“what is this, besides way too much?” asked an anonymous sound guy. that question emblazoned on SPACE CAMP’s bandcamp page, is as much a compliment as it is a confused bystander’s cry for help. SPACE CAMP doesn’t do half-measures, and every choice is a real big fucking choice. that extends to their sound (blown-out, distorted bass and synths, howling vocals) to their merch (a bumper sticker that brags that “my wife’s boyfriend loves SPACE CAMP”) to their record titles: Forced Femme, Inevitable Demise, Emasculation Suite. SPACE CAMP would rather you hate them than to simply feel nothing at all.
writing about music can often seem like a fool’s endeavor, especially in the year of our lord 2020, when you can just stream anything, anytime. SPACE CAMP presents a particular challenge: there is no precedent for what they’re doing. i’ve seen their music described as “jesus lizard meets john zorn’s naked city“, which is about as close and succinct as you can get. if i had to take my own stab at it, i’d say SPACE CAMP is what you get when you have two lifelong friends, one an avant garde composer (June Violet Aino) and the other a metal bassist and drummer (Sam Usifer), make intentionally provacative music together. yeah, i know it doesn’t roll off the tongue nearly as easily. they’re part Vein, part Stravinsky. part (early) Daughters, part Ravel. part mosh pit, part ballet.
the sound of hydraulics are used as an instrument on this album, if that gives you an idea.
what seems to interest Usifer and Aino are the extremes of human experience — joy and pain, bliss and damnation. Overjoyed in this World allow these concepts to overlap, as the sounds of incredible orchestration are thrown into minor keys atop blast beats (“Space Camp Iheartradio Music Festival Meltdown”, “Toll Brothers Estates…”), or whenever Olivia West’s (Edge Petal Burn) operatic delivery guides a saxophone + trombone that are cast among the waves (“The Rift”). i always hesitate to describe SPACE CAMP as “experimental”, as nothing about their music ever feels experimental or left up to chance. no, Overjoyed in this World is as tightly composed as any other neoclassical score, except, you know, run through an outrageous compressor with lyrics about being mutilated.
Overjoyed in this World was recorded nearly two years ago (May 2018, around the same time as the Inevitable Demise EP), but its release after a depressing Super Tuesday feels perfectly timed. Overjoyed is a kick to the neck — a klaxon alarm — meant to wake us up from complacency. even if it is not overtly political, its grotesque imagery, outright blasphemy, and lack of familiar song structures are political. SPACE CAMP are lobbing a flaming cocktail through tradition. good riddance to the patriarchy, as it extends from Joe Biden to spotify-core algorithm-friendly musics.
here are my three favorite moments on Overjoyed in this World:
“space camp iheartradio music festival meltdown”: maybe one of my favorite moments in 2020 music so far. check out the 0:37-mark, when Amanda Gooch’s violin and Sarah Harvey’s cello drop in with maybe the most sinister sounding 808’s SPACE CAMP could find. even though Overjoyed in this World is full of surprises, this introduction gives you pretty much everything you need to know about the record. it’s abrasive, daring, dark, and symphonic.
“she tells me yes yes yes”: SPACE CAMP has never released a song over three-minutes long. Overjoyed in this World has two of them. this penultimate track (at a whopping 3:03) shows what can happen when SPACE CAMP goes long form. guest vocals from Tyler Trelease, who is also a member of Usifer’s other band [REDACTED], screams “… in the face of god” adds as a refrain to a series of images: “chemically sterile”, “trembling bodies”, “beg forgiveness”. having the record end with this run of scorching screams would have been the perfect finale for Overjoyed in this World, which is why it’s all the more perfect that SPACE CAMP cut it prematurely ahead of the next song (and final track) “Toll Brothers Estates At South Windsor Awaits Its Inevitable Demise”.
“[blank]”: if you stream Overjoyed in this World on spotify, you will miss it. hell, even if you stream this on bandcamp like a real one, you will miss it. the only way you can hear this hidden track, placed after the final song is to buy the album (physical or download). it’s not advertised, but it’s there. i thought about linking to it, or including a sample of it, but that doesn’t feel fair. instead, it should be experienced like it is intended: at the very end of Overjoyed in this World. i won’t spoil too much for you, but i will say that it is a deviation from the usual SPACE CAMP sound in the way that Stone Temple Pilot’s Purple hidden track was.
released on vinyl by Redscroll Records, who have been really outstanding in their support of CT musicians (Perennial, Kidnapped, Reduction Plan, with more to come).
