Jet Set Siempre 1° by Clive Tanaka Y Su Orquesta (Review)
When discussing Clive Tanaka’s Jet Set Siempre 1°, it’s difficult to not reference other artists, due to the kaleidoscopic nature of the album’s eight songs. So I’m just going to get it out of the way so we can move on to the rest of the review. The Avalanches, Cut Copy, Daft Punk, Sufjan Stevens, Beck, Toro y Moi, Talking Heads… all of these artists, and their myriad sounds, are conjured up and brought forth by Jet Set Siempre 1°. Listening to the album is akin to listening to a mix tape spotlighting the best moments of those aforementioned artists combined into one glorious mega-mix. But even that description feels like it sells the music short.
For starters, the album — which originally made the rounds as a highly acclaimed cassette(!) release before being released digitally by Tall Corn Music — lacks any sense of flair. That is to say, there’s no attempt to bombard the listener with examples of sampling cleverness and/or blatant musical references. If a moment on the album reminds you of, say, Since I Left You or Discovery, it feels almost incidental, and certainly not Tanaka’s primary goal. Nor is there any sense of cheekiness or that Clive Tanaka — whoever he/they may be — is somehow winking at you through the music.
Jet Set Siempre 1° is split evenly into two parts: “For Dance” and “For Romance”. Which, as you might guess, gives you an indication of what to expect musically as the album unfolds. But while the first half may be “for dancing”, it’s not really anything you’d hear bangin’ in the clubs. The beats are certainly, well, upbeat, and there are undeniable grooves lurking below the surface of “I Want (You So Bad)” and “Brack Lain”, but if there’s any house or trance in the songs, it’s keeping largely to itself. “Eclectic” is the operative word here. Whether it’s the steel drums and e-bow on “Neu Chicago”, the vocoders on “All Night, All Right”, or any number of euphoric synth crescendos, Clive Tanaka employs a wide sonic palette, and does so with aplomb.
As for the “For Romance” half, it continues the musical diversity, albeit with a more relaxed, sensual vibe in mind. Languid guitars, space-bound synths, and bossa nova-esque rhythms abound on “Skinjob”, “The Fourth Magi” evokes a slinky, retro-future R&B style with the help of sleigh bells, and those vocoders grow rather plaintive on “Lonely for the High Scrapers” as they sigh “In those nights when you get lonely/And you think that you’re the only/You’re not the only one”.
At first listen, Jet Set Siempre 1°‘s mercurial nature can give the music an almost disposable sense. It grows tempting to approach it reductionistically and simply dissect all of its various styles (and similarities to other artists). But when those synths arch skyward on “I Want (You So Bad)”, or appear next to jet-setting string arrangements on “International Heartbreaker”, it becomes quite obvious that Jet Set Siempre 1° can easily become much greater than the sum of its parts — and we’re better off just leaving it at that.