White Whale - "What's An Ocean For?"

White Whale asks “What is an ocean for but to carry a ship ashore?” - a surprisingly anthropocentric question for such a marine-focused band. One possible answer is that oceans are for housing white whales, those fine and rare beasts. But how then can we explain the fact that White Whale - who is not only a white whale nominally, but also metaphorically - is assuredly landborne? (Scientist readers, please email).

Also:

1. I just took a bite out of the drums, such is the crispness of the production.
2. White Whale has a knack for moving from spartan drive to dense shimmer.
3. If this song is itself a body of water (though I doubt that it is, being that it’s a song), then the keyboard bass is the tide; undulating according to a precise algorithm, above so much and below so much else.

Listening to this song, I was tormented by my inability to put my finger on exactly what it was that I was reminded of. Ephemeral images, words and ideas passed through my mind, failing to solidify: the sea, German Expressionism and cabarets, Ray Manzarek and the Doors, the keyboard bass I almost bought when I sold my alto saxophone, a six line proof of the Riemann Hypothesis that also works well as a joke, etc. Thrust into a cripplingly intense bout of reflection, I sat still and listened for what seemed like a year, but was, in fact, two. At the end of which period I arrived at the conclusion that What’s an Ocean For? reminded me of Kevin Costner’s Waterworld, a film I not only didn’t like, but never saw. Strange. [White Whale's debut album will be released by Merge in September.]

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Pharoah Sanders - "The Creator Has A Master Plan"

Unashamedly, and with a nod to his mentor’s A Love Supreme, Pharoah Sanders makes actual a master plan for such a joyful and exuberant communion, that he requires yodelling and thumb piano to do so. Sometimes, left to his own devices, Sanders wanders into rather fruity territory, but here he keeps it together, blowing his guts out in testament to his faith. [Buy]