The pleasures of artificiality
When I do my part for our weekly singles roundup on Stylus (and I did do it for last week, but then embarrassingly forgot to email it in), I usually keep some of the MP3s around afterwards. Sometimes this isn't surprising (that I have "Goodies" or "Walk Idiot Walk" around, for example), but sometimes I give things a second chance.
I was listening to my unsorted MP3s the other night when the remix of Lloyd's "Southside" came up. I'd been on the bubble about it for a while, and had almost deleted it a few times. But now, I've made up my mind, and it may even make my top twenty for the year. Why? Because the vocoder on Lloyd's voice never, ever slips. The whole thing sounds and feels airbrushed to a ridiculous extent, every digital whimper and sigh just so; when at the end of each chorus the volume on Lloyd's "voice" rises it feels like pure artifice is rushing out of your speakers. The remix is even better because Scarface sounds like he's been airlifted in from another totally different song; there's actual ache in his voice at some points, for one, despite the fact that his rap really isn't much cop. It's the feel of the thing. And the tension between rough and smooth, "real" and "fake", is pretty compelling. I don't ever want to hear another Lloyd track again, but here at the pinnacle of Irv Gotti's craft, studio shine practically blinding you, there's something compelling.
I was listening to my unsorted MP3s the other night when the remix of Lloyd's "Southside" came up. I'd been on the bubble about it for a while, and had almost deleted it a few times. But now, I've made up my mind, and it may even make my top twenty for the year. Why? Because the vocoder on Lloyd's voice never, ever slips. The whole thing sounds and feels airbrushed to a ridiculous extent, every digital whimper and sigh just so; when at the end of each chorus the volume on Lloyd's "voice" rises it feels like pure artifice is rushing out of your speakers. The remix is even better because Scarface sounds like he's been airlifted in from another totally different song; there's actual ache in his voice at some points, for one, despite the fact that his rap really isn't much cop. It's the feel of the thing. And the tension between rough and smooth, "real" and "fake", is pretty compelling. I don't ever want to hear another Lloyd track again, but here at the pinnacle of Irv Gotti's craft, studio shine practically blinding you, there's something compelling.
