Post-Genre Blues
Modern Fusion
When I hear the word “fusion” in the context of music, my first thought is of a flaccid synthesis of funk and jazz that boils away the best element of both.
However, fusion- the fusion of genres, of instrumentation, of compositional or ideological theory, is really the present and the future of music… and there are so many fusions of style and form out there that simply miss the public eye because people don’t understand what they’re listening to. Even literally the process of fusion inside a star involves two particles fusing together, creating something new. (And giving off a hell of a lot of energy in the process.)
True fusion isn’t a surface thing. It isn’t the half-assed blending of several aesthetic or social postures.
It goes straight for its heart, and in merging that essence with another, something truly unique is born. It doesn’t matter that you can trace it’s lineage, or that all of the original forms are “borrowed.”
There is a musical communication of culture and of experience. This is nothing new. It is how cultures spread and form: through art, through music, through myths and stories as groups of people encounter one another, and their existences co-mingle.
No form of music is unique in its source: but what evolves out of it… Well, that’s another story. We are different from our parents and yet like them. The same is true of music as generations pass.
So what’s all this bullshit about genres having hearts? Am I talking sense or have I finally gone off the deep end?
Let’s take Metal for instance- whether you’re talking about thrash metal, speed metal, death metal, or black metal- it is linear, it is aggressive and fast, like a machine built for war. If you took Bach, gave him modern equipment, and pumped him full of testosterone and super-drugs, you would get the quintessence of metal. It’s no mystery why the true home of Black Metal is in Scandinavia. It is grandiose, proud, and harsh. Black metal is Viking music. Other forms of metal have different cultural heritages, (mostly Nordic and Germanic), but they all share that same machine-mentality: of the linear, of the powerful, of the precise and the efficient. There are precious few bands in recent history that have taken those things and fused them to another musical sensibility without debasing the original source. For instance, most of the rap rock attempts in the late 90s and early 00s were embarrassments to the possibilities of both approaches to music making. It’s something that is very easy to do poorly if you are intending to blend two or more musical mentalities, especially if you don’t really live inside them in the first place. (Case in point: Fred Durst couldn’t rap, and it’s arguable if he could “rock.”)
But every now and then a group comes along that really pulls it of, and who manage to define a sound through a fusion of previously existing individual and cultural music trends. Groups like Tool blasted onto the scene in the early 90s, borrowing equally from the progressive rock of the 1970s and 80s, bands like King Crimson, and fused them with elements of Indian Music and metal, thanks in no small part to Danny Carey’s expertise, which seems rooted in the a rhythmic sense of a great Tabla player, applied to a full (a very full) rock drum kit. Mix with Maynard’s Marionette-like Propheteering and the serpentine and raw sounds of the “string section,” and you have a legendary sound.
Other groups cropped up during the 90s, like Estradasphere, Secret Chiefs 3, and Mr Bungle, all which crafted unique sounds out of divergent and often obscure sources (from Armenian folk music to Indian Rajas and everywhere in-between).
But there is one project, also a child of the 90s, which often slips through the cracks. This group was Cynic, and their only studio album to date: Focus, released through RoadRunner Records. Of course, it didn’t slip through the cracks for all of us. Cynic was actually one of the most talked about underground metal bands during this time, but they disappeared right when it seemed the time was ripe for them to really explode. They left us with this one cultural artifact, like the Ancient Mayans with their temples, myths, and curious codices. (Or like most of the musical and artistic currents that cropped up in the 1990s and then disappeared or were driven underground, to make way for the spiritual death of mainstream hip-hop and an almost fascistic overtaking by pseudo-Euro retro-pop.)
What is this cultural artifact? Imagine blending the organic life of jazz, it’s free-form feel, even when it is based on a structure, it’s inherent swing, poly-rhythms and expansiveness, and applying it to the raw power and energy of metal. If that wasn’t enough, they somehow manage to blend in Hindu philosophy, which gives the music a slightly New Agey Indian feel. (Don’t just take my word for it, a quick glance at the titles and themes of the songs on the track give ample evidence, Veil of Maya, for instance.)
Though it’s somewhat unclear whether this is a one time thing or not, there have been rumors seeded directly by their label that there will be a Cynic Reunion. I’ve been unable to discover if a new studio project with some of the former members of the band is in the works or not, if any of you have leads towards that end please include them in the comments.
I’m including three tracks from the original release in this post. More recently RoadRunner released a much needed remix and remaster, which gives a much better sense of the dimensions of this music. I suggest you pick it up.
More links:
Veil of Maya (track 1) Tablature, for those of you who want to hurt before you die.
Get the
Cynic: Focus
