kismet

fate is a funny thing, if you believe in it. chance occurrence, random happenstance, the bizarre and wonderful sense that the universe is colluding in your favor - a belief in fate can give a life direction and purpose. perhaps, if you believe in your destiny strongly enough, it can take you from a strict mormon upbringing to a life as a performer. i don't know if jesca hoop believes in fate, but her fairy tale-like history, as well as the title of her debut lp, kismet, certainly suggests that she does, and is grateful for its blessings.

an anglicization of the turkish word for portion or lot, "kismet" carries meanings that synonyms like "fate" do not, a sense of exoticism and mystery. "fate" and "destiny" have real-world application, but "kismet" is a concept firmly rooted in the preternatural, ethereal realm, a world where genies grant wishes and beggars become sultans, a world where the only limitation is imagination. kismet summons these ideas from the beginning, songs swirling and twisting, two, three, four disparate melodies all seamlessly crammed together. early album highlight "seed of wonder" is grounded in a seesawing cabaret guitar line, upon which hoop adds a m.i.a.-esque chorus and a harmony-heavy bridge, while internet fave "intelligentactile 101" is defined primarily through hoop's athletic voice part, an unexpectedly dynamic bass line, and a cascading harp. kismet is astoundingly diverse, building upon elements from handfuls of genres without ever descending into a mold.

hoop's history is important to understanding her music, borrowing, as it does, from styles ranging from reggae to folk and everything in between. hoop's mormon parents raised her on a steady diet of 60s folk, mainstream radio, and church hymns, though her teenage rebellion led her to artists like tom waits, kate bush, and bjork. fleeing her strict upbringing to california, hoop was offered a job that undoubtedly changed her life: a nanny position for the waits family. impressed by her precociousness and obvious talent, waits gave a demo to kcrw, and the rest, they say, is history. hoop likes to say her style is a natural result of her skewed musical upbringing, and that "when you strip down to raw elements, you actually can conjure up an original viewpoint," and she has nothing if not that.

kismet is both an amalgamation and a creation, a collection of songs so startlingly different that one nearly wonders whether hoop is schizophrenic - there are far too many ideas in these songs for one person to think up alone. though kismet's production does add a great deal to its ingenuity and mystery, its best quirks are hoop's own, whether it is the hushed scatting emanating from the left speaker on "out the back door" or the shape note harmonies on album opener "summertime." more often than not, her songs are illuminated by tangential guitars and ethereal choirs, to name but a few of the tricks up her sleeve, especially on the absolutely stunning "money." "money" is also one of the few tracks on kismet with understandable lyrics; hoop, more often than not, tends towards lyrical non sequiturs, preferring to value the rich sounds of vowels and consonants over any cogent sentences.

though at times disappointingly hit-or-miss, kismet tends to err on the side of brilliance. hoop's "mad music," as she calls it, is a bizarre and wonderful collection, tantalizingly abstracted and complex, imagined by a mind unhindered by conventionality.

jesca hoop - "out the back door"
purchase kismet from a fine local retailer.

jesca hoop w/ the ditty bops - live on kcrw 9/19/07
1. summertime
2. intelligentactile 101
3. enemy
4. money
5. seed of wonder
6. love and love again

september 25 is the best day ever!

...if you're looking to go broke on a bevy, nay, a slew of excellent independent releases set loose today. the obvious choice is the shepherd's dog (no shit), but dig deeper, and september 25 will reward you in ways you could not have dreamt. faced with a list longer than my arm, there are two albums released today you might overlook, but do so at your peril.

two gallants let loose with their third LP, the appropriately titled two gallants (buy), and telephone jim jesus returns with more excellent glitch-hop on anywhere out of the everything (buy). you could also shill out for the excessively-blogged about bang bang boom cake (buy), or tunng's good arrows (buy), but those come without the mammoth stamp of approval. one album that was released last week but disappointingly overlooked was jesca hoop's kismet, which will be reviewed here soon-ish. no matter what, if you're looking to empty your wallet this week, you won't be denied. if you need me, i'll be out shopping.

two gallants - "miss meri"
telephone jim jesus - "a mouth of fingers"
jesca hoop - "seed of wonder"

the polyphonic spree, warsaw, 7/1/07

there is nothing like the polyphonic spree to restore one's faith in...well, whatever one doesn't have faith in. ok, so the spree didn't restore my faith in america, but that's a tall order anyway. they did, however, make me astonishingly happy for near two and a half hours. yes, that was all concert time. and that's not counting the opener, jesca hoop. i made the "mistake" of arriving at 9.45 for a 9 show, not realizing that warsaw actually starts its shows when the ticket says, but i still caught three hoop songs, which were really good. some mp3s have been making the rounds lately, especially "intelligentactile101," which i heard, and "seed of wonder." "intelligentactile101" is on the upcoming kismet, hoop's first album, due to be released later this year. without even listening to her music, this quote will assure you that it's worth your while:

"jesca hoop's music is like a four sided coin. she is an old soul, like a black pearl, a good witch or a red moon. her music is like going swimming in a lake at night." - tom waits.

indeed, though i wasn't expecting much from a no name opener for one of indiedom's most well-known bands, jesca hoop pleasantly surprised and engaged me. i've reposted "intelligentactile101" below. you should definitely check her out, and wait with bated breath for kismet.

i sorta cheated in preparation for the 'spree, because i listened to part of the npr taping of their show the night before in washington and checked out the tracklist, but that didn't even begin to prepare me for the two solid hours of joy that tim delaughter and co. brought to brooklyn that night. it seemed a wonder in and of itself that 24 people could fit onto such a small stage, but fit they did, with room to rock.


they opened with "running away" and "get up and go!," the first two songs off their new album the fragile army, and then took a trip back in time to the beginning stages of... for "it's the sun," bringing the crowd to a level of excitement that didn't flag for the rest of the show. tim was the obvious focal point for the whole show, and was the only spree member to speak to the audience, but that was to be expected. clad in their new black uniforms, the spree did seem more vulnerable, as the title of their new album suggests.

mixing the old with the new, the polyphonic spree lightened hearts and minds with their rousing 50 minute set...i know a smile didn't leave my face for one minute the whole time. unfortunately, time blunts the details, so i can't remember which song they ended with, but it was long and slow, and the whole band filed out, bit by bit, until only tim was left onstage, serenading the crowd that sang along with him.

after tim had left the stage, the crowd kept singing the last lyrics of the song over and over, waiting, begging for an encore. there was no movement on stage, but the crowd didn't give up hope. and, indeed, the spree entered from the back of the auditorium, resplendent in their old white robes. the crowd went apeshit, cheering, smiling, giving everyone high-fives and handshakes. the band finally made it back to the stage, and played for another hour and a half. i swear to god, it was amazing. tim kept saying that he didn't want to stop playing yet, and no one argued with him. they played "lithium," "sonic bloom," "la la," "hanging around the day (pt. 2)," everything that you could possibly hope for.
"everything starts at the seams" into "when the fool becomes the king," when tim made the whole band stand still for least 10 minutes as he chatted up the crowd and teased the other 23 people on stage as much as he wanted. the night ended with a birthday celebration for mark pirro, originally a member of tripping daisy. we were told a story about a ship on the great lakes, whose name i can't remember now, for some reason, but the last song was tripping daisy's "ride captain ride," which the whole crowd sang along to, despite the fact that i'm sure only four or five people knew the words (it's an easy chorus). prompted by tim's exhortations that the polyphonic spree needs all the money we could spend on them, the crowd mobbed the merch table, and everyone else left in a glow of good cheer and happiness. a perfect night.


jesca hoop - "intelligentactile 101" look for kismet later this year.
the polyphonic spree - "get up and go" buy the fragile army here.