Frank Kogan

Granted that "she" might actually be a "they," and "they" might not be of one mind, nonetheless you could explore my questions more fully: "(1) What is (are) she (they) outside of? (2) What might she (they) be inside of? Who might her (their) models and sources be?" It'd be interesting for you to elaborate on why you think your answer would be different depending on whether or not, or how much, she worked with "a producer" (rather than she herself being the producer), and how much of a difference that makes. "A producer working with recorded vocals and making them work is a lot different from someone playing around with software for themselves." Is it? What about a producer playing around with software herself? In what way would your knowing that it's a producer (rather than an actual person) playing with the software change your perception of the music, given that you've already got the product and it sounds the way it sounds? But don't use this question to sidestep my basic two questions: "This music is outside of ________." "This music is inside ________; that is, the sources and models for this music might be ________." I mean, you're taking stabs at this; but my point is we already have ideas of where the product doesn't fit, but we can be more explicit about what it doesn't fit, and why. And we can speculate, from the sound, where it came from.

Obviously, you'll have to guess. But the music jumps out for being different, and commenters are jumping to conclusions about where the difference places her — or her and collaborator(s) — socially. Do we call her (them) (an) incompetent(s), outsider(s), experimentalist(s), or all three, or what? Phil wasn't just applying a concept randomly when he called it "outsider art." And while the musical arrangement makes a difference — that it's* in the general realm of pop or dance rather than, say, jazz or new age — the vocals are why we're having this discussion, their apparent inappropriateness or novelty.

I just listened to a couple of songs from Rehearsing My Choir and there's nothing socially jarring in the way F. Furnaces mix together talking, singing, and accompaniment. (I ought to ponder why it's not socially jarring.) The Autotuning and manipulation of a baby's voice on DJ Champion's "Baako" is effective and exciting but plays the role of an African horn part and fits in with time-honored DJ manipulation. Presumably, if she wanted to, Farrah (and/or possible producer) could have made the music sound somewhere in the neighborhood of Rehearsing, or in the neighborhood of "Baako," rather than what it did sound like. (Whether she/they'd do it well is a different matter. But then, I find the two tracks from Rehearsing pretty dreary.)

*The three tracks I've heard, that is.