New York-based Chilean producer Nicolas Jaar had already been garnering steady interest and critical acclaim via a scattering of singles, EPs and dance remixes, but it's the release of his 2011 album Space is Only Noise that catapulted him to indie fame. The album has a score of 86 on Metacritic, the hallowed realm of 'universal acclaim'.
I rarely listen to whole albums; I mostly select tracks from disparate artists and genres to make my own playlists, or to suit the mood I happen to be in. But Space is Only Noise is the kind of album you make an exception for - you have to listen to the whole album, not just because it's a unique and interesting listening experience, but because it's the kind of album that grows on you, when meanings are blurry and hazy and only become slightly clearer after multiple listens.
Jaar's album is a complex soundscape, a blend of multiple music genres. Pitchfork's Andrew Gaerig cites "lounge pop, African jazz, hip-hop, and sound collage in addition to house and pinches of dubstep", and describes Jaar's album as "electro-acoustic downtempo future-jazz". Jaar also makes heavy usage of 'found sounds': water lapping on the shore, laughter, the sound of children playing, clicks, and what sounds like a space wars video game. There are silences that punctuate moments of uptempo beats; sounds that surround Jaar's occasional vocal deliveries.
Take the intro track ('Être'), for example. It begins with a conversation in French, which is then interrupted by a philosophical observation that insists on clarifying its statements, adding a layer of complexity and uncertainty with each sentence:
'Look: it's a body, floating into the land. No - it's a body swimming out into the water. No - it's the land itself here that's a body: a body of land. It's the water itself that's a body of water.'
Jaar evokes the empty spaces and silences that exist between bodies and noices beautifully, although I'm still not sure exactly what 'aesthetic statement' his album is making, or what his 'intentions' with the album were. And while I'd definitely recommend listening to the whole albums, there are tracks that do stand out. My favourite is 'Too Many Kids Finding Rain in the Dust':
This track is a great example of Jaar's tendency to juxtapose impersonal, semi-philosophical gnomic utterances ('Too many fathers asking too many favors/ Too many kids finding rain in the dust/ Too many lords saying house in the club') against a more intimate (and vaguely romantic) address: 'I'll bring you downtown/ Show you around/ But you won't find the time to kiss kiss kiss') against a backdrop of minimalist, slow-motion beats.
A similar technique is used in the title track, although more vocal distortion is used to blur the distinction between the intimate address and the gnomic statement. The track doesn't sound like anyone's typical idea of a love song, and I'm not sure if the 'you' being addressed is a romanticized other, or a stand-in for an abstraction or a concept:
'Space is only noise if you can see See I want to write a story about two long lines Two pretty lines that fall in love
Two little spaces they're filled with echoesDid the lines ever intersect one another, at a moment in time?
Have you always crossed like this/ Have you always crossed like thisHave you been this way all the timeHave you been this way all the time/ Or were you always trying to get with me?With me? With me? With me? You used to check the weather/ Now you stopped thatYou used to look at time/ Now you stopped thatYou used to wear red/ Now you wear whiteWhat happens all the time/ It happens all the time' What probably grabs the listener's attention is the proliferation of gnomic commandments (which you can't ignore and can't really make sense of): 'Replace the word space with a drink and forget itSpace is only noise if you can seeGrab a calculator and fix yourselfGrab a calculator and fix yourselfRead the news baby read the newsWatch your clock baby watch your clockWatch the weather baby on TV' Space is Only Noise is a listening experience that I keep coming back to, but each attempt at demystification only seems to uncover more layers of complexity. It's probably not everyone's idea of music (it might come across as being too 'deep', 'weird', or 'pretentious' to some), but if you like getting lost in a slightly claustrophic soundscape of melodies, echoes and abstractions this is the place to be.
