my flatmate emerged this morning and said "it sounds like the snakes are about to arrive". which was a fairly accurate reflection of an emerald city's experimental, world-influenced sound. as the name would imply, an emerald city dabbles in the psychedelic, with a mixed but largely successful result. a friend of mine saw them play live a while back, and subsequently dubbed them 'an emerald shitty'. i do confess this is not the kind of band i would enjoy seeing live, but i think the moniker (albeit playfully intended) was unjustified. in fact my only major criticism would be that occasionally - such as in the final track 'a question' - this experimentation slips into being slightly obvious.
this same world-inspired sound is shared, albeit much more subtly, by a number of other artists i enjoy, including fleet foxes and david byrne. about this time last year, i distinctly remember lying in the sun drinking rosé and heatedly discussing - with the same friend - the line between being influenced by world music, borrowing from world music, and blatantly stealing other cultures' sounds. the discussion could equally apply here. my sparring partner (nearly) has a phd in ethnomusicology, and i am an occasional audience of mildly interesting music, so i really had no grounds to argue with him... but i did anyway. to my mind, most music is influenced by a varying array of sounds, and the success or otherwise lies in how an artist manipulates its influences to create a unique, new sound. to me an emerald city falls into the category of 'borrowing from' world music, and blends familiar middle eastern, south asian and eastern european sounds to create a challenging, if not always subtle, effect. it's not for everyday listening for me, but a fascinating and confronting wednesday morning listen.
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