Siftin' Cream of Wheat thru my Underdeveloped Fingers (Searchin' for that Fellow Chaff)http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Aardvark: Resurrection

I've been catching up on all the internets that I missed out on whilst off on "donate your wits to the foreign kids" duty (they learn nothing, those "types"). After finishing off looking through at the coverage of BEST NEW WAYS TO WEAR PANTS+SHOES (hey, some of us need extra help... like you weren't in remedial reading or something), I eventually got around to checking out what people were sayin' about all the great new music that I can play softly in the background of my apartment while sorting bills-to-ignore or cutting the bad parts offa carrots (for guests; I'd never waste like that for myself) or what-have-you.

The gist of what I've seen is that 2007 has been a pretty great year for most musics (sorry, rap [at least saleswise]). To echo a large cross-section of my readings, music steez is hitting on many cylinders this year. We're closing in on the halfway mark and already enough heat has been brought that global warming is threatening to become something more than just a total myth. Folks' collections are so burgeoning that they don't even have time to pore over the liner notes, effectively putting all that remedial reading tutelage to waste. It even seems that on some level the peoples are starting to call out mediocrity-peddling-via-blog-hype type outlets in perhaps as constructive a way as could be more or less hoped for, though perhaps I've just put on higher-angled blinders or that's just some kinda retaliatory meme in and of itself. I'll save that for another dark day of typecraftery.

Anyways, amongst the things that have somehow managed to excite me outta my gourd is the promised continuation of Arthur mag. Yeah, I know plenny of people who were all but bored outta their skullbits by the last few issues; I didn't even bother to check 'em myself. But I'd be an even bigger choad to not fully admit that Arthur played a huge part in blowin' up my mind a mere four or so years ago. Sure, not every issue was a total knockout, but fuck it was more consistent then this here digisquat and yer reading this aren'tcha? The Babcock man has made some remarks as of late insinuating to those of us outta-the-general-loop that the new control structure may allow for some rejuvinated hijinx and quote-unquote name naming. This would be great for those of us generally separated from true, "on-the-street" zine-culture and in constant thirst for scene-politico-gossip. It's kinda a glue that keeps the broad underbelly of our grand Weirdoworld (I'd have to say Plastic Crimewave in the Kevin Costner role and maybe Paul Flaherty as the odd moleman in the oil tanker, but I'm flexible on this as these choices were made completely arbitrarily) stuck together, allowing a revitalizing huff of fume to those of us stranded far from "the arteries". Lifeblood!

Actual tune-wise I'm going to try and bring up a few sides I haven't seen mentioned much, though there's a great many choice cuts deserving of mention that this necessarily omits. Dig 'em up elsewheres; that sidebar clutch of links isn't there 'cause I ignore those fine scribes.

First up, the Siltbreeze renaissance is truly a glorious thing for those of us too busy sagging our Foundation Super Co bigshorts in 95 to know "whassup". Much has been said here and elsewhere of Pink Reason, Times New Viking, er, GBV... y'know, Lax does good. I haven't seen large chunks spewed re: Sapat's newish (so far as I know) album Mortise and Tenon. Well, I like it and want to say so. These Louisville huggers share members (huh) w/ the likes of Valley of Ashes, Virgin Eye Blood Brothers, etc... and there's certainly some longform percussive roachburners that harken back to the schtuff I've heard by them fine shadowdwellers. Here these are mixed with a grabbag of stuff that makes at least some of use think of maybe spytheme biker-rock, stargazing cudgel-tosses, twang-drive sax mope... often in the same track! Makes me think of those glorious moments of revelation had once in a blue moon within the confines of gravel parking lots.

Next up, Ruth White's Seven Trumps From the Tarot Cards has the distinction of being the first Creel Pone I've had the pleasure of manhandling. Why I waited so long to nuzzle this label can only be explained by the fact that I'm an idiot. This lil' doozy, containing a work consisting of 6 tracks representative of the mystical symbolism of the tarot deck and a clutch more from a commissioned work titled Pinions. Scads of knob twiddle ranging from electro-forest mushroom-pixel waltzes to pink clouds gauzing over harpsi chord strikes to moments of sheer melancholic beauty that I just wasn't ready for. If you get your hands on this, be advised that the liner notes are copied in a larger, legible manner here. One of those labels that now stares me down, wishing to reserve a full section of my stacks for its own purposes. Damn.

Lastly, I'd like to touch base on a couple 12s that have been gang-raping my pitiful home "system" as of late. First up is the Scuba - Braille Driving/Martsman - Step Up (Berlin) snazbot on the mixed-couples Hotshore label. Scuba, for his part, keeps things creeping just below the suface with a surfeit of pongs, swoosh, and one hell of a gnarly set of distorted bass-stabs. The beat keeps from getting too flashy but maintains that knock. Martsman kicks things off with a foggy crouch and the ghost of a TI-85 before suggesting via some filtered phantom snares that you stroll a bit faster... shit, too late. There's the bass. Snagged? Yussr. Fine, pummel away all you like... then a bit of a break and the damn TI asks if you've had quite enough. No? Here, smell my finger... I mean these flowers... makes me wanna shout "JOHNNY CAGE".

Next up is Disrupt bringing things fully back ganjawards with Tubby ROM Module/Foundation Bit selections on the Werk label. Surriously, the headspace that both these sides bring to the table melts me shoulders down every time. Puff, indeed. The horn skank leering, the riddim on both side just doin' it's masseuse thang, the oh-so-subtle synth bits... I fuckin' love this. Total salve.

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My last post contained just a bit of a fib: I didn't post up my last set of the semester. To make things right, here's that rolla. Another dubstep-heavy beatpie.

Insufferable Picks 04/27/07 (Sendspace lynx)

• Random Trio (Cyrus) - Indian Stomp - Random Trio EP
• Quiet Village - Can't Be Beat - Whatever We Want
• Digital Mystikz - Misty Winter
• T++ - Space Pong // Philus - B1 (pH EP)
• Kromestar and Walsh - Panik Room
• ???/Max Romeo - One Step Forward (Edit)
• Loefah - Rufage
• Loefah - Disko Rekah
• Todd Terje - Eurodans