With the release of a second Boomkat album this year ("A Million Trillion Stars") I am taking a closer look at their music and the singer Taryn Manning. (who is also an actress in such films as Hustle & Flow, 8 Mile, and Crossroads..a.k.a that movie with Britney Spears..) So far I hear a good variety of quality pop music, the kind that usually comes out of the UK. The first single "Run Away" is a compelling pop song with plucky harp patch sprinkled over a crunchy beat. With the addition of personally revealing lyrics and an engaging video presence, this song has drawn deep inside of me to become one of my favorites so far this year.
The video appears to show the singer isolated and deatched at a superficial LA pool party. The singer has said herself in an interview with YRB magazine that "it's a party I throw, but I'm like a phantom at my own party.." This would seem to be the interpretation one would get at a passing glance.. That level of meaning recalls in my mind songs set at parties that are either defiant and accusatory to the crowd around around them [Louise - "2 Faced"] or observationally unsure. [Joni Mitchell - "People's Parties", lyrics]
From the first flash of blue light emerging from the water, I started to see a deeper level of meaning in this video - The involution of the soul into this world of matter. Singing from the perspective of the higher self who "sees everything" there is such a difficulty for those who retain this awareness, to be trapped in the heaviness of the world. To be inside the human form with full knowledge, but unable to fully understand the world around would inspire a feeling of wanting to run away, back into the higher realms. To be in such a social situation as a party full of people, her form appears to move among the others drawing forth their own blue sparks as she sees deeply into each one of them. Perhaps the brightness of all those lights can be overwhelming, causing a a further descent to run away into the direction of detached darkness.. Despite stumbling she runs back to her own light, and at the end she kneels before the pool in the same place where her blue light emerged earlier, as she reaches in to retrieve it once again. This premise is found in the Gnostic Hymn Of The Pearl and is echoed in the M. Night Shyamalan film "The Lady In The Water".
Unfortunately Taryn Manning had her own brush with mortality. She was aboard the famous Jet Blue flight 292 incident, where she and her co-passengers (and I) watched on live television as the plane circled around the LAX airport knowing there was a twisted front landing gear. Everyone watched the plane dump fuel and make it's final approach, not knowing if the inevitable sparks would engulf the plane in flames live on CNN. There was ample time for these passengers to reflect on what was going on, but she and others comforted the passengers who were the most upset. Through the precise skills of the pilot and some seeing the divine intervention of angels, ["Three Hours of Fear and Hope"] the plane managed to land safely with everyone ok and she lived to make this song..
1 comment:
I am new to music blogs. I want to complement you on your ability to present your readers with a unique opinion about the music you enjoy and love to listen to. Music will forever be the language of the heart. This reminds me of a quote Hans Christian Anderson is known for: “Where words fail, Music speaks.” How true.
I especially liked reading Boomkat- Run Away. Take Taryn Manning. Her video has all the qualities of that deeper knowledge some seem to possess and express through music. I like how you speak about her video and how the music engenders physical and spiritual conditions wherein sound might suggest multiple concrete meanings and associations. You seem to be able to pull out the conflicting and interchangeable ones, or none at all, but instead pull out something else entirely. You do this well.
I appreciate what your opinions and feelings are, but there is an art to what you do. The making and judging of music are processes. It seems that you study the music you bring us as a product – existing music and existing interpretations and appreciations of music – and through that study, you have developed a body of knowledge which is bound to be like a science of some sort. Perhaps it has yet to be named. To be mores specific, the recognition of this process you do- uncovering and analyzing aspects of existing songs which have not previously been discerned or appreciated – is what you bring to your readers. Knowledge, the product of your inquiry, which you use in the processes of explaining, and criticism, that which judges and forms your tastes, is explained through the use of that knowledge in your critical inquires or critiques of judgment. You expose your readers to this process whether they are aware of it or not. It is a process as unique as the thoughts you bring us and as the genius within you.
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