Senate Committee Votes to Expand Low Power FM Radio
It feels weird and uncomfortable to be pleased with a Senate movement, but I suppose the times are a-changin'.
10.31.2007
Radio Show Playlist: 10/31/07
6a:
1. Dinosaur Jr. - Let It Ride - Bug (SST 1988)
2. Eleventh Dream Day - Interstate - Stalled Parade (Thrill Jockey 2000)
3. Ahleuchatistas - ...Of All This - In the Midst... (Cuneiform 2007)
4. Letters Letters - Dealer Dealer - Letters Letters (Type 2007)
5. Shooting Spires - Alive and Well - Shooting Spires (Cardboard 2007)
6. Dirty Projectors - Maarket Aair - Demons & Rare Meat (Mission 2004)
7. The Octopus Project - An Evening with Rthrtha - Hello, Avalanche (Peek-a-Boo 2007)
8. Testbild! - Inside Raindrops - Imagine a House (Friendly Noise 2006)
9. Efterklang - Horseback Tenors - Parades (Leaf 2007)
10. Scott Solter Plays Pattern is Movement - In Glasstone - Canonic (Hometapes 2006)
11. Saturday Looks Good to Me - When I Lose My Eyes - Fill Up the Room (K 2007)
12. The Cave Singers - Dancing on Our Graves - Invitation Songs (Matador 2007)
7a:
1. Six Organs of Admittance - Shelter from the Ash - Shelter from the Ash (Drag City 2007)
2. Morning Recordings - You've Been Letting Go - The Welcome Kinetic (Loose Thread 2007)
3. Bevel - Vice Versa (Protect What You Love) - Phoenician Terrane (Contraphonic 2007)
4. Pullman - To Hold Down a Shadow - Turnstyles & Junkpiles (Thrill Jockey 1998)
5. Grizzly Bear - He Hit Me - Friend EP (WARP 2007)
6. Benoit Pioulard - Palimend - Precis (Kranky 2006)
7. Alice Coltrane - Hare Krishna - Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana (Warner Bros. 1976)
8. Leaves - Ash Wednesday (Rumback) - Live at the Ice Factory (FP 2006)
9. Roy Montgomery - On the Road 2 - Inroads: New & Collected Works (Rebis 2006)
10. Paul Metzger - Orans - Deliverance (Locust 2007)
8a:
1. Gabor Szabo - Mizrab - The Sorcerer (Impulse! 1967)
2. His Name is Alive - Geechee Recollections (II) - Sweet Earth Flower: A Tribute to Marion Brown (High Two 2007)
3. Charles Mingus - II B.S. - Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus (Impulse! 1963)
4. Prefuse 73 - Spacious and Dissonant Pt. 2 - Interregnums (WARP 2007)
5. Isotope 217 - La Jetee - The Unstable Molecule (Thrill Jockey 1997)
6. Chicago Afrobeat Project - bscg2 - (A) Move to Silent Unrest (CAbP Music 2007)
7. Bubbha Thomas & the Lightmen - Country Fried Chicken (Lightin' 1975)
8. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - Let Them Knock - 100 Days, 100 Nights (Daptone 2007)
9. James Brown - I Can't Stand Myself (When You Touch Me) - I Can't Stand Myself When You Touch Me (King 1968)
10.30.2007
Japancakes - "Loveless"
Japancakes - Soon (Darla 2007)
Japancakes - Loveless / Darla
"are you excited... really?"
This question was posed by an anonymous noter on Friday in response to Michael's Prefuse 73 review. Maybe it wasn't conscious, but they've allowed a can of worms to open itself in lieu of this month's feeling that the sky was falling in on the "indie" lover's world. It started with the suckerpunch of Radiohead's In Rainbows. Then came The Black Kids pre-CMJ when everyone was wondering, well, why them? Then came Sasha Frere-Jones and the race card. This came back to The Black Kids, who came back from CMJ with everyone still wondering, er, why them? Then came the Oink bombshell. Then came Idolator booting bloggers out of their ivory towers. Almost unnoticed, Stylus suddenly slipped out the back door. Happy Halloween.
If you've been left reeling from October, you're not the only one. Every amateur Jess Harvell (who's resigning from Pitchfork, incidentally) seems to be calling for the heads of... Well, who exactly? Is it the positive hype machine they've helped to contribute to? Is it anyone who's ever had a good word to say about an artist? Is it any kid who plays sheep to Pitchfork's shepherd? Is it the evil overlord Pitchfork itself? Who is at fault might be the question everybody's asking, but the better question might be Have we learned anything?
We here at Audiversity can't speak for the rest of the Internet, or the rest of the blogosphere, or even for each other at times. I can tell you that I've learned how dire the situation both is and is not. Because the Internet magnifies everything ten fold, the big issue with music "criticism" doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things... But it matters to someone, because every average music blog you visit has probably made some kind of commentary on it by now. Blogging is a delicate matter, a series of paradoxes and dead ends with no escape, a balance between hyping and critiquing, art and science, considered selections and impulse buys, writing and masturbating.
Therein lies the essence of what I've long suspected: We don't properly fit in with this discussion. The artists we like aren't getting paid much even when they do well. We're not ad-friendly. We don't want to get paid for two paragraphs of biographical information you could just as easily find on AllMusic. But we're also not going to write about artists we don't love because, why bother? Buddyhead flamed out because you can only be so angry for so long (and most of their "this sucks" mentality went to Vice, but that's another story). We don't hate not because it's no longer fashionable (though I suspect it'll be back soon) but because it's a waste of energy. My mother told me that if I didn't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all.
At last, then, we come to Japancakes. I like them. I like what they do. What they do: Country-tinged drone-rock. Lap-steel guitars twang with the dusty autumn evenings of a Texan sunset. Beautifully melodic, patient, instrumental songs that sound like every good post-rock band if they'd accurately captured that side of the American South that Explosions in the Sky try to hide with their brand: Quaint, modest, earnest, and endearing. When the fireworks are over and the moonshine is gone, Japancakes emerge as the sentimental side of every redneck who's ever put a "3" sticker on their Silverado.
It's this base sound that makes their selection of a very un-Southern record so thrilling: Kevin Shields and his kingdom of effects pedals never could have dreamt something so utterly simple, even in the base repetition forming the core of arguably the finest record of the 1990s. Critics give him credit for being a "sonic genius" because he is a perfectionist and a slave to your headphones. But credit is also due for being a maximalist, because Shields wasn't ready to quit until every last hair on your eardrum had been raised.
This Athens, Georgia band takes the opposite approach: Spare as much space as possible with the same material. Heather McIntosh's cello adds that extra string element that gives this such an organic feel. The key to their success in this instrumental reworking of the Irish band's 1991 classic is the organic feel that they have been exploring since early jam sessions in '97 playing the D-chord over and over again. Removed of the sonic intensity of the original, the Japancakes version sounds sweeping and classically grand without sounding self-indulgent and aurally over-the-top.
Japancakes are also releasing another album of their own material. It's called Giving Machines, and it is as good as 2004's Waking Hours which I remember enjoying a lot more than some people. But we're not going to review that. While this is a good band with a different take on drone-rock that they've been working on for years to great effect, when they come home from the studio or they finish up their workday or whatever it takes to pay their bills, they're just music fans.
Being a music lover levels the great playing field of listening. That's all any of us are (except corporate-driven yes-men), and a review of Loveless seems more appropriate at the moment than Giving Machines because covering Loveless is a labor of love rather than obligation. Fans crave fresh material. They do not ask for cover albums. Am I equating what we do here with Japancakes in the studio? Not entirely. But the thought is there.
Pierre Bayard, author of "How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read," in Sunday's New York Times Magazine:
You seem to believe that knowing a little bit about 100 literary classics is preferable to knowing one book intimately. I think a great reader is able to read from the first line to the last line; if you want to do that with some books, it’s necessary to skim other books. If you want to fall in love with someone, it’s necessary to meet many people. You see what I mean?
Bayard is of the same mentality as most bloggers, and it's this mentality that has had people giving up on the whole thing altogether to walk away and take a break, re-examine why they're spending countless hours blogging in the first place when other places are doing it faster and better. I know I've felt like that on a number of occasions this year. And everytime I've felt it, I've done it. I've just walked away and listened to John Cage's "4:33" and that's it. No strings attached.
This isn't a job. This isn't work. The day it becomes more than a hobby we have a great enthusiasm for is the day I start getting paid for something other than ad clicks. We want our enthusiasm to reflect in how we write and what we write about. We want you to understand that the reason we feature albums is either because we really love the artist, we really love the release, or we really love the label. We're going to stick by that, and if it means we have to endure a year with a rep for being "a Japancakes-loving blog," better that than "another blog that has no real long-term passion about anyone except the favorites you expect." Am I excited about Japancakes covering My Bloody Valentine... really?
Reading over this, I think I like Michael's response better: "yes i am." And it is fantastic.
Morning Recordings - "The Welcome Kinetic"
Morning Recordings - The Welcome Kinetic
Morning Recordings – The Welcome Kinetic / Loose Thread
I have had Morning Recording’s sophomore effort, The Welcome Kinetic, playing in the background all morning as I shuffle through my usual checklist of mundane get-the-day-started tasks. As the band name implies, their particular brand of lush, pleasant pop is perfect for this setting, and has made this Monday morning routine flow a bit smoother and proceed with a bit less urgency. It wasn’t until I got to the title track that my attention was immediately pulled away from everything else and wholly concentrated on the music grooving out of my speakers. Sounding like a long lost 45 b-side from an early 70 soul-jazz group influenced heavily by the Blaxploitation soundtracks and taking an interest in the burgeoning fusion scene, it all of sudden makes sense why this pastoral pop collective lists David Axelrod, Ennio Morricone, Mulatu Astatke, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sven Libaek, King Tubby and even Madlib as their influences. All of a sudden, Morning Recordings seems a bit more hip than their initial vibe.
Oddly enough, the influence list doesn’t even begin to slow down there as Pramod Tummala and his cast of talented musicians pair Bobby Hutcherson with Burt Bacharach, Cal Tjader with The Sea & Cake, Luiz Bonfa with Popol Vuh, and so on and so on. It certainly sounds like a crowded cluster of particular styles, but Tummala keeps them all under wraps by infusing the pastoral post-rock with elegant melodies and accessible pop entries.
Morning Recordings was initially conceived as a solo outlet for the Chicago-based Tummala as he began to branch out from the late 90s dream-pop outfit, Melochrome. What started as a venture to record an EP’s worth of material with Barry Phipps of The Coctails blossomed into Morning Recordings debut full-length as friends all started to contribute their own talents. Featuring members of Lambchop, Zelienople, L’Altra, Poi Dog Pondering and The Lightbox Orchestra, 2005's Music for Places was a lush, intimate affair that matched breezy melodies with introspective instrumentals. The Welcome Kinetic builds off this foundation and progresses by not only matured songwriting on Tummala’s part, but sonic manipulation as he experiments more and more with recording techniques.
The album opens with “The One Hundred Hills,” which first gives light to the grooves the Morning Recordings band is capable of concocting. A vibraphone swirls in and out of a stand-up bass and jazzy drum kit before a late 60’s organ sound and acoustic guitar paves way for a brief almost-Latin trumpet outburst. The song is enveloped in it’s own popping low frequencies until it gives way to “Sugar Waltz,” the first pop tune of the record. With a teetering organ/drum foundation very reminiscent of Hymie’s Basement (a short-lived collaboration between Fog’s Andrew Broder and Why?’s Yoni Wolf), Tummala’s submerged vocals undercut Edith Frost’s elegant croon while eerie sound byproducts bubble just below the surface. “Join the Curtains” pushes the album in a faintly Latin-jazz direction with the instrumentation keenly sunken in reverb and other analog effects. All the while, elements of Morricone’s spaghetti Western soundtracks also frequently appear, as do Axelrod’s funky productions. “You’ve Been Letting Go” shimmers brilliantly amidst Tummala’s more straight-ahead singer/songwriter moments, and album closer, “I Wish I Met You Sooner”, brings everything full circle in a coda much akin to the opening track, but with more tape manipulation.
Tummala does an excellent job of redefining his initial dream-pop sound with The Welcome Kinetic. The singer/songwriter meets lush post-rock foundation is built off of with a knowledgeable list of intriguing influences from across the genre spectrum, while the production is very aware of not sounding over-digitized by incorporating analog tape effects throughout the album. It’s pastoral morning music that will certainly help ease you into the day, but there is enough exotic flair to keep more attuned listeners content. It very much is a welcomed, lulling flow that could keep you under the covers for a bit too long on those chilly winter days when the alarm clock is your worst enemy and your bed is your best friend.
10.29.2007
Animosity - "Animal"
Animosity - You Can't Win (Metal Blade/Blackmarket Activities 2007)
In my last review (Severe Torture's Sworn Vengeance), as well as my Death Breath review, I made mention of how recording technology has negatively affected metal's sound over the past 10 years or so. First, drum triggers (devices used to process the actual sound of a drum through a computer into whatever sound you want) made it easier for drummers to play fast and accurately without trying as hard. Speed was limited when drummers actually had to hit hard in order for a microphone to pick up their sound. Now, even the slightest tap can be a thundering boom. Channel that mechanized sound into Pro-Tools and everything else falls into line, digitally. When albums are recorded like this, the sweat that goes into playing a type of music as demanding as death metal is marginalized. While this overly sterile approach doesn't really work for a number of bands, there are a few groups with a mechanized, relentless style that work well within a precise, overly accurate recording. One of these bands is San Francisco's Animosity.
Devotion #11
Life is good – very good – but I’ll be damned if living it doesn’t sometimes feel like juggling a feral kitten, a soiled diaper (#2), and a skinned mango, all while riding uphill on a unicycle with a flat tire. I believe it was the sweet brother Kanye who implied, “Life is a bitch, dependin’ how you dress her,” so if this is indeed the case, I think I want life to be naked. That way, there are no surprises and I know exactly what I’m dealing with.
But if not naked, then I’d really like for life to be Shannyn Sossamon.
Babe Ruth – “Wells Fargo” – First Base (Harvest 1972)
Babe Ruth is responsible for “The Mexican,” a classic b-boy (i.e. “breakdancing”) track in the vein of the Incredible Bongo Band’s “Apache,” Herman Kelly & Life’s “Dance to the Drummer's Beat,” and “It’s Just Begun” by The Jimmy Castor Bunch. “The Mexican” was originally released on First Base in 1972, but found new life when it was re-discovered by a burgeoning hip-hop culture and became an anthem for the dance floor expression of rampant gang violence in the Bronx and Brooklyn boroughs of
Jay-Z – “So Ghetto” – Vol. 3: Life and Times of S. Carter (Roc-A-Fella 1999)
Jay-Z has a new album coming out (which I’ve heard), apparently inspired by a new Denzel Washington film (which I’ve seen), and I must say that I’m a lot more excited about the film. I’m not going to get all long-winded on Jay, though. I’m a big admirer of his talent and business acumen, but he’s really in no man’s land with the rapping. People didn’t seem to like 2006’s Kingdom Come because of his insistence on throwing the noveau riche-ness of his current lifestyle all up in our faces, so with American Gangster, Jay is supposedly getting back to the tales of drug dealing and street hustling that helped make him a hip-hop superstar. The problem with this is, when was the last time he actually sold drugs or hustled anywhere that wasn’t
Sure, you can always go home again, and I’m all for an artist getting back to basics, but here we are, over ten years since his Reasonable Doubt debut, and Jay-Z is singing the same old songs – probably because he has little else to talk about. He’s always been rather one-dimensional in that respect. People gave Common heat over a line on Finding Forever about how his “daughter found Nemo,” but Com’s in his mid-30s, so rapping about his daughter finding Nemo isn’t out of the ordinary. At least he’s found his niche. I’m not sure what Jay’s looking for, but at his age, unless 40 is the new 20 and not the new 30, he’s not going to find it in a recording booth.
M.I.A. – “The Turn” – Kala (XL 2007)
When M.I.A. broke a few years ago, I was skeptical of her musical authenticity, writing in a local publication about her overnight appeal and how there was an air of contrivance in which the Sri Lankan songstress seemed to have arrived on the scene. And I’m still not fully convinced, as the combination of her music, her politics, and her visual art makes for a pretty confusing affair. There’s such a mess of information on her Wikipedia page that reading it almost gave me the spins. But I do admire the growth she has shown as an artist since her 2005 debut, because her new album, Kala, is excellent.
So, props to you, M.I.A…whoever you are.
Kool & The Gang – “Ronnie's Groove” – Live at P.J.’s (De-Lite 1971)
The title of this song pretty much speaks for itself.
10.27.2007
Singleversity #33
Audiversity’s weekly column, slightly modified, on random music in a predetermined number of words between 1 & 150. This week's randomly generated number: 43.
MA:
Thank Atavistic for introducing the still-touring Ayler-devotee Peter Brötzmann to a new generation of open ears. "Responsible/For Jan Van de Ven", recorded in 1968, is just a sampling of the free jazz purity held within the recently released The Complete Machine Gun Sessions.
PM:
One English band that helped me through my London experience in ’05, Peace Burial at Sea are likely breaking up following a Newcastle gig with 65daysofstatic and Tired Irie. Brutal to the last, their small but tidy legacy lives on with "Eye-Heart Logic."
10.26.2007
Prefuse 73 - "Preparations"/"Interregnums"
Prefuse 73 - Pomade Suite Version One (WARP 2007)
Prefuse 73 - Spacious and Dissonant Part 2 (WARP 2007)
Prefuse 73 – Preparations/Interregnums / WARP
I haven’t been short on my unabashed love for Guillermo Scott Herren here on the site. He is up there on my all-time list of favorite contemporary artists with a discography that runs amuck through a number of different monikers and a style that is both instantly recognizable and fluidly morphing with each release. The biggest problem critics have with Herren, at least in his Prefuse 73 suit, is that his pioneering and perfecting glitch-hop approach to producing has a defined, predictable framework though the creative possibilities within the stylistic confines can go on for days.
Let’s face it, he peaked early, first with 2001’s genre changing Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives and then 2003’s career-defining One Word Extinguisher. It’s not that Herren has run out of creative ideas, just check one of his other monikers: Savath y Savalas, Delarosa & Asora, A Cloud Mireya, Piano Overlord or La Corrección. It’s that from the listeners’ point-of-view, improving upon those first two releases is near impossible. He has certainly tried though; first attempting to push his own creative boundaries by crafting an album of all collaborative efforts, 2005’s somewhat underappreciated Surrounded by Silence, and then heading in 180 degrees back to the Prefuse 73 roots for 2006’s mini-LP Security Screenings. Both were bashed or ho-hummed by the majority of the critics, first for not staying true to the instrumental glitch-hop he ushered in, and then for being too predictable with his beatwork by returning to just that. Goddamn we are hard to please.
So what the hell is Herren to do next? If he can honestly not improve upon his first few productions, what’s the point in going on as Prefuse 73? He certainly has enough other outlets to still be releasing quality music (for example, Savath y Savalas was signed by the venerable Anti- Records for their last album), but that pretty much would be conceding to an increasingly fickle society of music lovers/haters whose current pedestals are only raised for a manner of seconds before their champions come clamoring back down to earth with near-unachievable expectations (this includes us obviously). Personally, I wouldn’t give us the satisfaction of quitting, no matter what the unkind reactions may be. Herren doesn’t either, and Preparations finds his Prefuse 73 personality both remaining true to his game and then turning heads by displaying his compositional skills in their naked glory.
Setting aside the “bonus disc”, Interregnums, for now, Preparations itself is the album I believe most fans were looking for as One Word Extinguisher’s follow-up. The exact definition of glitch-hop, Herren does what he does best: splices rap beats within a skittering skeleton of IDM, downtempo, broken beat and of course glitch while filling that framework with masterfully sequenced melodic samples. In fact, this album may be the most organic and melodic disc of the Prefuse 73 discography as the sound is not quite as urgent or rap-based and heavy on the classical-leaning acoustic instrumentation like strings, piano and xylophone.
Ignoring the lead single featuring Brooklyn psyche-poppers School of Seven Bells, “The Class of 73 Bells”, which we covered extensively on the teaser EP review, the strongest tracks on Preparations are held in the last quarter of the album. “I Know You Were Gonna Go” is made up of a barrage of undeterminable vocal samples that Herren weaves into the song’s continuously morphing melody overtop of a snare-heavy broken beat and ping-ponging pulses of static. That is followed by maybe the album’s strongest track “Pomade Suite Version One.” The beat stays similar from the previous song, but is now laced nearly unrecognizable beat-boxing, a series of glitchy and vocal loops, wisps of strings and xylophone and a free-jazzy baseline. The track never sits still, dropping into a groove for a matter of seconds before Herren manipulates and skews it and then scrapping it all together for the next. Though verging on overindulgence, the six-minute song contains more interesting, disectable moments than most albums do in their entirety. “Spaced + Dissonant” features Herren’s more laidback style as he opts for a more sparse beat and a stronger string presence. Once again, he chops samples of a female coos into fragmented melodies that are near inimitable. And finally, “Preparation Outro Version” is made up of pulsing pings surrounded by a myriad of stuttering ambient noises and free percussion, both acoustic and electronic. It ends unassumingly, but perhaps because there is still more to come.
Sadly deemed only as a “bonus disc”, Interregnums is made up of the orchestral backdrops Herren would eventually chop to pieces for Preparations, but presented here in fleshed-out, fully realized pieces. It is certainly not the first time we have heard this sort of sound from Herren, see especially the Savath y Savalas EP, The Rolls and Waves, and to an extent, the ambient tour only compilation, Sleeping on Saturday and Sunday. For the most part, he had just buried these compositional talents beneath more popular beat-oriented tracks, but showcasing them in their fully bloomed form was an excellent move to reclaim some of the intrigue of his once highly heralded reputation. Interrgnums begins nearly all orchestral: swelling strings, sweeping clarinets, resonant piano melodies and pinging xylophones. But as the album advances, more and more ambient electronic elements begin to accentuate the tracks. The most impressive number, “Spacious and Dissonant Part 2”, utilizes choir-like chants with pulsing orchestral melodies before breaking down the song with almost free jazz like outbursts and staticy electronic flares. Harking back to his early Delarosa & Asora moments, it reminds us that Herren started his career as an avant-garde electronica producer before grasping a hold of glitch-hop. At 52 mintues in length, it’s hard to consider Interregnums as just a bonus disc. There are moments of pure emotion, such as the all string composition “Over Ensembles”, and then moments that are a bit more trying, like when the swelling strings meet microscopic glitch during “The Ground We Lift.”
While Preparations is the main product here, it was an excellent strategic move for Herren to package in Interregnums, though labeling it as a “bonus disc” is a bit baffling. Alone, Preparations is another strong Prefuse 73 outing, but unsurprising if you have been a long time fan. Herren has not lost a step by any means, and his glitch-hop endeavors are still the peak of the stylistic niche, but being somewhat pigeonholed by his sound-concentrated monikers, it makes it much easier for most people to just write it off as another Prefuse 73 album. Interregnums is a much more intriguing album though, but mostly because it catches you off guard. Herren’s compositional skills are much more developed then he may let on, and it is a gorgeous 52 minutes of introspective music. The question that remains is exactly what Herren is “preparing” for as the album title suggests. Could this be the beginning of the end for Prefuse 73? As a listener whose tastes were widely expanded by being exposed to Herren’s music some five years ago, I hope not. But if it is the only way for the talented composer to further mature his music, then let’s do it; I’m excited to see where he leads me next.
10.24.2007
Celebration - "The Modern Tribe"
Celebration - Pressure (4AD 2007)
Celebration - The Modern Tribe / 4AD
My girlfriend is a fickle character when it comes to music taste. She was cool in the contemporary sense a decade ago, and her tastes went from Belle & Sebastian and The Blood Brothers to The Rapture in the days when they worked with Kid606.
But much like dance music and people's ideas of it (and people, for that matter), my girlfriend has changed. While she's taken that with her, when we went to go see ...Trail of Dead and The Blood Brothers this time last year, she was probably the only person in the audience to have been disappointed that the latter "didn't play any of their This Adultery is Ripe stuff." Celebration was her favorite act of the night. She ran out and bought their self-titled album not long thereafter; I was subjected to it every time we took her car out.
Not that Celebration was bad, but Katrina Ford sounded better to me with TV on the Radio than with her own group. Even still, in anticipation of The Modern Tribe, I gave it a go on a slow day to see if all that time spent with such noisy acts affected their own output. It's subtle, ever so subtle, but The Modern Tribe sounds like a group that has coalesced and come into their own. Maybe that's David Sitek's production talking, but I like this album and I suspect that a lot of other people will too if they could only hear it for themselves.
I could never see my girlfriend going to a Celebration show and declaring that she was disappointed Ford and long-time collaborator Sean Antanaitis "didn't play any of their Jaks stuff," but what was once a cabaret-punk group has now evolved into a full-fledged female-led indie band that discovered the dramatic tension not just in the restrained austerity of their simple line-up but also in the maximal expressionism that guest players can provide. The barebones song structures and essential rhythms are still there, but Sitek touches them up with just enough panache to not spoil the show. Ironically, it's Sitek that's showing restraint this time around.
The NME and I will just have to differ when they say this is "challenging" stuff. In fact, the opposite is true: The Modern Tribe is probably more accessible now that it has recognizable flourishes such as a fuzzy guitar on "Tame the Savage." If they're talking about the tribal percussion or the whirring organs or another instrument Antanaitis is fond of - the guitorgan - then it's probably just that they've been listening to way too much Editors. Still, the NME is among the lesser offenders. I'd take "challenging" over "a female-fronted TV on the Radio" any day.
Everyone seems to be calling them that because Sitek introduced the group to 4AD and because a few members make stops on The Modern Tribe to bulk things up a little bit (including Kyp Malone here on "Pressure"). Unfortunately, that description is incredibly simplistic and insultingly reductive: Celebration are a band in their own right and though they use their Brooklyn contemporaries' talents for garnish, Ford's natural singing talent is just as good on its own as it is with accompaniment from Tunde Adebimpe or Kyp Malone or anyone else from any other band. Nick Zinner included.
It's not just the singing. Celebration thrive on simple melodies delivered with kraut-like repetition (if not the motorik accuracy of every bar). They live for an exploited payoff on repeat. It works because their conviction, their belief in all of the neo-romantic lyrics that Ford croons and roars and their belief in the tambourine and the mellotron and the guitorgan and their belief in themselves is absolute. There is no doubt on this album that Celebration are doing what they want to do and sounding how they want to sound. That makes for compelling listening.
The reactions have been interesting in that very few of the major outlets have harped upon this release. You would think that with all of the TV on the Radio love last year, 4AD would have a shoe-in on its hands. Not so. Instead, The Modern Tribe flies below the radar of oversaturated hype, content to let The Black Kids implode before they've even gotten anywhere. Maybe there's no justice in a world where an average four-song demo gets more attention than a decade-old musical collaboration and evolution, but there's no sense throwing stones at glass houses. While music criticism continues to collapse in a giant mess of direct democracy in action, Celebration ignore the bigger picture to soldier on. So Audiversity follows their lead, ignoring the bigger blogging picture to soldier on championing artists who may or may not benefit from our namedrop. We're honestly trying.
Meanwhile, my girlfriend sleeps in preparation for work, ignorant of the rat race that has claimed so many casualties. Which one is the real modern tribe? My search for answers goes on.
Radio Show Playlist: 10/24/07
6a:
1. Nico - These Days - Chelsea Girl (Polydor 1967)
2. Lightning Dust - Breathe - Lightning Dust (Jagjaguwar 2007)
3. Tunng - Arms - Good Arrows (Thrill Jockey 2007)
4. Bevel - Since the World - Phoenician Terrane (Contraphonic 2007)
5. Paul Duncan - Red Eagle - Above the Trees (Hometapes 2007)
6. Citay - First Fantasy - Little Kingdom (Dead Oceans 2007)
7. Sir Richard Bishop - Canned Goods and Firearms - Polytheistic Fragments (Drag City 2007)
8. Shuggie Otis - Oxford Gray - Here Comes Shuggie Otis (Epic 1970)
9. Mark Fry - The Witch - Dreaming with Alice (Sunbeam 2006, recorded 1972)
10. Brokeback - The Field Code - Field Recordings from Cook County Water Table (Thrill Jockey 1999)
7a:
1. Matthew Shipp - Vamp to Vibe - Equilibrium (Thirsty Ear 2003)
2. Jimmy Smith - The Sermon - The Sermon (Blue Note 1958)
3. The Octopus Project - I Saw the Bright Shinies - Hello, Avalanche (Peek-A-Boo 2007)
4. Lymbyc System - Astrology Days - Love Your Abuser (Mush 2007)
5. Shooting Spires - Right - Shooting Spires (Cardboard 2007)
6. Letters Letters - Want To - Letters Letters (Type 2007)
7. Owls - Anyone Can Have a Good Time - Owls (Jade Tree 2001)
8. Deerhunter - Fluorescent Grey - Fluorescent Grey EP (Kranky 2007)
8a:
1. Extra Golden - Hera Ma Nono - Hera Ma Nono (Thrill Jockey 2007)
2. Sir Patrick Idahosa - Eni - Lagos All Routes (Honest Jons 2005)
3. Birigwa - Okusosola Mukuleke - Birigwa (Porter 2007, originally Seeds 1972)
4. Group Inerane - Kuni Majagani - Guitars from Agadez: Music of Niger (Sublime Frequencies 2007)
5. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights - 100 Days, 100 Nights (Daptone 2007)
6. The Impressions - Gotta Get Away - Ridin' High (ABC 1966)
7. Weldon Irvine - Soul Sisters - Time Capsule (Nodlew 1973)
8. Prefuse 73 - Pomade Suite Version One - Perparations (WARP 2007)
9. Daedelus - My Beau - Fair Weather Friends EP (Ninja Tune 2007)
10. Flying Lotus - Spicy Sammich - Reset EP (WARP 2007)
10.23.2007
A Cleansed, Well-Lighted Place
Our oink who art in oink, oink be thy name thy kingdom oink thy will be oink as it is in oink. Give us this oink our daily oink and oink us our oink as we oink our oinks and oink us not into oink but deliver us from oink; pues oink. Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee.
Dapayk & Padberg - "Black Beauty"
Dapayk & Padberg - As You Please (Mo's Ferry 2007)
Dapayk & Padberg - Black Beauty / Mo's Ferry
While hip-hop may have had a bit of a slump this year, one genre that has been firing on all cylinders all year long is electro. This Bliss and From Here We Go Sublime both hit early on like stealth fighters back when F-117s were something to be feared. There was subtractiveLAD. There was Chromophobia. Great plates by Robot Needs Oil and Samim and Matthew Dear. It's just been one after another... And adding to this giant heap of sweet beats is the Berlin team of Niklas Worgt and Eva Padberg, aka Dapayk & Padberg. 2007 has found its Silent Shout.
Er, sort of. Credit where credit's due, of course: Philip Sherburne, in his infinitely broke-ass, globetrotting wisdom gave the heads-up on Black Beauty earlier this month. He's right insofar as Padberg uses pitch-shifting vocals that have a distorted, alien feel similar in feeling to Karin Dreijer's work last year, but that singular element makes this the sine qua non of the comparison; what lies beyond Padberg's altered voice is a totally different album, grime and urban grit to the core vis-à-vis Silent Shout's rural forestechno.
Q: "Why don't we do it in bed, baby?"
A: "Because the living room's empty, bitch."
And it's off to the races! "Noerti" isn't exactly "Marble House," then, is it? The very first thing you hear on Black Beauty is a clear indication that, even if the music is reminiscent of The Knife, the ethos and the attitude behind it just... aren't. At all. "Just keep it dirty, dirty a bit," Padberg sarcastically intones in a half-singing, half-complaining voice that seems perfectly suited for a part-time supermodel.
Which seems like a good cue to give you a little more information about Worgt and Padberg. Worgt actually founded Mo's Ferry in 2000 in Erfurt, but moved to Berlin and has operated both on his own primarily as Dapayk Solo and Marek Bois but also as Dredl Kibosh and Frauds in White in his early days. For her part, Padberg is a bombshell supermodel with a hefty CV: FHM's "Sexiest Woman in the World" in 2005 (while acting as the face for Kia(?!)), ambassadress for UNICEF in 2006, actress in the film "Dungeon Siege" this year. Hey, we all make mistakes. While her modeling career is admirable and her movie career is, um, blossoming, it's the music career that concerns us here. After a decade of dating, Worgt and Padberg married in July of '06.
This matters because, unless you're some kind of creep who gets off on incestuous innuendo, Worgt and Padberg's sexual tension provides an interesting element that Olof and Karin lacked. The title-track is a good example, its clicking minimalism buoyed by deadpan refrains from both Niklas and Eva. It's a seductive song that cleverly incorporates handclaps for the human element that's sure to make it a hit in Die Stadt. But rare is the occasion that the two do not feel in competition for the spotlight of a song: If Padberg isn't whipping herself up into a warped frenzy on "Pantomine Horse," she's giving color to the indistinct monotone whispering that Worgt provides for tracks like "Sister" or "Theiss."
"Make it Up" is another strong song with an elastic moon bounce to it that feels like an Ibiza club trip wrapped up neatly into six minutes. "Island" is appropriately named for its Caribbean feel, and here again we're seeing the strength of Worgt's minimalist tendencies taken to different creative ends. If Jamaica ever discovers deep tech, it ought to sound something like this. All of the songs are distinguishable, and yet the grander "sound" of the album is coherent, not a bunch of tracks thrown together.
The proof is in the gorgeous closer presented here, an album that cleanses the palate of the dirty sex and black beauty-induced blur of the night before to bring sunlight and the promise of living to see another day and do it all again come nightfall. Hearing this at sunrise really is the best time, but it's a sweeping, emotional song of synths that bring warmth to the usually cold thuds dominating the Dapayk sound; meanwhile, Padberg's best vocal performance since the front of the album highlights the finality of the whole thing. The nail in the coffin: After an album full of dynamic tension where it feels like Worgt and Padberg are in constant creative competition, "As You Please" is a masterstroke concession (and recession) for both.
This is an exquisitely crafted album by two artists who have been on the rise since 2003's "Goddess" 12. Though I would also urge you to check up on 2005's debut fuller Close Up, it's Black Beauty that heralds the arrival of yet another Minimal Electro Album of the Year in a year full of Albums of the Year. Don't miss out on this just because the term gets bandied about too much from the likes of chumps like me. Black Beauty is pristine glass, is crystal, is crank, is ice, is guaranteed satisfaction waiting for you.
Daedelus - "Fair Weather Friends EP"
Daedelus - Fair Weather Friends (Ninja Tune 2007)
Daedelus – Fair Weather Friends EP / Ninja Tune
Like him or not, Santa Monica, CA soundscaper Alfred Weisberg-Robert aka Alfred Darlington aka Daedelus always brings interesting music to the table. Releasing an album per year since 2002 with a good number of EPs, 12 inches, remixes and singles sprinkled throughout the downtime, Daedelus's prolific recorded output is only outdone by his penchant to practically reinvent his sound with each release. With his one-of-a-kind sample-triggering box, coattails and mutton chops in tow, the Dublab DJ's career has warped and mutated from puzzling sample-based instrumentals concentrating on source material from the 30s and 40s to pleasantly quirky analog-based music concrete to the exuberant, more accessible synthcapades of his 2006 album, Denies the Day's Demise. His music doesn't simply please the ears, it gets them perked and questioning; exactly how did he program that stumbling rhythm into such a catchy beat, or how could he have matched such oddball samples to flow so seamlessly. And above all, his music excels with its underlying sense of humor and desire to be enjoyed. Yes, it is ambitiously creative music and challenging at times, but it is also impossible to ignore the freewheeling fun both Daedelus and the listener are having when the music begins to flow.
2007 has yet to see a new full-length album and by the looks of it, this may be Darlington's first off-year, but thankfully a five-song EP was released recently on Ninja Tune Records. And of course, with a new release comes a new sound for Daedelus. Egged on by European audiences to concoct more dance floor-friendly tunes, Darlington collects his most accessible, straight-forward tunes to date; but don't fret, that effervescing quirk is still riding shotgun.
The Fair Weather Friends EP opens with its title track: a synthy, handclap-driven jubilation of spring and sex held together by an excellent arrangement. Faintly reminiscent of Denies the Day's Demise's fuzzy synth cascades and Brazilian-derived rhythms, "Fair Weather Friends" could get a dance floor hopping, but I doubt it will reach outside the indie kid hooplas. The youthful female vocal sample stating "when the weather gets warm, we get the same things on our minds as boys do," as well as the group cheering and distant steel drum pings remind me mostly of the Go! Team, but thankfully a bit more restrained and structurally refined.
With "My Beau" though, Daedelus heads into territory you may have never predicted, sleek R&B. And not just any R&B, mid-90s urban radio R&B. In fact, he re-imagined the Ghost Town DJ's one-hit-wonder "My Boo" from 1996, which charted well on Billboard's Hot 100 and the Top 40 singles chart, and is surprisingly recognizable. Daedelus keeps the underlying Miami bass influence, but opts for fuzzier synth lines and a slower bpm than the deep thudding drum-and-bass that carried the original. The sultry R&B vocals do definitely hark back to the mid-90s urban stations though, and Daedelus appears to have fun with them, chopping and restructuring without losing the accessibility or the original sass.
"Hermitage" sounds much more like classic Daedelus with its rampant, reverberating drum surges and bass clarinet-sounding bass line. Once the four-on-the-floor beat drops though, you can easily hear the European night life seeping through. "El Subidon" attacks with a syrupy string arrangement completely saturated within barrages of late 90s trip-hop drum techniques and those omniscient synth melodies. And finally, "Bonour" echoes more of the current L.A. sound: slightly R&Bish space-synth funk with IDM and electronica elements.
Five songs, five completely different sounds on the Fair Weather Friends EP, or in other words, Daedelus doing what he does best: being unpredictable. The tools pretty much stay the same throughout the EP, but each song is very much singular in style. And what is most fascinating about the multi-talented producer is though I may not be particularly into the style he is currently purveying, he always seems to spin it in a way that sounds interesting, sometimes more so than the original derivative. That is what all sample-based artists should be striving for: a complete reinvention of the original sound, not simply a rearrangement. Weisburg-Roberts… I mean Darlington… I mean Daedelus knows this, and he has proven himself over his surprisingly long discography with a strong sense of humor and the most killer mutton chops this side of the 20th century.
10.22.2007
Devotion #10
Lucky Dube
August 3, 1964 – October 18, 2007
From Michael Wines of the New York Times:
“JOHANNESBURG, Oct. 19 — A team of gunmen shot and killed Lucky Dube, an international reggae star and one of the nation’s best-known musicians, apparently in a carjacking attempt late Thursday that underscored the continuing peril of violent crime here.”
Another week, another tragedy, and not just for
I first learned of Lucky Dube as a freshman at
Remy would always chide me for not listening to “real” reggae, instead of the Bob Marley and Peter Tosh that informed much of my knowledge of the genre at the time. He swore up and down by Lucky Dube, whose music I often heard drifting through the halls, along with the scent of “chronic” marijuana that Remy’s roommate Prince had somehow gotten his hands on and was selling at the ridiculously low price of $30 for an eighth of an ounce. But reggae to me, then, was nothing more than music to party to. After all, it was college, and I was susceptible to engaging in recreational college activities. I have since grown out of such things, and my appreciation of reggae music has widened considerably. My connection to Dube, however, wouldn’t come through Remy’s insistence on the late superstar’s brilliance, but by way of Shade, with whom I shared some mutual friends back in
We all ended up leaving Iowa State after that first year – I came back to home to attend Loyola University – but I would eventually see Shade two and a half years later at the funeral of a friend of mine from both high school and Loyola that he knew from elementary school, a young man who was murdered one night in the alley behind his home. As a gang member, Shade was no stranger to street violence, but this was my first experience dealing with the random loss of someone so close to me. I remember nearly breaking down into tears while watching a segment on the shooting during the WGN News and just asking myself, “Why?” But I wasn’t confused as to why he had to die. This was
The young man who pulled the trigger was eventually arrested, and according to court records, found guilty of first degree murder and attempted armed robbery, and sentenced to a term of 40 years on the murder conviction and a consecutive 10-year term on the attempted armed robbery conviction. There have been arrests made in the Dube case, but the details of the killing are still being sorted out. Initial reports stated that the beloved singer was shot in what was a botched carjacking, a story that authorities are holding to despite allegations from those close to Dube that his murder was some sort of planned killing. While an assassination plot isn’t beyond reason, based on Dube’s longtime stance against substandard living conditions and oppression at the hands of the government in his native
No matter the cause, there are millions of people mourning Dube’s death, just as I and many others did in mourning the lost of my friend. And in the case of robberies and carjackings and such that go awry, again, the common question is “Why?” Not so much why things happen – because crime is unfortunately a way of life in many, many places – but what happens at that instant that makes a person pull the trigger? It could be resistance, or panic, or the fear of a victim being able to positively identify their attacker. It is a decision that is often made in the span of a few seconds, yet carries with it a lifetime of consequences. Personally, I don’t fear death as much as I fear having my life taken away from me, and if it comes down to me, my money, my car, or my pride, it’s an easy choice to make. My friend was a fighter, just as Dube was a fighter, but I can’t help but wonder what could have happened differently so that they were able to live, love, and fight another day.
Music? Ok...
J Dilla – Track 18 – Beat Tape, Vol. 1 & 2 (self 2002)
Milk. – “Get Off My Log” jazzyfatwoody remix – Never Dated (American 1995)
The Phenoms – “Up and Die” – The Phenoms (self 2002)
Psalm One – “Things I Do” – EV Records Presents: Everything (EV 2006)
Soil & “Pimp” Sessions – “Dawn” – Pimpoint (Victor (Japan)/Brownswood 2007)
10.20.2007
Singleversity #32
Audiversity’s weekly column, slightly modified, on random music in a predetermined number of words between 1 & 150. This week's randomly generated number: 59
MA:
Waking up after drinking until three in the morning for a ten hour workday doesn’t feel good. I am not as much hung over as succumbing to stumbling brain waves. It feels mostly like "Before I Leave" from Fennesz’s Endless Summer, a melodic stuttering lull of a song. Maybe I can down another cup of copy before I leave.
PM:
If you’re interested in seeing more than jittery camera phone recordings of your favorite DJs at Kubik, Berlin-based Slices Magazine is your ticket. These informative, irregularly released DVDs reveal the methods of some of the best electro artists and labels by, you know, talking to them. A few examples are up on YouTube; this excerpt is for Rotterdam’s Clone.
10.19.2007
Y Society - "Travel At Your Own Pace"
Y Society - Dizzy (Tres 2007)
Y Society - Travel At Your Own Pace / Tres
What happened this year with hip-hop? Initially 2007 was hyped as "The Year of Detroit" and Phat Kat got the ball rolling for sure, but Guilty Simpson and the rest never really hit as hard as was initially anticipated. Then it seemed like the NoW Coast scene had picked up a sufficient amount of steam to gain serious exposure, but the problem was that those groups haven't yet found a way to beat the collective "It's positive!" rep. As the year begins to draw to a close (with plenty more on the way, but let's be real here: We're in the last quarter), I find myself looking for artists and beatsmiths who lie somewhere off our beaten path of Detroit, NoW and Anticon, even if the sounds are similar. What is everybody else doing? It can't all be Educated Consumers (incidentally given a shout-out here) or Shape of Broad Minds, after all.
Brooklyn's Junk Science are one recommended duo that I've been spinning a lot lately. This is the other: Transcoastal duo Y Society. Currently living in Boston, Insight is a respected MC, producer and DJ (though not necessarily in that order) who has heard compliments from Mr. Lif and Edan for starters during the course of working his musical magic for over a decade. Washington DC resident Damu the Fudgmunk (or Damu, or Fudgemunk, but I doubt his mother calls him either of those) first landed as the DJ for Panacea, a Dead City collective who released the The Scenic Route earlier this fall to critical acclaim.
For Y Society's debut here, the delineation between DJ and MC are, much like the music, uncomplicated and immediately accessible. Though both produce, Damu plays the role of DJ with occasional vocal accompaniment, but Insight does most of the business on the chrome. The art and science of crate-digging and the two men's sheer appreciation for Golden Era soul and funk are plainly evident on Travel At Your Own Pace, but instead of minute snippets that tease (I'm looking at you, Beat Konducta), full songs unfold with beautifully laid-back soul samples ("How Many of Us?") and empowering pop hooks ("This is an Introduction"). "Hole in Your Pocket" even has a sample clip of holes in your pocket and this serves as a song that grabs you from the get-go and gets you moving. It's just easy to like, that's all there is to it. Enjoy.
No largely positive-minded hip-hop album would be complete without a little vinyl hiss, and given that Damu is using samples it's not really a problem, but this goes back to the straightforward nature of the release. A little scratching here, a little anthemic chorusing there (and "In Command" has both), go home satisfied. I don't mean to say that this isn't a good album, because it is. It's satisfying because it pulls no punches, makes no mistakes, and has a strong foundation of competent rhymes and engaging beats. Comparing this to something like Abandoned Language is kind of missing the point. In fact, though both Insight and Damu are East Coasters, Travel At Your Own Pace sounds like it would fit in well with the NoW battalion. "Never Off (On & On)" is both an album highlight and a perfect example of what we're talking about here.
At its core, Y Society have what Drowned in Sound correctly described as flow. This album flows smooth as Jameson on the rocks and that's about as good a compliment as you can get when you're not going for either ear-twisting lyrical abstraction or genre-crushing Statement Records. This is neither of those things, but I don't mean to demean, if you see what I mean. Rather, this is the debut of two men who are simply looking to get their talents out there to a broader audience with an album that exploits their strong suit: Positive hip-hop with a healthy helping of the best samples vinyl archeology can buy. For listeners who want a strong album rather than just a decent collection of songs, Y Society deliver with the flexibility that their title delivers. Pick this up. Or, as Damu puts it, "you know, unfortunately, with the whole Internet thing, you can catch us all on MySpace." Few things are as pleasing as a little Internet cynicism. On that note: Touché.
10.18.2007
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & Lydia Lunch - "Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & Lydia Lunch"
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & Lydia Lunch - Welcome to My Church (Willie Anderson 2007)
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & Lydia Lunch - Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & Lydia Lunch / Willie Anderson
Feelings on fleetingly brilliant Omar Rodriguez-Lopez are conflicted here at Audiversity: My first listen to At the Drive-In's Relationship of Command remains one of the seminal moments in my listening history, but The Mars Volta's Frances the Mute is an album that I have ill sentiments toward like few others. How things changed so dramatically is a critical point of interest: At the Drive-In represents one of the most extreme revelations of where members of a single group were musically before a fissure. But what does The Mars Volta represent when Omar goes his own way from that?
The first glimpse was 2005's A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack Volume One. At that point, all we'd had from The Mars Volta was Tremulant and De-Loused in the Comatorium, so A Manual Dexterity sounded not totally unlike these releases. When Frances came out, Rodriguez-Lopez's solo material looked like the bookending of The Mars Volta's roughened edges as they delved head-first into ambient wankery of the highest order. Amputechture was not the redemption some were looking for, and I'm still waiting for the moment when The Mars Volta finally realize that they have lost sight of their high-minded ambition and devolved into something way worse than a salsa-tinged Tool. It's not a pretty picture.
But seeing as how Rodriguez-Lopez is such an integral part of The Mars Volta, why is it that he's appearing for the third time on this website in less than a year if we hate what he does so much? The answer is that we don't. While his primary pursuit remains wrapped up in its own big-budget pursuit of "changing the way people think about music" (or another equally futile declaration that will no doubt change when they get dropped from a major), his solo and collaborative efforts are changing more perceptions about him and what he does directly than any 80-minute epic ever could. Though Rodriguez-Lopez hasn't been known for being succinct since he had one last name, an EP early this year with Can man Damo Suzuki and solo LP Se Dice Bisonte, No Bùfalo have both proven that he can hold his own on a guitar without needing a semi full of effects pedals.
It's this anticlimactic revelation that has been at the crux of these releases this year. Give him a wah-wah pedal or a delay unit and that's all he needs to slay your headphones and your mind. In fact, Omar is at his best when he's being held back. Cornered and with only his improv instincts to go on, Rodriguez-Lopez is a veritable master of the six-string. For the latest proof, look no further than a self-titled collaboration with the infamous Lydia Lunch out on the quiet Dutch label Willie Anderson.
While this review has been all about Rodriguez-Lopez and his musical flair showing itself all over this five-song EP, Lydia deserves more than mere mention too; without her, this EP would be a one-man spectacle lacking in a healthy mixture of vulgar feminism and politically charged sarcasm. The spoken word verse present here comes from a woman who might best be known for her contribution to the Brian Eno-curated No New York compilation with Teenage Jesus & the Jerks. Lunch has done plenty since to stay active, including a dozen spoken word releases and a host of music releases most recently punctuated by 2004's Smoke in the Shadows.
She's got a bitter sense of humor and she doesn't hide it, but the themes that keep reappearing throughout these five songs are all in the titles: "Welcome to My Church," "Getting Rid of God," "Back to the Goddess," The End of the White Man's Revolution," and "Woman (In the Beginnin