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Jan 16, 2006 6

Lazy lazy

Today is a holiday here in the US, and while celebrating one of the greatest teachers in our nation’s history by taking a day OFF from school/work is a bit questionable, there is nothing debatable about sleeping late on a Monday, watching a 4 hour marathon of the 24 tv show, and listening to some smooth vacation jams.

If you haven’t heard of Antena, now you have. From the early 80′s in France, these electro-samba pioneers sound like a beautiful mix of Stereolab and Joy Division. I highly recommend their recent reissue on the Numero Group label.
Antena – Camino del Sol

Another recent gem is Kingsbury Manx’s “Harness and Wheel” off of their album The Fast Rise and Fall of the South. I can’t quit listening to these North Carolina boys’ newest record; a perfect recording and a beautiful cover to boot. For fans of the Beatles, Fruit Bats, or even Calexico.
The Kingsbury Manx – Harness and Wheel

One for the road: “Composure” by B. Fleischmann. From his new album…I’ve been listening to this guy’s simplistic but pleasing music for years. Many roadtrips have been graced by his little beats and piano loops and affection for making the most melodic of songs into a noise feast. His new album has added usage of guitar which I think works quite nicely.
B. Fleischmann – Composure

p.s. photo again by Sara, as so many of you liked the last one.

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Category: Motel de Moka

Jan 10, 2006 10

I hate and I love…


I’m trying to force my brain into thinking it’s cold. It’s really not working. I live in Miami these days, and the idea that this is called winter is somewhat disturbing. It was over 80 degrees today. How am I supposed to listen to all of my favorite winter tunes when the weather just doesn’t match. Perhaps if I could get a gray sky for a day or two, then I could turn down the air conditioning real low, put on a coat and stay inside. In the meantime, my current plan is to continue listening to these winter favorites, old and new:

First, Johann Johannsson’s “Odi et Amo” from his debut solo album on Touch, Englaborn. This album is an absolute stunner start to finish, and perfect for watching the light gray turn to dark gray during a missing sunset. If you ever wondered if computers have feelings…look no further than this song.

Second, Labradford’s “Up To Pizmo” from their last album fixed::content on Kranky. If you’ve ever been in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in the dead of winter on a road trip with nothing to do but shoot super 8mm film of empty parking lots and run down tobacco factories, then you just found the soundtrack to the film you made. A beautiful guitar duet from an under-appreciated band.

Finally, a new wintry discovery from Bologna, Italy (it’s 28 degrees right now in Bologna, I checked). 3/4HadBeenEliminated is the name of the band, and I recently got their new album “A year of the aural gauge operation” on the Swedish label, Hapna. This is an excerpt from one of their longer tracks. I highly recommend tracking this album down; it’s like a mix of This Heat, Fennesz / Philip Jeck, Blithe Sons, and the Bonnie Prince Billy team up with Marquis de Tren from Dirty Three. This is the sound of falling asleep near a fireplace whose contents have been reduced to embers.

Johann Johannsson – Odi et Amo
Labradford – Up To Pizmo
3/4HadBeenEliminated – In Every Tree A Heartache (excerpt)

p.s. photo by my wife, Sara.

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Category: Motel de Moka

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world's great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire's glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure
Can trample an empire down. [1]


Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end! `I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?' she said aloud. `I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think--' (for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a very good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) `--yes, that's about the right distance--but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I've got to?' (Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.) [2]



O long-silent Sybil,
you of the winged dreams,
Speak out from your temple of light
as the serious constellations
with Greek names
still stare down on us
as a lighthouse moves its megaphone
over the sea
Speak out and shine upon us
the sea-light of Greece
the diamond light of Greece

Far-seeing Sybil, forever hidden,
Come out of your cave at last
And speak to us in the poet's voice
the voice of the fourth person singular
the voice of the inscrutable future
the voice of the people mixed
with a wild soft laughter--
And give us new dreams to dream,
Give us new myths to live by! [3]


So our princes who have lost their principalities after many years’ of possession shouldn’t blame their loss on fortuna. The real culprit is their own indolence, going through quiet times with no thought of the possibility of change (it’s a common human fault, failing to prepare for tempests unless one is actually in one!). And when eventually bad times did come, they thought of •flight rather than •self-defence, hoping that the people, upset by conquerors’ insolence, would recall them. This course of action may be all right when there’s no alternative, but it is not all right to neglect alternatives and choose this one; it amounts to voluntarily falling because you think that in due course someone will pick you up. If you do get rescued (and you probably won’t), that won’t make you secure; the only rescue that is really helpful to you is the one performed by you, the one that depends on yourself and your virtù. [4]

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