Frank Ocean & Mk.gee: Between Distance and Sound
The demand of branding has infused into the modus operandi of music, infiltrating the conditions for musicians to perform, and practice. Musicians are faced with a constant consideration of the audience through their presentation of an identity and role to appease to ‘an’ audience. In such an environment, (their) idealisms are compromised or in extreme cases, altered for public consumption; as they must ensure their work answers to a likability, ultimately driving their threshold of success.
Perhaps this very reason has caused a handful of musicians to deter industrial demands, and adopt a way of creation that is not centred on the appraisal of a mass audience. Some of them go independent, and others take the step to minimise their public presence – to eliminate any chance of compromising their vision and pressures of upholding a ‘public identity’. Granted, they are amongst the wave of musicians who prioritise their idealisms of their craft, and their dedication is deeply felt sonically and oftentimes, visually. When the facade of glamour has been stripped, all there is left is for the music to be heard, and to be seen. The work speaks and stands for itself, commanding the audience to listen, and pay attention.
Here, design plays a role in commanding the audience’s gaze: establishing focus towards the (actual) music, and eliminates any distraction that includes steering away from any emphasis on the personhood and personalities of these musicians. This philosophy drives the unity of their visual output that includes album cover, social media presence and performance design; all working in tandem to service the sound. There is an irony to disregard the explicitly visual engagement and expression of aesthetics, but it is precisely the task at hand that showcases the complexities of contemporary design. Ultimately, its purpose is to establish a focal point for the Music to shine, and that includes a release in the emphasis of seeing.
Frank Ocean and Mk.gee are amongst the group of musicians whose work exhibit the following relationship to design. We can begin by unpacking the similarities in their recent album covers, which build off their allure. They both steer away from any caricatures of their aesthetic or appearance, but offer a cryptic invitation to look within (into their art). Their recent album covers carry a similar treatment of imagery, and present a compromised self-portrait: in Ocean’s Blonde, we see a photograph taken by Wolfgang Tillman of Ocean standing in the shower. His physique is exposed, but his face is unseen. All we can muster is his green hair that stands in contrast against the white tiles of the backdrop.
On the other hand, Mk.gee juxtaposes a similar stature to Ocean in Two Star & the Dream Police, where his photograph cuts just above the waist, and his face is nowhere to be seen. Mk.gee can only be seen as a silhouette, as his face is cloaked in hair and the contours of his coat is made distinctly clear. His guitar emerges as a visual centre point, almost functioning as a cue to signal his instrument of choice. Besides photography, the album shared a similar treatment in commanding emphasis with their use of typography: Ocean placing the titular Blonde above his head, and Mk.gee putting Two Star & the Dream Police closely to his guitar. These titles carry their own relationship to the album’s colour palettes, as Ocean’s Blonde is a deep black, and offers an extension of the monochromatic colours whilst the album’s name of Two Star & the Dream Police is adorned in a deep red that contrasts its dominant gradient of a dark gray and green. The (dis)figuration of both musicians enacts a distance, and naturally evokes curiosity amongst audiences — ideally, enough to invite an exploration of their work.
That air of mystery extends into their social media presence, which has been minimal to null. Simply put, both Ocean and Mk.gee ‘only post’ from their official accounts in the event of an announcement whether it is the release of a new album or to update tour dates. The irony of this is their minimalism has enticed audiences to build community amongst one another by inciting conversations and updates amongst each other. From Reddit threads to Tiktok edits and a wormhole of YouTube essays, Frank Ocean and Mk.gee continuously receive coverage (read: in the form of praise) of fans dissecting and discussing their work, and oftentimes, fanboy/girl over a sighting.
Some might argue that it is precisely the limited access that allows fans or listeners to truly engage with their work. There is a build-up of anticipation from enjoying their album that instills a desire to experience their live performance to not only support but to witness the genius of their artistry. Concerts are always a true testament to an artist’s talent beyond studio production, as their command of a stage completes the aesthetic endeavour that they are in; all in all, music is made to be experienced collectively.
Both Frank Ocean and Mk.gee possess their own traits in performance, but they anchor their sound and stage design to mirror their own relationships to the albums. Across Ocean’s festival appearances in Panorama (2017), FYF Fest (2017), Flow (2017), Way Out West (2017), he and his team established a signature design across the different stages, intimate to both Ocean and Blonde. We see Ocean and his band wearing headphones throughout their performance, which continues the establishment of distance that Ocean places himself from his audiences. When he performs, he wears a white t-shirt and oftentimes, wears a jacket and trousers. There is an air of effortlessness in the casual presence that Ocean adorns in, almost as if he is gently asking his onlookers to see him vulnerably. His band members are scattered across the stage, and a big screen that documents their live performance is placed as a background. Viewers are only allowed this as close access for Ocean and his band, and we can see the bare-boned composition of Blonde. I think the unconventional staging reminds us that perhaps Ocean’s genius comes from his ability to create his own beauty; I don’t even have the language to describe how gentle and soft his performances feel — so much so that the distance he placed himself in is ruptured. You enter, and sing along in Blonde but you also listen, and pay respect to the artistry; giving Ocean the space to peruse the stage and perform comfortably.
Mk.gee shares the same beauty, but his sound can be heard as more jarring and loud. If Ocean’s performances were a gentle companion to the album, Mk.gee’s turns their heads — and offers an entirely different way to experience sound. He unravels the neat arrangement of his productions to reveal an embodied knowing across the vast arsenal of instruments; giving the audience a glimpse into his creative process. Across the stages that he performed in during the album’s tour, they carry a similar stage design that mimics the light-and-dark element of the cover of Two Star and the Dream Police. The darkness that Mk.gee places himself in doesn’t feel protective, as he comes alive when he is almost unseen. Onlookers are then forced to truly listen to the otherworldly production, where he receives praise for “making a guitar sound so different”. Everything about Mk.gee’s actual presence is consistently minimalist, but the allure of his live performances stems from the contrast of its design with a maximalist sound from his play of guitars — which remains a singular instrument and an ensemble. Unlike Ocean’s treatment of a ‘band’, Mk.gee sticks to what is traditional and positions himself in conjunction with the image of a ‘regular’ musician; but the audience can’t help but know that he isn’t one.
Frank Ocean and Mk.gee stand as testaments of musicians who evade the facade of industrial demands. They present themselves in only truth to their sounds and most importantly, for themselves; and you cannot help but feel their rootedness in themselves. Perhaps their charisma doesn’t come from solely their showmanship of talent, but rather their quiet knowing in themselves. Together, they forge a path into the unheard, unseen and unknown.
