A Short History of Beck

When he was growing up, in a Salavadoran ghetto, Beck Hansen listened to ranchero music. He played slide guitar blues and was partial to break dancing. Added to these influences was punk and avant-garde art. The art collective, Fluxus, was founded by Beck's grandfather Al Hansen. The collective had knew Yoko Ono and were interested in the idea of 'art in the everyday' and in everyday situations. His grandfather hung out with Andy Warhol at the Factory too. Beck's mother, Bibbee, was responsible for Beck's punk influences. She let punk and hardcore bands sleep on the floor in their house and even had her own punk band. At the age of 17 he went to New York from LA to see the punk scene for himself. He also spent a good deal of time in Berlin with his grandfather.

Beck managed to get some studio time via Bong Load record label. Out of this session came the slacker classic 'Loser'. The song had a hip-hop groove, a punk attitude and a neo-gospel style chorus. It all melded together perfectly to become something of an underground pop hit.

The song led to a lot of major label interest which was ended when the young Beck signed a deal with David Geffen. However the deal was not your average deal. It allowed Beck to carry on recording and releasing material with any other labels he wanted. So, in the following two years he released four albums on four indie labels. These included K Records, run by Calvin Johnson. During this time he also found the time to record and release his major label debut for Geffen called 'Mellow Gold'. What this album showed was that Beck could be just as innovative and experimental when recording for a major label as he was for an independent label.

The one difference, however between a major and an independent album is the amount of money spent on it and 'Mellow Gold' certainly highlighted this. With 'Odelay' Beck teamed up with the Dust Brothers who were responsible for the Beastie Boys album 'Paul's Boutique five years before. The Beastie Boys had simply rapped and rhymed over the top of the Dust Brothers' backing tracks. Beck, though, chose to work closely with the DJ producers on all aspects of the music, including the samples. The songs 'Devil's Haircut', 'New Pollution' and 'Where It's At' are all basically pop songs with hooks. Yet they each have their own unique musical excursions into weirdness, which fits in nicely with the ideas of Al Hansen, Beck's grandfather, and the avant-garde. Beck has always attempted to merge outdated and uncool musical styles and frame them in a contemporary setting. His albums are nearly always stylistically diverse and the listener could play the same album in two different settings and hear a very different set of songs each time.

The 'Mutations' album appears to be a sparse singer songwriter album based around Beck's voice. Yet it is also masterclass in how to reuse old musical ideas and set them up so they sound fresh. It was recorded in just two weeks. The album was absent-mindedly promoted as a filler album by his label, who must not have listened very carefully to all the songs. The artwork for the album is a little odd on the surface too. On the inlay there is a picture of a seemingly mutilated finger. However, look closer and the severed nerve endings are red marker pens. This ties in with Beck's music. These are times where perception means everything, yet the actual skill of perceiving is in decline. What's good gets discarded, it gets thrown away. What Beck does is retrieve and recycle it and makes something beautiful.