Aurelia Butler

More stories

  • 188 Shares179 Views

    in Music

    Drake Releases ‘For All the Dogs’ Album, With Assists From Bad Bunny and Kevin Durant

    The album features appearances by SZA, 21 Savage and J. Cole, plus a surprise role for an NBA star. After its release, the rapper said he would consider a temporary break from music.After a summer of teasing, various delays, dozens of arena concerts and eventually another No. 1 single, the rapper Drake released his fourth album in barely two years on Friday morning, ahead of a tour-ending, two-night run of shows in his hometown, Toronto.“For All the Dogs,” Drake’s eighth solo studio album, not counting those he considers mixtapes, includes 23 tracks and features past collaborators like J. Cole, 21 Savage, Lil Yachty, SZA and the Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, plus artists from the hip-hop vanguard like Chief Keef, Yeat, Teezo Touchdown and Sexyy Red.The credits also list a role for Kevin Durant, the Phoenix Suns basketball player, who is given the title of A&R on “For All the Dogs,” a role that, in the modern music business, refers to a collaborator who helps to organize an album. Tracks include “Bahamas Promises,” “What Would Pluto Do,” “7969 Santa” and “Virginia Beach,” a song that immediately raised eyebrows because it is named for the hometown of Drake’s longtime rap rival, Pusha-T.The album was released at the unorthodox hour of 6 a.m. Eastern time on Friday, breaking from the industry standard. “Sorry to all my streamers,” Drake wrote on Instagram in his announcement, a reference to the fact that new albums are typically released to services like Spotify and Apple Music at midnight.It was the latest — and shortest — delay for a long-expected album. Drake, a perpetual chart-topper who prides himself on relentless productivity, began promising a new release even before the opening of his “It’s All A Blur” arena tour, which debuted in July, and he provided updates on his recording progress most nights onstage.“For All the Dogs” had previously been scheduled for release on Sept. 22, but fan anticipation stretched back further, to the beginning of summer.Drake first teased the album in June, with the surprise announcement of a book of poetry via full page newspaper advertisements in major publications. The ads and the book, “Titles Ruin Everything,” written with Kenza Samir, contained a QR code atop an image of two puppies that linked to a website revealing the existence of new music.It did not include a release date, but did come with a cheeky Drake lyric from “Headlines,” a song released in 2011: “They say they miss the old Drake, girl, don’t tempt me.”On Thursday, he called the new album “one of my best ever,” marking the release of the video for “8am in Charlotte,” the latest in his long-running time stamp series, which co-stars his young son, Adonis. The child also contributed the scrawled rendering of a goat — not a dog, according to the artist — that serves as the “For All the Dogs” album cover.The album was preceded earlier by the release of the singles “Search & Rescue,” which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April (but is not included on “For All the Dogs”), and “Slime You Out,” featuring SZA, which debuted at No. 1 last month, marking Drake’s 12th chart-topping song. That achievement tied him with Madonna and the Supremes for the fifth-most No. 1s of all time, Billboard said.This year, Drake has also appeared on tracks by the rappers J Hus, Central Cee, Young Thug and Travis Scott.Drake has 12 Billboard No. 1 albums in all, including two from last year — the dance music-inspired “Honestly, Nevermind,” released in June, and the more rap-focused “Her Loss,” with 21 Savage, from November.The “It’s All a Blur” tour, which also features 21 Savage, concludes on Friday and Saturday, at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. With more than 50 arena dates, Drake’s tour was one of many by music’s biggest stars this summer in which intense post-pandemic demand and ticket competition led to high prices, jarring some fans.Drake said on Friday that he would likely take a break following the tour and album, citing a persistent stomach problem. “I probably won’t make music for a little bit,” the rapper told listeners of his Sirius XM radio show, Table for One. “I need to focus on my health.”“I don’t even know what a little bit is,” he added. “Maybe a year or so, maybe a little longer.” More

  • 113 Shares149 Views

    in Music

    On Europe’s Dance Floors, Music Too Fast for Feet

    Since Europe’s clubs reopened after pandemic lockdowns, young partygoers have been drawn to a hard, driving style of techno. It’s changing the way people dance.It was Friday night, and the clubgoers at the Sputnikhalle nightclub in Münster, Germany, were primed to go hard. Decked out in black clothes and sunglasses, despite the dim light, the young crowd chanted the name of Héctor Oaks, a Spanish D.J., as he began playing his signature muscular, fast techno. Standing on top of the club’s risers, the crowd barely tried to keep up with the beat. Instead of moving their legs, many just oscillated their hips.Neele Hoyer, 21, a college student attending the event, explained that most other German techno fans of her age had developed affinity for such breathless music. “It’s gone totally mainstream,” she said. Dancing to such a fast beat could sometimes be strenuous, she added, but “this is what’s normal to us.”In recent years, Oaks, 32, has become a prominent figure in a broader trend in electronic music. While conventional techno is often played at around 120 to 130 beats per minute, Oaks and other D.J.s often play at 145 or above. The resulting hard-charging, breakneck sound has become the defining sound of Europe’s dance floors since the lockdown phase of the pandemic.Dancing to such a fast beat could sometimes be challenging, said Neele Hoyer, a college student. However, she added, “This is what’s normal to us.”Valentin Goppel for The New York TimesAlthough fast electronic music is not new, its broader dominance is. A data analysis by the German public broadcaster RBB this summer found that the top electronic music tracks of 2022 had much faster tempos than similar songs in 2016. Specialist dance music publications like Mixmag and Beatportal have noted the trend, and many of the buzzy D.J.s of the moment, like Ukraine’s Daria Kolosova and the Polish D.J. VTSS, are known for cranking up the speed.“I see it everywhere,” said Casper Tielrooij, the founder of Dekmantel, a label and annual electronic music festival in Amsterdam. “It’s not only techno, but jungle and trance and drum and bass.” He argued that although the zeitgeist had started to change before Covid, the faster, harder genre of techno had “exploded during the pandemic” and tastes were partly being shaped by young people who had spent their late teens or early twenties in lockdown.Luigi Di Venere, a techno and house D.J. who often plays at Berghain, the Berlin techno club, said that “there’s this idea that they need to speed things up to make up for it, and in case it happens again.” He added that the less “organic” and more “robotic” fast music suited a generation of clubgoers more connected to online culture.While conventional techno is often played at around 120 to 130 beats per minute, many D.J.s in Europe are playing at 145 or above.Valentin Goppel for The New York TimesHe argued that the brisk sound is partly sustained by a kind of feedback loop: As some D.J.s play faster, their co-headliners imitate their style to keep up the energy in the club. “You can’t just be a grandma and go, ‘Tra-la-la, 120 B.P.M.,’” he said, adding that he believed the trend still hasn’t reached its peak.In an interview, Oaks said that he began developing his sound in 2013, by melding traditional techno sets with other genres, including trance. Music played at a higher speed, he said, causes dancers’ hips, rather than their feet, to resonate, fostering a movement more akin to hovering than dancing. “I’ve thought about this a lot,” he added.He recalled that the music he played was an outlier on the European club scene a decade ago. But he partly grew a following at Herrensauna, a Berlin-based queer party known for its harder sound. The Herrensauna D.J.s’ 2018 appearance on the influential Boiler Room platform, which hosts livestreamed sets, was a “turning point” for his kind of music, he said. “After that, you could see everything switched.”Héctor Oaks said an appearance on the streaming platform Boiler Room was a “turning point” for his kind of music.Valentin Goppel for The New York TimesThe style’s success was likely fueled by other developments, including the proliferation of online D.J. streams, like Hör, during the pandemic’s lockdowns. According to Di Venere, because these streams were often shorter than normal club sets, D.J.s were pushed to squeeze in as much energy as possible, and the high-octane results became a staple at Europe’s illegal pandemic-era raves.Since coronavirus-prevention measures were relaxed last year, the sound has now transitioned to the continent’s clubs, including in smaller cities like Münster, which has a population of around 300,000. Oaks is now regularly booked at venues in Ibiza, for instance, which were previously known for their softer, warmer sound.Tahliah Simumba, 25, a Scottish musician who D.J.s as TAAHLIAH, grew her following during the pandemic with pop-inflected sets that often culminated at 170 B.P.M. In a recent phone interview, she said that TikTok, the video app, has been crucial in shaping post-pandemic club culture. The app, which focuses on snappy clips, has a large user base of techno fans, and its short videos favor fast-paced music.She added that, as a younger D.J. raised in an online environment, her sound was largely developed in isolation from the dance floor. “I try not to be held back by hierarchical idea of what D.J.ing is,” she said. “I want to be having as much fun as possible, and what is D.J.ing, after all, other than playing music you like?”Instead of moving their legs, many dancers at the Sputnikhalle just oscillated their hips.Valentin Goppel for The New York Times More

  • 113 Shares149 Views

    in Music

    Peso Pluma, Mexico’s Breakout Music Star, Finds New Spotlights

    Backstage at the MTV Video Music Awards last month, at the Prudential Center in Newark, the out-of-nowhere Mexican superstar Peso Pluma gathered his band for an inspirational talk. That night, he was to become the first Mexican artist to ever perform on the show, but before the dress rehearsal of his song “Lady Gaga,” he set aside around 10 minutes to reminisce with the musicians who have been with him for years, telling them how none of his success would have been possible without them. At the end, almost the whole band walked out of the room in tears.Peso was in a reflective mood because of the milestone he was about to achieve. But some somberness was in the air, too. That morning, there were news reports from Mexico about banners posted in Tijuana, signed with the initials of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, a powerful rival to the Sinaloa Cartel. They demanded Peso cancel an upcoming concert in the city, threatening his safety if he were to perform.A handful of personal security guards were milling about, but at the moment, there wasn’t much to do besides press on. Before Peso hit the red carpet, he and his manager, George Prajin, huddled quickly, to talk about how to handle any questions about something other than music. Then, he stepped out in front of the paparazzi phalanx, playfully jabbing out his tongue, Jagger-style, and sidled into cheerful interviews with “Entertainment Tonight” and “El Gordo y La Flaca.”The following day, at the Hard Rock Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, Peso woke up late after a long night at his V.M.A.s after-party. But he was alert, and pointed in underscoring the importance of the prior night’s performance.“I took it as an opportunity to show the world what I had,” he said. “I just wanted all these artists to get to know me. To get to know what I do, and to get to know better the genre that I do.”More than a dozen weeks after the release of Peso’s third album, “Génesis,” it remains in the top 10 of Billboard’s all-genre album chart.Josefina Santos for The New York TimesPeso, 24, is the reigning king of corridos tumbados, a modern version of traditional Mexican music, which has found great success over the last couple of years. Peso sings and raps in a fashion indebted to contemporary hip-hop and reggaeton over production that holds close to traditional forms. (Peso Pluma — which translates to featherweight — is both his stage name and how he refers to the musical project and band as a whole.)In July, “Génesis” — Peso’s third studio album, but his first since refining his sound and growing his ambitions — made its debut on the Billboard all-genre album chart at No. 3, the highest position ever for an album of regional Mexican music. And it’s had staying power — more than a dozen weeks later, it remains in the Top 10. On Spotify alone, his songs have been streamed several billion times.There have been occasional moments of Mexican American musical crossover in this country — the gangster rap of Kid Frost, the emotional ballads of Selena, the lite R&B and hip-hop of Frankie J and Baby Bash. But Mexican performers have largely been relegated to, and musically remained faithful to, the traditions of what is termed regional Mexican music, an umbrella term that encompasses varying styles from different parts of the country and the southwestern United States. Peso has reframed this music from regional to global. He has collaborated with artists from across the Spanish-speaking world — the Puerto Rican rapper Eladio Carrión, the Dominican dembow star El Alfa, the superstar Argentine producer Bizarrap. And his song “Ella Baila Sola” — a collaboration with Eslabon Armado — was the first Mexican song to hit the Top 5 on the Billboard all-genre Hot 100Peso — whose real name is Hassan Emilio Kabande Laija — was born in Guadalajara, and sometimes spent time in Sinaloa with family as a child. He found inspiration in the work of Chalino Sánchez, a seminal singer of narcocorridos, which tell stories about the Mexican drug trade. Peso fell for “his raspy voice, his very unique way to sing corridos, his very unique way to sing romantic songs,” he said. “When this type of music was playing in the car, I literally took my earphones out to hear what he was saying.”Peso also gravitated to Ariel Camacho, a rising young star of the 2010s known for impressive guitar playing. (Sanchez was murdered in 1992; Camacho died in a car accident in 2015.)But even though Peso enjoyed that music, he didn’t feel particularly connected to its aesthetics, which tend toward crisp Western wear, embroidered suits and cowboy boots.“Since I was a kid, my favorite genres have always been reggaeton and hip-hop,” he said. (He spent some of his teenage years in San Antonio and New York, where he found himself gravitating to the likes of Kanye West and Drake.) “That’s why I don’t wear the sombreros. I don’t wear the boots. I’m not that.”Instead, he dresses like a rapper — loud designer clothes, expensive jewelry and watches that a member of his entourage is tasked with carrying around in soft blue cases from the Atlanta celebrity jeweler Icebox.On the V.M.A.s stage, he was dressed in all black, like a luxury spider — wide and angular puffy vest, shamelessly wide and crinkly pants, short leather gloves and boxy sunglasses. Backstage, he gamely stood for a signature antic TikTok interrogation about his outfit from the social media personality Christoosmoove, a clip that was viewed over 10 million times.Peso was also the first Mexican musician to film an episode of “Sneaker Shopping,” a YouTube series that’s a favorite of rappers and social media celebrities; he spent over $32,000, including sneakers for all his bandmates, putting him in the show’s top 10 all-time spenders. The day after the V.M.A.s, the show’s host, Joe La Puma, sent him a gift: a rare pair of 2005 Cinco de Mayo Nike SB Dunks in the colors of the Mexican flag.Peso’s path to the MTV stage was nonlinear, and also improbably fast. He released a pair of albums in the early 2020s, just as the corridos tumbados scene was being established. And he began working extensively with other artists — the majority of his earliest songs to chart were collaborations, including with Natanael Cano and Fuerza Regida, some of the young performers who established the movement just a few years ago. (Cano’s 2019 collaboration with Bad Bunny on the remix of “Soy El Diablo” was one of the first crossover moments for corridos tumbados.)Some of Peso’s songs tend to the romantic, some are boastful, and some are in the vein of narcocorridos. (These are the songs that have led to the reported threats against him.)The young stars of corridos tumbados initially received a cold welcome from the older, more established traditionalists of Mexican music. “I know it’s not envy, I know it’s not any of that,” Peso said graciously. “It’s just they weren’t sure about how to react.”But while he has been able to befriend and continue to collaborate with Cano, there has been rumored tension with Jesus Ortiz Paz of Fuerza Regida, one of the scene’s most prominent acts. (Peso largely declined to discuss any friction he’s faced: “I feel everything that people say, but I try to focus on the positive things, not the negative.”)Peso plans to release a reggaeton EP soon, and following that, strategic collaborations with American rappers.Josefina Santos for The New York TimesIt has provided a story line for the media outlets that document the scene, including the Agushto Papa podcast, which has been enthusiastically covering the rise of Mexican music for the past two years.“I think that he has pushed how these artists do concerts a lot,” said Angel Lopez, one of the show’s hosts. “I don’t think they’ll ever admit it. But after seeing how Peso Pluma performs, everybody had to step their game up. They can’t just stand there in front of a microphone, play their instrument, or sing. They need to add more.”Onstage, Peso is loose and a little eccentric, always shimmying; his band also moves with controlled jubilation. Jason Nunez, one of the other hosts, added, “Another thing too is the dances — no one danced like that. And even if people thought it was weird, they would hate on it and it would just make him bigger. And also, I feel like it’s like a small thing, but it still matters — the hair.” (The hair does matter. Peso has a rangy mullet that’s become a style marker, and is in perhaps unconscious dialogue with the mullets of Morgan Wallen and various K-pop stars.)The speed of Peso’s ascent has been dizzying and disorienting. “A lot of people don’t know that I have anxiety breakouts,” Peso said. “It is very important for people who have mental issues to be treated and to talk about it.”The Tijuana show was eventually canceled out of safety concerns, even though the police had yet to publicly confirm the authenticity of the handwritten banners. “There’s a lot of things that is fake and a lot of things that is not,” Peso said.Prajin, his manager, said the team had to take every threat seriously. “I want to make sure that not only is he secured financially, but that also we take care of his mental health and his physical health,” he said. “And of course, his security. He can’t go anywhere without having a bunch of security — I won’t let him.”A couple of weeks after the cancellation, Peso announced shows in three other Mexican cities. “I do feel safe,” he said. “Being close to God is the most important thing. And I think that’s why I feel safe. It’s more of a spiritual thing for me.”Prajin suggested that Peso’s subject matter might evolve as he became better known, and his musical footprint widened. “He’s never going to stop singing those songs because that’s what he grew up with, the culture that he grew up around,” he said. “But I do see that he’s definitely going in a different direction in terms of the music that he’s singing. There’s a lot of love songs, a lot of different fusions.”Given Peso’s popularity, the collaboration requests are coming in fast. “You have no idea of how many rappers, how many country singers, R&B singers are connecting with us,” Peso said.He plans to release a reggaeton EP soon, and following that, strategic collaborations with American rappers. Prajin said conversations had already begun with Cardi B, ASAP Rocky and Post Malone.These new pathways, he hopes, will be available not just to him, but to Mexican artists who might follow in his footsteps. And thanks to his success, more new doors are open to Mexican performers beyond just the V.M.A.s.“I saw Taylor Swift moving her head, dancing to my song yesterday.,” he said, marveling at the unlikeliness of it all. “That, we couldn’t even imagine.” More

  • 125 Shares99 Views

    in Music

    Riccardo Muti Takes a Victory Lap With the Chicago Symphony

    The orchestra’s former conductor — now its music director emeritus for life — opened Carnegie Hall’s season with a two-night engagement.When Riccardo Muti stepped down from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra last season, after 13 years as its conductor, the ensemble promptly turned around and named him music director emeritus for life.In a two-part season opener at Carnegie Hall this week, it was easy to hear why.Under Muti, the Chicago Symphony is all power and finesse with no unsightly edges. On Wednesday, in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” the orchestra’s playing, strong yet nimble, drew on reserves of unforced power and charm. The following night, in an Italian-themed collection of programmatic works by Mendelssohn, Strauss and Philip Glass, a certain politesse crept into an otherwise classy performance.There’s no better illustration of the orchestra’s might than the final movement of the Mussorgsky, “The Great Gate of Kyiv.” Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s delightful piano suite reaches its apotheosis here, and on Wednesday, Muti built a magnificent edifice out of it, with crashing cymbals, all-out brasses and majestic strings. Using an extreme economy of gesture, he barely had to move for the players to unleash torrents of stupendous, beautifully balanced sound.At the risk of cliché, the ensemble’s remarkable cohesion feels like a kind of Midwestern humility, focusing attention on the music instead of individual players. Tasteful instrumental solos, like that of the concertmaster Robert Chen in Strauss’s “Aus Italien,” didn’t disturb the musical fabric. Technical mastery emerged in what wasn’t there: The heavenly woodwinds were airborne without being breathy, and the guest principal harp, Julia Coronelli, conveyed beauty without pluck in the Strauss and in Glass’s “The Triumph of the Octagon.” Muti’s dynamic mapping avoided jolts or spikes; ardor and neatness coexisted.His “Pictures at an Exhibition” balanced theatricality and unity in the vividly drawn scenarios of Ravel’s orchestration. The first “Promenade,” in which Mussorgsky depicts himself wandering through the art show of his dearly departed friend, the painter Viktor Hartmann, had a gracious, wide-footed gait. Timothy McAllister’s satiny alto saxophone wafted like a mist through the wide stone halls of “The Old Castle.” “Tuileries” traded the unseemly lilt of whining children for a singsong quality. “The Hut on Hen’s Legs” lurched with delicious, brutal violence. Muti interpreted the score’s attacca markings (indicating that the movements should be played without pause) as seamless transitions instead of opportunities for surprise.Leonidas Kavakos, left, was the soloist in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto on Wednesday night.Todd RosenbergThe orchestra’s plush power in the Tchaikovsky evoked the proverbial iron fist in a velvet glove, so it’s a shame that the evening’s soloist, Leonidas Kavakos, derailed the performance with curdled tone, sloppy passagework, cracked high notes and tuning issues. There were pretty turns of phrase in the second movement, and Kavakos could hide his unpolished sound in the guttural character of the third. For a performer of a normally high caliber, though, it was a shabby showing.Glass’s “The Triumph of the Octagon,” dedicated to Muti, opened the second night. It’s a 10-minute piece inspired by a photo of a 13th-century Italian castle that Glass saw hanging in the maestro’s studio at Orchestra Hall in Chicago, a memory from Muti’s childhood. The music gradually accumulated a mysterious timelessness with the shifting emphases of its time signatures and the delicate deployment of woodwind timbres.Muti avoided any inkling of stridency in the dashing opening of Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony, which rushed forward with grace and buoyancy. Melodies intertwined delicately in the Andante. The perpetual motion of the third movement felt unobstructed but also unhurried; the strings played all the way through phrases and left them hanging in the air, and the brasses were unafraid to assume a blanched color to maintain the movement’s particular tint.The elegant passion on display in the Mendelssohn hampered the players in the Strauss, his first tone poem, a piece that wraps together images of Italy with the swooning ecstasies they arouse. Still, some passages are recognizably pictorial, such as the third movement’s suggestion of the shores of Sorrento, with the dappling of the sun on the surface of the sea rendered in shimmery chromaticism. There, the orchestra was quite enchanting, but in the second movement, it lacked punch. Too often, Strauss’s impetuous reveries were flattened into a predictable sameness.A truer sense of romance and spontaneity could be found in the encores on both evenings. They were drawn from Italian opera, a specialty of Muti, who was the longtime music director of Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Following the adrenaline rush of “The Great Gate of Kyiv,” Muti struck up the intermezzo from Giordano’s “Fedora” with seductive vulnerability.On the second night, the overture to Verdi’s “Giovanna d’Arco” had everything the Strauss didn’t: crackling energy and a sense of reveling — not just in the music, but also in the ensemble itself. It provided a handsome, though still subtle, showcase for the winds to take a victory lap — and for Muti to do so too. More

  • 113 Shares99 Views

    in Music

    Review: New York Philharmonic Plays New Steve Reich Piece

    In “Jacob’s Ladder,” which premiered at the New York Philharmonic on Thursday, Reich’s signature chugging rhythms returned.Thursday evening was a major moment for musical Minimalism.The Chicago Symphony Orchestra brought Philip Glass’s new piece, “The Triumph of the Octagon,” to Carnegie Hall. And further uptown, at David Geffen Hall, the New York Philharmonic gave the premiere of Steve Reich’s “Jacob’s Ladder.”It is no longer news that these composers, indelible faces of an era-defining movement, are eminences. Reich turned 87 on Tuesday, and Glass reaches the same age in January.But don’t forget: They were once downtown rebels, writing for their own ensembles rather than major symphonic forces. (In 1973, Reich’s “Four Organs” was nearly heckled off the Carnegie stage.) Imagine predicting, back then, that they would have new work presented on the same night by two of the country’s great orchestras, in the two temples of New York’s musical establishment.And that it would be cheered. At Geffen Hall, “Jacob’s Ladder” and Reich were warmly received at the center of an excellent concert that placed the premiere between a pair of repertory masterpieces, all conducted by the Philharmonic’s music director, Jaap van Zweden.“Jacob’s Ladder” is something of a return to form for Reich after a quietly daring departure. Since his breakthrough experiments of the late 1960s, his music has been defined by its chugging pulse.But in “Traveler’s Prayer” — begun before the pandemic, completed during lockdown and first performed in 2021 — the pulse was gone. That piece seems to float, with mellow vibraphone charting the calm, patient chant of four voices as a piano makes occasional, deep interjections — somehow questioning and affirming at once.Reich’s work for voices has long suggested the combination of purity and complexity in medieval polyphony; he has cited Pérotin as an important influence. But “Traveler’s Prayer” really felt medieval in its rapt yet free stillness.“When I began to write ‘Jacob’s Ladder,’ I had to ask myself, ‘To pulse or not to pulse?’” Reich says in an interview with his publisher. To pulse, he eventually decided. L’chaim!And from the start, the 20-minute new piece burbles with a steady, propulsive rush of vibraphone. The rhythms are far more tart than in “Traveler’s Prayer,” the melodies more brightly etched and stepwise — more ladderlike. The intimate forces are similar to those Reich used in his last work, with the vocal quartet, small circle of string players, piano and pair of vibes now joined by a handful of flutes, oboes and clarinets that add more lilting vividness.Like its predecessor, “Jacob’s Ladder” sets biblical text in the original Hebrew — in this case, the verse from Genesis in which Jacob dreams of a ladder to heaven, angels ascending and descending on it. But Reich means for the consonants to be smoothed, almost blurred, and on Thursday the four singers of Synergy Vocals managed the difficult task of sounding simultaneously precise and misty, with an antique nasal tang in the two male voices and cool freshness in the women.Swaths of the piece are just instrumental, and the Philharmonic musicians approached the whole thing with forthright gusto. Presumably Reich observed rehearsals and sanctioned the performance style, but the string players used an amount of vibrato that sometimes jarred with the straighter tone of the singers and other instruments; this premiere wasn’t ideally clear.The piece is not as plainly poignant as “Traveler’s Prayer”; the musical and emotional landscape of “Jacob’s Ladder” is more changeable, even flickering. Reich flashes — without lingering — on jeweled moments, and at one memorable point, briefly brightening harmonies in the strings are brought back to somber earth by just a few dark piano notes.Yet nothing is overstated; even the dissonances in this subtle work are softly luminous. Energetic while meditative, “Jacob’s Ladder” doesn’t feel insubstantial, but it does feel light, graceful, refreshing. Twenty minutes passed like a song.Programming the piece alongside Beethoven’s “Emperor” Piano Concerto and Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony seemed less about drawing musical comparisons than about proving how easily Reich fits in with the classics. New works are sometimes doomed by juxtaposition with beloved standards, but “Jacob’s Ladder” plays serenely yet confidently with the big boys.The pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, returning to the Philharmonic for the first time since 2018, did the first movement of the Beethoven concerto with lucid authority and some superb textures, like downward runs that truly sounded as if they were sliding. His slow movement had poetry without indulgence, and the witty, visionary transition from that Adagio to the lively Rondo finale had an exciting sense of improvisation.Schubert’s “Unfinished” was a questionable choice, since the Philharmonic last played it just six months ago. Yet here, as in the Beethoven, van Zweden was strong but not hectoring, with depth and focus to the orchestra’s sound. In the second (and final completed) movement, passages of storminess and lyricism were both persuasive and vibrant.The orchestra played with polished precision. I’ve criticized van Zweden for overly manicured, pushy performances, but on Thursday, in both concerto and symphony, the phrasing felt sculpted with panache, the tension honestly built.New York PhilharmonicThis program repeats through Saturday at David Geffen Hall, Manhattan; nyphil.org. More

  • 138 Shares119 Views

    in Movies

    Five Action Movies to Stream Now: ‘Bad City,’ ‘Decibel’ and More

    This month’s picks include vengeful spouses, plenty of brawling and a little bit of cheese.‘Bad City’Rent or buy on most major platforms.Crime and corruption are rampant in the fictional Japanese metropolis of Kaiko City: The underworld kingpin Gojo (Lily Franky) is running for mayor to redevelop an impoverished neighborhood into a high-stakes nightlife denizen of gambling. The only person who can stop him is the disgraced former cop Torada (Hitoshi Ozawa). Released early from prison by desperate prosecutors to be captain of Special Investigation Division Zero, he is willing to work outside the law to get the job done.The director Kensuke Sonomura’s background as a stunt coordinator proves an asset in the pulpy confines of “Bad City.” Torada and his team spend the film chasing baddies and other mob bosses through noir-tainted streets, leading up to a mall brawl between the cops and several rival gangs: It’s a breathless scene composed on a massive scale, intertwining vast, complex choreography with a precision and visceral intimacy that is impossible to shake.‘Code of the Assassins’Stream it on Hi-Yah!Qi Junyuan (Shaofeng Feng) is an elite killer in army of hired swords from Ghost Valley. He arrived there as a child, after his parents were murdered in the search for a golden treasure map. After their deaths, the map disappeared. But now it’s back and Prince Rui Chai Kang (Jack Kao) wants it. Junyuan goes rogue to solve the mystery of his parents’ demise only to uncover a thorny conspiracy that leads back to the prince’s palace.The Chinese director Daniel Lee’s film contains many moving parts, pulling it from melodrama to espionage thriller, but what really surges it forward is showmanship. One theatrical trap sees a piece of string used to decapitate dozens of men in a kill room. A robust mix of slow motion and heavy metal needle drops add a flourish to sword fights staged on an impressive scale. The assassination scene, which employs a ceremonial dragon, is a mass of flying, careening and spinning men that transitions from bruising to poetic.‘Decibel’Stream it on Tubi.Kang Do-young (Kim Rae-won) was once a beloved submarine commander. But after his vessel took a hit from a missile, he was forced to make a difficult decision that still haunts him. A year later, a ghost from his past has come for revenge. A terrorist has planted bombs throughout the city that will explode if the sound around them reaches a certain level. And the man has picked Kang to diffuse them. The locations of these weapons are also tied to the people closest to Kang, his wife and his daughter.“Decibel,” from the Korean director Hwang In-ho, is a smart hybrid of the submarine movie, by virtue of flashbacks to the events leading up to the tragedy, and a procedural action-thriller like “Speed.” Smart set pieces tethered to the solving of complex puzzle-like bombs build a sense of dread. And the feelings of grief and remorse at the heart of Kang offer the perfect mix of action and melodrama.‘Jericho Ridge’Stream it on BET+Equipped with a cane and a moral uprightness, Deputy Tabby Temple (Nikki Amuka-Bird) arrives back to work at her quaint police station carrying a fractured family burden: The single mother’s endangered son Monty (Zack Morris) might be dealing drugs. Her personal land mine becomes part of a chain reaction when a killer in search of evidence from a drug bust arrives to raid the station. Alone and injured, Temple must survive the night defending herself, the evidence and her son.Keen eyes will notice how closely the writer-director Will Gilbey’s “Jericho Ridge” hews to “Assault on Precinct 13.” And yet, his film isn’t a full-on copy: The presence of a Black woman fighting for the precious life of her Black son, as she lays her life on the line for policing is a sly political choice that gives these choreographed shootouts in close quarters an extra layer of thematic tension and racial anxiety that thunder louder than a hail of bullets.‘Mad Heidi’Rent or buy on most major platforms.World building is an essential element to the directors Johannes Hartmann and Sandro Klopfstein’s Swissploitation epic “Mad Heidi.” It begins with Switzerland’s dystopian power structure: Nazi-inspired soldiers are ruthless strongmen for a dashing dictator (Casper Van Dien) angling to rule through mind-controlling Swiss cheese. An unassuming mountain girl named Heidi (Alice Lucy) witnesses her protective grandfather and her boyfriend (Kel Matsena), a Black pimp illegally selling cheese in cocaine packets, murdered by soldiers.Heidi’s eventual detainment by soldiers, forcing her to train as a gladiator in the Alps before she breaks for freedom, recalls the early Blaxploitation prison narratives that launched Pam Grier’s career. A dash of propulsive spaghetti western music and hilarious one-liners like “Yodel me this,” used to punctuate Heidi killing a man with an accordion, add other indelible ingredients. Also, did I mention there are cheese zombies? Every second of “Mad Heidi” is rip-roaring Gouda time. More

  • 150 Shares169 Views

    in Movies

    Five Children’s Movies to Stream Now: ‘Elemental,’ ‘Spy Kids: Armageddon’ and More

    This month’s picks include a splashy Pixar creation, an Adam Sandler comedy and the newest installment in the “Spy Kids” franchise.‘Elemental’Watch it on Disney+.The concept of star-crossed lovers takes on new meaning in this Pixar creation about a fiery lass (literally) named Ember Lumen (voiced by Leah Lewis) who meets Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie), an emotional softy made of water. They live in Element City, a place where fire, earth, air and water reside despite being divided into four socioeconomic classes — each taught to stick to its own kind. When Ember and Wade start to fall in love, she does everything in her power to keep her distance. It doesn’t help that her proud father, Bernie (Ronnie del Carmen), strives to keep his daughter away from Wade. At first glance, the character animation might appear off-putting or even, dare I say, ugly. But once the story gets going, children should be swept up in the visual world created by the director Peter Sohn and his team. The script — by Brenda Hsueh, John Hoberg and Kat Likkel — plays out like any good romantic comedy should: You root for Ember and Wade to ignore the naysayers and risk it all for love. During his second viewing of the film, my headphone-wearing son screamed, “This is my favorite movie!” That’s coming from a kid who is typically more into ninjas fighting than rom-coms.‘You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah’Watch it on Netflix.Playing a father who’s befuddled by his teenage daughters, Adam Sandler is light-years from the neurotic jeweler with a gambling addiction he played in “Uncut Gems.” Tween girls with overprotective dads might recognize his portrayal of Danny Friedman, a guy who helplessly watches his 13-year-old daughter Stacy (played by Sandler’s real-life daughter Sunny Sandler) seek to finally become popular by having a banger of a bat mitzvah. This is a family affair for the Sandler clan: His wife, Jackie, is in the film, as is his older daughter, Sadie. Idina Menzel plays Danny’s wife, Bree. The story is based on a 2005 novel by Fiona Rosenbloom about the friendship between Stacy and her BFF, Lydia (Samantha Lorraine), and what happens when that friendship unravels (because of a cute boy, of course). Directed by Sammi Cohen (Hulu’s “Crush”) and written by Alison Peck (“UglyDolls”), it’s a charmer about friendship, family and the drama (and comedy) that goes along with growing up.‘Spy Kids: Armageddon’Watch it on Netflix.After writing and directing the first four “Spy Kids” movies, which began in 2001, Robert Rodriguez returns with this reboot of the franchise for a new generation. For “Spy Kids: Armageddon,” he shares the writing and producing credit with his son Racer to tell the story of Tony (Connor Esterson) and Patty (Everly Carganilla), young siblings whose parents are James Bond-level secret agents, played by Gina Rodriguez and Zachary Levi. When an evil video game developer, Rey “The King” Kingston (Billy Magnussen), unleashes a virus that gives him the power to take over the world, Tony and Patty have to save their mom and dad — and the universe. The kids have a field day exploring a “safe house” full of spy suits and cool gadgets that many elementary-age children will pine for. There are plenty of generational jokes about the youngsters knowing more than their parents (at least when it comes to video games), and the action and quick pacing should entertain those who dream of donning a super spy suit of their own.‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’Watch it on Max.We haven’t seen the embattled foster child Billy Batson (Asher Angel) since 2019, when he first uttered the word “Shazam!” and morphed into the DC superhero of that same name (played by Zachary Levi). The director David F. Sandberg returns for the sequel, which has the same cheeky humor and wacky tone as the first installment, but this time the kids are older and they’re battling the enraged daughters of Atlas: Hespera (Helen Mirren hamming it up in a pointy crown) and Kalypso (Lucy Liu). The daughters are hellbent on revenge because they believe Shazam stole the power of the gods, and they also want to control everyone on Earth, of course. It’s up to Billy/Shazam and his foster buddies Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer), a.k.a. Captain Everypower (Adam Brody), and Anthea (Rachel Zegler) to stop them. There’s also a secret third daughter of Atlas to keep viewers guessing, and plenty of all-out battle scenes laced with humorous one-liners and punchy reactions. Djimon Hounsou is back as the ancient wizard who granted Billy his powers, and the writers Henry Gayden (who co-wrote “Shazam!”) and Chris Morgan (the “Fast and the Furious” franchise) do a good job of creating a teen superhero who constantly battles his own insecurities and anxieties, but always pulls through. It’s the friendship binding Billy, Freddy, Anthea and the others, though, that holds the movie together. That, and the big old computer-generated battle scenes.‘Belle’Watch it on Max.If your little one isn’t into the whole superhero-action thing, “Belle” might be a better fit. The Oscar-nominated Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda (“Mirai”) wrote and directed this cyber-age retelling of the classic “Beauty and the Beast,” and the vibrant, fantastical — and sometimes eerily hyper-real — animation will transfix viewers who appreciate gorgeous visual storytelling. Here, the fairy-tale heroine is Suzu (voiced by Kaho Nakamura, who also sings the tunes), a lonely, painfully shy teenager living in a rural village with her widower father. When she discovers a virtual world called U, which allows her to live through a pink-haired avatar called Belle, who has no problem belting out songs onstage in front of millions, Suzu finally allows herself to escape the grief and insecurity that plague her IRL. The beast here is the Dragon, a horned, caped creature who captures Belle’s heart, even as he tries his best to intimidate her and keep his true identity secret. Hosoda’s gentle handling of teen angst, the blissful terror of first crushes and the insecurities that we all have had to grapple with at that age should resonate with older kids and teenagers. They’ll also likely recognize Suzu’s silent thrill as she watches her online follower count soar. More

  • 88 Shares149 Views

    in Movies

    Watch a Scene From ‘The Exorcist: Believer’

    The film’s director and co-writer, David Gordon Green, narrates a sequence featuring Leslie Odom Jr. and Lidya Jewett.In “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel.A light switch clicking on and off is at the center of an unnerving sequence in “The Exorcist: Believer.”Leslie Odom Jr. stars as Victor Fielding, a father whose daughter (Lidya Jewett) had been missing and only just returned, quite different from when she left. Narrating this sequence, the director David Gordon Green said, “I’m starting to establish the unnerving quality of a father that can’t quite explain the behavior of his daughter.”He does this by using a continuous timeline, with the scene playing out as if in real time even though there are numerous shots.“That slow burn,” he said, “that time where there’s no gimmicks that you can process as a viewer, it adds a strange expectation of when something is going to happen.” The scene’s eerie conclusion helps to set up the mayhem that will soon follow.Read the “Exorcist: Believer” review.Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics’ Picks and more. More