Straight Off The Philip K.

At some point, someone eventually uploaded the full clip of this thing, with only bits & pieces of it turning up on tubeage before. A dozen year hence, and it seems a peculiar doco of a time and the times since.

For starters, a time before the music industry changed radically, and it was still possible to run such a by-the-seat-of-one’s-pants label, forming a network and forging a closely-knit alliance with like-minded artists and collaborators, getting the product made and out on shelves and into eager hands, etc..*

Secondly: El Producto who initially seems a little nervous and unsure about what to say to a Dutch film crew invading his home studio.

But mainly: 2002, and the sound of the times. El-P had been developing a certain sound for several years -- dark, heavy, laden with off-kilter bumps and lo-res atmospherics. Sounded like a offspring of 1990s NYC “illbience” at its most dusted and paranoid; sounded like what would’ve happened if the unlikely collab of Throbbing Gristle hooking up with DJ Premier had ever transpired and been disseminated via 2nd-gen cassette bootlegs. But it eventually ended up sounding like the most appropriate background mood music for post-9/11 New York.**

Percussive Interlude

Because the instrument (piano) is as percussive as it is melodic & etc. Can be, or becomes very 'is', when under the proper pair of hands.

In this instance: Equal measures of delegating and elegating. Letting the others have their say; while just hanging back, and punctuating from the periphery. A diffusion of hammerings. Asymmetrical counterpointage, vs. a guiding beacon vaguely sighted through fog. The sound of mirrors and purviews splintering apart, and then coming (being brought back) back to together again, many times over, each time as if nothing happened when you weren't looking/listening.

This is Entertainment, Pt. III

Throbbing Gristle in the studio recording Heathen Earth, circa 1980. [ Via Dangerous Minds, thanks to BLCKDGRD for the heads-up. ]

* * * *

Somewhat relatedly, the Blackest Ever Black label has an upcoming round of anticipated releases in the pipeline for the next couple of months. As part of their promo rollout, they've dropped about four hours of audio in the past several weeks, in form of various mixtapes and the like. Of which perhaps the most enjoyable was this two-hour session they did last week for NTS Radio; which is nicely heavy on obscure DIY, kinda dark & dubby leftfield guitar pop of a certain vintage. (Curious to know who this Dalhous [sic?] act is that turns up in the tracklist, marked as a forthcoming release on the label, because searches for info on said artist yields absolutely nothing. Very nice track, it is.)

Not sure how much the soundfile will remain posted, so grab as grab can. Tracklist up at the label's blog.

Third Edition

            Table of Contents


            1       Artificial Life
            2       Means of Escape
            3       Eastern Promise
            4       Instead of Flowers
            5       Archetype
            6       The Truth Has Come
            7       Art on 45
            8       King of Sham
            9       Franciable Headcase
           10       Hung Up To Dry Whilst Building An Arch
           11       Untitled
           12       The Dignity of Labour, Pt. 3
           13       Slow
           14       God With Us
           14       Hymen

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


Another hodgepodge mix of era-specific sounds -- from the last gasps of the old order and the reputed advent of neoliberalism. This time around with a little more geetar, since some probably feel there was a deficit of such on prior outings, eventually degenerating into a simmering amalgam of DIY lo-fi electronics & percussion. A few additions on this are recent enthusiasms, by some overlooked or forgotten artists that a couple of acquaintances from across the water either recently brought to my attention or reminded me of after many years.

::: download :::

Link is time sensitive, subject to deletion.