Ah, the information age. In 2004, Dublin-based musician Richie Egan (aka Jape) was finishing a solo album titled The Monkeys at the Zoo Have More Fun Than Me. At the time, that may have been true. The record was released on the small Irish indie label Trust Me I'm a Thief and "Floating", its centerpiece-- a coolly detached piece of Malkmusy pop embroidered with low frequency electronica-- got a bit of MySpace-generated buzz. Two years later, the Raconteurs shocked him by mixing the tune into their live set during a European tour, beefing up a willowy guitar line with some fuzz and crackle and morphing the song into a Brendan Benson-styled power-pop anthem. Months after that, they were playing it in their opening slot for Bob Dylan in the United States. The internet may be a drag for record labels, but for some musicians it can still be downright miraculous.
Sonically, there's not much involved here. The tune pretty much just, well, floats. A winding melody, swaddled in a snake-charming guitar riff, sails along the darkening horizon of groans, glitches, and buzzes, with Jape meditating on dance-and-fuck life to a near psychedelic state of apathy. Beneath him, a trudging dance beat slowly expands with the noise until it overwhelms the song entirely. Like Malkmus, Egan plays the slacker card pretty well: Whether it's paranoia or something more romantic, there's always something eating at the edges of his indifference, lending it a kind of charm. What he could use now are some U.S. shows.
Racounters covering "Floating"
Jape - Floating (remixes) by Marine Parade
Artist: JAPE
Title : Floating
Label : Marine Parade
Cat No: MAPA 039
Format: 12"
Released: 25 June, 2007
Side 1
1. - "Floating" (Prins Thomas Diskomiks)
Side 2
1. - "Floating" (Alex Metric mix)
contact
www.myspace.com/richiejape
www.myspace.com/alexmetric
www.myspace.com/prinsthomas
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