The Joy of Sax: Midnight City, M83

originally published: 5/2/12

There are two songs that ended up being the primary inspiration behind The Joy of Sax. Midnight City by M83 is one of these. It was a central part of a road trip to Chicago for New Years during which the term “Unexpected Sax” was first coined. The term itself is self explanatory but the reasoning behind it may be less easily defined. After all, if a song is good, doesn’t that mean that every part of it is working on the same, higher plateau? No, good people, not with Unexpected Sax.

M83 is a band known primarily for it’s epic-scale synth- and electronics-based music and so by definition the use of any traditional instrumentation would be “unexpected”. Midnight City doesn’t just use The Saxophone as color to brighten the corners, though; it contains a Full-On Saxophone Solo. Not only that, but This Solo comes at the crescendo; after three minutes of builds and bridges you can’t help but wonder Where Will This Song Go From Here?

Nirvana, that’s where.

At 3:02 a laser synth line shoots across the song clearing out a niche of space. The Sax Solo flares in out of that emptiness like a Big Bang one second later, taking instant control and proceeding to simultaneously play the song out but also into a higher plane of existence. Even having listened to it a dozen more times as I wrote this, it still takes me away.

That is the sign, dear readers, not merely of Great Saxophone but of Great Art.