Pak
Motel
Ra Sounds

I often wonder if other genres besides the ones I'm familiar with have oft-neglected avant-garde branches of their family tree. Let's see, metal has envelope pushers like Mike Patton and all of his projects, indie rockers have math rock and oldies have Captain Beefheart, all of whom work to some extent inside the conventions of their larger genre, but constantly step outside those conventions in very deliberate ways. It makes me wonder if somewhere there are musicians doing the same thing with genres like country, dance and radio pop. Even after thinking about it for a second there most certainly are, but that still doesn't explain why one set of weirdos doesn't suffice for everyone.

I hadn't actually heard of Pak before, but apparently the mastermind behind this project, Ron Anderson, is one of these weirdos. Part musical genius and part delirious madman, when you're listening to Anderson's music you're never quite sure whether you're listening to the ravings of an insane musical genius or the genius moments of a totally unschooled dilettante.

If you're familiar with the weirdos I described above then you probably know, to some extent at least, where Pak are coming from. However, for some reason or another I find Motel to be a lot more musical than most quote unquote "avant garde" music. As I said before, Anderson clearly knows about the conventions of pop music; if he didn't then Motel would bear no resemblance to it, but instead Anderson uses pop's conventions like a hopscotch board, sticking a foot firmly in a square here, but playfully stepping out of bounds there to create his own sort of beauty.

Yes, it's difficult, but it's still beautiful if you ask me. There are no moments when you sing along and maybe there aren't even moments when you tap your foot, but when I'm listening to Motel I still feel overwhelmed, like everything is coming together beautifully around me even though I'm not quite sure how. In a word, this is sublime, in the same way as a Jackson Pollack painting or a powerful thunderstorm.

Posted by Daniel at 09:05 AM