Archives : all posts by Dan

Zoo - "Hard Times, Good Times"

Hide your money in a paper bag. Eat the first food you see. Get on a bus. Switch to a cab. Stop to make a phone call. Run bare-legged across the highway. See a plane and feel yourself on it. Break the law and watch the world keep turning.

Zoo - "Samedi Soir a Charnouet"

Wheels crunch into a gravel driveway. There are heels and there are lights off the lake. If Galit is here it will be fun, she will be squeezed into wool, she will paint herself with wool and her hair will be a sculpture. If Geneviève is here there will be sweets. If Ben is here we will hear all about the islands, and how much the army needs to blow them up. If Herve is here he's only going to talk about business. I think we should meet again about the balances, Emil is giving me shit about the balances and I don't want to get it wrong, I think we should meet again. I can feel my back against the ribbed faux-wood as I squeeze to the restroom. I can feel the smoke, I can see the drinks lifted over heads to get through the crowd. I can feel the cool summer air as I step away from the house and towards the lake. I want to feel my voice relax as I can speak in a normal voice. I want to think about swimming. But mostly I want to look at the fire and forget. I want to sip something and I want to catch someone's eye, and I want to think ah, the sun. The terrible, terrible sun, stay right where you are.

[very difficult to find buy links, if anyone can help]

Variations - "Generations"

I remember when I first heard Varations. I was ice cream and it was the coast of Portugal. My brother Vincente had made a crystal radio out of a cereal box and a nata. And from the center of Paris had floated these guitars, this riff, those popcorn drums. I remember when I first heard that crystal radio I thought it was like hearing for the first time after being deaf my whole life. I wanted to live on this music, I wanted to be what this music promised was possible. It felt like the world actually existed and had invited me to join. But I was ice cream, for chrissakes, what could I do? I mean ACTUAL ice cream, a pile of cream in a cone and I had some vanilla and some chocolate in my veins. I would melt, SURELY before the summer was out. How was I supposed to live like Variations described? Their voices singing me through that cereal box like magic. I'll never be like them, I thought, I'm just ice cream. Well, look at me now, I tell you. Look at me now.

[out of print]

The Black Angels - "Tired Eyes"

His face looked like a living insult, and she was dressed like a door off its hinges. The whole day was slightly sweaty, kind of chafing, whatever day that was. 200, or thereabouts. He got a call on his flip phone. He turned into the shoulder-height weeds and lowered his voice, a family loped past and into the store with frozen lunch and fireworks emanating from their heads in big cushy thought bubbles. He finished his phone call and hung up, his body blushing, if a carrot with carrot eyes can even blush. "That's rude," she said, her hair with no strand the same shade. "How is that rude?" "It's like you're keeping something from me." "It's a personal phone call, why do you want to hear my personal phone call?"

The family came out, and they may have changed clothes while in there, everything seemed to flap against them as they walked.

"I don't want to hear it. I just don't want you to hide it." A church sat hot and empty not far off.

[Buy]

Bartholomäus Traubeck - "Fraxinus (Ash)"

Gargantuan he lay crook-necked in the field under the stars. Worried about his heart, he was unable to sleep -- again. It had been restless nights for weeks now this was the new normal. Unable to fit in a regular house he would sleep in the rain. Walking simply north away from everyone who now hated him away from everyone entirely. He had been told as a boy that he had a weak heart and not to over-exert not to over-indulge. His whole damn life had been an exercise in moderation and this was the result: growing 8x his size in as many weeks. Despite caloric restriction hell starving himself he just kept growing. His clothes were first to go then the furniture. He couldn't stay in the house after a week it was like trying to climb into a shoebox and close the lid just to say hello to your wife. Bea. Bea was heaven on earth. But when the growing started she quickly became worried about the baby as if the baby were the one growing but it wasn't it was him. Bea seemed to blame him which was understandable it was baffling and no one knew who or what to blame. But that was not the issue for him anymore it was what to do. He walked so much every day sometimes all night. He had stolen a circus tent a week ago in the middle of the night to use as a blanket. As he was leaving he stopped to look at the rides dewy and solitary and he batted one the cars of the ferris wheel with the tip of his finger like it were a miniature and he thought I could snap this off. And he thought that even when he was little well normal there was something somewhere that was thinking that about him. I could snap this off. His heart. Lying crook-necked in the field under the stars he squinted to listen for it but instead heard the wind and the flap of the tent on his foot and the tiny tiny stream.

[Buy]

About the album: A tree's year rings are analysed for their strength, thickness and rate of growth. This data serves as basis for a generative process that outputs piano music. It is mapped to a scale which is again defined by the overall appearance of the wood (ranging from dark to light and from strong texture to light texture). The foundation for the music is certainly found in the defined ruleset of programming and hardware setup, but the data acquired from every tree interprets this ruleset very differently.

This record features seven recordings from different Austrian trees. They were generated on the Years installation in Vienna, January 2012.

Dilly Dally - "Next Gold"

Ol' Henry "Fingers" Bergamon died on his horse. Shot himself in the stomach with his own gun and rode upright on his horse for a week straight. Fingers' horse, Peachtree, was a marvelous golden steed, alive in every way the desert wasn't. You've never seen a happier horse than Peachtree. That horse started every day like a gambler on payday, he seemed to strut, even on a rainy morning. Peachtree even had notable footfalls. He touched the ground almost nostalgically, one rather poetic countryman said it seemed as though Peachtree were "caressing the face of an old remembered love" as he breezed over the badlands. So it was said that Peachtree was carrying Fingers in tribute, in loyal tribute to his sullen, moody owner. It was said that Peachtree wanted to bring him back to his old ranch as a final resting place. It was also said that he simply couldn't shake him off.

[2$]

Protomartyr - "I'll Take That Applause"

Took some measurements today. 71 inches from the way my hair rises to the place my foot is scarred. 38 inches to walk around my armpits as a miniature explorer. 90 inches from where I'm frozen to the ground to where there's food. Feet are 4 inches at the widest point, but only 3 inches for the largest my mouth can get. 6 inches of cold water is the farthest any appendage will dip. No more than 200 inches from a parked car at any given time. 300 inches of combined scroll-height of roommate text messages. Moving a single inch is impossible, how does anything grow.

[Buy from Hardly Art]

(the video, when I saw it, was raw, filled only with the sound of radio squawk and 0db signal tone, hopefully that never changes)

Part Chimp - "Bring Back The Sound"

I am not universally visible. I used to vibrate at all frequencies, I was simply visible to anything with eyes. But over time, because of various traumas and through the general bowling-ball-in-a-gym-sock that is aging, I have lost some of my frequencies. I no longer vibrate at all levels. Here and there I've lost a level. Certain colours don't show up anymore, certain aspects of my smile, and some frequencies have disappeared altogether. Meaning some people, with a specific combination of receptors, can't even see me. And as time passes, because I am losing frequencies and they are losing receptors, this number is growing. My hair will begin to appear white, my speed will be perceived as pitiful slowness. I will eventually totally disappear.

[Buy]