Need a great book to read, album to listen to, or TV show to get hooked on? The Flavorwire team is here to help: in this weekly feature, our editorial staffers recommend the cultural object or experience they’ve enjoyed most in the past seven days. Click through for our picks, and tell us what you’ve been loving in the comments.
Robert Henke’s Lumière and The Haxan Cloak, Brooklyn Masonic Temple, 5.10.14
New York’s most wonderful brand-sponsored music-geek extravaganza, Red Bull Music Academy, is back in town. From this past Sunday’s street party in celebration of dance music pioneer Larry Levan to Friday’s Hardcore Activity in Progress — an evening that promises to unite “extreme” acts of all genres, from Tim Hecker to Napalm Death to Wolf Eyes — we’re looking at a full month of unique performances with an avant-garde, largely electronic bent. My first taste of this year’s RBMA brought the beloved boomer musical-light-show form into the 21st century with Lumière, for which Monolake’s Robert Henke paired sounds both ambient and assaulting with site-specific laser visuals that cast the venerable and mysterious Masonic Temple in a (quite literal) new light, and took on a particularly dreamy beauty when filtered through the haze of smoke machines. Dark electronic experimentalist The Haxan Cloak (aka Bobby Krlic), making his first US appearance, was the perfect follow-up — and if it wasn’t exactly a lighthearted night of entertainment, watching a few super-fans attempt to dance to his eerie sounds added a touch of unintentional levity. — Judy Berman, Editor in Chief
Sofia Hoops’ Young LoverZ EP
This week, while taking the train, I felt a sense of secretive glee akin to going commando: I could overhear the likes of Drake and Iggy Azalea bragging and trying not to be Australian, respectively, from other people’s headphones, and I felt that if my train-mates could likewise hear the music from my earbuds (ew), they would toss their tired tunes aside to get in on it. It was a very powerful feeling. I first became aware of writer/topline artist Sofia Hoops’ music with her eponymous Hoops EP, and have been listening to her new EP, Young LoverZ, in the dangerously public private space of my iPhone all week — dangerous in that it’s so infectious, so maniacally confidence-boosting that I’ve had a hard time not breaking out in twitchy attempted “bootylicious sexy dancing” at NYC hot-spots Pret à Manger/the Quest Diagnostics waiting room. The EP, which can be heard on SoundCloud, combines producer Matt Powell’s EDM flourishes with Hoops’ R & B vocal bent. “Young Loverz’” fuck-paced beat and dirty synths build until they give way to a rapturous reverbed chorus of “even if it’s wrong, baby we gonna dance along like young lovers tonight.” Without ever getting graphic, the lyrics sound more carnal than a great deal of the anatomically descriptive pop lyrics we’re accustomed to. “Sheets” takes a sonically different approach to the similar theme of illicit romance. While Robyn gave a humane voice to “the other woman,” kindly asking her lover to “Call [His] Girlfriend” to softly let her down, on “Sheets,” Hoops isn’t concerned with such unsexy pleasantry: she’s already felt your boyfriend “beneath the sheets,” and is coming back for more. Deal with it. — Moze Halperin, Editorial Apprentice
The Essential Ellen Willis (ed. Nona Willis Aronowitz)
This week I started reading The Essential Ellen Willis, at the insistence of our erudite Editor-in-Chief Judy Berman. I’m not sure why I’d never read Willis before, to be honest, but I’m glad to be rectifying that oversight, because this anthology is really great. As much as anything else, it’s refreshing and inspiring to read a critic who wrote so intelligently on such a broad range of topics. In this age of hyper-specialization, it’s something to aspire to. — Tom Hawking, Senior Editor
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q5kaINzPWw]
SQÜRL (featuring Madeline Follin), “Funnel Of Love”
The cover of Wanda Jackson’s “Funnel of Love” might be the best song on one of the best records of the year, and a big reason that I’ve played the score for Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive at least three times a day. — Jason Diamond, Literary Editor
James Brolin making pie in Jason Reitman’s Labor Day
This is not really a pick for Labor Day, since it is a flaccid adaptation of Joyce Maynard’s book, squandering the talents of Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin. But there is one scene in there that leans over into pure camp goodness, and that is when Josh Brolin, as the Sexy Dirty Conman Escapee in a weird lovenest with Winslet’s agoraphobic mother and son, makes a pie. But he doesn’t just make a pie. He lovingly touches the crust. The light is yellow. It is like an ad. Pie, you see, is a metaphor for life! And then it is over and the film remains dumb… until the epilogue, where we learn that the grown-up Boy, (played by Tobey Maguire), Learned Something that weekend: and he walks into his Pie Shop, of course. Beautiful music swells. PIE. — Elisabeth Donnelly, Non-Fiction Editor
Justin Timberlake Turning his MJ Homage into a Fan Dance-Along
Justin Timberlake probably learned the “Thriller” dance when he was a kid and tried to Moonwalk to no avail. The greatest living heir to the King of Pop throne is not above his everyman MJ fandom, as shown in the new video for his Xscape contribution, a reimagination of MJ’s “Love Never Felt So Good.” It’s cheesy and sweet and it made me smile. — Jillian Mapes, Music Editor
Mirah, Changing Light
I’ve long been a huge fan of Mirah, and I’ve patiently waited for a new album from the singer-songwriter along with everyone else for the last five years. Thank goodness Changing Light doesn’t disappoint, as it’s what I’ve been listening to on repeat for the last two days. It’s everything you’d expect from a Mirah album: her lovely voice layered over gorgeous, haunting orchestrations, and some truly heartbreaking and evocative lyrics. — Tyler Coates, Deputy Editor