Fennesz
Endless Summer
Mego

Pop music promises, in its shiny surfaces, immediate gratification. When you are sated there is nothing left. But what if the surface was noise, distortion, chaos, and what lay behind that smokescreen was the music of the gods?

Like I'm Happy... by Jim O'Rourke, Endless Summer by Fennesz leaves me floundering in my search for words to describe what I am hearing. I abandoned all conventional descriptive and comparative writing and just wrote as I was listening to each of the eight tracks. This music, although at times difficult to listen to, is among the most sublimely beautifully I have ever heard.

1. "Made in HongKong"
What do I see in this static field of bees? Vibrant pointilism.

2. "Endless Summer"
False starts. Diversions. Submarine journeys. We blossom into terrifying, perfect splendour. An epiphany.

3. "A Year In A Minute"
Divine etchings in the sky, shining yet shrouded in cloud.

4. "Caecilia"
Pelvic chatter, silenced by angels coughing. Fresh lightning strikes a candy carousel.

5. "Got To Move On"
Lifts and conveyor belts malfunction as night falls in the neon shopping mall. These walls are alive with electricity.

6. "Shisheido"
Good jazz musicians have four hands: two to play, one to shake your hand, and one to tap you on your shoulder when you least expect it. Robot jazz.

7. "Before I Leave"
Sometimes your heart stops and it's a good thing as you remember that you're living. I'm going to live 'til I die.

8. "Happy Audio"
In the distance, where you think you can see the end, a string quartet will be playing down a well. When you reach the source you must, by playing Chinese whispers, convey the melody. Spinning, we pass several times - close enough to brush fingers, not enough to hold. Warm blue thunder under prickly hot sun. The endless summer.

Copyright © 2002 Tim Clarke