{"id":18005,"date":"2016-05-18T10:39:29","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T14:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=18005"},"modified":"2016-05-18T14:10:35","modified_gmt":"2016-05-18T18:10:35","slug":"midweek-music-break-hanna-bech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/midweek-music-break-hanna-bech\/","title":{"rendered":"Midweek Music Break: Hanna Bech"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"intrinsic-container intrinsic-container-16x9\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5CkjGRQWQqo\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p class=\"smalltext\"><em>[<a title=\"Lyrics: 'ABCs'\" onclick=\"javascript:wopenScroll('https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/lyrics\/abcs_hannabech.html', 'new', 625, 500); return false;\">Lyrics<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n<span class=\"su-dropcap su-dropcap-style-light\" style=\"font-size:2em\">A<\/span>s I&#8217;ve observed before, some mysterious pixie-dust substance seems to have been stirred into the musical waters of Hamilton, Ontario. (See <a title=\"Midweek Music Break: Arkells, 'Coffee'\" href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/midweek-music-break-arkells-coffee\/\" target=\"_blank\">this post<\/a> for one example.) It probably won&#8217;t be the last time I observe it. But I&#8217;m pleased to include today&#8217;s selection among the lot:<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-18013\" style=\"width: 50%;\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/hannabech_rotating.jpg?resize=500%2C333&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Hanna Bech, and Hanna Bech, and Hanna Bech, and...\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/hannabech_rotating.jpg?w=500&amp;ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/hannabech_rotating.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/>So far, I have not been able to learn much about our featured artist, Hanna Bech. This reflects both her <em>newness<\/em> and her <em>novelty<\/em>, which of course are not necessarily synonymous:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>As far as I can tell, prior to 2015 Bech was presumably just an <em>aspiring<\/em> performer. The evidence seems to point to her during that time as a somewhat conventional amateur musician (&#8220;amateur&#8221; in the sense of not being paid to perform): instructor in voice and various instruments, participant in a couple of choirs, and so on. She certainly does not seem to have spent a decade in the stereotypical pop-star trenches &#8212; playing in bars, singing backup in studio sessions, building an audience. Instead, she seems to have just, well, <em>started<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>&#8230;And yet she must have spent much of that middle-of-the-road time thinking about what sort of pop performer she might <em>want<\/em> to be, when the moment arrived: not an aggressive challenger of status quos, but a, well, a <em>beguiler<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If not obvious from the video, you can probably tell from the promotional photo (above right) that Bech has a playful side: it toys with (without quite parodying) her own video&#8217;s quirky* split-screen, commenting-on-itself camerawork and editing. The sound and sense of the song itself provide further hints; musically and in, well, <em>spirit<\/em>, it seems to me akin to Lenka&#8217;s &#8220;The Show&#8221; (which first appeared <a title=\"Earlier RAMH Post: 'There Are Some Cures for Pre-Summertime Blues'\" href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/there-are-some-cures-for-pre-summertime-blues\/\" target=\"_blank\">in this post<\/a> seven (!) years ago).<\/p>\n<p>I have the lyrics only for &#8220;ABCs,&#8221; but much of the rest of her recently released EP (with two exceptions) seems cut from the same bouncy fabric. As Bech says at her site, the EP (called <em>Naked Bones<\/em>) resembles &#8220;a film score and indie pop going on a first date &#8212; dramatic, playful, with a rhythm that carries it forward.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Those two exceptions? Track <a rel=\"tag\" class=\"hashtag u-tag u-category\" href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/tag\/3\/\">#3<\/a>, &#8220;Butterfly,&#8221; and especially the one with which she closes the EP: &#8220;Fear of Crumbs (f u gluten).&#8221; Again, I don&#8217;t know the lyrics; from the snarky title alone, I&#8217;d imagined it would fairly, if not quite stridently, assert the rights of the gluten-intolerant. But <em>musically<\/em> it doesn&#8217;t strike me that way at all; its music &#8212; its sound &#8212; made me think of Bonnie Raitt&#8217;s rendition of Joe Henry&#8217;s &#8220;God Only Knows.&#8221; (<a title=\"YouTube: 'God Only Knows,' by Joe Henry \/ performed by Bonnie Raitt\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=llQhTvia_Hw\" target=\"_blank\">Video here<\/a>.) Not, y&#8217;know, <em>pop-y<\/em> at all: pretty much just a piano and a vocalist, contemplative, maybe even a touch wistful (if not outright melancholy).<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; padding-right: 30px; font-size: 90%; line-height: 1.25em;\"><strong>Edit to add:<\/strong> According to Hanna Bech herself (as I just learned via email), the lyrics to &#8220;Fear of Crumbs (f u gluten)&#8221; are &#8220;a dry raspy humour.&#8221; So much for <em>my<\/em> discernment!<\/p>\n<p>In any case, I offer you today Hanna Bech&#8217;s <em>Naked Bones<\/em>: a mix of bouncy, &#8220;I may be stuck in traffic but I&#8217;m tapping my fingers on the steering wheel&#8221;-type moments, and some haunting, anomalous hints at deeper waters stirring below the bounce.<\/p>\n<div style=\"border: 1px solid brown; width: 75%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 20px; clear: both;\">\n\n<\/div>\n<p>____________________________<\/p>\n<p>* Yes, &#8220;quirky&#8221;: Bech herself has explicitly embraced the label&#8230; Among other examples, she helped organize a show last year, featuring as clutch of other idiosyncratic performers as well as herself. The title: <em>Queens of Quirk<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Lyrics] s I&#8217;ve observed before, some mysterious pixie-dust substance seems to have been stirred into the musical waters of Hamilton, Ontario. (See this post for one example.) It probably won&#8217;t be the last time I observe it. But I&#8217;m pleased to include today&#8217;s selection among the lot: So far, I have not been able to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Quirky: check. Canadian: check. New: check: 'Midweek Music Break: Hanna Bech'","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2252,74],"tags":[1264,3788,4307,4308],"class_list":{"0":"post-18005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-midweek-music-break","7":"category-music","8":"tag-lenka","9":"tag-pop-music","10":"tag-hanna-bech","11":"tag-hamilton-on","12":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-4Gp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18005"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18064,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18005\/revisions\/18064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}