Nicolas Jaar releases the new album Sirens, a politically-charged electronic recording centered around Chile’s dictatorship history. While officially only his second album for the past five years Jaar has also dabbled in live improvisations, collaborative projects and composing soundtrack scores. Yet now with Sirens the work is ever personal, drawing back on his Chilean roots and applying them to his New York state of mind.
The opener, “Killing Time,” showcases Jaar’s signature ambient downtempo stylings: subtle piano tinkles, rhythmic heartbeats, garbled static blips, leading into a slowly evolving 11-minute piece, all in minor key. Listen closely and the evolution hints to circumstances surrounding Ahmed Mohamed and Angela Merkel, a sort of societal mess up according to the artist.
Just following the “Wildflowers” track reveals itself much more immediately, also relying more on vocal intimacy as the song progresses forward slowly. Odd synthetic distortions fill the gaps of space between admissions that “We’ve got to do it this way” and lines of melody layered in heavy atmosphere. Continuing from the track prior, the theme continues in the mistake.
“The Governor” picks up the pace in vocals reminiscent of Johnny Cash, with words going off just like the accompanying alarm. The track is more song-structured in its heavy synth-pop warbles and spastic drum fills. Odd audio interludes creep in from distorted saxophone squeals to the ongoing layering of simplistic chords amidst live drums crashes, all before slowly fading into obscurity.
The short ambient impressionism of “Leaves” hints at Jaar’s global roots in Japanese scaled introductions. A slight synthetic fuzz makes way to a recorded childhood Spanish conversation between Nico and his artist father, Alfredo.
“No” is the most politically overt song on record, outlining fully in Spanish how nothing changes amidst synth driven beats. The theme comes from Jaar’s own childhood years spent in Chile just following the removal of dictator Augusto Pinochet. As a fully sounding band arrangement plays on, lengthy static garbled breakdowns lead to further childhood conversation on storytelling.
Similar to the opening track “Three Sides of Nazareth’ builds steadily at nearly 10 minutes of evolving sounds, driving down from alternative rock to piano subtleties. As Jaar exclaims ‘I found my broken bones by the side of the road’ the halfway breakdown feels all the more weighty. As a mild mannered organ hum returns painful lessons are carried out towards the ending.
Just in case you weren’t paying attention the “History Lesson” makes the message fully plain in closing: messing up, doing it again, not saying sorry, not acknowledging, lying and done. The peculiar “shoo be doo wop” styled songwriting paired with the message makes for a satisfying credit rolling finish.
In just seven tracks the Sirens of Nicolas Jaar highlights an oppressive Chilean history, releasing sirens twofold: in music, and in warning on what may be likely soon to come. Can electronic music be political? Possibly. At the very least Jaar attempts to put that message forth here, meshing together beautifully produced downtempo with intricate themes.