Every once in a while, Messiah gets an "important" artist to grace our stage for B-sides. For the last show of his two year reign as B-sides maestro, Ryan Faus got us such a show. Zola Jesus is an operatically trained princess of minimalist goth pop whose government name is Nika Danilova. Lady Gaga cites her as an inspiration, and Pitchfork and NME give her rave reviews, comparing her music to Fever Ray and Florence + the Machine. Equal parts music and performance art, her live shows have sold out legendary venues like The Bowery Ballroom, and yet we got to see her for free. Before we could feast on this audio-visual experience, however, we were subjected to an endurance test: an opening set by Australia's Naked on the Vague. As Pitchfork put it:
Naked on the Vague churn out stripped-down and monotonous post-punk. The rhythms are primitive; the most animated songs rely on little more than the incessant thud of a bass drum. Likewise, any pretense of harmony is chucked out the window.
Somehow Pitchfork turned that into a positive thing, but I've seen noise rock, minimal, and virtually everything else I could construe them as done drastically better. The majority of the audience missed out on Zola Jesus because they were unaware that there was an opener and thought the entire show would be similarly abrasive.
To those who did miss out: I am truly sorry. Danilova and her band took the stage and immediately commanded attention with intricate sound textures emanating from not one but three synthesizers, whose churning was soon joined by pounding drumbeats. After a brief instrumental introduction, she began singing in a kneeling position, face still covered in a flowing red hood. Once the hood was removed, she stalked about the stage, compelling all eyes to follow with vocal power and sheer emotional force. For once, the echoing chamber that is the Student Union seemed suited to the stadium size of an artist's stage presence. Climbing up on trashcans, examining the screen of one student foolish enough to be doing homework, dancing and thrashing about on the floor in front of the stage-nothing is beyond the theatrical performances of Zola Jesus. At show's end, she rushed off the stage, seemingly in anger, only to return moments later to affably interact with all and sundry. In short, Zola Jesus was even better than the hype led me to expect.
When the hypnotic synth riff that drives opening single “Starfield” emerges from ambient noises to dominate the listener’s consciousness, it becomes clear that this is no ordinary bedroom electronica record. Building on this solid foundation, The New Division assemble a stadium-sized sound full of clattering percussion and laid-back guitars at the summit of which floats John Kunkel’s ethereal, reverb-drenched vocal. The glitchy rhythm and ‘80s snares of “Devotion” are reminiscent of a time when Joy Division, New Order, Kraftwerk, and Depeche Mode kept dancefloors packed until the wee hours of the morning. Its lyrical content, focusing on themes of solitude and spirituality, keeps The New Division firmly in such critically-acclaimed company—the purveyors of so-called ‘intelligent dance music’. Skittering cymbals and a pulsing bassline pick up the pace on “No Health” before smoothly flowing into the more rock-influenced “Nocturnal”. The rock influence remains in the ambient guitars at the beginning of “Festival”, a sound that would fit well on the last Ratatat album, before dropping an electro beat that has more in common with Deadmau5. Album closer “Bucharest” mimics the transition from hard-hitting club synths to more melodic lines one might experience on the way home from a night out, perfectly matched with lyrics about late-night conversations, loneliness, and the difficulty of communicating across cultures one might encounter both in the Romanian capital and The New Division’s hometown of Riverside, California. As a DJ, I appreciate their ability to balance a variety of songs capable of standing on their own and album-wide pacing to produce a smooth set of tunes that work extremely well in exactly the order they appear, from “Starfield” to “Bucharest”, almost like a narrative.
The New Division are clearly capable of producing a diverse array of electronic music, and their acoustic hidden bonus track hints at yet another direction they might go in the future. For an independently-released EP, The Rookie is an impressive effort. I had the privilege of seeing their CD release show in Riverside, and can honestly say it translates even better live, and with the recent addition of a drummer their act is sure to be even more compelling. Recent coverage from influential blogs like Pitchfork and NME (the British equivalent of Rolling Stone) leaves me hopeful that on their next effort they will have the benefit of a record label and its associated equipment and recording quality, distribution, and the possibility of a national tour so we East Coast residents can experience their music in the late-night environments it seems destined for.
My girlfriend's best friend's boyfriend (wow that's a mouthful) is in an excellent band out in California called The New Division. I was able to hang out with them a little bit while I was out there visiting her, and they are putting out some genuinely quality stuff, heavily influenced by New Order and Joy Division. They are doing so well, in fact, that high and mighty Pitchfork has graced their latest single, "Starfield", with their stamp of approval - giving you a free download in the process, just a few days after my own Fox and the Hound Show did so with some East Coast airplay.
