Kishi Bashi

[mridx]

I imagine someone else on this forum has been exposed to Kishi Bashi by now. He's currently on tour with of Montreal, with whom he also plays violin. You might say Kishi Bashi is to of Montreal right now as Owen was to Arcade Fire circa 2005. And his solo act is very similar to Owen's...circa 2005. Looped violin and voice and percussive snippets. You know. Not only that, but his songs are melodically very--
very.
Very similar to Owen's--especially his signature piece "Manchester". His label even describes his music as "Avant Pop"--a term I myself invented in 2006 (I have iTunes metadata to prove it!) in my attempt to fashion a suitable genre name for Final Fantasy.

Kishi Bashi is very talented and his recorded work is nifty, in my opinion. It's funny though, when I saw him open up for oM in Houston, the audience went NUTS as if this had NEVER BEEN DONE before.

Curious what Owen's die-hards think of him. I think some are bound to love it, and some are bound to dismiss it as a rip-off.

Also curious if anyone has heard or read any reaction by Owen to the flattering emulation. Given Owen's record of extreme generous-heartedness, I imagine he'd only say kind and complimentary things.
...But that mean part of me would like to hear him say, "Hey, where's my check, dude?"

[ben]

Ah part of me hoped this would never happen...

[Blue Imelda]

I had not heard of him, but I just watched a live video of "Manchester." I saw exactly where you were coming from -- skinny, charmingly befuddled humble guy looping a violin with a bunch of pizzicato? Come on, dude!

Then he started singing, and I realized that he is just a completely different animal. The act itself is similar, but the same could be said for Andrew Bird or even Patrick Wolf. The only solid similarity I hear is that they both play looped violin, but hell, as long it was musically and lyrically different enough that it didn't just feel like "Owen Pallett again," I would not complain if every musician used looped violin.

[Owen from Final Fantasy]

You guys are crazy, it sounds completely different. "I haven't felt this alive in a long time"? Stars-esque chord progressions? We have similar canoes but different destinations.

[Alyssa!]

I'd rather have a song slap me and stare with menace and love than have it wrap itself around me and coo in my ear.

[Carlo]

Oh! I took a listen......

I don't really see any similarity with the music.......

Only the same type of wooden thing in their hand

[jules]

I was going to post a long rambling responce about energy, emotion, depth and that whiltst I enjoyed "I Am The Antichrist To You", most of his stuff was more in tune with The Pierces that a omnipotent musical polymath. Then I thought that I was being all negative and I shouldn't fall onto the comparsion band wagon, so delete my lenghty prose (luck for you lot)

I like music for how it makes me feel not how it was produced, who produced it, who it might sound like or whether it's liked by others. I guess I'm just not a comparing person.

[mridx]

Hmmmm.

Self-reflexive meta-narrative? Check.

Soft, breathy vocals flattened of vibrato, leaping up a register for a half-screamed climax, just as the violin unleashes a sustained gush of quick triplets? Check, check, check.

Oh, and if Owen doesn't coo, then the dictionary has it all wrong on that word!

As a common villager who doesn't take many canoe journeys, these two might have different destinations, but when I see both of them paddle down the river past my hut one day, I note a pattern.

[haydendavenport]

I hear very little stylistic similarities

[Owen from Final Fantasy]

Considering how many people out there are doing [guitar + voice] [power trio] [laptop] [four-piece] I have all the time in the world for any fellow violinist-singers. I've seen and played dozens of loopers and looper-singers who've chosen the violin as their main drag.

Happily, there are many days in a year and many bars in the world and many billions of people with an infinite capacity for music consumption, right?

My own playing style developed entirely independent and unaware of Andrew Bird's, for example-- I had "Thrills"! but hadn't heard him loop. Around 2005 when peeps were like "Andrew Bird but gayer and Canadian" I resisted the comparison b/c it's unfair both to me and him, regardless of which of us has your favour. It belittles the amount of work it takes to a) learn the instrument b) learn the gear c) learn to sing and play simultaneous d) decide upon a starting point, language-wise e) write songs f) record songs g) play shows h) attend to administrative details i) become a touring entity j) further develop oneself on a technological level past a Loopstation k) perhaps integrate live visuals l) or band-mates m) or a full orchestra n) or surround sound o) or location-specific performance p) extend your songwriting technique past the basic language of "arco" "pizz" and "col legno" q) look into pitchshifting and synths r) whoops, i forgot: work in other instruments, be it cello or bass or synth or guitar s) find a place to rehearse t) find money to pay for space/gear/bandmates/tour van u) somehow manage to maintain a semblance of a social/romantic/familial/citizen's life, not to mention get in a jog now and then. So dude plays violin, so do many people in symphony orchestras. I dunno, I can neither pass judgement on the quality of K's material nor anything else, b/c I haven't seen him live, and if I did pass judgement, I wouldn't make any public statement about it other than "he's awesome", so, to save myself an Of Montreal ticket: he's awesome.

[Owen from Final Fantasy]

There's also that "White Sails" guy, what's his name. And Anne Rossi. Pekka does looping. Oliver Schroer did it, Laurie Anderson did it. Look, you want to talk about a string player/singer who destroys me? Like I'm embarrassed to even mention his name b/c he's so awesome? Listen to some Ben Sollee. He asked to tour with me and I am ashamed to say that "you will blow me off the damn stage" was a mitigating factor in why we haven't got it together just yet. I'm gonna get him to dumb it down a bit, take it easy on me.

[mridx]

I remember when people recommended Andrew Bird to me based on my Final Fantasy fetish. I saw him kinda late in the game--maybe Dec. '07 or so--and he had a full band, and played guitar more than violin. I never saw him structure a whole song from looped and layered vioin, but instead he seemed to have a conventional band, and then layered some floaty violin embellishments over that. I was like, "this has nothing to do with FF!"
But my wife really got into it, and I've developed an appreciation for him in the intervening years. and I acknowledge that I probably never would have heard of him if not for FF, and...it's all positive in the end.

My point is, I just think that Kishi Bashi lends itself (himself?) to meaningful comparisons and contrasts with Owen's projects, and the two don't have to be identical (or identically matched in merit) to share appeal, because there are some undeniable similarities--nicely counterbalanced by some substantial differences. In any event, I thought it might appeal to many of Owen's fans. I suspect he will eke out a niche of notoriety , and figured if anyone deserves a head's up, it's the kids on this forum. Peace!

[sarpedon]

Apr 1, 2012 13:35:25 GMT -5 Owen from Final Fantasy said:

...so, to save myself an Of Montreal ticket: he's awesome.

I saw them once a few years back (Sunlandic Twins era); good call

[Alea]

I feel it's the same as the Andrew Bird/Owen debate. Different platforms, same tools. My ultimate goal is to also incorporate violin looping into my live performances one day, so I don't really have anything negative to say about this guy since I'll just be following in not just Owen's and Andrew's, but Kishi Bashi's footsteps as well. It's not like he's going around claiming that he was the first to do it.

[schemeengenius]

I think of Montreal put on a great show; visually and musically as well.