I was looking for books about applying sociology to art. In other words, I wanted to know: what does a culture’s art say about that culture? And, by extension, what does a culture’s art’s influence say about that culture? And, by further extension, how long until either my back or my brain gave out under the strain of so many books? (My back, two weeks of intensive study. My brain, three and a half. I knew I was done my research when I couldn’t get out of my bed to go look for more books.)
So, in essence, I was applying theories of anthropology to art. And Gauguin was applying art, in some cases, to anthropology. Or at least I think that’s what he was doing – I didn’t retain all of that research.
And so, having already lost 99% my readers with that boring story, perhaps this would be a good time to answer the questions that may be going through your mind: “What the hell is this review about?” or maybe, if you can still recall the name of the band that this review is about, “What does all that have to do with First Nation?”
First Nation, the debut full-length album by the New York band of the same name, follows in the tradition of Western art inspired by non-Western cultures. And, probably not coincidentally, one of the band members is an anthropologist.
The Paw Tracks Records press material that came with this album uses the band’s “tribal thing” as a selling point. Now, I don’t know if any of the band members are aboriginal or of “tribal” heritage, but I don’t think it’s important. The band is advertising themselves with this naturalistic, innocent connotation of “tribal:” their music employs polyrhythm heavily (a West African and Caribbean technique) and their song titles reference pastoral imagery (“Monkey,” “Cave Jam,” “Child’s Eyes,” “Creation”).
Here we are at the main question of the review, which also happens to be one of the main questions of modern anthropology: can a Western artist use non-Western cultural material as a legitimate, genuine influence, or is that usage necessarily an appropriation of an assumed/constructed/idealized innocence and purity (implying intellectual inferiority) of the non-Western culture?
Whew, that was a mouthful. Read it again if you have to, then let’s move right along.
I’ll give you my answer to that question – an entirely subjective one, I warn you. I think that Western artists can legitimately use non-Western culture without any racist or otherwise negative overtones. Some artists (cf. Gauguin’s Tahitian production, Rousseau, and, some might argue, Conrad) certainly do seem to exhibit some degree of racism in their use of non-Western inspiration. But I think it can be done tastefully and it can, and should, expand the palette of the Western artist.
This is precisely the case with First Nation. Although it’s not clear to me what non-Western culture they are drawing from – at times it sounds African; at others, East Asian; and at others still, Indonesian – I like what they’ve done with the “tribal thing.”
First Nation combines their tribal thing with the Animal Collective (for whom they share a record label and have shared a stage) aesthetic of child-like, raw, deconstructive pop/folk. This is admittedly a genre that walks the line of pretentiousness dangerously close to falling clear over into the abyss, but First Nation pulls it off admirably.
And, dare I say it, First Nation makes a much more interesting and daring go of it than Animal Collective does.
The album’s opener and closer, “Awakes” and “Waterfall,” sound very similar to one another. Each is intensely chaotic, and in each the focus is on the multiple, overlapping rhythms. The melodies are fragmented, ADD-short and repetitive, child-like. The songs are primarily built of vocal loops and a bit of percussion work. We’re teased with some recorder or flute or panpipe or something like that in the background. These songs serve as intro/extro, introducing the album’s aesthetic without shaping the listener’s idea of the meat of the album too much.
About half of the other eight songs are really interesting, and the other half are not. I think that’s a pretty decent ratio… especially for a relatively new, experimental folk group.
First Nation is most successful when a song has some kind of internal logic – this seems to often be the case with artists, that their ability is most apparent when they are faced with some external parameters. Many classical composers apparently discovered the same thing: cf. Bach’s fugues, Mozart’s concertos, and Schoenberg’s 12-tone compositions. (Only European examples here because I am shamefully ignorant about composers this side of the Atlantic.)
A good example of that imposition of internal logic is in the album’s most engaging song, “Cave Jam,” an instrumental. The song opens with a beautifully orchestrated counterpoint between flute and electric guitar. The counterpoint is punctuated by occasional bass drum. Some gamelan-sounding percussive elements are added after about a minute. That gamelan sound is wonderful, rich, surprising: everything an experimental song should be.
“Child’s Eyes” is a great mix of avant-garde use of rhythm with a traditional rhythm: each beat of a standard 4/4 rhythm is broken up into half-beats, shifted hence and thence. Right before the song ends, First Nation treats us to really catchy electric bass line. A great surprise, right near the end of the album.
If you like First Nation’s friends Animal Collective, or if you have some academic interest in anthropology and music, then give this one a spin.
