Overrated/Underrated: The dirty fun of ‘Fleabag’ and the rising local sound of MAST
There’s a lot of pop culture to sort through week after week. Times staff writer Chris Barton offers his take on what’s up and what’s down in music, movies, television and just about anything else out there that is worth considering.
UNDERRATED
Phoebe Waller-Bridge in ‘Fleabag’: A defiantly idiosyncratic series that has garnered plenty of attention for the freely raunchy exploits of its main character, this newcomer to Amazon’s streaming service hinges entirely on the unique perspective and comic capabilities of its creator, Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Able to communicate as much with a lightning-quick sideways glance to the camera as the show’s tightrope walk of fourth-wall-breaking dialogue, Waller-Bridge has the manic yet razor sharp timing of great scene stealers like Joan Cusack but, fortunately, leading an entire strange yet sad show of her own.
MAST “Love and War”: Also known as L.A.-via-Philadelphia multi-instrumentalist Tim Conley, this project’s new album captures the engaging blend of electronic music, jazz and hip-hop that’s been thriving in the underground. An evocative three-part suite chronicling a doomed relationship and its aftermath, “Love and War” is a knotted mix of beats and improvisation that features fellow jazz-tilted artists like Makaya McCraven and Josh Johnson as well as Taylor McFerrin and Ryat from the Brainfeeder roster. What once sounded like the future has arrived right on time. (MAST performs at Low End Theory in L.A. on Wednesday.)
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OVERRATED
Tycho: Part of the ascent of various artists orbiting the Electronic Dance Music boom of the last few years, this band/graphic design project led by San Francisco producer Scott Hansen gets mistakenly lumped in with the post-rock-tilted explorations of Boards of Canada and Explosions in the Sky. On the heels of a surprise-released new album, “Epoch,” the group’s music reveals itself as sharply crafted and open to interpretation as its album art but flirts closer to New Age with a glossy, overproduced mix of keyboards, airy beats and guitars that offer an anthemic but strangely empty atmosphere.
‘Immersive’ theater experiences: With Halloween on its way, so are interactive horror shows like the usual theme park scare-fests that draw almost as many struggling actors as horror fans. But the latest incarnation are shows such as “The Tension Experience,” “Alone” and “Blackout,” where actors will yank you around a warehouse and treat you like a hostage for two hours and the cost of a nice dinner. What this says about our cultural need to be shaken from our numb digital distance is troubling enough, but how much First World privilege must we have to seek out and buy such “thrills”?
Follow me over here @chrisbarton.
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