Reports of chillwave’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Though it may feel like the summer of 2009 was eons ago, strains of dream-drunk, nostalgia-driven hypnagogic pop music still survive, though perhaps on a more subcutaneous level. Just in the past few weeks, we’ve heard it linger in the tubular lushness of Ducktails’ The Flower Lane and chime throughout new Youth Lagoon single “Dropla”. Even glo-fi OG Toro Y Moi, who just released his fourth LP Anything In Return, seems unable to resist the allure of beat-minded, laid back vibes, despite how grown-up his music sounds today. And it’s with Chaz Bundick that we come to Renny Wilson, an Edmonton, Alberta, musician formerly known as Sugarglider, who has now released his pastel-colored debut titled after that discarded moniker. Chock full of gummy basslines, tony sax hooks, and spaced-out disco nods, Sugarglider feels like the soundtrack to a slideshow of some faded, pimply prom photos. So while the sounds Wilson clings to so dearly are mutating and cross-breeding into shapes nearly unrecognizable, he’s happy to do as his forbearers did, and look to the past for inspiration. In other words, this is your father’s chillwave.
You have to kind of hand it to Wilson, as the guy doesn’t pull any punches. Aside from a very slight krautrock-y detour (the title track) and a few nods to proto-chillwave godhead Ariel Pink (“Bound to Lose”), Sugarglider is one continuous, mirrorball-powered jam, as tracks bleed into one another with such ease, there’s little distinction as to where one ends and the other begins. Almost everything here is fed on a foolproof diet of boogie-nutrient food groups, meant to shake hips slowly: The aforementioned smooth sax licks, nods to Chic and Arthur Russell, bleary synths, and delayed vocals, all tightly orbiting around careful but unctuous rhythms. In other words, it’s the perfect soundtrack to your next key party or couples skate, despite the fact that you can practically see Wilson orchestrating the whole thing from his bedroom. There’s more than just a whiff of irony in this music, but Wilson takes it seriously– lyrically, he’s frequently lost in love, forlorn and a little desperate, no matter how groove-laden the tunes may be.
But Wilson’s music is very much about context it’s being enjoyed in, which can often be a drawback. Like his LA-based backyard disco contemporaries Poolside, you’re probably not going to, as Pitchfork’s Jordan Sargent mentioned, have much use for the record “unless of course, you have plans to lie by the water for a few hours.” Or in the case of Sugarglider, play spin the bottle in someone’s basement in 1980. This doesn’t make it any less enjoyable, but it does shorten it’s potential reach. A quick scan of Wilson’s Bandcamp page will reveal a lengthy list of names that inspired Sugarglider, from Al Green to Gary Numan to “The Fuckin’ Beatles.” Had Wilson made good on incorporating some of these influences, and in turn varied his sound a bit more, he very well may have produced a more accommodating first effort.
Still, Sugarglider‘s real trouble is how repetitive it sounds. Wilson’s no doubt stumbled upon a formula that really works, yet it’s accompanied by the nagging problem of how far he can stretch it. The record’s best song, “Who Was I?”– its clanging bells anchored by a hypnotic, definable melodic hook– is also only the second track on the album, and it’s pretty much all you need to know about Sugarglider in a tidy three minutes and 30 seconds. The rest of the time is spent recycling the same ideas by occasionally tweaking the tempo (usually to lesser effect– most of these songs work better the more movement-minded they are).
One of the biggest complaints about chillwave was how near-sighted it seemed: Too reliant on aesthetic, too one-note, too concerned with the past. Unfortunately, Wilson hasn’t done much here to remedy that kind of thinking. At the same time, he’s made a fairly enjoyable album, which in 2013 is more than you could expect from someone taking a hardline stance with the format. So while there isn’t aything new going on here, it’s safe to say that you can go ahead and keep those “Boro Y Moi” jokes in your pocket for a little while longer.
Renny Wilson: Sugarglider
