Desert isle filler from the fog: flow, continuity, chronology + the lost art of albums

post
670

22 Sept 2019 | NYC> Took AMtrack up to NYC yesterday cuz our bedder-½ is hear for sum event related to the UN assembly, where all the leaders of el moondough are gathered this week. On the train started to read Notes from the Fog: Stories by Ben Marcus. U might say he was a big reason why we started Calamari Archive + pursued writing... his early works—The Age of Wire and String + The Father Costume—showed us that u could make art out of words, beyond just story-telling or "poetry". These new stories are definitely good, mos deaf he kin write, bud they are "stories," like they was written for The New Yorker or sum high-flutin' magazine that elites read, and then when it came time to put together a book, Marcus (or his publi$her) gathered sum into a book, wich is fine as a showcase of his talents, but is not a work of art. It used to be we liked short stories + collections, but more + more we find ourselves wanting to sink our teeth in moss, callus snobby art lovers... specially if it's a book we feel the texts + words shd all work together as a collective hole, driving twards the same gol, w/ the soul motivation being art, not entertainment. Weave been dwelling a lot lately on this, not just in terms of litterasure, but in music... this as we (Sound ƒuries) are scrambling to put together our 2nd album. At 1st we was thinking (since we haven't worked on much this year in the way of music) that weed just cobble sum of the songs we've ½-finished into an EP, to release on Dec 24, wich we d-sided weed due every year on dat day, since our anniversary falls on X-mas eve + wheel make an album every year as a gift to ourselfs + any 1 Ls who cares. But then we started obsessing over the track order + how each track feeds into the next + how at the end of the day we wouldn't wand to put our name on her unless she was a complete work of art. We originully mixed last years album, un, (speaking of the UN assembly) as a proper old-shcool album, to be listened to in order, w/ interstiching glue, both sides (side u + n) each blended together so u had to listen all the way thru, how u wood w/ vinyl or on a cassette—how they is mixed in the b-lo video (for side u anyway.... by the time we got to making a video for side n weed already broken her up):

Problem is, when we went to put the album up on Bandcamp, Spotify or other digital music services, we had to cut her up into "singles," witch wasn't always so clean + the brakes feel forced, or the songs don't halve the "hook" in the 1st 30 seconds, wich seems to be about all folks got the payshints for no more. It's like when a song from Dark Side of the Moon (1973) suddenly busts into your shuffle + you're like wtf. And then when folks search, the tracks come all mixed up, specially in Spotify + folks listen to them all out of order + context. Nada comes close to Dark Side of the Moon when it comes to the concept of a pure album, a true work of art that u was meant to listen to in her entirety, in the intended order (tho the weak link in Dark Side of the Moon is the hit single "Money" sitting in the midle). Coming in at #2, OK Computer (1997) was the last true great album... the digital music revolution squashed the album + singlefied everything since. We've probly also mentioned Pornography (1982) + Garlands (1982) as great albums (probly coming in at #s 3 + 4 in our all-time list), but more just cuz they was good selections of tracks dat u got used to playing in dat order + yes, perhaps cuz 1982 was a vulnerable year for us (the yr our dad died). Blue Sunshine (1983) is a little-known album that might be higher up on our list if Smith + Severin didn't hire sum randumb chic to sing ½ the songs. But as an album it was amazing the way each song flowed into the next w/ cool interstitials (+ yes that's a Glove sample at the beginning of our track "Rocinante" but it's a sample of a sample (from sum old Japanese movie) so does that infringe on inny copyrite laws?) My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981) would not only be in our top 10 albums, but the libro she was named after sits near the top of our list of fave books. + the album she spawned, Remain in Light (1980)(or any of the first 4-5 Talking Heads albums) comes in at #7. We'd have to edmit including Joshua Tree (1987)(or Boy or War or The Unforgettable Fire) in the top 10. Any + all Swans albums from the last decade would round up the top 10 for us: The Seer (2012), We Rose from Your Bed with the Sun in Our Head (2012), To Be Kind (2014), The Glowing Man (2016) ± Deliquescence (2017)(limited 2xCD not available digitally, tho looks like u can get used copies on Discogs or u can come over to our house + we'll play it for u)... + to top it off, all of these are double or triple albums or quadruple albums, sum of them even recorded live. Perhaps no other band has pulled off the double album (maybe The White Album) except Swans + they've done it multiple-multiple times. "The Knot" alone as a single, is as long as most albums (45 minutes)(wich Swans halve bin good about keeping off Inurnet, except unendorsed shitty live versions on youtube, so again, come on over if u want to here it). Sum 1 aksed us the other day why—after a 30 yr hiatus—we got back into music + we blamed Michael Gira. There's other great albums for sure (off the top of our head + in no pertickler order): Live At Max's Kansas City, Marquee Moon, Never Mind the Bollocks, IV, Rock for Light, The Cars (± Candy-O), Talk Talk TalkForever Now), The Avengers, The B-52sWild Planet), Rumors, Back in Black, Back to Black, What's Going On, Under the Black Sun (+ Wild Gift), Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, Group Sex, Homogenic, Pyschocandy, B.R.M.C., Road to RuinPleasant Dreams), The Freewheelin' Dylan, Exodus, Last Splash, Surfer Rosa, Nebraska, Badlands, Brown Reason to Live (even if it was only an EP), Before Today, Ziggy Stardust, CrocodilesHeaven Up Here ± Porcupine), Out of Step, Beauty + the Beast, Fire of Love, Interventions, Unknown Pleasures Closer), any Fela Kuti album, any by The Fall, 20 Jazz Funk Greats, She Hangs Brightly, The Texas Campfire Tapes, Loveless, Pink Moon, The Downward Spiral, The Photographer, The Disinetegration Loops, The Pretenders (± II), Life's Rich Pageant Document), Rage Against The MachineEvil Empire), Songs for a Blue Guitar, Exile on Main St.(+ maybe even Exile in Guyville), II, The SmithsMeat is Murder), GishSiamese Dreams), EvolMurray St, Bad Moon Rising ± Burning Spear if we're counting EPs), Superunknown, Is This It?, Turn On The Bright Lights, Sublime, Frank's Wild Years(or any # of Waits' albums), Pop (wow, apparently Tones on Tail's only LP never made it to digital), JujuKaleidoscope), Violent FemmesHallowed Ground), Duty Now For the Future, Dark Continent, Nomad, Who's Next + It'll End in Tears ... not that there's other artists we couldn't live without, but these 1s stick out as "albums" that we've played over + over as an album... "dessert isle albums" in the same ¢ense we got our desert island books. Maybe in a future post we might make a dessert aisle mix of songs, which would be altogether diffrent then this hear mix b-low. Might seam hippocrtical that we'd disassociate single trax from these albums into the b-low mix, but mixtapes is similar to albums in dat the mixer of the mixtape chooses + orders utterwise despirate trax into a mix that got's new meaning, the art of the mixtape cd also be the subject of an udder post.



669 <(current)>  671 > Ripping a fixed hole for the sueños to get in, to the dream states of AZ + NM (+ CA?)
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