even caramel sundaes, pt 2

Javelin
Andean Ocean Tape
via dollarbinsofthefuture.com

My computer says this mix runs 30 minutes, but it feels like a very long 30 minutes. It will not relieve post-summer blues, but it can make your sadness more meaningful.

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even caramel sundaes is getting touched

Fabian - "Heatwave"
(photo, mp3, and quote via someplace much warmer)

Leftovers from a summer that I didn't have.

Please listen with headphones.

. . .

"Sometimes, in the colder months, when we get a bit of a warm spell, its like the sun reaches into everyones' chests and turns on an energy switch. People get a wild look in their eye and crazy things happen. Nights on the town turn into 3am hikes to the Hollywood sign, or sunrise swimming sessions in the Pacific. Romances are born and die in flames in the blink of an eye. This is true in any city."

No.

[pause for sigh]

It's not.

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"blinking pigs"

Little Dragon - Blinking Pigs

Yukimi Nagano has a supernatural voice and perfect phrasing. She could sing a song about cows and chickens, and it would be beautiful.

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Transition, on first listen

All of my free time is currently being sucked up by GRRM's vampire novel, Fevre Dream, and episodes of "The Wire", which I just started watching due to a massive number of friends' recommendations. Both the book and the show feel somewhat dated in 2009, like how I imagine a fine wine tastes to those who can tell the difference.

But I had to take a quick break to check out Ryan Leslie's newest offering, a sophomore album entitled Transition. Here's a quick run down:

"Never Gonna Break Up"
Perhaps one of the best tracks on the album. The song feels firmly stuck in place, and it's made instantly compelling by virtue of the lush, darkly-lit synth figure that opens the song. Its excessive brooding is what makes it so good. Perfect music for lonely nights wandering through empty hallways.

"Something That I Like" (feat. Pusha T)
Why would Leslie think he needs to rap on a track already featuring one half of the Clipse? I am beyond baffled. Wait. . . Pusha watches "Project Runway"? He doesn't exactly say as much, but if this is true, my masculinity can be validated in so many ways I never imagined.

"Zodiac"
There is some crazy, euphoric, synth-melting stuff going on here. It's overflowing with details, but it's done cleverly, without weighing down the song.

"Is It Real Love?"
I like this one, but it feels a bit by the numbers. That said, Leslie likes to throw in an interesting breakdown or interlude--like he does here--which can redeem the formula.

"Sunday Night"
I fully admit that this one is an acquired taste. But if you liked "Anniversary", which this seems to be riffing off. . . The following deserves quoting:

"Do you know what today is? It's our anniversary /
Got so many flowers-- your living room like a nursery."

Say what? I guess "greenhouse" didn't rhyme with "anniversary".

"You're Not My Girl"
Alex at The Singles Jukebox nailed this one down back in September.

"To the Top"
Like a couple of the productions on Leslie's self titled, which seemed more like filler than prime cuts, this is definitely one of the less-inspired tracks.

"Nothing"
This is a textbook example of Leslie's ability to seemingly pull an idea out of his ass and make it sound good. The electric guitar, which could be ripped from the theme song to so many '80s TV series, definitely steals the show. Nothing says "tasteful experimental R&B" like a guitar solo.

"Guardian Angel"
By far the sappiest moment on the album, but he doesn't rap on the track. So there's that.

"All My Love"
Still don't know about this one. Seems pretty weak. The handclaps are especially awkward.

"I Choose You"
Not much here, either. But it's an appropriately stark and simple conclusion. A fitting "quiet death" for the album.

****

walking up the ramp

photo by Gagan Mahan

Small Black - Despicable Dogs (Washed Out Remix)

****

...In the dull catalogue of common things.

Seek Magic is not as cryptic or pretty or as magical as I thought it should be, or imagined it being. Every day I seem to rediscover this irritating fact about life: that what I want is almost never what I'm going to get. When I approach an album with high expectations, so often I expect it to be transcendent right off the bat--that it's just going to explode into my life and be The Greatest Thing Ever.

Even before hearing Seek Magic, I imagined a philosophy or concept behind the music--thinking of it as an attempt to uncover some deep spiritual reality by way of childhood nostalgia-- and despite very much liking this concept that I created in my head, after hearing the album, I can muster little more than ambivalence. For me, this music recalls the soundtracks to animated shorts on PBS that I saw as a kid, or the music that played in Sears or The Bay at those listening stations where you could sample the New Age cds--mind-numbing instrumental fluff with names like "Sounds of Spring" and "African Tapestries". On a one-to-ten scale of extremely boring to exciting, some of that music maybe managed a 'two'.

Seek Magic raises more than a few pleasant memories as well--some of the synthesizer occupies a vague space between the music of Super Metroid and Donkey Kong Country (or, at least, my memories of it)--but overall, the album seems to have hit upon some of the most boring moments of my childhood. Mostly, it reminds me of waiting. Those PBS shorts were the things you had to sit through while you were waiting for your favourite television show to come on again. No kid old enough to understand what they were watching actually liked those things. This was the time when you went back upstairs to refill your cereal bowl with more Froot Loops. "Sounds of Spring" was only slightly less boring than following my mother around the department store while she searched for tea towels or whatever else she was looking for. There are so many other sounds and recollections that I'm not mentioning, but overwhelmingly Seek Magic is comprised of the sounds of seconds becoming minutes and minutes becoming hours, with nothing to show for it. This is not a good feeling. Not really.

I'm telling myself not to romanticize this overall sense of disappointment even as I do it. I remember lazy Saturdays, where the mornings blurred into afternoons and seemed to draw out forever. I remember school days spent at home, sick with the flu, where the most exciting things were a piece of dry toast and the sound of the dishwasher running.

I've listened to Seek Magic three times now beginning-to-end, and I can feel it growing on me, but I'm not sure I want it to.

Memory Tapes - "Green Knight"

Memory Tapes - "Pink Stones"

****

uk funky

I put Roska's FACT magazine mix on a cd and brought it to work awhile back. I've been playing it steadily for 5 months now, and no one has complained yet. (Because. It's. So. Good.) It gets better each time I hear it. Also, "In Your Handbag" scares off would-be shoplifters.

download here (via sendspace)

tracklist:
01 Magic Touch - Signed & Sealed
02 Afroganic – Embargo (Wookie Mix)
03 Roska - In Your Handbag
04 DJ Naughty - Cheap Talk
05 DJ Mystery - Speechless
06 D-Malice - Dreams Come True
07 MA1 - Give It Up (Roska Remix)
08 DJ Naughty - Trouble’s Back
09 Meleka - Go (Crazy Cousinz Remix)
10 Geeneus - Emotions

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when climbing

Most humans can only aspire to the wisdom of the pebble toad. When times get tough, it simply rolls itself into a ball and tumbles down the side of a mountain.

"The toad is so small and light that the forces of impact are too tiny to cause it any harm."

Islands - Everything Is Under Control

****

drift

Drift out of lane, difficulty making
..turns-
...become c0nfused in regard to signs/signals
....subjective sleepiness, sugar intake

rumble strips

nosaj thing - fog

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return

I put together a little mixtape of past favourites in honour of the much-awaited resurrection of Myke Weiskopf's SHORTWAVEMUSIC blog. But first, check the recent and stunning "Ramadan In Dub", recorded via Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

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d/l separately or grab the zip file and unzip it.

Tracklisting:
1. "...a glimpse of Heaven..." (Time and Freq Unid) - Voice of Russia
2. 11/12/03, 0620 UTC, 5800 kHz - Radio Bulgaria
3. 11885 kHz, 7.3.05 (2353 UTC) - Radio Cairo
4. 9/15/03, 0415 UTC, 7275 kHz - Radio Tunis
5. 9/15/03, 5930 kHz (0145 UTC) - Radio Slovakia International
6. Beautiful Arabic Song - [No Station ID]
7. Dueling XTMRs! #6: Qu'rambient - shortwavemusic.blogspot.com
8. Go!/Let's Go!: 5/22/07, 7425 kHz (0015 UTC) - Radio Tirana
9. Group Chant-Song, African Language - WTJC
10. Mystery Torch Song (Silvestrov: “The Dream”) (5.20.05 - 7440 kHz)- Radio Ukraine International
11. Piano Instrumental - 8/8/2005, 18330 kHz (0139 UTC) - All India Radio
12. Post-Soviet Melancholia, Part IV (Freq/Time Unknown) - [No Station ID]
13. Qu'ran chanting - BSKSA, Saudi Arabia (Riyadh)
14. The Boyband Headphase: 4/21/2007, 12085 kHz (2336 UTC) - Unid (VoA or Voice of Mongolia?)

Liner notes:
(gauze)(Brian Eno)(pop) (rush of strings and feedback, concert amidst explosions/beatboxing percussive sounds)(scuttling noises) (more obtrusive interference, coughing, sputtering) (atmospheric electricity)

coming home from the wake

Shirley & Dolly Collins - Nellie the Milkmaid

a few thoughts:

1) There is something in the way Shirley Collins sings this song--or maybe in the song itself--that is incredibly dispassionate. Collins narrates the song not-so-much coldly; rather it's the warmth and sense of fun that disturbs. It's as if she is a puppeteer, making everything unfold, as if all she would have to do to stop the unfortunate proceedings is say "Nellie, stop!", but instead is all smiles and 'too-ra-loos'. But, of course, this is a traditional song, and Collins is simply following the script--no more to blame for what happens than we are.

Like most traditional songs, this has withstood the test of time because it says something of value about the human condition. In other words, it's not going to have a "happy ending", or even an ending, per se. It's a song that ends as soon as it begins: of course it's inevitable that Nellie would fuck Roger, get pregnant, and in all likelihood, doom herself to a life of incredible hardship. This sense of finality is heightened by the fact that Nellie is returning from a death ceremony, and by the way the song weaves inwards on itself with the last line of the final verse.

Shirley Collins' sister, Dolly Collins, was gifted with the portative organ. Her playing, along with a harpsichord, adds an elegance to the danse macabre of a life.


2) Roger, you fucker.

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dying in canada

this here comic reminded me of this psychotic break/song that soul-sides posted awhile back:

Gloria Ann Taylor - "World That's Not Real"
It's fitting that it sounds like reality and the world of dreams colliding.

Gloria Ann Taylor - "Love Is a Hurting Thing"
There's also this bizarre disco re-working of "Love Is A Hurting Thing" with oddly double-tracked kick drum. It's like there's a dance party going on and you can hear the beat of different music playing in another room, and the songs sort of combine into a single disorienting song. Maybe it's an early attempt at a mash-up before there were such things as mash-ups. A proto mash-up?

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She's a fox now.

smoke

     smoke

   smoke...

she's got something that (lord knows)
drive me out my m- m- mind

Jimi Hendrix & Lonnie Youngblood - "She's A Fox"

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