Gone Pop by Fiesta Soundsystem

They say our brain is addicted to saving energy. It spends less energy on its neural circuits if it relies on things it already knows, which is why it loves to attach little labels to the things it learns. They help it know how to relate to the world or what to expect from it. That's why the brain, to avoid uncertainty and add the predictability it so desires, ends up preferring to label it.
The most practical example we have of labels is musical styles. We have so many labels for so many styles that it's easy to get lost in a sea of ​​absurdity.

Listening to Fiesta Soundsystem's wonderful album and knowing that I would soon have to face this review, my brain automatically began trying to categorize their music so I could develop a narrative around what I was listening to and thus have the power to create a description so that future listeners could read it and get an idea of ​​what they were expecting. Analyzing what I had just thought and how I had categorized it, I realized that not only was I limiting myself by trying to do that, but i had no idea why I was labeling it that way, so I started investigating.

After a little research I was able to confirm that this album, like much of what we release at EVEL, can fall into two stylistic categories:
1. experimental.
2. avant-garde.

There's a quote by John Cage that could help define the term experimental: The word "experimental" in the first cases "is appropriate, provided it is not understood as descriptive of an act that will later be judged in terms of success or failure, but simply as an act whose outcome is unknown."
While for avant-garde as opposed to experimental, in the words of David Nicholls, "...in general, avant-garde music can be considered to occupy an extreme position within tradition, while experimental music lies outside it."
This quote clarified everything for me and I hope it does for you too.

I think we're very confused by the ocean of labels we have in our brains to define a piece of music, and I also think a lot of it has been the work of marketing trying to make you feel like you're part of something by buying the product.

Returning to Fiesta Soundsystem (FSs), we see how this beloved brain of ours, which tries to free itself from unpredictability through labels, turns to randomness in music for pleasure. FSs presents us an algorithmic proposal based on max/msp where it's easy to get carried away by elements and lost in the details. Some of the generated patches seem to be designed to transport us and others to accompany us, making the album something delicious to taste.

Now it's you who will try to categorize it, and what can we say? Is it experimental music or is it part of the avant-garde?

tWISTED eLECTRONICA

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