Interversity: Mansbestfriend

Musical mastermind Tim Holland aka Mansbestfriend has taken some time out to answer our Interversity questions this week. The Portland, ME-born MC came into his own as a founding member of the Anticon collective (alongside Pedestrian) in 1998. As Sole, Holland achieved critical success despite his "pop" ambitions; now with his Mansbestfriend moniker, Holland is looking to do some things a little differently. As with Aja West, these answers are thoroughly unedited. Enjoy.









Mansbestfriend - Stuck in My Head Since I Was 12 - Poly.sci.187 (Anticon. 2007)

1. What led you to creating the Mansbestfriend alias?

i suppose, being around musicians all the time i wanted to make my own music. i wasnt working a day job or anything, so in my spare time i wanted to make beats, that didnt have any pre-concieved notions...

2. Before you ever press play for Poly.sci.187, there's the distinctive dinosaur cover-art. What's the story behind that?

hmm. well, i had a line a few years ago about how fossil fuels is actually dead dinosaurs, and thats what we drive our cars on, and thats pretty fascinating to me, and of course, like all good children, i loved dinosaurs. over the years i have drawn that dinosaur, or a mushroom cloud when people ask for autographs. i became quite fond of the dinsaur and wanted him to accompany me on this journey.

3. I think at one point last summer I remember hearing how the air conditioning in your office was broken. How much do temperature and climate affect the way you write or what you write about?

well, thank god, i dont write my songs in a record label office! but temperature has a serious effect. i couldnt write a damn thing in barcelona, it was so hot there you could fry an egg on my back. lately ive enjoyed the seasons here in arizona. i write my best stuff when its a bit brisk, if its too hot i just wanna splash around in some water.

4. At the University of South Carolina, POLI187 would've been a freshman-level course about "controversial world politics." Obviously the "Poly" in the album is a little twist, but why specifically 187?

187 is the police code in california for murder. so, im sure its a play on "revolutionary suicide." basically, what it means, is you can think about this stuff all day, it'll dry you crazy. most people prefer NOT to think about these things, the news is depressing to them, they dont like to talk about things that might make anyone uncomfortable, which is why, as you say, im posing questions on this record, trying to bring it to a personal level, because its killing people everywhere, its not just news you can ignore, it cant be reduced to an artificial debate about troop withdrawal, you curse israel god curses you, or whatever the current hot (non)topic is. we are a stupid stupid stupid peoples and we will reap what we have sewn, in our own lifetime, its just a matter of how much, how fast, and how catastrophic our decline will be.

5. Is there anything you hope to achieve with Mansbestfriend that differs from when you're Sole?

sole wishes to be rich and famous. mansbestfriend truly doesnt't care. mansbestfriend is the raw, unchannel musical impulses of tim holland, and sole is the best attempt tim holland can make at clever "pop" songs. mansbestfriend tim holland is the main producer, for sole tim holland would never dare, and would go crazy to try to produce his own record, thus removing the fun that occurs through collaboration.

Audiversinquiry (10 questions we ask everyone)

1. What did you specifically remember listening to as a child that triggered a notable response?

the first rap i ever heard was some boombox on some 80s movie and the guy said "as im dropping my science in this language called english" and that one line flow made me want to rap. and i basically picked my craft up based around those lines, well, i like to drop science anyway.

2. You are heading across town this moment and will have time to listen to one complete album during the trip. What would you listen to?

silver mount zion "horses in the sky"

3. Are there any other media that you draw inspiration from? Books, authors, painters, actors, movies, celebrities, etc.?

books mainly, i try to rotate it a bit. my absolute favorite writer/thinker is guy debord, he fills all voids for poetry, antagonism, analysis, etc. for poets i like lord byron, villon, greg korso, bob kaufman, then bob dylan, pete seger, woodie guthrie, don delillo, kurt vonnegut, etc. i havent had the patience to read much lately.

4. Where do you go to discover new music and sounds?

web forums i guess. usually i'll just hear about something, and seek it out.

5. What question do you get most often that you hate answering?

any question where i have to simplify a very compilcated idea/process into a 2 sentence blur. questions about anticon, race, america, etc, questions where it seems the person asking doesnt really care about the answer, is just trying to fill up a page, and will just use my quotes to fill their pre-concieved notions.

6. Favorite instruments or specific sounds?

lately i've been into oboes, nice thick distorted. i like goddy pretentiuos sorta walls of noise. i like real good elctro drums. i like very almost invisible crunchy synths. i like strings. i like nice analog dubby sounding delay. i like the way serge gainsburgs records were recorded in the 60s, or really all music in general back then.

7. The record store is closing in ten minutes and you are hell-bent on buying something before they close, what section do you head immediately towards?

probably the rap section. the only time i go to record stores is when im on tour, and when im on the road i need good mainstream rap to keep me going.

8. What is the last notable daydream you had and where did it take place?

my last daydream was about growing soy in my living room on a laddice, and then making my own tofu.

9. What is the perfect album to you? Are there any? Is it possible?

um. the perfect album to me is original, it has incendiary lyrics, it moves me in all ways at once. not much music does this for me, literally, the only new music i really stand behind is silver mount zion.

10. Do you keep up with blogs? Which if so?

not really.... i check out wonkette, i like the way thats written.

Singleversity #14

Audiversity’s weekly column, slightly modified, on random music in a predetermined number of words between 1 & 150. This week's randomly generated number: 60.

MA:



I have heard rumblings of a new Black Mountain album, which is exciting since it’s been a good two years since their eponymous debut reminded us that stoner rock doesn’t necessarily mean boring. So in celebration, here is "Voices", an enigmatic number from the Vancouver collective only available on Suicide Squeeze’s Slaying Since 1996 label retrospective. mmmm, sexy and sticky.

PM:













Another file from the bigger-than-it-seems Should’ve Picked This Up Sooner Even Though it Sounds a Lot Like The Jesus Lizard or Fugazi and So On Dept.: STNNNG’s “Grand Island, Neb.” A heartwarming tale of an ancient ship’s crew verbally abused by their commander as narrated from Minneapolis. My favorite quotation from “Ben Hur:” Row well and live. Ramming speed, slave!

Vladislav Delay - "Whistleblower"

Vladislav Delay - Lumi (Huume 2007)

Vladislav Delay - Whistleblower / Huume

Why hasn't this album been given more attention? In a week where I seemingly cannot get away from beats, Vladislav Delay pulls me in and says hey, maybe you need to lay off on beats per se and try on something a little differently. Look at electronic music not from the beat down but from the ambient sounds surrounding it. Worry about rhythms later. Deconstruct the traditions of house and dub and rebuild reconstruct them in your own image. This is what Finnish-born, Berlin-based Sasu Ripatti has been chiseling away at for a decade now on his own Huume Recordings. Whistleblower is merely the latest in a long line of better and better releases.

A genre that was originally birthed inadvertantly by The Orb in the early 90s has since been exploited most successfully by Ripatti, but ambient dub isn't his only trick. As he has made long-since clear, Vladislav Delay is only one in a handful of different monikers that amount to variations on a theme via techno, house and downtempo. Conoco, Luomo (arguably his most successful), Sistol and Uusitalo are all takes on the sounds that have driven him from his time learning jazz as a kid... But we're a long way from Philly Joe Jones. Closer instead to Pan Sonic or even Matmos in found-sound manipulations whistleblown into the chilled mix of keyboards that float through songs like the 12-minute "Wanted to (Kill)" or the uneasy Space Station Mir theme song "Lumi," Ripatti has been digging endlessly to find what else lies in among the sounds of his chosen style.

2005's The Four Quarters was a pretty good album to be used as a natural segue for what was to follow. Whistleblower is it, but the tension apparent not just in the easy-going-at-first-glance synthesizers but also in the percussion (and lack thereof) is an excellent example of Ripatti's current mindset. Luomo, Sistol and the rest just wouldn't have worked for his grander vision on this occasion. It had to be downtempo, and the expectations had to be fucked with.

What's resulted is arguably his best piece of work in the decade that he's been at it under the Delay name. The glory in using dub as a technique is that you can hide sounds and rhythms for ages and then suddenly let them reappear again as if they had been that prominent the whole time. You could listen to this album a dozen times (as I now have) and never hear the same thing twice. That's part of what makes Vladislav Delay so engaging, and mostly what makes his music so enduring.

Savath & Savalas - "Golden Pollen"

Savath & Savalas - Apnea Obstructiva (Anti- 2007)

Savath & Savalas – Golden Pollen / Anti-

Working at both a radio station and a record store, I often get asked, “Who is your favorite artist?” It is a pretty unfair question that is often used to pigeonhole your tastes, but I don’t get mad at the interrogator because it is also works as an excellent icebreaker and an integral conversation-starter in these particular settings. While I typically answer truthfully and give the ol’ “well there are just so many to really pick JUST one,” I will occasionally be more specific with an inquisitor who is obviously looking for a starting point in contemporary music. That particular reaction is almost always Guillermo Scott Herren, because the vastly multi-faceted artist shares my penchant for so many different styles of interest and has created a variety of different über-productive outlets for experimenting with each particular direction. Not to mention, my personal relationship with music mutated from an interest to an obsession corresponding with my discovering his Prefuse 73 moniker in the early 00s. And perhaps the most telling characteristic of all, Herren refuses to sit idly; he lets each consecutive album or project portray his continued development and maturity as an artist and musician.

A man of many faces, Herren has developed a number of different outlets for each of his particular interests. He drops meticulously sliced and sequenced hip-hop as Prefuse 73, paints avant-glitch soundscapes as Delarosa & Asora, concocts ethereal beauty and sonic pleasantness with Claudia Deheza as A Cloud Mireya, tinkers with Rhodes, Wurlitzers and other acoustic keyboards as Piano Overlord and occasionally remixes rebelliously with friend and collaborator DJ Nobody as La Corrección. None of his projects sound alike, but they all secrete a sort of omnipotent vibe that simultaneously embodies musical pioneers of the past while always sturdily looking forward. The most interesting of these monikers in terms of personal development has got to be Savath & Savalas though. More a channel for acoustic-based experiments than anything, the project has evolved from the initial pastoral and glitch-lite post-rock of 2000’s debut, Folk Songs for Trains, Trees and Honey, to utilizing the alias to explore his Spanish roots with Catalan singer/songwriter Eva Puyuelo on 2004’s Apropa’t and Mañana. While each particular album has its own particular sound, they all share a very patient, lush aesthetic and have the innate ability to transport the listener into a state of cathartic bliss.

Now three years since a proper release from the Savath & Savalas moniker, Herren has made the move from electronica pioneers WARP to a label more suited for this particular moniker, Anti-. Their slogan “real artists creating great recordings on their own terms” and an extremely diverse roster that includes everyone from Tom Waits to The Locust to Mavis Staples to The Coup could not suit Herren better. Golden Pollen also features the multi-instrumentalist and producer acting almost as a singer/songwriter for this first time in his decade-long career, though as always, he has plenty of talented friends to help round out the sound. All housed in Chicago’s Soma Studios, engineer and Tortoise drummer John McEntire, sound experimenter and Battles member Tyondai Braxton, Swedish singer/songwriter José González, vocalist Mia Doi Todd, Triosk percussionist Laurence Pike, jazz bassist Josh Abrams aka Reminder, AACM flutist Nicole Mitchell, and A Cloud Mireya collaborator Claudia Deheza each add their idiosyncratic colors to the lush, plaintive, swirling painting that is Golden Pollen. With Herren acting as the conductor, this mini-orchestra of diverse talent creates an album that marries the earnest, exotic vibe of Luiz Bonfa with the post-modern expressions of the Leaf label.

Like the previous Savath & Savalas albums, Herren reaches back to his Spanish roots for the basis of his sound. By utilizing Latin stringed instrumentation like the Venezuelan cuatros, Cuban tres and flamenco guitars with other warm, melodic sounds like that of concertinas, vibes and woodwinds, Golden Pollen literally emits romantic sentimentality. But this is Guillermo Scott Herren we are talking about, so that is only the starting point. Along with a variety of percussion and drums, he stirs in Moog synthesizers, harmoniums, concert strings with processed sounds and his trademark skittering production. Though the mood may be placid, each moment of this album is chock full of swimming frequencies creating a river of constantly stirring sounds. Herren also takes the first crack at being the featured vocalist for the first time in his career; his yielding Spanish coo rarely acts as an actual focal point, especially for us non-Spanish speakers, but integrates itself seamlessly with the rest of the mellow musicianship surrounding it. Golden Pollen swishes and swoons, ebbs and flows, and effervesces lushly for 50+ minutes of exotic pleasantries.

Like the album’s artwork, Golden Pollen is an intriguing collage of both organic and synthetic material warmly hued and blended caringly to a minute degree. There are many moments of eyebrow raising exquisiteness when the lush instrumentation, creative producing and sentimentality hit just the right balance, but at sixteen tracks, I’d venture to say it drifts on just a bit too long. Shave off ten minutes of material (as painfully as I’d imagine it would be for Herren) or better yet, break it down into two albums of Mañana length, and I think it would be a bit more easily digestible. It is certainly not that the music is below insatiable at any point during the album, but for such a mellow, meandering vibe, less-is-more is the name of the game as far as attention spans are concerned. Personally though, I merrily soak up any Savath & Savalas material that comes my way and Golden Pollen elegantly continues the fascinating development of Guillermo Scott Herren and his nearly unparalleled artistic vision and high level of production.

Michio Kurihara - "Sunset Notes"

Michio Kurihara - Pendulum on a G-String: The Last Cicada (20-20-20 2007, Pedal 2005)

Michio Kurihara – Sunset Notes / 20-20-20, originally Pedal 2005

Let’s all face it, Boris with Michio Kurihara’s Rainbow is a phenomenal record that will be making a hell of an argument come December when those omniscient year-end lists start stirring. Not only did it prove how multi-dimensional ear-damaging Japanese trio Boris truly is as they seemingly reach their full potential, but also acted as an American coming out party for guitarist Michio Kurihara, who blew our collective minds with each sun-drenched, patiently powerful solo. I say “American coming out party” though because he actually released a solo album in Japan back in 2005, which truly displayed the subdued virtuosity hidden behind Masaki Batoh in the folksy psych-rock outfit Ghost. Sunset Notes proved Kurihara had come into his own a year prior to the first official Rainbow release, and (probably) thanks to the latter’s immediate success, we behind-the-curve Americans are finally getting our first taste of his blossoming as a solo artist.

I actually feel bad saying that it took till 2005 for Kurihara to truly emerge as a force all his own, because he has been proving his talented musicianship for nearly twenty years now. Raised on classical music, the Tokyo-born guitarist caught his first break when he was invited in 1986 by his soon-to-be-long-time collaborator You Ishihara to join White Heaven, one of Japan’s most highly revered psychedelic rock bands who were instrumental in reviving that scene in the late 80s. Establishing a penchant for wailing riffs and crunchy lyricism, Kurihara spent five years learning the ropes and unconsciously gearing up for his next highly regarded band Ghost. Headed by one of Japans most talented guitarists, Masaki Batoh, Kurihara first collaborated with the psyche-rock commune in 1991 before officially becoming a member three years later where he remains today. In 1999, he also hooked back up with his former White Heaven bandmates Ishihara and Chiyo Kamekawa to form a sort of second-wave Japanese-psyche super-group in The Stars which took on a protean metal-blues sound taking a page from Led Zeppelin and then writing a multi-genre opus around it. So after nearly twenty years of kicking around Japan’s most talked-about psyche-rock outfits, Kurihara finally took a step in the one direction he had somehow failed to attempt all this time: a solo career.

I think the most appealing and respectful characteristic of Sunset Notes is how restrained it feels. Don’t get me wrong though, there are moments when the wailing, soaring guitar virtuosity in all its feedbacking glory cannot be denied, but we have heard all of that from Kurihara before. The most telling aspect of this solo album his how he can strip down those moments to their bare essentials and conjure emotions with his lyrical guitar lines that never once step into over-indulgence or gimmickry. Absolutely every note sounds agonized over so that there is not one sliver of fat on this lean, hearty specimen of a guitar album.

While the concept of the record is rather loose and very impressionistic, it is telling of the many shades of color utilized in these nine songs. Drawing inspiration from nine different sunsets on periodic points of the calendar, Kurihara, with the help of Ishihara, Ichiro Shibata and White Heaven’s Soichirou Nakamura, conjures nine diverse audible replications of these majestic displays of nature with precise execution and gorgeous arrangements. While the album gracefully hits both sides of the dynamic spectrum, when he marries the two is when Sunset Notes really excels. “Pendulum on a G-String: The Last Cicada” has got to be the centerpiece; with Kurihara managing all three layers of the electric guitar cascade and accompanied only by an almost Brazilian triangle beat, the song absolutely does justice to the multi-hued fall sunset it sets out to mimic. With varying levels of feedback, each guitar line weaves in and out of the others never overlapping frequencies but certainly intertwining them. “A Boat of Courage” is along the same lines, but with a much more slowly developing and melodramatic climax. Like its inspiring June sunset, the atmosphere is a bit warmer, the colors are a bit more subdued and an overall sense of relief is undeniable as it closes out the album.

Don’t fret too much though if you more of a fan of Kurihara’s noisy side, “Canon in ‘C’ (C is for Cicada)” is two minutes of Branca-like all-encompassing feedback and “Twilight Mystery of a Russian Cowboy” soars along with a firebird of a guitar sound and a romping, stomping beat. And on the complete opposite side of things, Pedal’s female pop star, Ai Aso, provides her hushed female coo to two numbers. “Wind Waltzes” breezes on a simple synth skip and delicate brushes of Kurihara’s guitar, while “The Wind’s Twelve Quarters” is a bit more slow-burning with meandering electric guitar strums and organ flourishes (honestly, it reminds me of Broadcast without the blips and bloops).

As you can see, Sunset Notes is an album in the best definition possible: it is a multi-dimensional collection of songs that remains cohesive and tells a story without ever re-treading territory. Kurihara’s guitar work is less mind-blowing virtuosity and more consciously and deceptively simple framework that undeniably proves his talent as a songwriter. If mind-bending is what you are out for, head straight for Rainbow, but if it’s something more laidback and intimate you’re craving, look no further than Sunset Notes.

Gouseion - "Puisne"

Gouseion - Barclay (Run Riot 2007)

Gouseion - Puisne / Run Riot

I've been sitting on Gouseion for quite some time now, trying to decide exactly how much I like this album and why it seems so innocuous the first time you play it through, so harmless, so incidental. It hit me somewhere through the third or fourth play through: This is childlike music in the same way that Modeselektor or, more relevantly, Tepr are childlike: You may have the uneasy air of "Teledate" whispering through, but it's the 8-bit Nintendo themes that dominate these songs. It may not be as carefree or immediately joyous as its French contemporaries or even some on the American scene, but Puisne is definitely an album gamers will grab on to with gusto.

That said, a brief biography is in order: Despite all evidence thus far to the contrary, Cassidy DeMarco is actually not French at all. Rather, DeMarco calls Portland home. There he made a name for himself doing pretty much everything. The proof: Monodec was his abstract IDM alias in the late 90s, which predated slowcore outfit C++ (inspired, he explains, by Jameson Irish whiskey... which is as good a muse as I've ever heard). DeMarco is also involved with Disscompany Records after founding it in 2003 and releasing hip-hop material as Brokaw in addition to his breakcore moniker Minijack, suggesting a return to his electronic beginnings.

But that wasn't enough, oh no. In 2005 he revived Monodec and subsequently recorded two EPs and an LP which, up to now, hasn't been released. So maybe we should be thankful that DeMarco actually did go ahead with releasing Puisne, though this suggests all of his influences over the years rather than any one specific genre. You can hear the NES and SNES systems fighting for control of songs with hip-hop beats and moody passages on tracks like "Turing Test." By the way, he's got two mixtapes out. More are coming.

In other words, 28-year-old DeMarco is a maniac, incredibly restless, and no one style suits him because he can never focus on it for too long. Understandable. I like the idea of DeMarco as a "digital gangsta," as he prefers. More than any other label, that one seems to suit him best. Dude's just a straight-up badass, but putting that in more eloquent terms would necessitate describing his entire back catalog. For your sake and mine, we'll save it for another day. Just know that "Stagger" is an excellent song and peaks as the second-half on an album full of golden electro nuggets, the blocks rounded off by wavering synth trickery you've heard and sort of paid attention to a thousand times before.

"Barclay" is a personal favorite of mine, not because it's the first track and thus one I remember easier. Instead, I find the melody of "Barclay" to suit the opening of this album well and though it could be buried deep in the middle like "Stunt Lounge" or something, I'm pleased that DeMarco went with it as the opener. It is infectious, virtually irresistible, and flows almost unnoticeably into "Study23." At first it seems like cheesy breakcore or something, but it comes around soon enough. Just 38 seconds is all it took to get me hooked. Hopefully the same reaction will happen for you.

I don't know what DeMarco's next plan is - maybe reggae or tech-metal or, better yet, a folk album about all 50 states I bet he could beat Sufjan Stevens to in finishing - but for now, Gouseion's Puisne satisfies as a sublime 8-bit IDM record that deserves more than merely flying below the radar. Soon enough, the kids will be calling out for "Pirony" if there's any, um, justice in this world. Bad wording, but you get the idea.

History Invades - "In Vision Vanish Invisible"

History Invades - Post-Modernist Trap: The Stalker's Guide to the Universe (Lujo / Pish Posh of North America 2007)

History Invades - In Vision Vanish Invisible / Lujo / Pish Posh of North America

On a different point of the space-time continuum, Delusions of Adequacy introduced me to History Invades. "We Ran Out of Bridges So We Burned Down Our Houses" is a song title I'm still not sure is correct even now, but it singlehandedly led me like a horse to water to the band's album The Structure of a Precise Fashion. I'm not sure what it was (although the name always struck me as being pretty awesome, the result of some history grad's grand band plan), but the disco-meets-noise aesthetic was something I hadn't realized was missing from my musical diet; with the "Make room for computer know-how" refrain, I had also simultaneously discovered the band's modus operandi.

While other releases swamped me unexpectedly this past month, History Invades somehow slipped by. I say that because, as you can see above, the cover art is virtually impossible to miss. Thank the artistic brilliance both literal and figurative of Nigel Dennis for that: Also known for his work for Cherry Coke, XLR8R, and Nylon, Dennis has accurately captured the form and function of what the San Francisco-based group are all about: Ones and zeros. But on In Vision Vanish Invisible, the guys have taken what they've learned from Gang of Four and Autechre and applied it to what they've discovered from Boards of Canada. It's no longer just about blasts of noise emanating from an Italians Do it Better beat, but instead mood and ambient passages are constructed and deconstructed in a smoother fashion than on The Structure of a Precise, er, Fashion. Yeah.

So take for example one of the best tracks on the album and maybe my favorite, "I Speak in Imperatives: I Feel on Impulse." The vocals veer between chord-shredding vocals, just on the safe side of singing, and the wonderfully spacey sounds of the synths that generate a disorienting speaker sound. It's not the most instantly accessible (That award goes to first single "Intensity in Ten Cities") but it does capture how History Invades have changed. Instead of throwing every possible sound into the blender, the band is now experimenting with how to use all those tricks they had at their disposal the first time through the whole album thing. They're definitely a little smarter this time around, even if their song titles still border on the Red Sparowes A-list of annoying. Whatever, guys. The music is too good not to like.

Case in point: "Skies of the Times, Colonnades of The Modem: A Vanishing Synapses" is the concluding track, slightly more downbeat than the rest and thankfully tucked away as the concluding track. Indeed, while the titles may be frustrating to remember and the albums tongue-twistingly deranged, the music remains the strongest asset of the band. Don't let, say, "Of Transparency in Disposition; The Fear of Dilution Upon Reflective Eyes" get in between you and your love for In Vision Vanish Invisible. This band is still young enough to get so much better... But that they've already bested many bands on supposedly equal footing is testament enough. For all their faults, History Invades is still ascending to the top of their game. Don't let their third album creep up on you like their second crept up on me.

Radio Show Playlist, 6/06/07

Audiversity would not exist without WLUW-FM Chicago, who is in the midst of it's Spring Pledge Drive. It is a completely independent, listener-supported community radio station whose annual budget is made up of 95% of listener donations. The money will help WLUW continue to develop new and innovative programming (like Audiversity) and will help keep our sound quality state-of-the-art. And most importantly, it keeps WLUW as an independent voice in Chicago. Please call 773-508-7300 or visit wluw.org to donate. Thanks!

6a:
1. Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out - Dig Me Out (Kill Rock Stars 1997)
2. Bikini Kill - Rebel Girl - Pussy Whipped (Kill Rock Stars 1994)
3. Part Chimp - New Cross - Cup (Monitor 2007)
4. Effigies - Scarecrow - Reside (Criminal IQ 2007)
5. Poster Children - If You See Kay - Daisychain Reaction (Twin/Tone / Sire 1991)
6. Watchers - Crumbs ft. James Chance - Vampire Driver (Gern Blandsten 2007)
7. Contortions - Contort Yourself - Buy (ZE 1979)
8. Sarolta Zalatnay - Itt a Nyar - Sarolta Zalatnay (Finders Keepers/B-Music 2007)
9. Battles - Tonto - Mirrored (WARP 2007)
10. Don Caballero - Haven't Lived Afro Pop - American Don (Touch & Go 2000)

7a:
1. Fred Lonberg-Holm Trio - Three Note Song - Terminal Valentine (Atavistic 2007)
2. Philip Cohran & the Artistic Heritage Ensemble - Unity - On the Beach (Aestuarium 2001, recorded 1967)
3. Michio Kurihara - Pendulum on a G-String-The Last Cicada - Sunset Notes (20-20-20 2007, Pedal 2005)
4. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Boiling Death Request a Body to Rest Its Head On - Se Dice Bisonte, No Bufalo (GSL 2007)
5. Boris with Michio Kurihara - Sweet No. 1 - Rainbow (Drag City 2007)
6. Tortoise - Monica - Standards (Thrill Jockey 2001)
7. John McEntire - Set Up for Bed - Split 7in. with Sea & Cake (Hefty 1999)

8a:
1. Chris Connelly - Mirror Lips - The Episodes (Durto Jnana 2007)
2. Meg Baird - Riverhouse in Tinicum - Dear Companion (Drag City 2007)
3. MoMo - Tempstede - A Estetica do Rabiscio (Dubas Musica 2007)
4. Gilberto Gil - Cerebro Electronico - Gil Luminoso (Biscoito Fino 2006, recorded 1999)
5. The Temptations - Psychedelic Shack (extended version) - Psychedelic Soul (Motown 2003, recorded 1969)
6. La Sonora de Lucho Macedo - Guayaba - Gozalo! Bugalu Tropical (Vampi Soul 2007, recorded 1967)
7. Grupo Monumental - Si, Para Usted - Si, Para Usted: The Funky Beats of Revolutionary Cuba (Waxing Deep 2006, recorded 19??)
8. Jean-Michel Tim et Forty - Funky Bafoussam - Afrojazzfunk (Super Classe 200?, recorded 197?)
9. Ananda Shankar - Jumpin' Jack Flash - What It Is! (Rhino 2007, recorded 1970)

Blue Scholars - "Bayani"

Blue Scholars - The Distance (Mass Line Media 2007)

Blue Scholars - Bayani / Mass Line Media

It's likely that you've seen the artwork and the advertisements for Seattle's Blue Scholars making their rounds on various websites and publications for the past month, but the saturation in pre-album publicity was well deserved. There's your spoiler. Blue Scholars are arguably Seattle's finest hip-hop group (with apologies to Common Market, of course) and certainly among the pantheon of the most respected to come from the Emerald City. But what separates it from the rest of the "conscious" hip-hoppers out there?

Okay, starting off with "Baha'i Healing Prayer" is a radically different approach to the recent hip-hop fascination with Middle Eastern sounds (50 Cent's "Candy Shop" being the most immediate example I can think of). By that I mean, it's an actual taste of the Middle East as opposed to just appearing that way. Naturally, the more subtle tone is that this is going to be a political album with some seriously heavy content. Sure enough, Geologic and his cohort DJ Sabzi take their second-generation immigrant voices and undertake the most ambitious kind of album: That which deals with the politics and the people on both a local level and a global one.

The reason I say it succeeds is because, for me, Geologic's delivery may not be the most aurally engaging (especially for 15 songs clocking in at just under an hour) and Sabzi's rich musical background may not always shine through on his easy-going beats, but at the end of the day hip-hop is not necessarily about the method. It's about the message, and these guys have nabbed theirs down solidly. There's no question where they stand on Iraq ("Back Home"), the World Trade Organization ("50 Thousand Deep"), and immigration ("Xenophobia"). And what's best is that, while I've never been to Seattle, I can easily get a feel or at least a mental map of the city through the references that they weave in and out of their Big Picture flow. What's even better is that Sabzi's beats start off slow, but the middle of this album is so strong that I was astonished how well he came around. Changed my whole opinion of Geologic's delivery indirectly, because up to that point I had been on the fence about how strong this album really was all together rather than just as halves of the whole.

That may be the best part about this album, in fact. All the horns and snapping fingers and added vinyl hissing in the world can't mask a weak album lyrically, but Geologic has come through with arguably his best performance yet and certainly one of the better full-album deliveries of the year. In Geologic's ethnic background of Filipinio, Bayani refers to "heroes of the people." In Sabzi's Iranian background, Bayani means "the divine word." On their second album here, Blue Scholars have arguably achieved both not just for a generation of Seattle hip-hop heads but also for kids out there looking for inspiration in positive hip-hop. If Rhymesayers just isn't enough anymore, Blue Scholars and the Mass Line crowd are your answer.

The title-track Geologic rhymes that it's "gonna take more than just rain to change us." The truth of that is, they've already been changed. Two university students with a debut and an EP were hungry, but battle-tested and people-approved, Both Geologic and Sabzi have re-emerged to deliver the most consistent album to come out of Seattle maybe since their debut. Whatever the case, don't make the mistake of not picking this up just because of some negative press. If talking about the war or squalor in Seattle isn't your bag, stay the hell away. You probably shouldn't be listening to hip-hop in the first place. Club anthems are your bag, kid. This is why Blue Scholars are hot. Stooping to that level doesn't win plaudits, it wins cheap videos and cheaper hoes. In times such as ours, there's only so much of that a listening audience should be able to take. For one more album at least, we have something to keep our minds off the mindlessness of the clubs. I'll raise some Crown to that.

Theodore and Hamblin - "The Scientific Contrast"

Theodore and Hamblin - Pewn (Moteer 2007)

Theodore and Hamblin – The Scientific Contrast / Moteer

Damn the rain. The most revitalizing period of my week is the hour-long bike ride through the side streets and momentary neighborhoods of Chicago I get to enjoy every Monday while heading to my office on the North side. The sporadic rain showers outside my window are trying to prevent my coveted mental and physical sigh of relief this week, and taking the bus-to-often-delayed-train route is just not that appealing. But even though it is causing a little annoyance and procrastination, I cannot completely hate on the rain. It in itself is a periodic revitalization for both the Earth and my mind. There is just something immensely soothing about the slightly melodic patter of rain that helps wash away any lingering stress; so much so that my windows typically go up when the clouds start bellowing down. No, I do not want it to rain more than it sunshines, but goddamn do I love that periodic refreshment when it comes in small doses. Conveniently, these are very similar feelings I have for IDM, and more specifically the melodic minimum electronica that ran rampant in the late 90s. It is a genre that he somewhat fell out of style, so when an album’s worth of quality material drops in my lap, I pay attention… and listen… and feel refreshed.

As we heard with the recently discussed Fisk Industries compilation here on Audiversity, the IDM label is still far from being completely archaic. Subtlety, patience and pattering are just not the “in” sounds these days. That does not mean they are completely defunct though, you just have to dig a little deeper to find the crews still purveying that sound. Well look no further than the UK’s Moteer label where curators Craig Tattersall and Andrew Johnson are finding a comfortable stride with their blossoming imprint. They are already finding acclaim with warming electronica releases from artists like Clickits, Minimum Chips, Aus and my personal favorite, The Boats. For an overarching label listen, head straight for the Moteer::Sampler, but for now, we are going to concentrate on their latest release by Theodore and Hamblin, The Scientific Contrast.

A German duo very much indebted to early Morr Music releases (especially by Isan), Kibbee Theodore and Bernd Hamblin are much more about crafting a humble sound than worrying about any sort of style or outward appearance. In fact, they choose to remain as nondescript as possible and refuse to even be photographed or reveal much personal information. Their MySpace profile pretty much sums up their mindset with fragmented personal descriptions like: “We are private people, who live rather mundane lives.” / “We live in Germany, in apartments which are rather similar. In a small town near Bonn.” / “We like science and typography” / “We record by pressing the red button” / “We find it difficult to talk about ourselves.” With the melancholic, unassuming music involved on their debut release, I cannot say such biographical nuggets are surprising, and in fact, like their music, I find it somewhat refreshing.

Two of the brief descriptions I left off were that the pair met at a university while studying furniture design and that they have a wide array of electronic toys. There is no doubt both interests collide on The Scientific Contrast, and the architectural blueprints of these twelve songs stem from their profession of choice. Utilizing mostly nostalgic and innocent melodies and strategically subtle electronic noises, Theodore and Hamblin craft something plaintively beautiful. The music rarely reaches over a hum and the rhythms scarcely register on the audible charts, but when paired together, they form something truly engaging and peaceful. “Balmpe” and “Pewn” are the highlights of this combination. Each track begins very softly with just delicate, rhythmic electronic swells undercut by slightly skittering clicks. But as each song reaches the top of their easy-going climaxes, lush analog melodies form out of a multitude of untraceable electronic gadgets; every sound purrs and chimes and patters with care. It is not all sighs and hums though, songs like “Pelume” build off nearly abrasive high frequencies and “Hernd” rocks a four-on-the-floor dance rhythm however subdued it may be. There are a good variety of approaches to Theodore and Hamblin’s sound, but the album remains wholly cohesive.

I really could do some hefty name-dropping for comparisons, but really they would just be your typical IDM references anyways, so I will refrain from doing so. And anyways, Theodore and Hamblin’s approach is more to strip away all the typical defining aspects of the genre and utilize just the undertones to craft their music. If you listen to The Scientific Contrast all the way through, there is no doubt that you will come out the other side relaxed and refreshed (that’s like the fourth time I’ve used the verb "refresh" so take note). It is not necessarily music to fall asleep to, but more to calm your nerves and patiently contemplate a sticky situation. It is introspective, fragile and thanks to the artists’ taste for privacy, innately mysterious. Oh! And the rain stopped. I am not saying that Theodore and Hamblin necessarily had anything to do with it, but it certainly makes for a nice metaphor as their album comes to a close.

Chris Connelly - "The Episodes"

Chris Connelly - The Son of Empty Sam (Durtro Jnana 2007)

Chris Connelly – The Episodes / Durtro Jnana

Even today, more than fifteen years since he stepped out from the menacing shadows of the industrial scene he was so deftly intertwined within (Ministry, KMFDM, Pigface, Revolting Cocks, Murder, Inc.), dread-locked, leather-clad fans still show up to Chris Connelly’s solo shows hoping to hear that sinister scream. The realistic probability is that since they have clung on this long, there is no hope in evolving their tastes; but hopefully, these diehard fans will be turned on to the musically matured Connelly, the singer/songwriter with aged poetic lyricism and the insatiable craving to experiment. Sorry, the roaring heavy metal guitar riffs and pounding aggression are all but dissolved, but the passion and urgency is still easily heard, even though it may now be channeled through acoustic guitar strums and lyrical tropes. Connelly’s solo outings have been gaining momentum since the melodic Whiplash Boychild confused industrialites everywhere in the wake of Pigface's debut album in 1991. 2004’s highly acclaimed Night of Your Life on Invisible Records seemed like an apex for the Chicago-based Scot, but that was before the Everyoned project conjured a musical relationship with fellow Windy City innovators Tim Kinsella (Joan of Arc, Cap’n Jazz, Make Believe, Owls) and Ben Vida (Town and Country, Pillow, Terminal 4, Bird Show). There are still sonic experiments to be had and Connelly has reinvented his sound once again with his latest release, The Episodes.

The most striking aspect of The Episodes is its incredibly acoustic and dense atmosphere. Connelly and his talented cast of supporting characters fill each track to the brim with consciously monochromatic yet sprawling arrangements and opt for patiently developing, wholly organic songs. On paper, it is an odd collection of characteristics: Connelly’s creaking, Bowie-like croon emoting over an almost tribal circle of plodding toms, single-chord acoustic guitar strums, twinkling vibraphones, Vida’s teasing electric guitar noodles, occasional synth base lines, free jazz-leaning drum kits, sparse electronic tinges and even a mandolin (to name just a few). Yes, when they play it is chaotic, but in the strategically sloppy manner Kinsella has been perfecting for years and under Connelly’s elegant direction. All of the manic instrumentation combines into one throbbing, hypnotic background with the passionate narratives leading the way. It’s urgent, enigmatic and intense music that takes multiple spins to even begin to unveil.

The Episodes clocks in at just less than one hour, but there are only seven tracks involved. Ignoring the poignant two-minute coda, each track spans uncompromisingly with “Henry Vs Miller” being the spry, jazzy eleven-and-a-half minute centerpiece. If Scott Walker had hooked up with Soft Machine, it may have sounded somewhat similar. “Son of Empty Sam” may be the integral track of the album though as Connelly narrates a haunting tale of conceding to insanity as the music follows suit. Building from simple acoustic guitar strums, the song escalates for five minutes before threshold is broken and just ranting, pansophical voices are left. In simple terms, the protagonist has lost it. The second half picks up where the first section left off, but seemingly in a much more visceral manner. “The Ghost has an Orchestra” does nothing to dispose of the omniscient Bowie comparisons, but I seriously doubt Ziggy has ever been so hypnotic and tribal. And album opener “Mirror Lips” excels wonderfully with Connelly’s endearing tale being sung over a backdrop of shimmering acoustics and multi-layered hand percussion.

“Soul Boys/Hard Legends” is of special note because it was field recorded in a secluded forest of Wisconsin (conveniently pictured under the disc trey). If you thought the other songs were innately tribal, this completely solidifies the feeling. A loose, spooky piece, it does not quite live up to its accompanying album tracks, but certainly an interesting interlude following the epic “Henry Vs Miller.”

With such a diverse and unpredictable history already in place, it is really not that much of a surprise to hear Connelly reinvent himself once again on The Episodes, but certainly a much welcomed notch in his already world-worn belt. The album really burrows into your consciousness. On first listen, I was impressed but not hooked, but with each consecutive spin both music and lyrics unveiled another layer of depth. And it plods hypnotically, not really relying on one individual’s over-indulgent musicianship, but letting each player contribute just enough to affect the whole with an idiosyncratic charm. It is very like a Jackson Pollock painting where his spattering, seemingly random assortment of color and technique would dry into a brilliant, moving and undeniably preconceived piece of art.

Simian Mobile Disco - "Attack Decay Sustain Release"

Simian Mobile Disco - Sleep Deprivation (Wichita 2007; removed by request)

Simian Mobile Disco - Attack Decay Sustain Release / Wichita

Oh right, Simian Mobile Disco. What's that about Justice dominating dancefloors lately? I guess James Ellis Ford and James Anthony Shaw will have a little something to say about that when this summer's finished; after all, it was they who formed the other half of the glorious single "We Are Your Friends" (nee "Never Be Alone") that got Kanye West all worked up. Appropriately (and expectedly) then, there is already a fan-brewing rivalry between † and Attack Decay Sustain Release. Either way you go, there's loaded symbolism in the title alone. Encrypted come-hithers or merely the technical terms for how sound works? Hearing the record won't help, I can tell you that much.

And whatever "blog-house" is, I guess this qualifies. Digression: One of the many reasons I've avoided bringing that phrase up is because it's almost completely illegitimate. If Justice is blog-house and Simian Mobile Disco is blog-house, you might as well classify VHS or Beta and The Juan Maclean and The Rapture and every other dance band from the last five years as blog-house. The DFA is blog-house. Talk about recontextualizing the last half-decade. Maybe bloggers just call it that because their memories are so short they can't even remember what they reviewed last week. Isn't that sad? Less is more, kids. You don't get anywhere posting advance tracks from Oink with no frame of reference other than what you read on all your friends' blogs. By the way, remember when this would've been New Rave a few months ago? Or is that punchline too soon?

Point is, Simian Mobile Disco are futuristic acid-house, straight up. "Sleep Deprivation," pure acid revivalism my friend. Sounds like it came straight out of the glory days of '90 or '91 when the stuff couldn't kill you but drinking too much water in the club could. Did they even have Thermionic Culture Vulture Distortion Units in those days? All credit to the two Jameses behind this piece of work, because they've somehow managed to not trick listeners into buying different versions of their early Kitsune singles and multitude of remixes. Nevermind Brianstorm, did you hear the sirens on Klaxons' quasi-legendary "Atlantis to Interzone"? Remember how that vaguely reminded people of The Prodigy? Well, here we are folks: "Tits & Acid" brings them back with glorious glitchery clouding what stands as one of their better jigs. And then comes "I Believe." Sounds like it came straight from FutureSex/LoveSounds, I swear... Not that it's a bad thing. I mean, as a responsible blogger, I'm supposed to say how much I respect Justin Timberlake now and how affecting I thought "My Love" was.

Here's the thing, though: I've injected a lot of how I feel about the reactions to this record rather than the record itself. The official Audiversity stance is: Yeah, it's better than Justice's LP and it's a brilliant dance record besides. Part of the reason is because Justice veers dangerously close to self-parody on more than one occasion during the course of its full-length, which is great if you want more of what you expected. But Simian Mobile Disco are different because they understand perhaps better than their French counterparts that one-upping Daft Punk every track for an entire album gets old for bloggers, er, normal listeners. So they mix it up a bit, throwing in the aforementioned acid-house with their own take on Frelectro, punk-funk, minimalist tech, futuristic pop and Italdisco to create a seamless blend of all the above. It sounds like it would be a sleek, beat-driven mess. Maybe it would be boringly beat-driven if it weren't for the vocal tracks, but Ford and Shaw are clever. They balance one out with the other.

This is part of why Attack Decay Sustain Release works. "It's the Beat" is the first single and with all its sass seems perfect for dancefloors, but that one's obvious. "I Believe" is the cooldown mid-album and could not have been more perfectly placed. It really is the "My Love" of SMD's debut, but it's both glorious and gloriously cheesy in its own way. Namely: It doesn't have T.I., but it does have that uneasy early-90s disposable dance-pop feel to it (Be on the lookout for this one in July when underrated remixer Switch and Prins Thomas get their hands on it). Sensibly, the duo change pace so you don't spend too much time mulling it over. "Hotdog" kicks it back up, but the vocals play the same role they do in so many other songs here in the sense that they're so ridiculous you can't help but ignore them for the dance. It's better that way, though I wouldn't be surprised to see "Put 'em all together and what do you get? Ding-dong" on more than a few MySpace profiles by the end of the month. To follow that up with mostly instrumental "Wooden" is necessary as we start to reach the end of the journey. It feels well-placed. Everything here does.

From the Korg MS-20s to the Boss PC-2 synths that attack and sustain throughout the course of the album, it's Ford and Shaw's experience with their old group Simian that allows Attack Decay Sustain Release to linger long after you've turned it off. The beats are great, the electronic gimmickry expected, but the innate melodies of the songs, the hooks that bait you right from the off and don't let go until it's over - those are what put this duo ahead of all their peers. Justice may have its illuminated cross hypnotizing the masses, but Simian Mobile Disco are doing it the old-fashioned way with a few key tools and a knack for hooks; the real test will come when this one's only a distant memory of weighty expectations and breathless anticipation. Simian Mobile Disco have survived it all with one of the best dance records in a year of great dance records. For now, the easy part is over.

Interversity: Aja West

I am pleased to introduce the first installment of a new column entitled Interversity. As it suggests, each Sunday [that we're not in the mood for a Used-Bin Bargain] we'll feature an interview with one of our covered artists including five specific questions and an Audiversinquiry (Yes, we're aware of our obsession), a set of ten questions we ask everyone. Since this is an audioblog, an mp3 will naturally be included for your listening pleasure.

For our introductory Interversity, I am proud to present the funky mind of Aja West. A founder and CEO of the wonderful Mackrosoft label, which specializes in connecting the dots between funk, fusion, soul, jazz and electronic music, West has produced three solo albums (including The Olympian and Total Recall 2012) as well as collaborating with friends and family under the colorful guises of The Mackrosoft and The Cheebacabra. He took a break from his busy schedule of funkifying synthesizers, cooking home-grown meals and stretching his cerebral cortex to answer some questions for the Audiversity crew.



Aja West - "Penny in a Fountain" - Total Recall 2012 (Mackrosoft 2007)

1. In my review for 2007's Total Recall 2012, I pegged you for elaborating on the mid-70s pre-Prince funk sound (more synthesized than the butter-funk era, but less streamlined than urban R&B); was this a conscious decision or did it just arise in the writing process?

“Peg it will come back to you.” – Steely Dan 1976
You pegged the great mid-70’s funk situation as my central influence correctly. Weather Report, Steely Dan, Parliament, Hancock, Sly and of course Mr. Brown are all central loves of my life. With time, I’ve come to hear that period of creativity as a prevailing wind in every record I’ve done under every guise I’ve used except for maybe when I’ve produced other people’s projects. In truth, every punk band, trustafarian, and real MC I every produced as a youth left the studio with more funk than they wished!

The first half of Total Recall 2012 is really a document of a long time collaboration between Reggie Watts and myself. I cold called him in High School when I heard the first Maktub record. Being an open cat Reggie was down to check out what I was doing. Flash to now.

We co-wrote that first slew of 2012 tracks featuring vocals together. Me laying all the drums and some basics then Reggie coming in and freaking Moog Voyager and vocals. The Honorable Watts brought a whole other set of unique musical experiences and judgments to the table. Listening to my catalog I can hear an obvious soul pop influence on the first half of the 2012 record that only shows up in slivers throughout the rest of my work. The micro-macro collaborative nature of this album for me resides in two memories:

1) Reggie was playing one night only at the Knitting Factory in LA then moving swiftly “Jason and the Argonauts” style the next morning. I wanted to record him and he’s a legendary trooper so I picked him up after the gig at around 3:00 AM and he was obviously exhausted from performing a hundred percent show. By the time we got food, caught up and pulled to the studio he was for good reason, asleep. So I geared up the track and played it into his headphones. Every time when his cue for lyrics came, he’d wake and sing or in a few cases mutter. I’m perpetually caught in the dream time/space between waking and sleeping so this was great for me to witness and a testament to the enormous talent of Reggie Watts. When all was said and done, in consensus reality, his glossolalia made it onto the record as an excellent lead vocal.

2) Almost every session began with us watching a VHS of the liberty chopper fly “Halls and Oates” to the Statue of Liberty for their great “Liberty Concert” to raise money to restore the old lady. That’s one way to get Lou Ferrigno before a musical workout.

2. How does the Aja West sound in particular differentiate from the rest of the Mackrosoft crew? Do you make it a point to not retread on the sound of other projects associated with the label?

Over time it’s natural order has emerged as this: If it’s instrumental funk with Aja West at the helm it’s “The Mackrosoft”. If it’s instrumental funk with Cheeba at the helm it’s “The Cheebacabra”. If it contains vocals, it’s “Aja West”. I can’t let the massive amount of talented musicians who have invested time, energy, and trust in “The Mackrosoft”, endure the scrutiny of the Aja West projects. These land squarely on my back.

I’ll retread in the sense of “variations on a theme” until I get it right. The “Mackrosoft Trilogy” as I experienced it was a slow process of shaping a series of jagged rocks into jewels that are somewhat self-similar. I can hear that rumble again with another trilogy of instrumental records by “The Mackrosoft” I’m completing this year. I think this has more to do with my clinging to the stability and assurance of quality by sticking with a fantastic group of funky players. Most of those musicians are lions and command their own projects while I’m interested in cats. As the Mackrosoft is evolving I’m making like “To Catch a Predator” and trying to rotate in new younger talent.

3. How did you hook up with former J.B.'s musical director Fred Wesley for Total Recall 2012? How much of an impact did he have on the recording sessions?

I was lucky enough to hook up with Fred Wesley and the Headhunters for 1st Mack to the Moon, 2012 and Antonio’s Giraffe. I think I owe those relationships partially to the respect those gentlemen have for the younger panthers that I’d been working with on prior Mackrosoft albums’. Magic sax man, Skerik has been a real advocate through his exceptional playing on the second more instrumental half of 2012, Antonio’s and Aja Aquarius. When the baddest of the funk-fusion octopus need a sax man many of them extend their tentacles to Skerik.

Impact wise, Fred was there strictly to play solo trombone. We ended up recording some jams with him playing against the rhythm section of Paul Jackson and Mike Clark from Herbie Hancock and The Headhunters. I’d rather record that than anything of mine so we ended up co-writing about four songs that appear on 1st Mack to the Moon. Fred’s playing was classic burley trombone and one day I’d love to have him write arrangements or record again. That was a gratuitous grace, working with the men that inspired me to make music and finding them to be beautiful novel individuals.

4. For real, how many synthesizers do you own? And is there a secret to harnessing the sexy groove you seem to milk out of each one?

There’s a great Steely Dan DVD where Donald Fagen and Walter Becker interview the great bassist Tom Barney about his large collection of basses as security blankets. I collect synthesizers, records, and other people’s trophies. While I may not have the best of each item in the collections, I have a lot of them and what palettes of color I don’t have; brother Cheeba’s on top of, synthesizers, not the trophies. We each have sets of the essential keyboards for our work, the Rhodes and Wurlitzer but the analog keyboards we don’t double up on, letting us multiple our collective options.

Musical secrets usually remain somewhat secret or whispered to me but here are my best clues on sexy grooves. Lay electric keys on a rhythm bed of drums and bass then sprinkle pedals of picked minimalist guitar. Wheel in the analog cannons, plug em’ in, smoke green and summon a quiet storm on top of the groove.

5. I love the artwork for all the Mackrosoft releases; do you have one person in particular who is in charge of that aspect? And how much energy do you put in to finding just the right visual accompaniment for your releases?

Thanks for asking because the visual art has always been a crucial element to the Mackrosoft aesthetic. Tom “Manningfest” Manning has been my most consistent comrade on the album art and covers. Artistically, we’ve worked together on numerous projects "The Mackrosoft Trilogy”, The Olympian, 2012, the mackrosoft.com web site... Tom Manning-festation has also appeared as a vocalist on my Trauma… Life in the E.R. album.

Eagle Rock - Los Angeles – Deep Nineties. I dated one of his college housemates and was constantly sneaking into the Pasadena Art Center to design and use their scanners. I’d forced Manning to take absurd phone messages for my lady friend and I’d seen him diligently working on weekend nights which has always been my thing. I quickly determined “The Manningfest” actually went to the art school, was an Ice T and House of Pain fan, and could negotiate my wildest visions. Tom and I continue to collaborate and outside of his Mackrosoft loyalties, he currently slaves over his own excellent quantum minded series of graphic novels “Run Off”.

“If you didn’t know before, now you do”– DJ Hurricane

When it comes to The Cheebacabra aesthetic, it leans much closer to psychedelic fine art. David Levitan’s 1970’s painting “The Perception Epic” graces the cover of Metamorphosis. We had been long time fans of the paintings he’d done for jazz-fusion violist Jon Luc-Ponty so to drink from the same well was a real treat. The Cheebacaba follow up Exile in the Woods features the work of one of histories greatest Zoologists, Desmond Morris AKA “The Secret Surrealist”.

As for the future, I’ll be unveiling my own take on perturbed illustrations and art on the next couple releases for better or worse.

Audiversinquiry (10 questions we ask everyone)

1. What did you specifically remember listening to as a child that triggered a notable response?

I’m lucky my parent’s took some pictures of me at the turntable at an extremely young age, so I can validate the LP’s I remember listening to. I came from white folks who enjoyed black music about 1 tier deep. Both my parental guardians were academics of sorts and were more observers of novelty than participants in the dominant culture movements. I sexualized the LP at a very young age as the fist still image of a woman’s breast I remember seeing was contained within the inner montage of Jimmy Cliff’s The Harder They Come. I remember my parental guidance first stab at explaining homosexuality being within the of The Village People LPs. My parent’s first date was blind and my father wooed my mother with the exciting and new sounds of Henry Mancini’s “Pink Panther Tour”. Their second date was to see Miles Davis during his “chaotic” period as it was explained to me. After fifteen minutes of Mile’s trumpet juju and him keeping to a corner, back to the crowd, they walked out. I’m sure this was all very formative in my musical birth!

As an Indigo child or simply a human with spastic biochemistry my female guardian would use The Pointer Sister’s “Salt Peanuts” and “Bangin’ On the Pipes/Steam Heat” like catnip forcing me to fling myself against mattress covered walls and dance until I’d run myself out of energy. Other early artists and LP’s I can photographically prove I spun were the Car Wash soundtrack, Curtis Mayfield, Issac Hayes, The Moody Blues, Bread, Jim Croce, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Saturday Night Fever. Love to all those artists and to the many passed, I hope you’re finding rest in your peace.

TV themes marked me early and I’ve never tried to shake that branding. The musical openings to Swat, CHIPs, Barney Miller, Wonder Woman, People’s Court, Knight Rider, The A-team, etc. were all rooted in the funk arena.

When I was old enough to join my mother in aerobics I was introduced to the Jane Fonda Workout LP. As I remember it, the album not only contains some of the smoother funky tracks of the eighties like the Brother’s Johnson’s “Stomp!” and some Jackson Five but the cool down was Jimmy Buffett’s Changes in Attitudes, Changes in Latitudes.

2. Let's say you are heading across town this moment and will have time to listen to one complete album during the trip, what would you listen to?

I’d listen to a CD-R of one of my albums in progress and make mental changes on the mixes and track relationships.

3. Are there any other media that you draw inspiration from? Books, authors, painters, actors, movies, celebrities, etc?

Cooking: The green, smooth texture and general vibe I achieve using home grown basil to make Pesto reminds me of my best tracks. Greek and Vegetarian soul food keep my dietary pyramid on point.

Authors: The collected works of Terrence McKenna, Dr. John C. Lilly, Phil Dick, Desmond Morris, and all the branches you find sprouting from them.

Movies: DVD’s from George Duke in Japan to Weather Report in France keep me enthused about the projects I’m working on. The infomercial series, “Midnight Special” can be dope. Non musical DVD’s like American Movie, Space is the Place and Le Planet Savage also can help me into the right mind of frame! Honestly this category is numerous in its inspirations. Parallel to my musical career has been my work as a writer/director, which has helped finance the music bit.

Art: Record cover art of all genres.

Plants: Cannabis and Mushrooms.

4. Where do you go to discover new music and sounds?

I follow the edict, “Pay Attention”. Look in weird and unique places for the weird and unique music. Infomercials, I-tunes, friend’s recommendations, my brother’s computer, dusty groove, and mainly the 99cent vinyl bins across the globe. I’ll often read reviews and recommendations by writers or interviewers’ who enjoy or have takes on my music I jive with.

5. What question do you get most often that you hate answering?

As of this writing, none. It’s infrequent people come to me for answers.

6. Favorite instruments or specific sounds?

Jon Hassel’s synth-trumpet played over African drums… James Brown grunting… Bernie Worrell soloing with Parliament… Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s incredible picking… the bated breath of a female during orgasm… Heart murmurs…

7. The record store is closing in ten minutes and you are hell-bent on buying something before they close, what section do you head immediately towards?

CD wise:
My answer completely depends on the store’s return policy but I’m gonna say used urban/soul. With a super market sweep of ten minutes I’m most likely to find something I haven’t heard by looking for a funk or soul compilation that features some tracks I may not have heard or just slept on recently.

LP wise:
Used Funk-Jazz Fusion or whatever these records are cataloged under. I have a good eye for players when flipping through records backwards so that’s where I usually take it when I have the need for speed.

8. What is the last notable daydream you had and where did it take place?

Since I work nights and log dreams, my last daydream of note was while I was asleep in my bed during the day. A woman came to me with milky white skin and a round attractive face. I believe she was a composite of a number of mundane female characters including a recognizable reality TV participant I’d seen shortly before going to bed. It’s very rare for me to have dreams with erotic content and her character played a unique and interesting archetypal role. Her dime dancing was through.

On another note, the song “Life Imitates Clouds” and album of the same name are my ode to the daydream.

9. What is the perfect album to you? Are there any? Is it possible?

Mort Garson’s Plantasia is perfect for anything of green organic medium and a mycologist’s best friend.

Currently I have no perfect albums but throughout my life there have been some that were perfect until I wore them out through obsessive compulsive listening. A couple different Steely Dan and Weather Report LPs hit me as very close to perfect. Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters, Thrust, and Sunlight were all perfect at one point in my reality matrix.

As a hip-hop fan, when they first came out, I really felt the production on Paul’s Boutique, Three Feet High and Rising and It Takes a Nation of Millions.

With Rhythm and Blues, I’d vote for Johnny “Guitar” Watson or D’Angelo.

On the metal/rock tip the first Rage Against the Machine turned me out. Perfect for driving. Van Halen came close.

I’m putting myself out there on this one, but when it comes to Canadian pop, Gino Vanelli’s Brother to Brother is damn near perfect for a Gino V. album.

However it sounds; both Mackrosoft albums Journey to Vaginus and Antonio’s Giraffe felt at one point as near close to perfect to/for my earwax.

I have certainly made perfect compilation albums, CDs, cassettes, mixes, etc. using my record collection.

10. Do you keep up with blogs? Which do you read if so?

Any blog that mentions “Aja West” or “The Mackrosoft” I usually get up on! Lately, I’ve been actively trying to play a bigger part in the blog and podcast world. I do regularly listen to “The Podfather” matrix master Lorenzo Hagerty’s “Psychedelic Salon” podcast with an ear to Terence McKenna’s “In the Valley of Novelty” series and “The Trialogues”. It’s an excellent source for stretching your cerebral cortex and grey matter. I’d read this interview if I found it online, so thanks for asking such interesting questions. Best regards. Keep it funky.

Singleversity #13

Audiversity’s weekly column on random music in a predetermined number of words between 1 & 150. This week's randomly generated number: 127.

MA:



There is something I have always loved about Eastern Sounds; it just swings so softly with organic elegance and laid-back confidence. Recorded in 1961, Yusef Lateef was a couple years ahead of the Eastern-influence curve in jazz music that would culminate in the late 60s and utilized exotic scales for shrouding his restrained musicianship with a very spiritual guise. I was torn between posting "The Plum Blossom" or “Blue from the Orient,” where Lateef sprouts an amazing oboe solo, but I went with the former because it really displays his ability to conjure passion out of such minimal instrumentation. Lateef’s xun, a Chinese globular flute, hums softly over a restrained piano and soft, rhythmic Rabaab patters. It makes for music that is completely unassuming and wonderfully spellbinding.

PM:













My love-hate relationship with Brooklyn’s infamous noisescape ex-terrorists Black Dice takes another firm step in the “love” direction with their latest Paw Tracks 12” featuring “Roll Up” on the a-side and “Drool” on the dark side. “Drool” for some reason strikes me as the more intriguing of the two, starting out with a high-pitched analog cicada chirp you only hear once every 17 years clicking its way through a seven-minute jungle of burbling merry-go-round carnival synth action that sounds like the solo journey to “Roll Up’s” group tour of the Amazon. Alongside this is another Catsup Plate 12” due soon, a tour, and the best part: All of these are likely to find their way on a new Dice album due in the fall. Meanwhile: Get this.

Ibrahim Ferrar - "Mi Sueño"

Ibrahim Ferrar - Melodía del Río (Nonesuch 2007)

Ibrahim Ferrar - Mi Sueño / Nonesuch

The whole Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon was a pretty intriguing story if you paid attention. I do have a pretty idea good of our audience though, and I kind of doubt that it was quite as significant to the music fans we share most interests with than those of the mainstream. You could say it had more of an appeal to the American crowd that still considers the Grammy’s a meaningful award. But the fact of the matter is that Buena Vista Social Club is a phenomenal album documenting twilight-aged Cuban musicians performing the music they lived to play, classic son and lite Afro-Cuban jazz. It also brought international attention to Cuban music, which is obviously a good thing, but in the same hesitating manner that Paul Simon brought attention to South African music in the 80s: very concentrated and not really giving complete respect to the history of the long-lived music styles involved. Being familiar with the Buena Vista Social Club does not necessarily make you familiar with Cuban music just like being familiar with Ladysmith Black Mambazo does not make you familiar with South African music, but it’s a very accessible starting point and should be treated as such. In fact the majority of the members in the BVSC collective were brought out of retirement, which itself was already twenty years deep and ticking, so it does not even correspond to modern Cuban music. It was an album highlighting the sultry sounds of pre-Castro Havana featuring struggling musicians that were living in bleak poverty until that album spurred thousands upon thousands upon thousands of Americans to support the incredibly talented performers. I am not trying to be pessimistic about the album, in fact I am a very big fan of it and it’s surrounding projects, but it’s always good to be as realistic as possible.

The BVSC member that benefited the most from the wildly and unpredictably successful project (besides Ry Cooder of course) was the face and voice, Ibrahim Ferrar. 69-years-old when the album was recorded, it completely changed his life for the better. He was literally living off a meager state pension that was only augmented by shining shoes for tips, and was relatively obscure talent-wise even in his own country until pianist Rubén González suggested to Cooder that he utilize him in the recordings. With such a personable and kind demeanor lime-lighted by the accompanying documentary, Ferrar became the accidental star, which spurred an additional Cooder-produced solo album (also worth your time by the way) that sold almost two million copies itself. Ferrar spent his entire life performing the music of the BVSC, but only gained recognition in the waning years of his life. It’s both a heart-warming and truly sad story, which only gets more poignant with Mi Sueño.

While Ferrar was an ambidextrous singer when it came to the many sub-styles of Cuban music, apparently his niche of choice was bolero. At its very basic level a Spanish torch song, bolero was a slow dance that emerged in Spain in the late 18th century out of a combination of contradanza and sevillana dance styles. The genre made its way to Cuba in the early 19th century and enjoyed its highest popularity in the 1950s with heartfelt stories of travel and sentimental, unrequited love. So really, there is no surprise bolero had such a significant impact on Ferrar being that it was at the peak of its popularity when the Cuban singer was in his early 20s. The style eventually waned though and it just didn’t make financial sense to make recordings in that mode, so Ferrar never got to make an album of his beloved bolero—that is until he had the support of the entire music industry post-Buena Vista Social Club.

So in 2005, Ferrar finally got to make the album he so desperately wanted to all his life at the age of 78. With financial backing and an able band featuring pianist Roberto Fonseca, guitarist Manuel Galbon and bassist Cachito Lopez, the sessions for Mi Sueño commenced in the summer of 2005 in the wake of a European tour. After just the first vocal demos were laid to tape, Ferrar became ill and was condemned to his bed. With just three weeks to go before the final vocal sessions, the Cuban singer passed away from multiple organ failure in his home in Havana. Though enjoying immense unforeseen success in the twilight of his life, it appeared as if Ferrar would never get to make that bolero album he had always dreamed of, which was only further instilled when the session tapes were lost immediately following his death.

Thankfully though, the vocal demos Ferrar left behind were found a year later and they were of high enough quality that they could be utilized to still complete the album, which now exists as his swan song, Mi Sueño. In the traditional bolero setting, Ferrar’s aged and honey-soaked voice croons romantically over pleasantly sparse and subtle arrangements that vastly excel in their non-intrusiveness. The passionate, intimate and love-worn songs paired with the delicate instrumentation makes for some vastly easy listening, of which sidesteps anything resembling challenging music, but nonetheless hypnotizing and worth your time. “Uno” swings with stiff, subtle guitar chops, tiptoeing acoustic piano and swooning clarinets, while later “Copla Guajira” utilizes the same instrumentation but spins it into an infectious, foot-tapping cumbia song. And one of the great gems is “Melodía del Río,” an outtake from a Cooder session back in 1998 composed by and featuring the great, late pianist Rubén González. With a Southwestern-influence electric guitar solo, González’s patient, Monk-gone-Latin piano style and Ferrar’s romantic purring, no lady could resist such musical charm.

Like last week’s Friday night Audiversity festivity with Kahil El’Zabar’s French orchestra, Ibrahim Ferrar once again transports our work-week-worn minds to a much more pleasant state. Mi Sueño is romantic, refined, intimate, earnest and elegant and an absolute pleasure to listen to no matter the occasion. In this case, it’s not about challenging the world’s ears, but it’s instead about sharing one man’s life-long dream come to life in the form of an album. Sadly with Ferrar’s passing in August of 2005, he never got to see the final product of his efforts, but there is no doubt by listening to Mi Sueño that they were not in vain. And at the very, very least, it’s good to know that such a beautiful personality and talent was not completely lost to obscurity, though it’s certainly a shame we only got to enjoy the waning moments of Ferrar’s life.

Channel One - "Permissions" EP

Channel One - These Roads (Sound Foundation 2007)

Channel One - Permissions EP / Sound Foundation

I spent a lot of this past weekend immersed in M83's Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts. I don't know what it was that set me off on it - maybe I was in the mood for something dramatic or maybe I wanted to revisit one of my favorite albums or maybe I was trying to erase the memory of that new Smashing Pumpkins track "Tarantula" - but I listened over and over before I went to bed. It was refreshing to revisit.

There are a lot of times that I miss shoegaze, bluntly. So much gets talked about Ride or Loveless or Slowdive as influences that it's increasingly rare to find someone who's actually taken the time to listen to Moose or who knows which band produced Blood Music (Answer: Chapterhouse). The truth is, a decent quantity of those albums from Glider to Pygmalion were pretty mediocre. Still we talk of that period in the superlative... And yet, here we are in 2007 with one of the best years for shoegaze and all things related: Cyann & Ben, A Sunny Day in Glasgow, The Twilight Sad if you want to count them... And joining the fray is a little group from Dublin, Ireland known as Channel One. This EP is just their first release, but already they've skipped the whole Isn't Anything stage of Valentine obsession and gone right to the end of Loveless when critics and fans alike were left wondering where the hell you could go after perfection.

Dance music has been one suggestion propagated by critics fascinated by the trance that tracks like "To Here Knows When" or "Soon" suggested. Granted, that's a product of time and place; after all, Brits were just emerging from their late-80s rave hangovers and it wouldn't be long before The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers would be everywhere... But Channel One seem to have heard the same strand of musical DNA as the critics. Now they're walking onto the world stage with it, having recently opened up for CSS on a few UK dates. In contrast to Anthony Gonzalez's all-synth approach (which substitutes them for guitars rather than just beats), Channel One uses guitars but limits the electronics to tastefully intruding loops pre-programmed for maximum pleasure.

"Rhythm and Purpose" doesn't start off with wicked guitar white-noise. Instead, it starts off with subdued keys that then kick in full blast with the band using a 0111010110 skittering synth suggesting malfunction with the melody. Of course, it's repeated throughout the song as guitars rush in and out and the band does its best to make the vocals as indistinguishable from every other shoegaze ripoff out there. Too bad their natural knack for songwriting and the power of the music is just too strong.

The more I listen to this, the more I'm reminded of M83 meeting the Junior Boys. In a way, that's how I'd describe their sound best (though "These Roads" starts out like a Talking Heads b-side). The vocals are breathy and light while the music occasionally has a flair for the dramatic: "Beneath a Field of Steel" is a good example of this, but all four songs have both technological touches and emotional flair that would do well both in a club and in your headphones.

This EP has been highly touted in Ireland for awhile and the release actually came out in late March, but with just nine songs officially to their credit in three releases, Channel One is already drawing some steady support and a decent following. Help them out, because with the promise they've shown in a couple of early singles and now this solid (but too short) EP, there's plenty of potential for this to be the Emerald Isle's best band. And anyway, I'd rather hear Channel One than Damien Rice any day.