Skip Spence - Oar (1969)

There are a few records that exist entirely in their own universe. Although they can be placed in the context of some sort of musical movement, they are truly unique and offer an insight into the mind of an alien. Oar is one of these records. (I've talked about similar concepts in my discussions of Sun Ra's works.)

It's hard for me to write about this, as this music exists in a world completely outside of my own experiences. Listening to it turns me into a reality tourist briefly shedding my overanalytical science perception in favor of a much looser existence based upon floating in melting martian ice caps. Layered vocal tracks, open strings, and reverb create an emergent phenomena that absolutely must be experienced. Dangerous, damaging psychedelia that is orders of magnitude trippier than even the most fuzzed out of all guitar solos.

And I can't help but compare the vocals on "Diana" to US Maple. Oops. Oh and motherfucker was in Moby Grape too. Remember that shit from back in the day?

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Marva Whitney - It's My Thing (1969)

I've already written about this record for trend-setting, paradigm-shattering web periodical Jettison Quarterly, but I really want to share it with my Primitive People. As such, here is the text that appeared in Jettison coupled with that mediafirewater.

James Brown not only had the luxury of being a complete godhead genius, he also had the luxury of being an astute talent scout, thus ensuring that he was always surrounded by the very best of the best. In this case, we’re talking about back-up singer Marva Whitney.

On this record, the ol’ J. Brown penned a bunch of tunes, and the ol’ M. Whitney took over lead vocal duties. At this point, Brown had already filtered gospel and soul through the twisted, boiling tubes and sieves of his brain in order to isolate the most essential elements. What remained was a deceptively simple structure of a few seventh chords, syncopated snare hits, and tight horn accents. When painted onto an aural canvas, these components became the quintessence of “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”, as microcosms of human experience are isolated and implied recombinations open up new possibilities of existence.

A lot of these songs barely have vocal melodies, as Whitney is given free rein to improvise and embellish loosely over the minimalist grooves. Her belting, brassy voice soars unremittingly over the dancing worlds of mortals, while the band grounds the whole experience by tapping into rhythmic senses far beyond conscious control.

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Guest Mix Vol. 7 - Erik B aka Don Mattingly

Yeah for this muxtape Dr. Mario in training Mr. Erik B aka Don Mattingly aka Erik B & Don Mattingly of Brilliant Corners arrives with a right proper donk on it. This dude is overstanding the pop music scene from multiple angles at all times, enabling him to bring us things such as this Amerie remix (an already ill song based on a Meters sample) which is turned into a complete mind-melter. Fuck yeah. And that Vistoso Bosses song is catchy as fuckkkkkk, too. Anyway, Erik has some white guy rock of his own in the pipeline, first show Jan 29 competing with my white guy rock band's first show. Fortunately, like my hoes, these shows are in different area codes. Brilliant Corners. Brilliant Corners. Brilliant Corners.

so i made this mixtape like a cassette with two sides and a fairly loose theme attached. the first side is about being a young white man channelling anxiety through powerpop and other dumb weenie music, and the second side is about being seduced by black ladies, falling in love, and then breaking their hearts i guess. aphex twin is the most natural transition between the two. its all pop music abounding in vitality, so fuck what you heard.

-erik bengtsen bka giorgio caetano

tracklisting:
1. Crocodiles - I Wanna Kill
2. Rocketship - I Love You Like The Way That I Used To
3. Toms - Sun
4. Barcelona - C64
5. The Nerves - Working Too Hard
6. Orange Juice - Falling and Laughing
7. Marshall Crenshaw - There She Goes Again
8. The Ponys - I'm With You
9. The Flashing Lights - Highschool
10. Luxury - Green Hearts
11. Rivers Cuomo - Lover in the Snow
12. Aphex Twin - Flim
13. Aaliyah - Come Over (ft Tank)
14. Electrik Red - 9 to 5
15. The Diplomats - I Wanna Be Your Lady ft Cam
16. Keke Palmer - First Crush
17. Amerie - One Thing (siik rmx)
18. Candy Hill - Juicy
19. Vistoso Bosses - Delirious
20. 88 Keys - Wasting My Minutes
21. Ciara - I Don't Remember
22. T2 ft Jodie Aysha - Heartbroken (radio edit)
23. Mariah Carey - Shake it Off

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Sergei Prokofiev - Piano Concerto No. 3 in C (1921)

I gave my ex-GF the Miles Davis autobiography for her birthday because I wanted to read it, and I recently took it back for myself, also because I wanted to read it. In this autobiography, Miles refers to Prokofiev as a "bad motherfucker who was terrible" or something like that, which is absolutely, unequivocally true. This shit is fucking bad.

If you read any of these words that I write in this bloggie, you should understand by now that variation on a theme is one of my favorite things. And hearing the twists and turns that a godhead freak of nature genius like Prokofiev can weave from a single musical idea is unreal. In Andantino con Variazoni, things eventually head down a bleak, somber path before activity returns to the music; this time, the orchestra plays with the theme while the piano dances chromatically in the background. My god does that smell good.

Infinite recombinations mimic the cause and effect decision trees that we use to imagine the future.

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Formicide - Demo I (1987)

A mid-paced thrash riff with cool syncopated emphasis is a beautiful thing, and as such, this demo tape is fucking beautiful. If you are into something like Nuclear Assault, then you are gonna want to download this. If you are a fan of playing a riff over a fast thrash beat, then dropping it to half time and switching the tremolo picking to down-picked palm muting, then you are gonna want to download this. If you sit around in a trailer camp listening to Anthrax, then you are gonna want to download this. Also, there are Halford wails.

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