'Placid splash back'

Back to Myspace for todays artist, and i can't actually remember how i found him. Probably through a friend of a friend of a friend of a band i like. Well whatever this is another electronica sound for you guys, which i will assume some of you may be getting sick of. So tomorrow i promise i will find you something different. In the mean time, i introduce

JONATHAN KRISP

Typically this is electronica. Typically this is also the type of electronia i've been banging on about for this whole blog. Seriously just look at the post below this one to see my whole thing about electronic artists who are good at making sure electronic isn't all they are, and how i enjoy classical instruments mixed in with this style of music etc etc. I'll save you all the time and effort of wading through another one of those rants and just get on to this artist as an artist. 
So you will notice here that other than 'electronica' this guy labels himself as both 'Tropical' and 'Visual' Now i personally am not sure about the visual thing, since i'm not one of those people who 'sees' music, although i can very nearly understand what they're getting at by saying that. There's a kind of trippy quality to the music that gets you wondering whether listening to this under the influence of drugs would cause colourful swirls everywhere that pulsate in time with the beat, and everything would taste of purple. So ok we can deal with the 'visual' label of this music, although i personally have never heard music given that label before. Also it's taken me until the the end of this paragraph to realise it might just mean their live shows are very spectacular. Shut up.

So the other label then, 'Tropical'. Accurate? I'd say so, yes. Now i'm wondering if this is really just another term for world music, but there definately a sense of continental shift in this music. You begin with the second song on the playlist 'Untitled' presents us with this chorus of chanting children. Like Yeasayer (who i reviewed a few days ago) the chorus sounds almost oriental. And then we have these bird sound running through the track to produce something not unlike the soundtrack to that bit in Tomb Raider where they first enter the tomb (I'm sorry for the terrible comparison, i really couldn't think of anything half decent.) Then we immediately get transported to Frace with the song 'Wow and flutter' which gives us a dose of accordian which actually fits very nicely with the song's other elements to produce something very continental.
I've said before (probably multiple times in fact) that i'm always uncertain of artists who try and put their music into too many genres or eras or continents although i will step back and admit that i don't have an album to reference so these songs could all be from different albums for all i know. But i do get the feeling that unlike Yeasayer, this guy is a little unsure of where he's actually at in terms of musical style. What i definately appreciate though is how his approach to electronic music is definately different from most (going by what i mentioned earlier of accordian's and choir boys) but honestly jumping from renaissence France to around 400 years into the future in 'Placid Splash Back' seems a little bit far-fetched.


Even for me.