Skip to main contentWhat’s Up? Content Imagination
[INSTRUMENTAL PROG] It's a shame instrumental rock trio What's Up? has a question mark at the end of its name. An exclamation point would be much more fitting.
On debut album Content Imagination, the band makes some of the most complex, hyperactive instrumental music I've ever heard. Led by guitarist Robby Moncrieff—who used to shred for the Advantage, a Nintendo cover band from Sacramento—What's Up? deconstructs math rock to its core, stripping the scrawling, serpentine riffs normally associated with the subgenre down to the basic core elements: drums, guitar and (most surprisingly) a whole lot of zany keyboards.
In doing so, the band (Moncrieff with bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Teddy Briggs) draws an interesting parallel between math and prog rock—not all too odd, considering that both genres favor ambitious arrangements and tricky time signatures. Content Imagination's best songs—"Seasons Greetings," which features a circular keyboard line that almost topples itself, and the chunky, mechanical "Harper"—pack a lot of experimentation into a tight package. By toning down the guitars and keeping its songs within the normal time constraints of pop (only two of the album's seven tracks stretch over five minutes), What's Up? delivers music that provides a lot more answers than questions.
DoublePlusGood Dancipation Proclamation
[READY FOR THE FLOOR] It seems like everyone in Portland wants us to dance these days, but few acts are achieving the balance between pop accessibility and dance-floor-shakers. DoublePlusGood has done that and more—with one of the year's best dance songs.
The smooth, glitchy future soul of "Rivers May Rise"—the undeniable highlight of the beat-heavy new record Dancipation Proclamation—upends everything in its path. It's a monstrous song, gliding on a stutter-step beat and a bed of buzzing keys and synths—an effortless whoosh of Junior Boys-esque melody and Carlson's insistence that "things will be the same."
That lyrical sentiment is not entirely true for DoublePlusGood; originally a one-man project led by Erik Carlson, the band has been a duo since 2007, when Typhoon drummer Pieter Hilton brought his live percussion into the mix. Carlson's approach to electronic music has also shifted, and throughout the record he favors choppy, distorted beats and sugar-sweet melodies to more straightforward dance beats. Nothing else on the EP quite measures up to "Rivers May Rise," but the short 8-bit blasts of "We Say It Ourselves" and Hot Chip send-up "All Directions" still best nearly anything else in the genre.
SEE IT: What's Up? plays Saturday, May 23, at the Artistery. 8 pm. $7. All ages. DoublePlusGood plays Sunday, May 24, at Rontoms. 9 pm. Free. 21+.
WWeek 2015