Dis-track-ed Vol. 5: Broken Balladry
vol-5-broken-balladry
January 28, 2014
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# Dis-track-ed Vol. 5: Broken Balladry
**In her monthly column, Ruth Saxelby identifies some of the trends that
are shaping modern music. In this edition, the new song constructions of
Palmistry, Holly Herndon, HTRK and more. Illustration by Inka
Gerbert. **
"I grew up listening to a lot of Irish ballads through my family,"
London producer Benjy Keating, aka [Palmistry][1]{: target="_blank"},
says over email. "In traditional Irish music 'slow airs' are really
popular. They tend to be subdued, lamenting instrumentals but they can
also be vocal a cappellas and they don't follow a metric scale. I find
the possibilities of working off the grid inspiring." Having produced
for Hippos In Tanks rapper Triad God and dropped [a dancehall inspired
single][2]{: target="_blank"} on Brooklyn label Mixpak last year, it had
been a little bit of a double-take to find a ballad ("In My Heart II",
listen below) nestling at the heart of Keating's new *Lil Gem* EP on
Italian label [Hey Presto!?][3]{: target="_blank"}. Or rather, a
contemporary take on the ballad that privileges *uncomfortable*
listening over an easy ride.
While upbeat dance music has been underground pop's quarry for the last
few years---sometimes feeling like a race to nail the perfect banger on
cracked software---the ballad has largely remained on the shelf. Perhaps
because it is traditionally less youthful: the crooners that dominated
much of the twentieth century were concerned with reinforcing culturally
acceptable ideas of slow and steady love, rather than satisfying today's
perhaps more honest fascination with speed and sex. (Keating highlights
[a scene from *American Psycho*][4]{: target="_blank"} that illustrates
this turning point tension about the ballad brilliantly.) It's only in
the back of late-night taxis that pump out syndicated, nostalgia-ridden
radio shows that you find the ballads of old today, churning out their
cliches to shush spinning heads.
Over the last couple of years, however, a new generation of singers and
producers are flipping the form upside down and breathing new life into
the ballad. [How To Dress Well][5]{: target="_blank"}, [FKA twigs][6]{:
target="_blank"} and [Kelela][7]{: target="_blank"} have all played with
the ballad, purposefully unpicking the inherent smoothness that became
its mainstay in the eighties and nineties to put their unravelled edges
under the spotlight. This new balladry exists somewhere between
saccharine and acidic---and it's precisely that awkwardness that is so
compelling. How raw can you go? Or perhaps its a return to the ballad's
etymological beginnings. Here are a clutch of artists dissolving
balladic sweetness into sonic poetry for a new age.
**Palmistry "In My Heart II"**
"In My Heart II" is a modern ballad that plays with contrast to
paper-cut sharp effect. That vocoder "baby" in the background, stretched
into an unforgiving plastic shard, works to make Keating's
half-whispered, half-whimpered voice sound all the more desperate. It's
tender in that poke-a-bruise-to-check-it-still-hurts kind of way -- and
all the more riveting for it.
**James K "Drunktrack"**
One half of pixellated trip hip duo SETH (with Gobby) and sometime
Physical Therapy guest vocalist, producer/singer Jamie Karsner released
her debut solo EP in November last year. "Drunktrack" is the one I keep
going back to. There's a spidery feel to its stop-start flow, scurrying
then freezing like a small being suddenly aware its on your radar. At
just under two and a half minutes, it's all over too soon.
**Deptford Goth "Guts No Glory" (Fis remix)**
New Zealand producer [Fis][8]{: target="_blank"}, who last year told me
that the feeling he gets in his torso when he's making music is ["almost
the guide or the arbiter of a work,"][9]{: target="_blank"} was the
surprise reveal remixer of London's Deptford Goth just before Christmas.
But it's where Fis took the melancholic ballader that really thrilled.
In placing him in an abandoned industrial landscape, Fis lends Deptford
Goth's mourning a more urgent edge: the ache is stronger.
**HTRK "Give It Up"**
The long-running Australian experimentalists do a low blood-sugar take
on Sade with "Give It Up" from their forthcoming new album *Psychic 9-5
Club*. They take the slow love song format and time-stretch the pulse
until it barely registers. It's a mood that speaks to endless winter
days.
**Holly Herndon "Chorus"**
Twitching and blurring like screen-burn vision, [Holly Herndon][10]{:
target="_blank"}'s new work "Chorus" melts down song structure to form
something new. The balladic elements are there---the yearning voice, the
lamenting chords---but they are scrambled up like a bag of old Scrabble
letters covered in dust and dirt. It's the ballad circa 2030,
gravity-free and on a mission to find new life. ~
*For more editions of Dis-track-ed, click [here][11]{:
target="_blank"}.*
[1]: https://soundcloud.com/palmistry
[2]: https://soundcloud.com/mixpak/palmistry-catch
[3]: http://presto.bigcartel.com/product/palmistry-lil-gem-12-ep
[4]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIOrmfyO__U
[5]: http://www.electronicbeats.net/artist/how-to-dress-well/
[6]: http://www.electronicbeats.net/artist/fka-twigs/
[7]: http://www.electronicbeats.net/artist/kelela/
[8]: http://www.electronicbeats.net/artist/fis/
[9]: http://www.dummymag.com/features/fis-interview-next
[10]: http://www.electronicbeats.net/artist/holly-herndon/
[11]: http://www.electronicbeats.net/category/features/columns/dis-track-ed/
---
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blueprint: article
title: 'Dis-track-ed Vol. 5: Broken Balladry'
date: 2014-01-28T10:00:01+01:00
wp_id: '69788'
slug: vol-5-broken-balladry
teaser_image: legacy/vol-5-broken-balladry/Dis_Track_ed_Ballades.jpg
contents:
-
type: text
text: '<p><strong>In her monthly column, Ruth Saxelby identifies some of the trends that are shaping modern music. In this edition, the new song constructions of Palmistry, Holly Herndon, HTRK and more. Illustration by Inka Gerbert. </strong></p><p>“I grew up listening to a lot of Irish ballads through my family,” London producer Benjy Keating, aka <a href="https://soundcloud.com/palmistry" target="_blank">Palmistry</a>, says over email. “In traditional Irish music ‘slow airs’ are really popular. They tend to be subdued, lamenting instrumentals but they can also be vocal a cappellas and they don’t follow a metric scale. I find the possibilities of working off the grid inspiring.” Having produced for Hippos In Tanks rapper Triad God and dropped <a href="https://soundcloud.com/mixpak/palmistry-catch" target="_blank">a dancehall inspired single</a> on Brooklyn label Mixpak last year, it had been a little bit of a double-take to find a ballad (“In My Heart II”, listen below) nestling at the heart of Keating’s new <em>Lil Gem</em> EP on Italian label <a href="http://presto.bigcartel.com/product/palmistry-lil-gem-12-ep" target="_blank">Hey Presto!?</a>. Or rather, a contemporary take on the ballad that privileges <em>uncomfortable</em> listening over an easy ride.</p><p>While upbeat dance music has been underground pop’s quarry for the last few years—sometimes feeling like a race to nail the perfect banger on cracked software—the ballad has largely remained on the shelf. Perhaps because it is traditionally less youthful: the crooners that dominated much of the twentieth century were concerned with reinforcing culturally acceptable ideas of slow and steady love, rather than satisfying today’s perhaps more honest fascination with speed and sex. (Keating highlights <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIOrmfyO__U" target="_blank">a scene from <em>American Psycho</em></a> that illustrates this turning point tension about the ballad brilliantly.) It’s only in the back of late-night taxis that pump out syndicated, nostalgia-ridden radio shows that you find the ballads of old today, churning out their cliches to shush spinning heads.</p><p>Over the last couple of years, however, a new generation of singers and producers are flipping the form upside down and breathing new life into the ballad. <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/artist/how-to-dress-well/" target="_blank">How To Dress Well</a>, <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/artist/fka-twigs/" target="_blank">FKA twigs</a> and <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/artist/kelela/" target="_blank">Kelela</a> have all played with the ballad, purposefully unpicking the inherent smoothness that became its mainstay in the eighties and nineties to put their unravelled edges under the spotlight. This new balladry exists somewhere between saccharine and acidic—and it’s precisely that awkwardness that is so compelling. How raw can you go? Or perhaps its a return to the ballad’s etymological beginnings. Here are a clutch of artists dissolving balladic sweetness into sonic poetry for a new age.</p><p><strong>Palmistry “In My Heart II”</strong></p><p>“In My Heart II” is a modern ballad that plays with contrast to paper-cut sharp effect. That vocoder “baby” in the background, stretched into an unforgiving plastic shard, works to make Keating’s half-whispered, half-whimpered voice sound all the more desperate. It’s tender in that poke-a-bruise-to-check-it-still-hurts kind of way – and all the more riveting for it.</p><p><strong>James K “Drunktrack”</strong></p><p>One half of pixellated trip hip duo SETH (with Gobby) and sometime Physical Therapy guest vocalist, producer/singer Jamie Karsner released her debut solo EP in November last year. “Drunktrack” is the one I keep going back to. There’s a spidery feel to its stop-start flow, scurrying then freezing like a small being suddenly aware its on your radar. At just under two and a half minutes, it’s all over too soon.</p><p><strong>Deptford Goth “Guts No Glory” (Fis remix)</strong></p><p>New Zealand producer <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/artist/fis/" target="_blank">Fis</a>, who last year told me that the feeling he gets in his torso when he’s making music is <a href="http://www.dummymag.com/features/fis-interview-next" target="_blank">“almost the guide or the arbiter of a work,”</a> was the surprise reveal remixer of London’s Deptford Goth just before Christmas. But it’s where Fis took the melancholic ballader that really thrilled. In placing him in an abandoned industrial landscape, Fis lends Deptford Goth’s mourning a more urgent edge: the ache is stronger.</p><p><strong>HTRK “Give It Up”</strong></p><p>The long-running Australian experimentalists do a low blood-sugar take on Sade with “Give It Up” from their forthcoming new album <em>Psychic 9-5 Club</em>. They take the slow love song format and time-stretch the pulse until it barely registers. It’s a mood that speaks to endless winter days.</p><p><strong>Holly Herndon “Chorus”</strong></p><p>Twitching and blurring like screen-burn vision, <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/artist/holly-herndon/" target="_blank">Holly Herndon</a>’s new work “Chorus” melts down song structure to form something new. The balladic elements are there—the yearning voice, the lamenting chords—but they are scrambled up like a bag of old Scrabble letters covered in dust and dirt. It’s the ballad circa 2030, gravity-free and on a mission to find new life. ~</p><p><em>For more editions of Dis-track-ed, click <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/category/features/columns/dis-track-ed/" target="_blank">here</a>.</em></p>'
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Chunk #1 (Position: 0)
# Dis-track-ed Vol. 5: Broken Balladry **In her monthly column, Ruth Saxelby identifies some of the trends that are shaping modern music. In this edition, the new song constructions of Palmistry, Holly Herndon, HTRK and more. Illustration by Inka Gerbert. ** "I grew up listening to a lot o...
Chunk #2 (Position: 1)
I find the possibilities of working off the grid inspiring." Having produced for Hippos In Tanks rapper Triad God and dropped [a dancehall inspired single][2]{: target="_blank"} on Brooklyn label Mixpak last year, it had been a little bit of a double-take to find a ballad ("In My Heart II", liste...
Chunk #3 (Position: 2)
Perhaps because it is traditionally less youthful: the crooners that dominated much of the twentieth century were concerned with reinforcing culturally acceptable ideas of slow and steady love, rather than satisfying today's perhaps more honest fascination with speed and sex. (Keating highlights ...
Chunk #4 (Position: 3)
Here are a clutch of artists dissolving balladic sweetness into sonic poetry for a new age. **Palmistry "In My Heart II"** . "In My Heart II" is a modern ballad that plays with contrast to paper-cut sharp effect. That vocoder "baby" in the background, stretched into an unforgiving plastic shard,...
Chunk #5 (Position: 4)
In placing him in an abandoned industrial landscape, Fis lends Deptford Goth's mourning a more urgent edge: the ache is stronger. **HTRK "Give It Up"** . The long-running Australian experimentalists do a low blood-sugar take on Sade with "Give It Up" from their forthcoming new album *Psychic 9-5...
Chunk #6 (Position: 5)
It's the ballad circa 2030, gravity-free and on a mission to find new life. ~ *For more editions of Dis-track-ed, click [here][11]{: target="_blank"}.* . [1]: https://soundcloud.com/palmistry [2]: https://soundcloud.com/mixpak/palmistry-catch [3]: http://presto.bigcartel.com/product/palmistry-l...