find the magic in this grey world

Clue to Kalo "Your Palsy to Protect You" - You know how sometimes you get this sort of sinking, depressing buzzkill idea in your head that all the magic has drained out of your life? It's the sort of thought that tends to grind through yr head in those torpid times when the heat's up and everything seems routine and you just cant seem to dig yourself out from under your workload in the office or your responsibilities at the homefront. What happened to those lighthearted summers of bygone childhood, when every day seemed to feel like an open, blank, book, ready to be written anew? Wherefore? Whythen? Howso? And usually, eventually, you realize that you're overglorifying those long-ago days, and that there is, in fact, plenty of magic abounding all about you--you just sort of misplaced your ability to see and feel it for awhile. And this isn't a fault, this isn't a breakdown. It tends to happen to the best of us.

I'm bringing all that up because One Way, It's Every Way, the upcoming sophomore release from Adelaide, Australia's Clue to Kalo, is chock-full of this sort of magic, compressed into shockingly lovely songs laden heavy and thick with earstunning arrangements, multipart harmonies, and thoughtful lyrics. It's just the sort of thing to pull you out of whatever doldrums you might find yourself stricken by, whether they're related to summer's end, workaday blahs, or the bad news currently on tv. Just put down what you're doing, relax for a few moments in a comfortable environment (outside beats inside, if possible) and listen as the wonder unfolds. [You can preorder One Way, It's Every Way at Amazon. The record's coming out for reals on September 20.]

Stanton Warriors feat. Twista "Pop Ya Cork" - If you're planning a Labor Day block party/Katrina survivor aid drive this weekend, here's an excellent vocal breaks track that should get more than a few rumps a bumpin'. It's by the Stanton Warriors, two more kings of the UK breakbeat scene, and features crazyfast rapper Twista on vox. I found two different versions of this song--a straightforward studio cut and this one, which is apparently the same track being performed live, based on the crowd noise you can hear in the background. I decided I liked the crowd version better, cos when you listen with headphones it literally feels like there's a party going on in yr head. And, as all my constant readers know, I'm all about the headparties.

"Pop Ya Cork" was only made available in superlimited quantities as a promo--the official for-sale version isn't supposed to be out 'till October or November or some shit like that. But among those who are addicted to the mighty breakbeat, it's been huge all summer long, charting in DJ top-ten lists pretty much throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe also. If you can find a copy for sale at retail prices at this late date, my hat's off to you! I like the way you shake that ass, work that ass, baby gonna bounce that ass....

Dan McGuire + Josefa "Dead Man" (20.1 MB) - And here's a track that might go down well on yr drive out to (or back from) Burning Man...or at least that's what I thought a week or so ago, when I selected it for this entry. In the wake of Katrina, I'm no longer sure if it's the most appropriate track to be posting. But then again, as I listen to it this morning, it seems to have a weird sort of shamanic gravity that it was utterly devoid of before. Strange how what initially seemed like an especially goofy bit of stoner rock comedy could so quickly become, well, heavy. Strange days, strange music. Play it and weep. Or laugh hysterically. Or just groove along.

But what is it? Oh yeah. Almost forgot! This is a selection from Jamnation, a weird compilation album of sorts that features, for lack of a better descriptor, "stoner rock spoken word." Yeah, you read that right. And it's not anywhere near as bad as it sounds. There's no Def Poetry Jam fake rap here, and you won't find any jazz-addled pesudoBeat bongo riffs. Instead, poet Dan McGuire dug deep into what must be a fairly extensive collection of stoner/psych rock, pulled out some choice long-playing tracks* by both new and old bands (70's American psych outfits like Josefus and the JPT Scare Band alongside current day Dutch stoner space rockers like Gas Giant and ILD HU, as well as Japanese "retro doom hippies" Elysium), and then overlaid the instrumental bits with his very own wordage. And this might sound like a desecration, but in most cases, McGuire pulls it off fairly well, complementing the flow of the jam rather than obscuring it, and shutting up at appropriate moments, just to let the brainmelting guitar freakouts breathe a bit.

All that said, I originally selected "Dead Man" for its pure stoney goodness and lovably goofy psych-rock nature: though it's certainly not the wildest cut on the record (check Eternal Elysium's "Green Song" for that honor) it is the only track on Jamnation with original sung lyrics, and they just cracked me up but good the first two or three times I heard the song. Plus also I loved McGuire's work at the top of the track--perfect stuff for the end of days. And as I said above, it's sad that it doesn't seem quite so funny anymore. But your results may vary. [Buy Jamnation at Aquarius Records and, um, the Hellride Music Superstore ("The Home of the Heavy").]

Edgey "Residual Burn" - Although this savage little dnb track is actually quite good on its own merits, I'm not including it because it's a party standard waiting to happen, or because it breaks new drum and bass ground, or anything like that. I'm posting it because it's a historical document, of sorts. As many of you may recall, on Saturday, August 20, an outdoor drum & bass dance party in Utah called "Versus 2" was busted with terrifying force by an armed SWAT team that rushed in with helicopters, assault weapons, camoflauge suits and helmets, attack dogs, and--according to some witness accounts--tear gas. According to people who were there, partygoers were forced to the ground and handcuffed for the slightest provocation, and in some cases while down were assulted with kicks and punches. All visible cameras and video recorders were confiscated, and people were sent away from the site immediately. In the days that followed, the sheriff of Utah County lauded the event as a successful antidrug raid (though almost all of the drugs found at the rave had already been confiscated by the security guards hired for the rave) while partygoers spread their accounts of abuse and terror on messageboards, blogs, and mailing lists all over the Net while others accused the cops of unneccessary violence.

A video of the opening moments of the Versus 2 bust survived. It was shot by a man named Jeffrey Coombs and was retrieved from the ground by another partygoer when Coombs was tackled by the police. From there, it was quickly made available online. And within 48 hours of the police action, Edgey--an independent dnb producer and dj--created this slick reinterpretation of the audio from that videoclip and released it to some of the messageboards covering the aftermath of the raid. It starts off with the original audio--you can hear the dnb that was being played onstage just before the raid hit--and quickly ratchets up into Edgey's pounding, dynamic original composition, which highlights a few choice lines of dialogue, such as "Shut it down, now!" and "Get out now, or I'll stick your ass is in jail!" and "Hey, they've got guns!" Its a sobering memorial of the Versus 2 incident, and a reminder that music fans continue to be an easy, soft target for overzealous authorities in some parts of the U.S.

*I think the shortest track on Jamnation is something like 7 or 8 minutes long; the longest spans about 16 minutes.

((((^_^))))
Well, I was going to put some "happy funtime" stuff down here--had a whole list of stuff planned--but as usual this entry is way overlong already, and besides, these plainly aren't "happy funtime" times. I'm truly heartbroken by the aftermath of Katrina, and putting up any post at all seemed like a bit of a waste of time. But I figure to some degree we have to move forward, and there's no better way to do that than through music. I haven't any idea how many readers I have in the regions affected by this catastrophe--all I can say is I hope you're all relatively well and that you make it through this thing with your wits, health, and ears intact.

I'd also like to give a shout-out to insomnia. As usual, his roundups of what LJ users from the regions impacted by Katrina have been saying make really make for some amazing reading and provide some dramatic insight into what the average person is going through down there (some folks may recall he did the same thing for the tsunami at the top of the year).

Of especial interest is the journal of interdictor, who has secured a 27 floor highrise in the Central Business District of NO and has been broadcasting cam feeds showing the looting going on in his hood (he's calling the feed "Lord of the Flies II: Escape from New Orleans"). In one of his recent entries he confirms that the police are now joining in the looting fun. "Don't shoot the messenger," he says.

I hope this horrorshow (or at least the "looting, burning, and anarchy" portion of it) is put to an end soon.

Day Five Update: Christ. I can't believe it's taken so long to get help to the survivors in NO. These past few days have been some of the saddest ever. Every American with any sense of decency and pride in their country ought to be demanding accountability from FEMA, from the Pentagon, and especially from Bush and his administration of Fucked-Up Priorities For America.

As anyone who's read Krugman's latest knows, in 2001, FEMA issued a report listing the top three urban catastophes that they could see stiking the US: a terrorist attack on NYC, a hurricane strike on New Orleans, and a catastrophic earthquake in San Francisco. Well, as far as I can tell, it's two down and one to go--and I live in San Francisco. I just hope the Big Quake doesn't hit during the watch of Bush or any crony of his that follows him--because if the experience of Katrina is any guide, we'll be screwed for sure. (Bush hasn't visited the Bay Area once during his last five years as President, presumably because most people here refused to vote for him in either election. If we slid off into the Pacific one day, I doubt he'd shed a single tear.)

One last thing: You can take my words with a grain of salt if you want--but when hardcore über-rightwing Christian conservatives like La Shawn Barber are stopping just short of calling for Bush's head on a stick--you know the shit's REALLY hit the fan.