Album of the Week: Neon Future 1

One late night not so long ago I was driving through St. Paul with a car filled with women (something that probably doesn't happen as often as you might think). We were listening to the modern alternative radio station here in the Cities, which, it seems, plays party music on Fridays around midnight. Since we were all engaged in meaningful conversation (like the picture of this Icelandic neo-blues singer the women couldn't stop looking at) I suddenly realized there was something coming through my car speakers that I didn't recognize. It was this boring, repetitive beat without any discernible melody. 

"What the hell is that?" I remember saying out loud.

One of the women in the car, the one riding shotgun, said, "Um, that's dance music.”

I reflexively changed the station before I even realized I was doing it. I couldn’t imagine why anyone would listen to dance music in a car so I couldn't see a reason for it to even be on the radio. Of course, it didn’t occur to me that not everyone listens to the radio exclusively in their car as I do, and some people might actually listen to it at home or in some other setting more conducive to dancing than driving north on 35E in the dark. 

Earlier in the month, the same woman trying to school me about dance music challenged me to write about it this May when I posted I was planning to buy a new album based on someone else’s recommendation that would be a little outside of my norm, and write about it. Since I didn’t have any dance music in the library, I figured it couldn’t hurt. 

That turned out to be wrong, though — I actually DID have one album of dance music that I’d forgotten about. I’m referring to the album “Recharged” by Linkin Park, which is a collection of dance remixes of the songs from their “Living Things” album. I’d never listened to it very much, even though I’m a big fan of the band. Using that as my dance music sample felt like cheating though since I already had it and it was more of a rock band temporarily deviating into dance instead of a true dance music act, so instead I did a little research and went with “Neon Future I,” a semi-recent release from Steve Aoki. I’d heard of him from an interview he did on one of my favorite podcasts. He seemed like a reasonably thoughtful and normal guy, so I figured he’d be as good as anyone for a dance music introduction.

I’ve played through it a few times now, and I don’t hate it. He seems to be mostly about heavy percussion sounds and layers of triumphant-sounding keyboards. I couldn’t even tell if any real drums were being used; I suspect they weren’t, but that was okay. Dance music doesn’t seem to be as much about instrumental virtuosity as it is about constructing and programming a piece of music for a very specific purpose, almost as an instrumental narrative, which I’ll admit is a skill set all its own. Most of the album was upbeat and positive with a wide open sound. I could see why fans of this would be able to stand in a venue, close their eyes, and let the sound fill their head to push everything else out of the way. There could be something reaffirming inside of moving along with this programmed sound, just enjoying life for awhile and being in the moment. That’s the same thing that any music fan is looking for when they go to a show. If people seek that out at a club where they can move around in more space than just the two square feet right in front of the seat they paid for, I can appreciate that. I can see this being an album I’d put on if I just want something to fill the quiet that I wouldn’t have to pay a lot of attention to. That isn’t such a bad thing. 

All the same though, as far as becoming a dance music aficionado goes — I don’t plan on making a Costco run for glow sticks anytime soon.