at the beginning, but j-lo too? love the shift to dark propulive beats halfway through.

For lex:
Grimes namechecked a similar/sympatico artist Mozart's Sister whose voice might be more to your liking:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy1u4v2LIfU

^ Also of Montreal.

I'm gonna bookmark this thread for when I've topped up my data bcuz "electronic Juliana Barwick" = WCC catnip if I wasn't onboard already (which I have been since Halfaxa)

so she made this on garageband, huh?

Mozart's Sister is also v. good!

They have a three track EP called DEAR FEAR from last year. Maybe they have other stuff too? Not sure.

yaaaaaarg, just listening to her stuff now (i'm always way late with everything) and enjoying it a lot. i just took a break from some incredibly bureaucratic shit at work to watch this video and i don't..think..i can go back to work again today

Skin reminds me of a mix between Enya and Natalie Imbruglia's smoke. Am I too off?

Really can't believe we have come to a point where evoking the names Stacy Q and Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam results in a positive fucking review. I give up.

I love this album cover!

http://www.tellallyourfriendspr.com/sites/default/files/GrimesVisions.jpg

yeah, is awesome. post in the best of 2012 thread!

after being completely underwhelmed by anything i heard of hers before this record (i'm kind of with lex on the voice thing), i'm really enjoying "oblivion" and "circumabient"

Fucking adore this record.

Funny that Alex in Montreal referred to Braids upthread as this album strikes me as something of an electronic equivalent, simultaneously tuneful and spacious and drifting (whereas I think Juliana Barwick is a bit of a misleading point of comparison).

"Skin" esp. is wonderful.

i gave this a few more tries and while there's nothing i actively dislike about her music, neither is there anything hooking me back in - it's all vaguely "interesting", also very unmemorable and lite.

cf julianna barwick who hooked me straight away, and gazelle twin whose music i absolutely adore sinking into. grimes has no gravitas.

the cover of this record is really really bad. if you're going to rip off the sacred bones design scheme (which i really love), at least do it well!

ripoff Sacred Bones serifs + some Cyrillic lorem ipsum + some 1994-bad-sci-fi-book-cover graphics + giant in-class notebook doodle-looking thing = a mess and I like it

Yeah, Tim. The BRAIDS reference was not accidental.

Visions is getting a 4AD release in the rest of the world, but Grimes and BRAIDS and Blue Hawaii a couple of other bands in the same general aesthetic universe were all on the same local label for a few years based out of Montreal.

A bunch of their early stuff is available for download by donation at the Arbutus website, including Geidi Primes and Halfaxa, the first two Grimes albums, and Blue Hawaii's Blooming Summer.

Not that that necessarily implies that they sound *the same* but their music is definitely in conversation with each other.

And 'Skin' continues to be the standout for me - the first Grimes track that's hit me emotionally.

(That's not a backhanded compliment - I love the rest of her stuff, but Skin really gets to me.)

Other standouts: Infinite <3 without fulfillment, Genesis, Oblivion, Vowels = space and time, Be a Body (侘寂). Possibly Nightmusic.

thanks for the links and suggestions, alex!

Of the first two Grimes album, I think Halfaxa is a bit more like this one - it's the clear transition to the kind of thing she's doing now, but I love Geidi Primes - it's a little less cohesive, but there's a lot of cool stuff going on.

The Blue Hawaii tape was one of my favourite albums of 2010 - the standout is 'Blue Gowns'. Blue Hawaii's vocalist = the lead vocalist from BRAIDS which should help determine if it's your thing or if you should steer clear - (aka this is a warning for Lex)

Every generation throws a hero up the pop charts; medicine is magical and magical is art.

https://www.reddit.com/r/grimezs/comments/1j6d0jw/a_reminder_that_grimes_still_follows_this_vile/

Trigger warning for extremely racist content from this particular Twitter user who will hopefully one day be doxxed. It’s funny how someone who is, according to herself, absolutely ignorant about the political views of her friends, just happens to coincidentally connect with so many people like this.

She's DJing tomorrow. Looks promising.

https://i.redd.it/j8flec1ora4g1.jpeg

lmao

I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow!

Probably the least alarming concept for a Hamilton Nolan x Mr Beast collab.

If someone calls them magic mushrooms they are usually a narc

yeah but since people started calling regular mushrooms "shrooms" there isn't much choice.

is this actually a real thing? because I just woke up and I'm not 100% this isn't just a really lucid dream

had to look up who Bryan Johnson is. Oh right, an absolute class A cunt takes some halogenics. Well this could only be good if he has a very bad trip and tops himself or accidently eats a batch of poison and shits out his insides.

Wait why are we dragging Hamilton Nolan into this

forgot the reading glasses again

lol that shook me too for a second

Nightmare blunt rotation

Something tells me ego death will somehow be avoided

https://www.reddit.com/r/grimezs/comments/1r8d6e7/grimes_technofascist_party_with_curtis_yarvin_and/

embarrassing stuff. she had a moment where she certainly could have maintained a career as some kind of indie pop superstar as long as she was capable of making good music, but she threw it all away. but i suppose pathology is difficult to overcome, water finds it own level etc.

"These ideas, once the fringe premonitions of early internet cyberpunk, have started influencing the policies of the most powerful people on Earth."

I don't know if there's a distinction between 80s Cyberpunk and "early internet Cyberpunk" but this seems another case of fascist dummies embracing the stuff SF writers were trying to warm us about.

never trust a folk punk

Didn't read the article - was Jeffrey Lewis in it or something?

this is just the same story from a couple of years ago?

she had a moment where she certainly could have maintained a career as some kind of indie pop superstar as long as she was capable of making good music

I’ve found the fatal flaw with this statement

lol

xpost nah grimes used to be a dirty folk punk when she lived in mpls

crusty to rusty

I saw her play here back in ... 2015? My friend was hyped and it was pretty sold out, iirc, but I left unimpressed. And then began her descent down the rabbit hole. Maybe she'll tour with MIA or some shit.

i never bothered to see her live because i'd heard at best mixed things, she seemed to always be at home in the studio more than IRL. i won't defend her music, i don't care enough about her, and there are plenty of artists who do her thing without the loads of baggage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slL8IP7gJLw

when you need some Grimes without the Musk

lol, just saw that she has said her music is only going to be released on LinkedIn now.

reddit.com/r/linkedinlunatics

honestly not sure if that's you joking, her joking, or actually true.

If it’s a joke it’s an unfunny one, but she’s an unfunny person.

hard to say

Wait! Did Grimes just join LinkedIn? - Fast Company https://share.google/MQjz7o7FGp6imEmEp

She tweeted about releasing her music on LinkedIn only, but that was more than a year ago. I guess it’s coming up again because she joined LinkedIn this week.

how to make LinkedIn suck more

sure her plan to sell avant-garde pop music to cultureless fashy techbros is going to pay off any day now

First she has to make some music

Still working on the prompts

"avant-garde"