➤ YVES TUMOR, from p.24
James K sang “Recently I’ve been
crying, crying/ There’s a pain deep
inside, but I’m trying not to lose my
only baby girl to a toxic world.”
“Noid” fl ipped a sample of Sylvia
St. James’ disco song “Grace” into
a club-ready bop about PTSD, police
brutality, and the alienating
reality of African-American life. Its
production starts to come apart
at the seams halfway through, refl
ecting the lyrics’ anxiety.
“Kerosene!,” the second single
from their new album “Heaven For
the Tormented,” is a power ballad
halfway between “Purple Rain”
and “Sweet Child O’Mine.” But it
doesn’t exactly sound like either
of those songs, largely because it’s
a duet between Tumor and Diane
Gordon. She sings her heart out,
taking R&B-inspired vocals to the
verge of operatic drama. Heavy
Mellow’s guitar solo might sound
cheesy at fi rst, since it draws so
much on hair metal, but it too
brings out raw emotion.
Seemingly a love song between
Tumor and Gordon, “Kerosene!”
works on multiple levels. For an
artist who has tried as hard as Tumor
to remain mysterious, singing,
“I can be anything you need… I can
be your fantasy” feels like outreach
to his audience. On a song that
could be their mainstream breakthrough,
Tumor and Gordon sing
about fulfi lling each other’s desires
by modeling themselves on the
other’s dreams. Isn’t that what pop
music stardom has always been
about? It takes on a queer twist by
the fact that the song keeps explicitly
bringing up gender in the context
of such roleplay. “I can be your
little girl” might go unnoticed in a
typical love song sung by a heterosexual
woman, but when the artist
is non-binary, it stands out.
The album combines live instrumentation
and samples (including
folk singer Roy Harper, funk musician
Willie Hutch, and K-pop.)
The production is often busy to the
point of slight murk. It continues
Tumor’s use of electronic buzzing
as a lead instrument. “Licking an
Orchid” deployed it where most
musicians would place a guitar
solo, and it dominates this album’s
“Medicine Burn.” “Identity Trade”
lifts a skronky saxophone riff from
free jazz. But the album’s horns
and punchy live bass also look
back to ‘70s R&B. Even the sound
collages “Asteroid Blues” and “Folie
Imposée” have a soulful grounding
and careful structure. The album
benefi ts from the fact that Tumor
clearly had the biggest recording
budget of his career.
Tumor’s music frequently uses
religious and occult references.
They titled one song on their fi rst
album “Love Is the Law,” after a saying
by Aleister Crowley, and called
their second album “Serpent Music.”
This continues in this album’s
title and its fi rst single, “Gospel for
a New Century.” But Tumor’s new
gospel is carnal. They portray Satan
in its music video (for the second
time, following “Lifetime”) as
a lusty demon singing and sitting
on a throne surrounded by female
dancers in animal masks and pulsing
laser lights. The visual closes
on Tumor’s wide, unforgettable
grin directly into the camera.
Tumor’s music has frequently
been described as psychedelia, albeit
headed in the direction of a bad
trip. “Heaven for the Tormented”
conjures up a specifi c moment in
the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, when
Black artists like Sly Stone, Stevie
Wonder, Miles Davis, and Parliament
Funkadelic kissed goodbye
to boundaries between rock, jazz,
and soul and made music fundamentally
grounded in a yearning
for freedom.
But Tumor uses modern technology
to create a sound too riddled
with glitches to feel nostalgic
and expresses anxieties about sex
and love rather than the quest for
spiritual solace described on “Safe
in the Hands of Love.”
“Heaven for the Tormented”
might click with the audience for
both likeminded queer avant-pop
artists like Arca and SOPHIE
and for more mainstream musicians
like Childish Gambino and
The Weeknd. Tumor’s recent work
showcases their ambition and
ability to keep stretching themself
into new ideas and sounds. “Safe
in the Hands of Love” was a great
album. “Heaven for the Tormented”
surpasses it.
YVES TUMOR | “Heaven For the
Tormented” | Warp Records | warp.
net
➤ RINA SAWAYAMA, from p.24
other female singers like Poppy and
Grimes. She told the British website
NME, “I kind of like making really
uncool things cool.” But whatever
genre she uses, “Sawayama”
is clearly grounded in her personal
experiences, benefi ting from the
fact that she’s old enough to look
back on her teenage years and see
her mother’s perspective, too.
“Akasaka Sad,” which is sung
in both Japanese and English,
and “Dynasty” tackle the traits
Sawayama picked up from her
parents. The latter returns to her
nü-metal infl uences, with a melodramatic
opening and breathy
vocals patterned on Evanescence.
If sports arenas were open now, it
could be blasting away in them before
football games. She describes
the idea behind “Chosen Family”
as “a queer one — people are often
kicked out of their homes or ostracized
by their family, friends, and
community after coming out. This
can be an incredibly painful experience
that can be remedied by
fi nding a new ‘chosen’ family.” However,
it is one of her weaker songs,
passing for a power ballad playing
over the closing credits of a mediocre
‘80s action movie. The ambivalent
turbulence of “Bad Friend,”
whose music suggests Charli XCX
experimenting with gospel, feels
more heartfelt. The mildly glitchy
production of “Akasaka Sad” also
heads into future pop territory.
“Who’s Gonna Save U Now?” begins
with a crowd chanting “Rina,”
but Sawayama’s path to stardom
has crashed into a world where rising
musicians can’t promote their
music or make money by touring.
Prior to its public release, she promoted
“Chosen Family” as a single
by releasing the chords and lyrics
— but not the entire song — to
fans and inviting them to submit
videos of themselves singing it. As
isolation persists, she has kept up
her Instagram channel Rina TV.
Although “Sawayama” includes a
few weak songs, the singer’s confi
dence is contagious. When she
sings, “I’m the baddest, and I’m
worth it,” she’s right.
RINA SAWAYAMA | “Sawayama”
| Dirty Hit | Drops Apr. 17 | dirtyhit.
co.uk
DIRTY HIT
Rina Sawayama’s debut album goes on sale April 17.
GayCityNews.com | April 9 - April 22, 2020 25
/co.uk
/GayCityNews.com
