August 7th, 2009 9:28am
All My Dreams Reminisce
Neon Indian “Deadbeat Summer”
I am so bored with fake lo-fi. There is no good reason for anyone to deliberately make their music sound cheap and weak these days, and it mostly just seems like a tactic to distract the listener from sub-amateur songwriting and poor musicianship. “Deadbeat Summer” is a rare exception — not only is it a very strong song, but the tune is actually improved by the hazy, woozy production style. It’s like tenth-generation romance - nostalgia faded out from endless dubbing, far removed from the source, but still vaguely magical.
Visit the Neon Indian MySpace page.
8/8/09 12:12 am
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8/10/09 7:07 am
I’m not so sure about that ‘fake lo-fi’ concept that you take. I mean, i KNOW what you are talking about, but, there’s lots of great “fake lo-fi” records out there. you can sound better with a cheap 4-track than the first guided by voices record. they sound cruddy and fuzzy because they liked it, they overdubbed lots of noise and stuff, or they let all the errors in.
Or portishead, for example, obviously had the money and resources to make a shiny, glossy record, but they chosed lo-fi in their three records to great effect.
8/10/09 10:11 am
I would not in a million years call Portishead a fake lo-fi band, or a lo-fi band.
8/10/09 1:08 pm
i think that they really use the lo-fi aesthetic. all the hiss, the cut frequencies, cheap drum machines, cruddy loops, how gibbons’ voice sounds on the records. it’s difference from the ‘rock’ lo-fi, but it’s the same concept applied in a different context.
8/10/09 1:44 pm
Pretty huge difference between utilizing a variety of sounds and deliberately trying to cover up an inability to sing/perform/write.
8/10/09 8:06 pm
Neon Indian will be playing in the UK. 26th Sept Cargo London, 28th Sept Harley Sheffield, 29th Speth Barfly London.
8/24/09 6:02 pm
This song is quite a find. Great!
9/16/09 3:08 pm
Uh, fake lo-fi? I think that would only make sense with like a hi-fi song which is altered with some computer program to make it sound lo-fi. Most of the really lo-fi music coming out now is made with the same cheap, old equipment any other “authentic lo-fi” music of the past has used. No good reason? So if someone finds a cheap 4-track at a garage sale, they should instead buy something more expensive for fear of being condemned as “fake lo-fi”? How ridiculous. Maybe they just like the aesthetic (I do). This is like arguing that there’s no good reason to hand-make things anymore now that we have machines and factories that can manufacture them with little or no noticeable flaws. Should people who use old camcorders also be scolded for making “fake lo-fi” videos? If you don’t like the lo-fi aesthetic, just don’t listen to lo-fi music. Otherwise you’ll just sound like a hi-fi elitist.