Chris BaioVampire Weekend’s popular bassist, following on from his critically acclaimed 2017 album, Man of the worldwith his third longest solo release, Dead hand control. When Man of the world In response to the turmoil taking place in the world, not only in his native US, but also caused by Brexit, no one, not even Baio, can predict what the world will look like in 2021. .
Back in 2016, Chris Baio drew his music inspiration from the election of Donald Trump and the constant stream of noise and news created by Brexit. Above Dead hand control Baio deals with the Soviet Union’s Cold War-era automated nuclear weapons control system, but the album has a much broader outlook than exploring theories of mutually assured destruction. Baio explains, “I have looked at the past five years of life in America and obsess over topics like death, wills, and nuclear war. The starting point of the record was extremely dark. But I wanted to do something romantic and hopeful. ”
The eight songs that make up Baio’s latest album may not immediately scream romance and hope with titles like Never Never Never, Dead Hands and Caisse Noire (Porridge fund) but upon hearing Chris Baio’s new doc, you were quick to correct. Dead hand control offered three songs as singles, beginning with I am endless, endless and What Do You Say When I’m Not There? was released simultaneously last November.
I am endless, endless is a rhythmic dance flavored with fun technique with conversational, layered and infectious classical rhythms in it. What Do You Say When I’m Not There? more closely resembles the song Vampire Weekend than it might be any other track on the album. Fair skips the track, with the help of a loose, walking bass line, tight percussion, and playful backing vocals. (There’s something about Ezra Furman in this track.)
Baio’s latest single, released in January of this year, is the album’s opening and title track, Dead hand control. Baio uses a variety of Indie-Folk dance moves to help create a two-part song. Baio starts with a folk scene, with a mostly acoustic background before moving into the mid-range to more World Music / Electro as the song ends with more Funk than Folk.
The remaining five songs on the album consist of two songs that are over nine minutes long. Dead hand(9m17s) is another electronic uplifting song that showcases the tenderness and highs of Chris Baio’s voice and is anything but what you can imagine the song to be. Chris conveys a love story as fast beats lead the song with staccato piano beats and machine drum beats build on the song as it drifts forward.
End of tracking, OMW(On My Way), at 9 minutes and 25 minutes, is the longest track on the album and also a collaboration track with Vampire Weekender Ezra Koenig. “It was something we started together with a beat I made and a chorus he wrote almost nine years ago,” Baio said. “Now I feel like the right time to get it done.” OMW is the only song on the album that Baio didn’t write entirely himself and it has a slightly different feel but not too big. The song still has a strong beat and uses a lot of electronic nuances in the arrangement, but the vocals are softer and more formal. OMW it’s balladic, light and mellow making it an excellent intimate piece, and Oh what a wonderful piano solo.
Dead hand control may have been rooted in despair (“death, wills, and nuclear war”) but as Chris says “in the heart of it, it’s about how the only thing you can control is how you treat with the people in his life.” Whatever the inspiration, the result is a stellar album filled with accidental surprises.
