Intense Italo sounds on so, so many hits of acid. "and ten treed leaves" by Zeljko McMullen's Wish alias sounds like Moroder telling all the schranz dudes to calm the fuck down and eat some yellow sunshine and watch the fuckin' ocean. Get to it.
And while yr at it, check out all the other stuff going down with Shinkoyo family AND the Paris London West Nile performance space in Brooklyn that serves as a home and studio space to many of its members.
Oh, and also, there's another mp3 write-up I did for Wish today on XLR8R.com. Check that track here.
Later today, a post featuring the death dubs of San Francisco's very own Jaws.... get scared.
Feelin' a little low— seems like the cold might be back? Who knows. Anyway, I'll post two tracks for download tomorrow. Right now, though, I just want to drink some tea, take a bath, and laze.
(By the way, Skeletons are the shit! I had forgotten about the track above until just recently, when the melody came into my head. Check out the Ghostly site or Shinkoyo site for more info on their jams).
Friend unit Ablehearts has just completed his first album under the moniker. The Flood is some weird, warbly, naked electro-acoustic music with bits of punk, anti-folk, and a lot of insane knowledge of electronics. "May at the Farm" could very well be on Type Records, with its hallucinogenically pitched-up, multi-tracked vocals, and its slow, hissed-out acoustic guitar line. Like a transmission from a melancholy alien barn one hundred years from now. Really amazing things are happening with the guy behind this— watch out. (Released digitally on Shinkoyo).
Last week, I had the privilege of meeting a pioneer of experimental electronic music whose work is receiving much belated recogniton. His name is Warner Jepson, and this partial chronology of works ought to be enough to convince anyone of the man's largesse.
His latest exhibition is "Metamorfaces," a collection of portrait images discovered at the National Center for Experiments in Telelvision, on display until August 16, 2009, at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art. Blending buchla synthesizer audio signals with those of one of the earliest video synthesizers, Jepson creates a series of self-portraits that mesmerize and terrorize the viewer, sometimes becoming so fractured as to evoke evisceration of the self, and often brightening to heights of synesthetic beauty. Humor is thrown into the mix, too, as can be seen below in his work, "Hot Pink Guys."
With more exhibitions and a Shinkoyo DVD release planned for the future, Jepson's work is being discovered, rediscovered and uncovered by a younger generation of electronic composers and video artists. Over at the Mutant Sounds blog, they're hosting Totentanz, a recording from a score to a ballet first performed in 1967 here in San Francisco. A real gem, well worth the time of anyone interested in what Kyle Gann has called 'American Music,' especially those interested in the unheralded composers of the new music and electronic era.
Today, a treat from a member of New York's Shinkoyo crew. Severiano Martinez, better known as Seve, has recorded numerous albums, collaborated on countless projects, made horror films, and published a book. A renaissance man if there ever was one, Seve also used to DJ quite a bit under the name of 7eve, and his mixes are totally impeccable and prescient of the mash-up, remix-heavy atmosphere of today's party world.
Back in the day, he remixed a favorite track of mine from the Ghanaian popular genre of highlife. Fitting right in with new tracks like "I Exist Because of You," Seve's remix of "Funky Hi-Life" by C.K. Mann is a treasure of Afro-centric vocal house, with a driving beat, excellent sampling of the original's percussion, and an irresistable lo-fi flair reminiscent of Major Swellings or even Theo Parrish. If this doesn't grab you, I don't think anything can.
Please respect the artists discussed in the blog by buying their releases, seeing them perform their craft, or finding your own way to support them. Any tracks posted here are for reviewing purposes only! If you would like a piece removed, email here.
If you would like to purchase mp3's, I urge you to go here or here. If you're addicted to that vinyl crack, then I'd go here or here.
