the of mirror eye

* presage: the illuminati (6 mb) | riddles (5 mb) | trilateralism (5 mb)
from outer perimeter : the future primitive sound : fps-003

there was a time when i was into turntablist super groups like the invisble skratch pickles, the x-ecutioners and the beat junkies. those guys are incredible technicians. they’ve got the chops and they like to show them. unfortunately, after awhile they started sounding like the yngvie malmsteen for turntalists. for those who don’t know, malmsteen is this super technical guitarist who just kinda wanks for the sake of wanking. and i thought that was happening with the turntablists.

presage - aka - mr. dibbs (1200 hobos) and jel (anticon), on the other hand, work for the sake of the song. this whole album is great, featuring songs filled with dark beats, brooding music and samples of conspiracy theories. they’ve also got one song featuring the great dose one (anticon) on vocals. mr. dibbs and jel are incredible turntablists/beatmakers. one caveat though, while i do love this album, i wish dose one were around more. i really feel like his track, riddles, is the highlight of this album. take a listen to the track and pay special attention to that moment when dose’s distinctive vocals drop out with about a minute left and this massive drum beat kicks in with an eerie melody on top of it. positively brilliant.

—–+—–

the only time i ever listen to the radio is at work. and it pretty much bites the big one. most of the people i work with only listen to commercial music stations, so that’s what i’m pretty much stuck with. sometimes we can listen to the oldies station, which is pretty good, but most of the time its classic or modern rock. but despite all that suckage, the dj’s are at least pretty amusing to listen to, with their contests and funny news stories.

at this point i’d like to give a shout out to loveline. ’cause that’s probably the highlight of my work day, when it turns to 10pm and i can tune in to it.

every once in awhile though, i get to tune into the college stations. i’m lucky that there are some good ones within range. the problem is the dj’s. what is it with college station dj’s? the music is fine. love the music they play. but i just get so aggravated when the dj’s get on the mic. because honestly, i have yet to hear one that’s amusing or that displays any sort of personality. there was this one hip hop show that is just starting when i’m getting ready to go home. and i’ve tried a number of times to listen to it as i’m sure it’s a great show, but i never get to hear it because i get too frustrated that the first 20 minutes of their show is endless, inane patter about how they’re keeping it realer than real.

* the cosmic rays: daddy’s gonna tell you no lie (3.5 mb)
* yochanan: hot skillet mama (3.5 mb)
* juanita rogers with mr. v’s five joys: teenager’s letter of promises (3.5 mb)
from sun ra - the singles : evidence : ecd 22164-2

ah, sun ra. the man from saturn. this cosmic messenger who took listeners of his big band to alternate realities with his electric keyboards, wild charts, space chants and egyptian cosmologies. so, what was he doing peddling 7 inch singles by doo-wop vocal bands like the cosmic rays, soul/blues singers like yochanan or female soul singers like juanita rogers? what was sun ra doing leading and playing with these groups that, on the surface, have very little to do with avant garde space music? his choice of the 7 inch single was also strange, as it was a tool used by pop artists - not avant garde jazz musicians - to make the quick buck.

it seems apparent that, in the beginning at leas, ra made singles with acts like the cosmic rays and yochanan as sincere attempts to provide a platform for talents who’d either come to him or business partner/producer alton abraham for assistance and had caught their ear. ‘we were not about money,’ says abraham. ‘we were never about money. we were doing the things the creator willed us to do - to awaken the people to turn to the creator; to prepare people for the new age, the space age, an age where all things are possible by creating a new art form.’

(from the liner notes)

for whatever reason he released these, just be glad that he did. these are great slabs of soul/doo wop that on the surface seem pretty normal. but if you listen a little closer, there’s just something a little off about them. a tweaked harmony here and there, an odd piano line, intersting subject matter. this is a great collection put out by evidence records. it collects every single known to be in existence that did not appear on an album. this was a true labor of love for them as sun ra was not known to be a great archivist of his own music. he released, along with these singles, multiple albums a year in limited quantities on his own imprint with little to no distribution. so it was a miracle that these singles survived.

—–+—–

i’ve been watching the office obsessively for the past couple of days. it’s an incredible mockumentary about a paper suppy office. the characters are so spot on it’s ridiculous. the writing is fantastic, filled equally with funny, poignant, boring and cringe-worthy moments. i would highly suggest either renting it or you can purchase the complete box set with both seasons plus the office special for one low price!

* black ox orkestar: shvartze flamen, vayser fayer (3.5 mb) | moscowitz terkisher (4.5 mb) | di khasene (8 mb)
from ver tanzt? : constellation : cst029-2

i’ve always had a fascination with jewish culture in general. i suppose this may have started back in the day when i read the chosen by chaim potok. his descriptions of the traditional jewish, the hasidic, utterly fascintated me. i mean, living in whitebread suburbia, i had no exposure at all to anything like that. at any rate. years later, while in college, my friend played a masada record for me and i immediately connected with it. the melodies was fantastic. a great mix of a sort of be-bop influenced jazz but with some weird melodies running through it. i later found out that masada is a jazz group fronted by saxophonist john zorn that uses klezmer melodies as their musical base. after hearing that album, i immediately delved into the klezmer world through zorn’s radical jewish culture releases on his tzadik label.

at any rate. the black ox orkestra are a great modern day adaption of traditional klezmer music. they’ve kept the mystery and the melancholy but updated it with influences from jazz and indie rock. the black ox are based out of montreal and have a home with constellation records.

—–+—–

if any of you are in the on-the-feet-all-day sort of industry, you should look into getting a pair of dansko clogs. i just got a pair and my feet could not be happier. they provide fantastic foot support and are incredibly well made. they are kinda pricey, but i think they’re worth it. they’re also supposed to be very durable, but we’ll see about that, as i’ve been known to completely demolish a pair of shoes in half a year.

* antena: camino del sol (5 mb) | to climb the cliff (4.5 mb) | the boy from ipanema (4 mb)
from camino del sol : numero group : 002

wow. i haven’t been this enchanted with a record label in a long time. i suppose this happened when i first started getting into indie music in the mid ’90s. i quickly latched onto a couple of great indie labels. thrill jockey, matador and touch and go/quarterstick records and eagerly sought out their records. the second time this happened in the late ’90s when i started getting into avant/improv/psych music and learned about these great labels, aum fidelity, eremite and psf records. these were labels that i associated with quality releases. releases that i would buy (back when i had more money) even if i didn’t know who the artists were, simply because i trusted those labels.

numero group is another such label. this label specializes in dredging up long neglected music from the past and exposing them to a whole new audience. the albums are wonderfully designed and impeccably researched. antena were a french group formed in 1981 out of love for electronic sounds and latin rhythms. they were met with indifference in france, but quickly found a label home in brussels.

at the heart of all this lies antena. critically ignored in their time, the group might have found greater success if they were more like their english contemporaries. while they shared a love for analog synthesizers and drum machines, they split away at the crossroads of dance music, opting instead for more of a saturday evening dinner party sound than the friday night pop of pills and pints. antena were the sound of margaritas and a deck of cards; for charads and bellini; for impromptu bathing-suit-optional pool parties.

(from the liner notes)

this is fantastic music. for a point of reference, they sound almost like stereolab or the high llamas, but with an ethnic flair and a lighter touch. i encourage everyone to seek out this release and you can order it from their website if you can’t find it in a brick and mortar establishment.

—–+—–

- i actually did go and see why should the devil have all the good music? and it totally ruled. it was a great portrayal of christian rock and was at times funny, frustrating and informative. great stuff!

- hallelujah! jandek on corwood is finally released on dvd. this is a movie that i’ve anticipated so much that i’m recommending it without having even seen it. this is a documentary based on the life and times of jandek. only he doesn’t actually appear on the film. until recently, no one even really knew what he looked like, as he refused to give interviews, live performances, etc. his only connection with the outside world was his label, corwood.

the longest-running, weirdest, loneliest enigma in popular music is a guy from texas who calls himself jandek. 25 years, 35 albums and not a single live show orpublic appearance. the documentary film jandek on corwood definitively explores the most intriguing mystery in modern music. featuring revealing interviws, evocative imagery and one of the most bizarre and compelling soundtracks in film history, jandek on corwood will challenge the viewer’s conception of music, art and the nature of celebrity.

at any rate. he recently had a live performance! only, in typical jandekian(?) fashion, there was no publication of the event and no one knew he was performing. even if you have no idea who this fello is, this is a must have movie.

* pedro the lion: never leave a job half done (4.5 mb) | i am always the one who calls (4.5 mb) | priests and paramedics (7 mb)
from nov 19th, 2004 : calvin college : grand rapids, mi

i’m hopefully gonna go see this new documentary out called why should the devil have all the good music?. the documentary is about christian rock in general and the cornerstone festival in particular. this is actually a subject that i used to be familiar with having been a fairly hardcore christian in the past. i used to listen to quite a lot of different christian bands and probably would’ve been incredibly psyched to go to a festival like cornerstone. at any rate, it’s definitely an interesting genre in that there’s automatically a ready built audience for it. it doesn’t really matter if you’re good or not, but if you profess your love for the j.c., you’re gonna have an audience.

so, what about pedro the lion? well apparently they played the same cornertone festival when the documetary was being filmed. when i first heard about these fellows, it was due to the release of their excellent album, winners never quit on jade tree records. now, i had no idea that this band was considered “christian rock”, but bought the record on a recommendation from a friend. i was pretty blown away. the songwriting was pretty great and for some reason the words really resonated with me. i quickly bought a couple of their other releases and have fond memories of driving around the backwoods of maine with a friend of mine, smoking cigarettes, and listening to pedro the lion. so, it’s interesting to me that they should be aligned with the christian rock movement as they’re not explicitly so and the label they’re on is also not. at any rate. despite all the baggage associated with “christian rock”, i think this band is pretty great.

—–+—–

just the other day i went to the most wonderful place on earth. otherwise known as the apple holler. it’s a wonderful apple orchard/restaurant/country store/musical theatre type of place. and it really must be experienced to understand just how great this place is. in addition to the wonderful food (i have four words for you: fried dill pickle chips) there’s a petting/feeding zoo in the yard. they have a bunch of goats and llamas to feed. there’s also a corn maize maze that you can run around and get lost in. this place is just like i imagine heaven to be. *sigh*

* va - schoolhouse funk: the world is a ghetto (8.5 mb) | a toast to the boogie (7 mb) | chameleon (7.5 mb)
from schoolhouse funk : cali-tex : ct-101

this compilation comes straight from the dusty hands of motorcycle josh, aka dj shadow. he’s done all the work and come up with 80 excellent minutes of funky school bands. now, coming from a whitebread suburban highschool, i have no idea what it’d be like to have such funky bands like these play at my school. but i can only come to the conclusion that highschool would’ve rocked if we had bands like the ones on this compilation.

at any rate, just take a listen to these highschoolers play with some pretty amazing skills. i mean, just take a listen to that incredible bass playing on “chameleon”! that’s some funky stuff. and the voice overs on “a toast to the boogie” are priceless. if only i could’ve been that cool back in highschool.

—–+—–

my friend a-unit and i recently went to the american girl store in chicago and it was truly frightening. i mean, what’s our world come to where young kids get dolls that are priced in the $80-100 range? let alone all the products that you can buy for them. accessories can run from $6 (for a set of doll hair ribbons) to $50 (a toy bike for the doll). but that’s not all folks! the store is absolutely ginormous. it’s a total of three floors including a live action musical theatre ($26 tickets) based on the american girl characters and a hair salon for the dolls ($20 hair braiding). the capper was the american girl cafe that served “prie-fix” dinners ($20 a plate) for the people. the dolls got a special chair to sit at the table with you and apparently the waiters have to treat the dolls like real beings. and we actually saw these services being used. the craziest scenes were these wo sisters who were wearing american girl outfits that matched their doll outfits, taking their dolls to the doll hair salon. there were just so many things i can’t even begin to describe just how over the top rediculous this place was. it absolutely boggled my mind. needless to say, i’ll be having nightmares for months about this place.