Nineteen-Ninety Noir
ISSUE #335
About a month before I started cramming The Odyssey, I was halfway through a pocket-sized Macmillan Collector’s Edition of The Maltese Falcon. It was my first time reading it. I’ve actually never even seen it. But! I did study Hammett in a paperback class in college—he was the genesis of hard-boiled crime fiction, which was called noir when adapted to screen. His prose could be sharp as Hemingway’s, at his best.
Meanwhile, I’ve been hard at work researching the ‘96 Annivyrsary issue, which is rife with electro-masterpieces from Underworld, DJ Shadow, Aphex Twin, even Fatboy Slim. It was in that mindset that I had a breakthrough about the late-90s: how had I not seen noir’s smoky fingerprints all over trip hop, downtempo, house? It’s all right there in Portishead’s “Glory Box”! The 90s were 50 years from the 40s, after all. Back then, neo-noir was in every theater: Basic Instinct, L.A. Confidential, Devil in a Blue Dress, Shallow Grave. Even the animated Batman—speaking of Sir Nolan.
In the 30s and 40s, the heyday of noir, the future was uncertain (it always is, but bear with me). The 90s were also an existential crossroads. Y2K may sound silly today, but the anxieties went way beyond the big computer shutdown. We’d already been through the most rapid technological advancement of any 100-year stretch in history. It was one that’d killed, tortured, maimed, and displaced billions. It wasn’t going to stop.
To cope?Artists reflected our crooked hearts. Cinema was full of shady figures. DJs painted smoky interiors. “Hyper-ballad” was immaculately written. At least the vibes were special. These songs could wallpaper a chill-out or a murder mystery—it’s 199-noir, baby
About a month before I started cramming The Odyssey, I was halfway through a pocket-sized Macmillan Collector’s Edition of The Maltese Falcon. It was my first time reading it. I’ve actually never even seen it. But! I did study Hammett in a paperback class in college—he was the genesis of hard-boiled crime fiction, which was called noir when adapted to screen. His prose could be sharp as Hemingway’s, at his best.