Songs In The Key of MP3: The New Icons of the Internet Age, authored by Liam Inscoe-Jones and published by White Rabbit, is being released this week and is a must-read for music enthusiasts.
A thoughtful combination of critical analysis, biographical details, and music journalism, Songs In The Key Of MP3 traces the development of the digital music scene through five pivotal artists: Devonté Hynes (known as Blood Orange), FKA twigs, Oneohtrix Point Never, Earl Sweatshirt, and SOPHIE. The book includes interviews with Daniel Lopatin, along with perspectives from Caroline Polachek, Nicolás Jaar, and others.
Through these five remarkable artists, as well as a diverse array of many others, Inscoe-Jones illustrates the musical landscape of the past decade, examining how their exceptional music has influenced pop culture, the internet, and our own lives. They belong to the first generation of musicians nurtured in the MP3 era, a unique time in the early twenty-first century when recorded music became as widely available and adaptable as the air we breathe.
Regarding his book, Inscoe-Jones shares: “As a teenager, I vividly recall being amazed by the music of FKA twigs, SOPHIE, and Earl Sweatshirt, feeling like I was part of a golden age. Amid the incessant and immediate culture of the Internet Age, I truly believe a new wave of artists at the intersection of mainstream and avant-garde was producing brilliant, timeless music worthy of in-depth exploration just like the extensively covered music of the sixties and seventies. Music writing is at a significant crossroads, and I am thrilled that Lee Brackstone and White Rabbit have allowed me to delve into the lives, careers, and artistry of these innovative, genre-blending musicians in a comprehensive book. Dissecting the brilliance of their works enabled me to feature artists such as A$AP Rocky, Kylie Minogue, and Phillip Glass together on the page; all part of a decade-long narrative that I hope encapsulates the essence of the remarkable and frenetic music it contains.”
Against the backdrop of changing music consumption and the transition from downloads to streaming, CLASH presents an excerpt from the book detailing the gradual emergence of the authentic non-conformist, Dev Hynes as Blood Orange.
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It would have been logical to think that, after the abrupt disbandment—common among many groups from the mid-noughties Indie scene—we wouldn’t hear from any member of Test Icicles again. Given their name, it seemed even more certain than for others. However, even while Devonté Hynes—the band’s guitarist who would later become known as Blood Orange—was performing on MTV stages, he never truly ceased making his own music.
While Test Icicles were unraveling, he created a MySpace page to upload demos of folk-rock tracks he recorded in his bedroom. For his profile, he experimented with names of comic book characters he had drawn as a child (including Blood Orange, which was already in use) and settled on ‘Lightspeed Champion’; a character he had sketched in the back of his math notebooks, whose superpower was saving the world by solving equations.
In 2006, following the breakup of Test Icicles, Devonté spent his time performing solo shows at venues like The Barfly in Camden, covering ‘Xanadu’ and the Grease soundtrack while trying out his demos in front of audiences. Looking to make up for lost time, Domino Records’ founder—Laurence Bell—attended one of those performances and inquired whether Hynes had been developing any new songs. In reply, Devonté gave him not just one but three CDs, each containing twenty tracks. Unbeknownst to Hynes, Bell began sharing those tapes with various producers, ultimately catching the attention of Mike Mogis. Mogis, who produced for Saddle Creek, the Nebraskan label known for shaping the baroque, country-tinged style of Bright Eyes and Jenny Lewis, soon arranged for Hynes to fly to Omaha to meet him, even though he was still only nineteen.
These sessions culminated in Devonté’s debut album under the Lightspeed Champion alias: 2008’s Falling Off the Lavender Bridge. The sound marked a dramatic shift from the sharp edges of Test Icicles, swapping screeching guitars for pedal steel, fiddle, lively piano, and soaring harmonized choruses. Several tracks evolved from rap songs Hynes had on personal mixtapes, leading to surprising moments where he sang ‘sketchy mother-fucker’ over a violin solo or created a song titled ‘Everyone I Know Is Listening to Krunk’. There are standout moments like the sweeping chorus of the lead single ‘Galaxy of the Lost’ and the impressive centerpiece ‘Midnight Surprise’. At times, Hynes’ struggle against the confines of the image-obsessed industry he
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Songs In The Key of MP3: The New Icons of the Internet Age, authored by Liam Inscoe-Jones and released by White Rabbit, is being published this week and is a must-read.