Pitchfork Best New Album I've seen a way 乐评&翻译

The Manchester quartet’s debut album fuses dance rhythms, corroded guitars, and seething vocals into a transfixing blend of violence and transcendence.

曼彻斯特四重奏的首张专辑融合了舞蹈节奏、腐蚀的吉他和沸腾的歌声，将暴力与超越融为一体。

Mandy, Indiana don’t make sense. Three Mancunians and a Parisian came together under a name inspired by Gary, Indiana—a Rust Belt symbol of post-industrial American decline—to make a sound that thrashes like an angry Hydra. Every time you think you have Mandy, Indiana cornered, they mutate again. You could call their music post-punk, electronic, or noise, but no single genre signifier satisfactorily conveys what they do. This is by design. Mandy, Indiana trade in chaos and severe contrasts. Their startling debut album, i’ve seen a way, is an unsettling catalog of societal ills that takes the form of a churning maelstrom.

曼迪，印第安纳州没有意义。三个曼彻斯特人和一个巴黎人以印第安纳州加里为灵感的名字聚集在一起——这是后工业时代美国衰落的锈带象征——发出像愤怒的九头蛇一样扑腾的声音。每当你认为印第安纳州的曼迪走投无路时，他们就会再次变异。你可以称他们的音乐为后朋克音乐、电子音乐或噪音音乐，但没有一种单一的流派能指能够令人满意地表达他们的所作所为。这是设计使然。印第安纳州曼迪市贸易混乱，反差强烈。他们令人吃惊的首张专辑，我在某种程度上看到，是一个令人不安的社会弊病目录，以翻腾的漩涡形式出现。

Mandy, Indiana’s origins go back to 2016, when vocalist Valentine Caulfield and Mandy mastermind Scott Fair met at a Manchester club; the lineup is now rounded out by Simon Catling on synths and Alex Macdougall on drums. From the beginning—early singles like “Berlin,” or “Bottle Episode,” a standout from 2021’s … EP—their sound was a transfixing blend of violence and transcendence: dance rhythms knocked askew, corroded guitars and synths fed into the gears of malfunctioning machinery, Caulfield seething in her native French. i’ve seen a way partially aligns with the recent crop of adventurous guitar bands from England and Ireland, many of whom Mandy, Indiana have opened for, like Idles, Squid, and Gilla Band. (The latter’s Daniel Fox mixed half of i’ve seen a way, with Giant Swan’s Robin Stewart taking over the other.) Yet i’ve seen a way feels both more extreme and more accessible than some of their immediate progenitors.

Mandy, Indiana 的起源可以追溯到 2016 年，当时主唱 Valentine Caulfield 和 Mandy 的策划人 Scott Fair 在曼彻斯特的一家俱乐部相识；阵容现在由 Simon Catling 在合成器上和 Alex Macdougall 在鼓上完成。从一开始——早期的单曲，如“Berlin”或“Bottle Episode”，这是 2021 年的 EP 中的佼佼者——他们的声音是暴力和超越的令人震惊的混合：舞蹈节奏歪斜，腐蚀的吉他和合成器进入故障齿轮机器，Caulfield 用她的母语法语热情洋溢。我看到了一种与最近来自英格兰和爱尔兰的冒险吉他乐队部分一致的方式，其中许多人印第安纳州曼迪已经开放，如 Idles、Squid 和 Gilla Band。 （后者的 Daniel Fox 混合了一半我见过的方式，而 Giant Swan 的 Robin Stewart 接管了另一部分。）然而我看到一种方式感觉比他们的一些直接祖先更极端，更容易接近。

Visual influences—Blade Runner 2049, the video game BioShock, the films of Leos Carax and Gaspar Noé—play an important role in the band’s music, and i’ve seen a way begins with a similarly filmic instrumental, “Love Theme (4K VHS),” a gorgeous piece of starlit arpeggiated synth. Like the best opening tracks, it feels like a curtain rising, but it isn’t long before the quartet sets up the first plot twist: The dreamlike song lures you into a nightmare world. At the very end of “Love Theme,” a beat gurgles to life, recalling the muffled reverberations you can hear while waiting to enter a club, and pivots into “Drag [Crashed],” a song that takes dancefloor catharsis and rewires it into an anxious hurtle headlong into crashing distortion and horror-movie drones.

视觉影响——《银翼杀手 2049》、电子游戏《生化奇兵》、Leos Carax 和 Gaspar Noé 的电影——在乐队的音乐中扮演着重要的角色，我看到了一种从类似电影乐器“爱情主题”（4K VHS )”，一段华丽的星光琶音合成器。就像最好的开场曲目一样，感觉就像幕布升起，但不久之后四重奏就设置了第一个情节转折：梦幻般的歌曲引诱你进入噩梦世界。在“Love Theme”的最后，节拍响起，让人回想起等待进入俱乐部时听到的低沉回响，然后转向“Drag [Crashed]”，这首歌将舞池宣泄并重新融入其中焦虑地一头扎进崩溃的失真和恐怖电影的无人机中。

Mandy, Indiana pull off similar tricks across the album, nodding to dance traditions but structuring rhythms too discomfiting for simple release. While the record’s underwater synths are often beguiling, its percussive backdrops are ferocious—between electronics and Macdougall’s drumming, songs like “Pinking Shears” clatter and heave as if trying to destroy everything in their path. “Injury Detail” flirts with a more direct groove, but it chokes and sputters. Within a single song, the band can seamlessly combine dissimilar moods and registers. “The Driving Rain (18)” is a neon-lit city cruise riding a robotic bassline, Caulfield rendered an Auto-Tuned alien above it, while “2 Stripe” uses haunting, distant screeches to bookend an emotive reprise of the “Love Theme” synths.

Across the album, Mandy, Indiana deploy terrifying, uneasy sounds—a palette they developed by utilizing field recordings and unusual approaches like tracking drums in a cave or capturing Caulfield’s screams in a Bristol shopping mall. “This is an album where heads butt and things clash,” Fair hassaid. “It’s supposed to be nasty, and to not work.”

Mandy, Indiana 在整张专辑中都采用了类似的技巧，向舞蹈传统致敬，但构建节奏对于简单的发行来说太令人不安了。虽然这张唱片的水下合成器常常令人着迷，但它的打击乐背景却是凶猛的——在电子和麦克杜格尔的鼓声之间，像“Pinking Shears”这样的歌曲噼啪作响，仿佛试图摧毁他们前进道路上的一切。 “Injury Detail”调情更直接的凹槽，但它窒息和溅射。在一首歌中，乐队可以无缝地结合不同的情绪和音域。 “The Driving Rain (18)”是一辆霓虹灯照亮的城市游轮，乘坐机器人低音线，Caulfield 在其上方渲染了一个 Auto-Tuned 外星人，而“2 Stripe”则使用令人难以忘怀的遥远尖叫声来结束“爱情主题”的情感重演” 合成器。 在整张专辑中，印第安纳州曼迪 (Mandy, Indiana) 都采用了令人恐惧、不安的声音——这是他们利用现场录音和不寻常的方法（例如在山洞中跟踪鼓声或捕捉考尔菲尔德在布里斯托尔购物中心的尖叫声）开发的调色板。 “这是一张头撞在一起、事情发生冲突的专辑，”费尔说。 “这应该是令人讨厌的，而且不起作用。”

And yet, it does. The various textures and shifts ofi’ve seen a way are mesmerizing—down to the way that Caulfield presents herself more like another instrument than a typical frontwoman, leaning on her operatic training to produce vocals with an intensely textural heft. She sing-speaks, she murmurs, she hisses. Her approach often emphasizes the dichotomies of Mandy, Indiana’s music: “Peach Fuzz” is already a sideways, smeared take on dance music, and her punk yelps accentuate its visceral pulse.

You seldom need to know the actual content of Caulfield’s lyrics for them to resonate. Even if you don’t realize that “Drag [Crashed]” is about sexism and objectification, you can sense her fear and anger. Many of her lyrics deal with bleak themes—the climate crisis, or the West’s slide into fascism. Even a fairytale setting like “2 Stripe” looks toward revolution: The song’s final words translate to “Always remember/There are more of us than them.” In the end, on “Sensitivity Training,” the band gets there. While past songs like “Bottle Episode” used militaristic drums to depict oppression or war, the ragged march of “Sensitivity Training” ends the album with an uprising.

然而，确实如此。我见过的各种质地和变化令人着迷——考尔菲尔德表现得更像是另一种乐器，而不是典型的女主唱，依靠她的歌剧训练来产生具有强烈质感的人声。她唱歌说话，她低语，她发出嘶嘶声。她的方法经常强调印第安纳州曼迪音乐的二分法：“Peach Fuzz”已经是一种侧身、污点的舞曲，而她的朋克尖叫声突出了它的本能脉搏。 你几乎不需要知道 Caulfield 歌词的实际内容就能让他们产生共鸣。即使你没有意识到“Drag [Crashed]”是关于性别歧视和物化的，你也能感觉到她的恐惧和愤怒。她的许多歌词都涉及凄凉的主题——气候危机，或者西方陷入法西斯主义。即使是像“2 Stripe”这样的童话场景也期待着革命：这首歌的最后一句话翻译成“永远记住/我们比他们多。”最后，在“灵敏度训练”中，乐队做到了。虽然过去的歌曲如“Bottle Episode”使用军国主义的鼓声来描绘压迫或战争，但“Sensitivity Training”破烂的进行曲以起义结束了专辑。

i’ve seen a way is a purposefully disorienting album: an idiosyncratic collision of familiar elements that blurs genres and defamiliarizes language. Yet it also settles into an unexpected balance. The music is abrasive, but in its most shocking moments, the band allows beauty to shine through the grime and static. In the album’s penultimate song, the whimsically named “(ノ>ω<)ノ :。・:*:・゚’★,。・:*:♪・゚’☆ (Crystal Aura Redux),” the rage and distortion fall away, allowing Caulfield’s voice and synths to peacefully float, as if ghosts were surveying the rubble left in their wake. i’ve seen a way might be the sound of someone sifting through ashes, but only in search of signs of a new world.

I've seen a way是故意迷失方向的专辑：熟悉元素的特殊碰撞模糊了流派和陌生化语言。然而，它也达到了意想不到的平衡。音乐很粗糙，但在最令人震惊的时刻，乐队让美丽在污垢和静电中闪耀。在专辑的倒数第二首歌曲中，异想天开地命名为“(ノ>ω<)ノ :。・:*:・゚'★,。・:*:♪・゚'☆ (Crystal Aura Redux)”，愤怒和扭曲落下离开，让 Caulfield 的声音和合成器平静地漂浮，就好像幽灵正在调查他们身后留下的瓦砾。I've seen a way可能是有人在灰烬中筛选的声音，但只是为了寻找新世界的迹象。