A Musical Analysis of
the LifeAquatic Aesthetic:
Everything seems to be evocative of
something I faintly remember. The warm and faded color editing, the saturation,
the alternating beach and forest themes, the off-angled framing of candid shots
of women. Then comes the music, and we go synaesthetic. The washed-out filters,
the ambient whirs, the gentle off-kilter beats, the time-worn vocal flourishes.
I begin to be overwhelmed by the aesthetic.
Indeed, this aesthetic turns out to be remarkably robust in defining the music of the blog. Not the music style is any way homogenous. In his thinking about the “life aquatic music taste”, Beeler sees a rough spectrum. The left pole of the spectrum consists of music dominated by more ethereal impulses. These songs, while still largely with beats and are generally less hip-hop influenced. Often these songs garner adjectives like “soft”, “ambient”, “minimal”, or phrases like “sun-washed”, “washed out”. These songs depend on certain wash synths, and often samples for “ambient” and “atmospheric” textures. The sampling of water is a particularly common one. The following track is a prime example of the leftmost pole.
The right pole of the spectrum is the more hip-hop influenced work, that often features insistent hip-hop beats or faster-paced, more danceable beats (although these are almost always made off-kilter and slightly evocative.) as well as sexually evocative musical motifs like sensuous vocals, or prominent bass Often the use of vocal sampling, and production techniques such as sidechaining distinguish this end. It must remembered, however, that this spectrum is exceedingly rough and in many ways it can be difficult to decide where to place a song on it.
Indeed, this aesthetic turns out to be remarkably robust in defining the music of the blog. Not the music style is any way homogenous. In his thinking about the “life aquatic music taste”, Beeler sees a rough spectrum. The left pole of the spectrum consists of music dominated by more ethereal impulses. These songs, while still largely with beats and are generally less hip-hop influenced. Often these songs garner adjectives like “soft”, “ambient”, “minimal”, or phrases like “sun-washed”, “washed out”. These songs depend on certain wash synths, and often samples for “ambient” and “atmospheric” textures. The sampling of water is a particularly common one. The following track is a prime example of the leftmost pole.
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The right pole of the spectrum is the more hip-hop influenced work, that often features insistent hip-hop beats or faster-paced, more danceable beats (although these are almost always made off-kilter and slightly evocative.) as well as sexually evocative musical motifs like sensuous vocals, or prominent bass Often the use of vocal sampling, and production techniques such as sidechaining distinguish this end. It must remembered, however, that this spectrum is exceedingly rough and in many ways it can be difficult to decide where to place a song on it.
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Beyond this spectrum, there are a
variety of other sonic touchstones. The songs range in the intensity of the
bass, with some of the song featuring assertive lead bass synths in either a
slower more hip-hop fashion, or a more sped-up fashion, reminiscent of the
“beat scene”. Indeed the chopped female (or male) vocals can appear all over
the spectrum. Furthermore, there is great variation in tonality, and overall
mood to the tracks. Compare, the sunny tropicalia revival of the Ruspo
Capistrano track “Thank God…A Window! (from Sao Paulo) {consider more standard
example} to the downright brooding of Galapagoose’s “Ploy”
Beeler’s role in
lifeaquatic is of some interest. Beeler,
determines only a small fraction of the submissions, thus ensuring his role as
both a protector/overseer of the aesthetic, and a quality overseer. Ultimately, the blog itself must be
filtered through Beeler. Then again, Jarred describes how his taste often
diverges with the “life aquatic taste” and he is forced to limit posts to music
that molds to that contour. In our interview, a track he dug, {name} he
couldn’t post because it didn’t match the general aesthetic. This presents an
interesting question about the ability of listeners to form to possess such a
certain a priori formulation of
genre, in that the aesthetic sensibility precedes the music itself.
It should be noted that in now way does Beeler,
express any proprietary feeling over the music. While he does appear to have
some sort of status amongst Australian beatmakers (as well as international
beatmakers), he recognizes that the “lifeaquatic music taste” transcends
Lifeaquatic. This recognition is justified, seeing how other blogs are
able to capture a similar aesthetic (although each with it’s own particular
stamp defined by either the structure of the blog itself, or the taste of its
curator). What makes lifeaquatic and its associates interesting is how these personal tastes can be magnified upwards and reified into becoming a disemboddied taste. Beatmakers who not know Beeler , often seek out the Lifeaquatic for their tracks because, as Beeler says, they "like my aesthetic".
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