STACK December 2016 Issue No. 146

86 / 121

Many more minds than the average droog's have been inspired by
the awesome power and beauty of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's
compositions; any classical musician will study Mozart's scores as a matter
of standard, and his influence stretches all the way to the present day. This
completely exhaustive (and we mean completely) boxset comprises over
240 hours of music from 600 ensembles and solo performers, five hours
of newly commissioned
recordings, two hard-
cover books written by
Mozart scholar Professor
Clifford Eisen, and four
framable prints. This
truly is the definitive
collection of the
incredible icon's work.
ILLY
MOZART: THE NEW
COMPLETE EDITION
After the release of Bjork's third
album Post (released in 1995
and featuring the fanatically popular
singles Army Of Me, Hyperballad,
It's Oh So Quiet, Possibly Maybe
and Isobel), the experimental alt-pop
musician found herself navigating an
unwholesome amount of attention.
She escaped to Spain to record her
next release, and for its cover art,
asked British fasion designer and
close friend Alexander McQueen to transform her into the warrior of
love she felt she'd become. "I had 10 kilos of hair on my head, and
special contact lenses, and a manicure that prevented me from eating
with my fingers, and gaffer tape around my waist, and high clogs so I
couldn't walk easily," she told the Chicago Sun Times in 1998.
WHAT'S THE STORY?
We have a look back at the fascinating tales behind some
of our favourite album covers.
INTERVIEW
This month: Homogenic, Björk (1997)
visit
12 DECEMBER 2016
MUSIC NEWS
continued
FACTOID: Illy has a law degree; he spent his first year out of high school working as a removalist, but then sat an admissions test and scored so well he was accepted to university immediately.
Mozart: The New
Complete Edition
is out now via Decca/
Universal.
At a bus station near Monash
University Clayton during the
‘00s, there used to be a big ugly
piece of graffiti that said ‘There is no
emoticon for existential dread.’ “That
sounds like Monash Clayton – I went
there,” Illy chuckles. On the surface
it’s kind of parallel to a line in the
rapper’s new track You Say When,
which goes: “Ain’t no emoji for the
feeling.” The sentiment is similar
– you can’t boil complex emotions
down to a little short-hand image
– but Illy’s version is full of the joy
that comes with partying with your
partner in crime.
Camaraderie is all over the hip hop
artist’s fresh album Two Degrees, and
Illy describes the way the guests fell
into place as occurring with “a whole
lot of air-punching” – particularly
when it came to single Papercuts,
which features the celestial voice
of Vera Blue. “I had [the Papercuts
demo] with me on the hook for a few
months, and was at a
long-time collaborator of
mine’s wedding earlier
in the year… Vera’s manager
[was there]. I said ‘Here’s this track,
do you think Vera would be down for
it?’ The next day we all sobered up,
and in the cold light of day it was still
a great idea, so I reached out to her
and she hit back saying she really
liked the track. It was crazy
‘cause [it] had been there
without the right vocal for
quite a while at that point.”
Also nailing his guest
slot is Mike Waters, whose
very first take on Extra Extra
was the one Illy decided
to use. “He’s just sort of
getting started in his career
but he’s super talented. I’m sure he’s
going to make some noise next year,”
Illy says. Next to Waters’ beautiful
melody, Illy’s lyrics are full of the
little colloquial markers we love (“We
go together like PB and celery”),
and sometimes subtle, sometimes
super-warped variations in vocals pop
out, courtesy of revered Australian
producer M-Phazes. Truce features a
beautiful, spectral organ intro, which
Illy also attributes to “the creative
genius mind of that fool.” He admits
he’s a bit dense when it comes to
the technical aspects of production,
but the partnership between these
two men (who worked together on
Illy’s last album, the ARIA Gold
Cinematic) is rock-solid: “I trust him
pretty much entirely,” he says.
Two Degrees also sports some
intriguing international fingerprints.
The incredible beat in Lightshow –
with syncopated snare and tambo
all rolled into a very Fool’s Gold feel
– was written by British producer Cat
Crazy. “It was made in a warehouse
in the English countryside,”
Illy explains. “Every time
I hear this track I have
this really vivid memory
of barrelling down side
streets in Essex with
this dude. We made a
handful of tracks, and
this one made the
album. It was that early
‘90s feel to it.”
Emoji-wise, the whole album
is sort of ineffable – but it
turns out Illy’s own most-used
emojis are actually a pretty
faithful reflection of its vibe.
They are: “The one where
your index finger and your
thumb are in a circle and
then there’s three fingers
up… is that ‘Okay’? And
the cry-laughing one, and
the 100.” Perfect.