Ocean finds live intimacy at NY fest

Mick Jagger sings Brexit blues

NEW YORK, July 29, (AFP): Frank Ocean has captivated audiences since his debut with his tenderness, a gentle but unwavering voice in the often hyper-macho world of R&B and hip-hop.

Nearly a year after he released his long-awaited second album, “Blonde,” Ocean has presented his ever-patient fans with a live vision of his music, one that creates a kind of cinematic intimacy.

Headlining the first day Friday of Panorama, a year-old festival on New York City’s Randall’s Island, Ocean shunned the stage — which became a giant audiovisual project — as he performed in the round from an island in the crowd.

Ocean emerged to the boisterous beats of his track “Pretty Sweet” before immediately dialing down the exuberance with “Solo,” his bare, organ-backed confessional on embracing solitude.

Clicking a button on a mountain of equipment, Ocean appeared on the stage-screen in grainy footage akin to an old home video. But soon it became a slick, real-time concert movie with shots of Ocean and cheering fans fading into each other and occasional bursts of color including Ocean’s signature orange.

In a hint that the show may eventually wind up in a new form, director Spike Jonze filmed Ocean up-close through the entire set with a steadicam — a scene that could have figured as a subplot to his movies “Her” or “Being John Malkovich.”

Ocean has returned from a three-year touring hiatus but is only playing a handful of shows. Only two are in the United States; the other one, a week ago in Los Angeles, again saw Jonze trailing Ocean a well as a cameo appearance by Brad Pitt.

Ocean — who made waves in the hip-hop world in 2012 by declaring that his life’s first love was a man — delivered a statement for the current political moment by wearing a T-shirt that read: “Why be racist, sexist, homophobic, or transphobic when you can just be quiet?”

Ocean reconfirmed the emotional power of his falsetto on tracks such as “Thinkin’ ‘Bout You,” one of his best-known hits, infused with a jangly guitar by stage guest Alex G.

Yet the band and Ocean veered out of step at points, with the perfectionist singer himself acknowledging to the crowd that the show remained a work in progress.

The show culminated in a surround sound, rare for festivals, as instrumentation from guitar riffs to organ boomed from alternating speakers.

Panorama was inaugurated in New York last year by the promoters behind Coachella, the premier festival that takes place each year in the California desert, as the market for live music thrives across the United States.

Panorama suffered a setback Friday as an indoor, air-conditioned concert stage was damaged. Fan footage posted online showed the wooden floor breaking open during a packed performance by rapper Isaiah Rashad.

No one was hurt but the stage was shut for the day, forcing cancelations of sets by prominent hip-hop producer DJ Shadow and French house DJ Breakbot.

Frank Ocean was preceded on stage by another leading figure of alternative R&B, Solange, who brought brassy takes to last year’s album “A Seat at the Table,” an introspective tour through the state of black America.

a parallel there. While Kesha did not work with Luke on this album, she remains under contract to his record label, Kemosabe, which is releasing “Rainbow” via RCA.

The song’s video collects footage from several home movies of Kesha as a child, and in the Isaac Ravishankara -directed video she wanders through a field she’d run through as a child, accompanied

Rare

by dancers, discovering items from her childhood featured in the home movies. Unlike the ballad “Hymn” or the rocked-up “Woman”, this song is a buoyant pop anthem that lets Kesha show off her range. (RTRS)

ULAANBAATAR:

Ulaanbaatar’s urban music scene is buzzing with a new vibe created by a hip-hop

With a stage resembling the flag of Japan, Solange and her eight-piece band had a touch of Prince as they played decked out in matching red outfits and Solange showed off free-flowing dance moves from fluid shoulders to a shaking head.

As for dancing, Future Islands again showed themselves to be among the most passionate performers in indie rock.

Frontman Samuel T. Herring opened with an apology, saying the Baltimore-based band was jet-lagged after returning from Australia.

But the intensity was on full display — especially on “Cave,” which touches on the US political climate — as the sweatdripped Herring repeatedly growled, leaped across the stage and pounded his chest.

LONDON:

Also:

Rock legend Mick Jagger has released a new track called “England Lost” that reflects the soul-searching in Britain since the Brexit vote in what he said was “a difficult moment in our history”.

The song released recently, a collaboration with grime artist Skepta, starts out as a reflection on seeing England’s beleaguered football team lose.

“But when I wrote the title I knew it would be about more than just that. It’s about a feeling that we are in a difficult moment in our history,” the Rolling Stones frontman, who turned 74 on Wednesday, said in an interview for Apple Music.

“It’s about the unknowability about where you are and the feeling of insecurity. That’s how I was feeling when I was writing,” Jagger said.

“I went to find England, but England’s lost,” he sings in the blues-inspired track.

“I went to find England, it wasn’t there/ I think I lost it in the back of my chair,” goes the song, with a music video showing a smartlydressed man being held back as he tries to run into the sea.

“I think I’m losing my imagination/ I’m tired of talking about immigration/ You can’t get in and you can’t get out/ I guess that’s what we’re all about.”

The Brexit referendum last year divided the country after a bitter campaign in which hardline rhetoric against immigration featured prominently.

Jagger told Sky News in an interview in April 2016 ahead of the vote that: “I don’t think to me personally it’s going to make a huge difference”.

“I think to the country in the short-term it will be detrimental. In the longer term, in say a 20-year term, it might turn out to be beneficial.”

Jagger also on Thursday released a second solo track entitled “Gotta Get a Grip”, a dance tune, that he said was more inspired by the United States and is being seen as a comment on US President Donald Trump.

“The world is upside down/ Everybody lunatics and clowns/ No one speaks the truth/ And madhouse runs the town,” Jagger sings.

“Immigrants are pouring in/ Refugees under your skin/ Keep ‘em under, keep ‘em out/ Intellectual, shut your mouth/ Beat ‘em with a stick,” he sings.

“The message I suppose is despite all those things that are happening, you’ve got to get on with your own life, be yourself and attempt to create your own destiny,” Jagger said.

duo mixing into their sound the traditional art of throat singing, or “Khoomei”, as Mongolians refer to it.

Rap group Fish Symboled Stamp, named for a fish-shaped seal traditionally used to brand horses in the landlocked nation, incorporates the nearly 1,000-yearold vocal tradition of communities across Siberia and Central Asia.

Khoomei means “pharynx”, and performers imitate the sounds of nature, emitting a melody of harmonics alongside a continuous drone, UNESCO, which added the art form to its intangible heritage listing in 2009, says on a website describing it.

Lead bass vocalist Sanjjav Baatar, 32, founded the group with rapper Battogtokh Odsaikhan, 30, in 2010, when they started experimenting with music styles. (RTRS)

LOS ANGELES:

Justin Bieber accidentally hit a photographer with his truck after leaving a Beverly Hills church service, and the singer got out to help the man while waiting for emergency services to arrive.

The photographer, who was not identified, suffered non-life threatening injuries in the accident on Wednesday night, Beverly Hills police said. The photographer later posted a video thanking the “Sorry” singer for his help.

“He (Bieber) got out, he was compassionate. He’s a good kid. Accidents happen”, the photographer said in a video posted on celebrity website TMZ.

Bieber was not charged and had fully cooperated with authorities, Beverly Hills police spokesman Sergeant Chris Coulter said. (RTRS)