Dallas Art-Pop/Folktronic artist Matt of Matts told us about his love for a Stereolab beat...
Matt of Matts: For beatmakers, Stereolab’s “Tempter” is an object lesson in not trying too hard. The B-side to 1993’s “Lo Boob Oscillator”, it is sparse even for a Stereolab beat. Little more than a double-time kick with organ chords changing on the 1, “Tempter" is over five minutes of buildup with no drop. And yet from my first listen, I have been entirely unable to get enough of it. Somehow both relaxed and urgent, soothing and unnerving, it accomplishes the kind of sonic ecstasy that I dream of one day reaching in my own songwriting, if only I can learn their restraint half so artfully. Recognizing that any attempt to answer the question of why “Tempter” works so well in words (rather than, say, sacred embodied dance) is going to be categorically unsatisfying, I will nevertheless keep fumbling ahead with language.
Part of an answer is that Andy Ramsay leaves much of the rhythmic work to Lætitia Sadier’s vocals, which operate here more as percussion than as a melodic or lyrical element (although let’s please acknowledge that “fearing to respond to the tempting but malevolent call of the other side” is a goddamn bar). She forces her words into a rigid and hypnotic trimeter (dum dee-dum dee-dah-dee) with little regard for those words’ natural stress points. What would feel alien from almost anyone else becomes the grounding heart of the track (one of the unspoken benefits of having an English-as-a-second-language speaker on vox, perhaps).
Then, mixed so low as to be almost out of perception, Ramsay begins hammering syncopated sixteenths on a phased snare that sounds like an elven racquetball court from one dimension over. For the remainder of the song the snare crescendos little by little, getting just loud enough to confirm that yes you were in fact hearing it all along. And that’s it. The song’s over, an appetizer so good you cancel the entrée. A reminder that longing can be more fulfilling than fulfillment could ever dream. Proving that the rarest and most deft skill in songwriting is knowing when you’ve got enough and stopping before you scare it away.
Matt of Matts' single "To An Ancient Power" is out now.
Photo credit: a sea of love
