I've got good news, and bad news, depending on who you are, and what yr disposition is. The good news is manifold, firstly, that i am still alive, down right flourishing here in the Washington wetness, and that i have recently fallen madly, deeply passionately in love, met the girl of my dreams during my wild, windswept journeys, and have been having a gorgeous, romantic, inspiring, passionate life lately. So, oddly enough, this is also the bad news, in that i am glowing and gushing, and unapologetic in doing so. You can expect to see romantic sonatas and soulful ballads popping up here, in the near future. If you are jaded or cynical, you might just turn right around now. Go check out Spreading Neurotoxins or something.
For starters, again picked out almost arbitrarily, is Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's Love is a Stream, released late last year. I was gonna write this up back then, when i first got my mitts on it, but everyone else was doing it, and i was having a mystical epiphany at the time, and losing teeth, and never quite got around to it. I listened to the album Shining Skull Breath damn near daily, during the entire autumn, as i was house sitting for a friend and pondering the nature of the universe, and was deeply impressed by Mr. Ledesma's alchemy: truly subtle yet achingly emotional noise music; human and otherworldly, simultaneously.
The same is true of Love is a Stream, perhaps less subtly, but with more heart and heat and flesh. Many people call this a noise pop record, but i'm not quite sure where they're hearing the pop. This is pretty much a fuzz record, from where i'm sitting; headcleaner; body music. What impresses me about this record, especially re-visiting it with a fresh perspective, is that most purveyors of wall-of-sound tend to be pretty gloomy; monochromatic post-industrialists, reminiscing on half-remembered nods. Cocooned, closed off, cacophonous, even violent at times. I mean, this music is definitely in the heritage of Masonna and Merzbow and Zoviet France, as well as the Shoegazer sect like MBV and Ride. But the Japanoise ilk shuts you down, blinds you, pummels you, more S & M than sunset picnics. And that is what i love about this record, and why i have chosen it as a flagship for this particular series of releases.
Love is a Stream opens you up, fills you with light, fills you with psychedelic romance. It will fill yr head with rainbows. It will fill yr dreams with owls and moths. It is reminiscent of new love, but its not just sex and romance, its love for all things and all people. And that's what i'm finding out here on the road. I'm so full up, so profoundly grateful for all the little things, that it spills over to all those around me, strangers as well as friends. That's how i interpret the title Love is a Stream, it is a motion, a fluid return to yr own essence. I am being dissolved in this stream, the edges of my "personality" are disintegrating, and there is less of a clear sense of where i end and you begin. While i have pursued much high magick and heady philosophy over the years, it has always been somewhat safe, removed, distant. I have kept you at arm's length, preserving my "self" at all costs. This love is killing me, and i am the most willing and grateful sacrificial lamb in the universe! I will offer up my neck to this beauty, any day.
Love is a Stream does a really nice job of simulating this state, this aspect of the human experience, but it can also help produce it, open up yr heart, open up yr mind, especially due its poetic and subjective nature. He uses the strengths and possibilities of noise music in a really innovative and masterful way, that is rare and special, thought-provoking and emotionally stirring. In short, really damn good, and it has been a total pleasure grooving on these technicolor waves all day, as the sun emerged from the blanket of clouds, turning into a really cheerful Washington afternoon. I'm a bit malnourished, at the moment, sort of floaty and in love, and this music just sounds awesome floating on the air here at my temporary office at Media Island. I got to see my lady friend yesterday, really unexpectedly, she's on the road, as am i, but she got an extra day off, and we got to kick it in Olympia, got to introduce her to some of my new friends, and we slept near the forest at Evergreen College, woke up and ran around in the woods, talking to the ferns and the snails. Perhaps you get the idea why i am so deeply smitten.
You can definitely expect to hear more about this, as i am learning new and challenging lessons every second, but also keep yr peepers peeped, as i have been out working a bunch of badass music festivals here in Cascadia, been hearing tons of new and inspiring sounds, meeting shit tons of amazing musicians, so i will update as much as i can, while i am around electricity, before i return to my hermitage in the forest. Bigbigbig ups to fucking Media Island, where i have the opportunity to write and collect my thoughts, organize my music collection, make coffee, etc. Give them all of yr money. I would if i had any. Make sure you save some for Jefre Ledesma, also. All of his releases that i have heard are incredible, and pretty much every thing he releases on his Root Strata label is also badass. Just amazing art, so inspiring. Love it love it love it.
So check back, when you get the chance. I'll try and put up new material as much as i can, while i have the chance. Also, check out my other new blog: http://there-again.blogspot.com/ for more stories from the road.
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