This week’s song was suggested by a reader. Thanks, Amiri!
I’ve always gravitated towards music that combines electric and acoustic, digital and analogue, synthetic and organic. But I’ve never stopped to wonder why, until I heard this gorgeously smooth love song by MMYYKK.
I suppose part of it comes from growing up in the 90s. The 80s had been the decade of synthesized everything; for a while, if a band wasn’t using a computer to make all its sounds, they were hopelessly irrelevant. But then the 90s happened and the pendulum swung again, sparked by the DIY ethos of (I hate the term, but we all know the kind of music it refers to) grunge.
But computers weren’t going anywhere, and by the end of the 90s, acts like Portishead, Lemon Jelly, and just about everyone on the Ninja Tune label were using digital means to achieve an analog sound, sampling freely but often using live instruments to add a more organic energy to their work. And Radiohead, initially lumped into the grunge pile, closed out the century with OK Computer, an album which not only used the digital-acoustic dichotomy as a way to create unique sounds, but as a source for thematic content.
The music of MMYYKK (pronounced ‘Mike’) fits comfortably within the Soul genre – a genre that pulls much of its energy from live, human sounds: powerful voices free of autotune, live drums, smooth bass lines. But, as with other recent featured artists in the genre like Sault , FKJ and serpentwithfeet, the occasional addition of a sampled drum loop or synth pad makes his music irresistible to me.
MMYYKK’s 2016 EP, Love In Synthesis, is an examination of love. And while love isn’t exactly new territory for musicians to explore, it’s the way he pairs organic and synthetic elements that makes it work.
And I think that might be why I’ve always liked that organic-synthetic pairing in music: it’s quintessentially human. As in, we’ve always been biological beings, our bodies complex machines we can barely understand, but we’ve always thought of ourselves as more than that. It’s a mind-body thing, I guess. Or the tension between our twin loves of nature and technology.
Hmm. I’m reading this back now, and worried that I’m not explaining this much better than a cannabis-fueled 17-year-old at 3AM.
So instead, just have a listen to MMYYKK’s music and try to hear what I’m barely able to explain.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. The sample that opens the song has been chopped until the original time signature is unrecognizable. It’s a bit disorienting, like a skipping record, until the drum loop comes in and applies a computer-like accuracy to the chaos.
2. MMYYKK’s voice doesn’t conform to the rigid metronome of the drum loop, ambling through the song like a hiker deliberately walking off the path.
3. The lyrics move from physical sensations (feeling a warm embrace, the softness of skin) to the metaphorical pulling of heartstrings. Maybe for humans, both machine and not, love is so fascinating because it is both extremely physical and completely non-physical.
Recommended listening activity:
Using your phone to order a wind-up watch.