Fingered Media, Harrison Owen, has been creating some exciting & tripped out videos in conjunction with artists across a variety of mediums for quite a bit now. Releasing the results via youtube & vimeo streams to his own dvd-zine. Owen recently let loose a new trio of videos for Blues Control + Laraaji & Psychic Ills respectively that seem to represent a new stripped back method that verges on tripped out minimalist introspection.
"City of Love" by Blues Control & Laraaji, a highlight on their recent collaborative album, essentially covers the entire gamut of the current state of contemporary underground (dare I say alternative / experimental) music in about 9 minutes. And very well at that. That may be an exaggeration but many of the hallmarks are here pulsing kraut beats, overtones droning, & surreal sense of underwater acoustics bending & blurring every which way in accordance with the water. Owen's Warholian tribute to Philadelphia (or at least I'm assuming) is a fantastic reference to what the trio have created musically in that their improvised & organically formed compositions are matched by the slowly evolving pace of emptiness full of movement found in the footage.
The second video for Blues Control & Laraaji & their track "Awakening Day" appears to center around more obvious themes of mankind's relationship with nature & organic processes disassembled through creation. Images of trees recently cut down or ones left hacked from their base & left to rot. It's an interesting counter point to how I perceive this collaboration & artistic process of improvisation leading the way to unplanned sonic landscapes. Perhaps the title leads the way on this one providing a not too cool day to wake to.
Blues Control & Laraaji's released their collaborative album back in November but it's good to get a visual accompaniment for some of the grooves these 3 create. The album has been released as part of label/promotional team RVNG's Freakways series which have thus far featured younger musicians & groups teaming up with their forefathers for remix 12" singles or direct collaboration, such as this.
"I'll Follow You Through The Floor", Psychic Ills burnt-out jam from their most recent album Hazed Dream , is perhaps the most cinematic of this batch of videos. The track title again pretty much epitomizes what is to follow sonically & visually in Owens hands. Taking cues from classic American road trip films & the US's West's association with lawlessness & open terrain. Yet it also conjures up the theme of personal introspection present in all three of these videos. Developed visual concepts that do not rely on narrative forms or immediately eye catching & exotic elements. Rather we are given the familiar, the natural, the seemingly mundane allowed to breath free of their normal restrictions & given a rebirth partly in thanks to their new soundtracks partly on their simple yet thoughtful pace & framing.
It seems like the FRKWYS collaboration series has been steadily releasing a slew of quality releases. Since RVNG Intl. launched the series, 2 years ago this past September, it has steadily produced a stream of high profile remix & collaborative projects with the 12" single format in mind, something that the label is all too familiar with due to it's dance oriented approach (it's in the name). It's first release was featured three Excepter tracks remixed by the like of Chris & Cosey & J.G. Thirwell. FRKWYS has continued its winning streak thus with it's worst offerings being forgettable at worst, something that is actually quite a compliment considering the inconsistent nature which can result in such one-off collaborative projects.
As a result it's no surprise to see another seemingly legendary meeting than between Blues Control & Laraaji. The former being covered here in the past for the duo's other band Watersports here. When I saw Laraaji's name next on the release page I was pretty stoked. Some may recognize his name, heck some readers may be hardcore fans, as his place in the new age / ambient scenes have been fermented ever since his collaborative and solo projects that Brian Eno helped shed light upon in the early eighties. When combined with Blues Controls new-age, or should i say noise-age, to "rock band" mentality the prospective results have a somewhat high mark to strive towards.
From listening the first utterances of LP opener Awaken Day the album is off towards meeting the previously mentioned expectations. Beginning with a steady, deep, drum pulse ebbs towards an altered conscious state, with bits and pieces of saturated tape sounds stream in and out of the mix. All the while the subtle sound of the ocean's movements provide a bed for all of the sounds called upon to be cover by and left all to itself once all else has departed.
So yea... it's pretty much what should have come of the project. It's an updated take on a now long running tradition of altered forms of listening and thinking about musical meditations. My only complaint could not be more minor, as I'm not sure at this point how Russ Waterhouse & Lea Cho distinguish and label their performances as either Blues Control or Watersports. Considering all the new-age vibes surrounding WS this seems like the perfect opportunity for a collaboration under that moniker. Something very minor indeed because if it sounds good why wonder.
The Blues Control & Laraaji album is being released by RVNG Intl. this Nov. 15th on LP, Double Cassette, CD, or Digitally (or pretty much every single format you can possibly desire).
Dog Daze Tapes, of Portland, OR,has been popping up on my radar recently. The label only a handful of releases to it's name, each available in cassette and mp3 formats. What's more is that each displays a keen sense of taste and curatorial prowess that can sometimes be lacking in the cassette label scene. This includes releases by Excepter, Marnie Stern, and Blues Control's alter-ego Watersports. When looking beyond the curatorial choices made by Parrish, the label distinguishes itself by keeping each title in-print as often as possible. A move which is in contrast with most other labels around these days.
WatersportsNatural History is so far the most satisfying cassette from Dog Daze yet. This double tape release is a compilation of the duo's out-of-print cassette and CDR releases over the past couple years. This is a needed look into the alter-ego of Lea & Russ as their other project Blues Control has seemingly become M.O. of these two. The releases brings light to the duo's noisy new age compositions. These sparse, often aquatic themed, tracks showcase a juxtaposition of grainy noise/drone & plenty of insect samples along with the previously mentioned new age vibes.
Dog Daze's first release Excepter's Maze of Death was recorded in a "within the ad-hoc labyrinth, Excepter performed obscured to the audience and alienated from each other, starting early and playing late. Shares title with a Philip K. Dick novel in which an isolated group of space colonists consider the absolute as their mutual hallucination crumbles around them" according to the cassette's press release. For those familiar with Excepter then this translates to pretty much what they do best, extended synth and drum machine jammers that follow a logic all their own. This release is a special version of the performance edited by Robert Giradin and was recorded at one of Last Nights favorite brooklyn DIY spaces Death By Audio.
I'll admit that I wasn't too familiar with Marnie Stern's work outside of seeing her name name coming up here & there. Each of time she was mentioned the word "shred" always tagged along. Dog Daze's release of Stern's initial home recorded demos really showcase why. Even more so though a great deal of credit must be equally given to the overall compositions & song craft that appears even as early as these demos.
Dog Daze has some exciting stuff lined up for it's future releases including music by Twins & Occasional Detroit. Also be sure to check out the label's mixtape offshoot Foggy Notion Tapes which has Mitch Hedberg (note from editor: love that dude) mix on the way.
