motel de moka

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of the great anti-hate
springtime is wartime
i’ll rise to the crime-boss
electric guitar string
a bed of flowers
- Sonic Youth

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” Wagner like Alteration ”

01. DM Stith - Thanksgiving Moon
Works in Progress (Presented by Asthmatic Kitty Records) (Asthmatic Kitty, 2008)
02. Harold Budd - Children’s Games Beyond Our Reach
La Bella Vista (Shout Factory, 2003)
03. The Third Eye Foundation - No Dove No Covenant
You Guys Kill Me (Merge Records, 1998)
04. Leonid Polovinkind - Ukrain Folksong
Soviet Avant Garde, Vol.2 (Hat Now Series, 1999)
05. alva noto + opiate - opto file 4 (web)
cdr040 opto files (2001)
06. Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man - Rustin Man
Out of Season (Go Beat, 2002)
07. Friends of Dean Martinez - When You’re Gone
A Place in the Sun (Knitting Factory, 2000)
08. Kettel - Shimamoto
Myam James (Sending Orbs, 2008)
09. Sonic Youth - Peace Attack
Sonic Nurse (2004)

note: A list for chilly Tuesday morning. This comes from “Third“, last Portishead album. I can’t wrap my mind around that album. It’s meandering and completely disconnected. I am not sure why. So I made one for myself trying to figure it out, mixing few tracks (modern, DnB, folks and rock), based one one thing, the “choir’ background in DM Stith’s track, trying to capture that “trip-hop” sound again. So here is a list with nothing but elaboration of small background sound sample. One of my darkest list I’ve posted, so it’s very moody.

see also: 17 pink sugar elephants
image: Gustav Klimt, Dead and Life, 1910/15

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Oldest they are and the wisest of beasts
so they know at last
how to wait for the loneliest of feasts
for the full repast.

They do not snatch, they do not tear;
their massive blood
moves as the moon-tides, near, more near
till they touch in flood.

- D. H. Lawrence , The Elephant is Slow to Mate

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” Trippy Sonic No.2 ”

01. RiEN - Dieu du Seigneur
Il ne peut y avoir de prédiction sans avenir (L’Amicale Underground, 2007)
02. Frédéric Chopin - Nocturne In D Flat, Op. 27 No 2 (Solomon)
Great Pianists Of The Century [Box Set] (Brilliant, 2000)
03. Vashti Bunyan - 17 Pink Sugar Elephants
Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind (Dicristina Stair, 2007)
04. Naked City - (Verlaine Part II) La Bleue
Absinthe (Avant, 1993)
05. Badawi - Lack of Dub to the Brain
Bedouin Sound Clash (Roir, 1996)
06. Susumu Yokota - Gong Gong Gong
Laputa (Skintone Records, 2003)
07. Autechre - Vietrmx21
Tri Repetae++ (Tvt, 1996)

note: I am not so sure about this list. Unlike the first one, this one hasn’t been listened back to back several times, it might not flow as well as the first one. Programmatically, imagine soundtrack for a giant parade in the sky, pinks elephants rolling majestically one by one in front of you. The greatest parade in the universe … When it fails, I think the effect is more simple large open space sonic. There is some part missing, but I don’t have time filling it. Tell me what it needs… (maybe I should listen to it several more time, but don’t have time) So here it is, the second trippy list. I’ll make one more with rare dub mix. I have one fav. song I wanted to post for a long time. k. have fun - sq .

btw, the fund drive is over. (Moka will say something, after she gets out of her mid term exam funk.)

see also: Trippy Sonic No.1

image: BkTs

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Up from Earth’s Centre through the Seventh Gate
rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate;
And many a Knot unravel’d by the Road;
But not the Master-knot of Human Fate.
- Omar Khayyam, The Rubaiyat (XXXI)

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01. Schoener, Eberhard - Surija (Die Sonne)
Bali-Agúng (Celestial Harmonies, 1976)
02. Bill Evans Trio - Detour Ahead (Take 1)
Waltz for Debby (Ojc, 1961)
03. Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Sunshine + Gasoline
Amazezine 7″ [split] (1998)
04. Anouar Brahem - Le voyage de Sahar
Le voyage de Sahar (ECM, 2006)
05. Brian Eno - Stars
Apollo [Atmospheres & Soundtracks] (1983)
06. Bill Evans Trio - Detour Ahead (Take 2)
Waltz for Debby (Ojc, 1961)
07. Arja Kastinen - Alla pehkovan petajan
Ani (ECM, 2008)
08. Disrupt - Bomb 20
Foundation Bit (2007)

note: Amusing little list. I poached from a bigger list originally made for listening while your head is seeing purple haze and going psychadelic. (There was a conversation about this somewhere on the net. really. ) I made it smaller with prettier songs, more listenable and amusing. It’s been awhile since I made a list I really want to listen for long period, so this is it. Soft with various small scattered textures and words. The ECM’s and Bill Evans are heavenly. I thought it might be good for traveling, but I think it’s too delicate. I doubt most of these songs can survive anywhere but quiet room and high quality speaker. (car, plane, train, noise reduction headphone, stuffy ears simply aren’t music friendly.) But I am picky. I’ll do another variation on this purple haze theme for fun. Buy Bill Evans‘ Waltz for Debby. It’s a must have. -sq.

image: sillydog

Photo: Hideaway by Roger Ballen. Prints available here.

Today’s mix is a surrealistic, collage-like exploration of the grey area between fact and fiction. An adventurous mix in which fantasy and reality seem fully entwined. The basis for this mix is provided by the above shown photograph Hideaway by Roger Ballen from Johannesburg, South Africa. I find this to be a very powerful photograph that, due to its abstract nature, can take on different meanings depending on the observer. The first thing that might strike you when seeing this photo is the impeccable composition. It immediately reveals a natural balance through the crafty arrangement of objects, shapes and grey shades that’s visually exceptionally appealing. But once you’ve gotten beyond this initial stage of purely aesthetic admiration the inevitable question is raised: what does it mean? Because with just our everyday reality as our guidance to make sense of this photo we will be left somewhat puzzled.

For me this photo is about the unbounded imagination and wide-eyed sense of wonder of children. Their capability to create a parallel universe, that for them seems to co-exist with everyday reality in the most natural and self-evident way. Here’s this kid lying on his back in a wooden crate, imagining an exciting world full of contradictions and impossibilities. I like to believe that what we are seeing in this photograph is what he is imagining inside that crate, a glimpse of what the world looks like to a child. The only things that connect us with reality are his legs sticking out of the crate; the rest – the strange sculptures, shapes and objects – is formed by his unbounded imagination. Once he crawls out of the crate, the scene would abruptly turn to normal again. Just a plain wall, dirty floor and some old crates.

Isn’t this something we’ve all done when we were kids? Sitting under the table, watching our parents cook dinner, toying around with nothing but a wooden spoon, but all the while imagining the wildest fantasies possible, that just for that moment seemed as real as anything. I don’t know what Roger Ballen’s true intentions were when making this photograph, but personally I see a child who hides from everyday reality through his own wild imagination. To make something from basically nothing.

The photograph made me laugh. Because it reminded me of my own childhood. But also because it made me think about the crazy Maher Shalal Hash Baz song Way Out that for its 52 second duration basically only consists of Tori Kudo’s plaintive questioning: “Is there a way out to paradise?”, while his clumsy orchestra runs riot in the background. I can imagine the kid in the photograph asking himself the same question while he crawled into that crate and found himself staring at its hard wooden ceiling.

The playlist I’ve compiled in honour of this photograph shares its abstract, playful nature with songs that explicitly suggest a surrealistic setting. Some of them as mystical as a fairytale and others as terrifying as a nightmare. Central piece of this playlist however is Luc Ferrari’s Rencontres Fortuites, a 23 minute composition for piano and viola that uses several improbable tape parts to create an elusive collage of dreamlike moods.

1. Maher Shalal Hash Baz - Way Out
   L’Autre Cap (K, 2007)
2. Art Fleury - E=MC²
   I Luoghi del Potere (1980; reissue on Die Schachtel, 2007)
3. Bachi da Pietra - Non Io
   Non Io (Die Schachtel, 2007)
4. Aaron Martin - Canopy
   Almond (Preservation, 2006)
5. World’s End Girlfriend - Garden in the Ceiling
   The Lie Lay Land (Noble, 2005)
6. Paavoharju - Valo Tihkuu Kaiken Läpi
   Yhä Hämärää (Fonal, 2005)
7. Luc Ferrari - Rencontres Fortuites
   Didascalies (Sub Rosa, 2007)
8. Lula Côrtes & Zé Ramalho - Omm
   Paêbirú (1975; reissue on Mr Bongo Records, 2008)
9. Scott Tuma - Nobody (River of Tin)
   Not for Nobody (Digitalis, 2008)

Stream playlist

There is no magic any more,
We meet as other people do,
You work no miracle for me
Nor I for you.

You were the wind and I the sea—
There is no splendor any more,
I have grown listless as the pool
Beside the shore.

But though the pool is safe from storm
And from the tide has found surcease,
It grows more bitter than the sea,
For all its peace.

- Sara Teasdale, After Love

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” Three Lists for The Lover. No.3 ”

01. Kammerflimmer Kollektief - Sie tranken Regen (Version)
Cicadidae (Temporary Residence, 2003)
02. Glenn Branca - So That Each Person Is in Charge of Himself
Indeterminate Activity of Resultant Masses (Atavistic Records, 2007)
03. My first Holly Golightly Album - My Love is
My first Holly Golightly Album (Damaged Goods, 2005)
04. Aidan Baker - Untitled
Green & Cold (Gears of Sand Recordings, 2006)
05. Mercury Program - You Give Me Problems About My Business
Confines of Heat (Hello Sir, 2003)
06. Sun Ra - Lover Come Back To Me
Sound Sun Pleasure (Evidence, 1953)
07. Múm - Guilty Rocks
Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy (Fat Cat, 2007)
08. Hauschka - Old Man Playing Boules
Room To Expand (Fat Cat, 2007)

note: This list ends up with mildly meditative quality, tho’ originally is more about large and less dense texture. It’s centered around two tracks. One by Glenn Branca which is a recording of conversation between John Cage in conversation with Wim Mertons about music, intention and what is and second by Holly Golightly, a minimalistic jazz-blues song. It is very voice driven, which bring to early design of this list. Things can be muted and going relatively slow, because then all details becomes more pronounce, specially voice. Everything becomes very intimate and personal. So this list is nothing more than songs with one or two beautiful details, like uncrowded memory of love. Serene bliss without the brutal minimalism. “For all its peace” So that’s for the last one. Hope it works.

see also: No.2 in Gm, La Maja De Goya

image: oberazzi (Tim O’Brien)

Photo credit: Jelle Baars

Over the last couple of years I seem to have grown a much stronger affection for public transportation. I’m not a daily commuter - I can go to work and university by bicycle - but regularly travelling back and forth by train between my hometown and Amsterdam for concerts has convinced me that the social elements of it by far outweigh the advantages of travelling by car. Sure it might be more comfortable and easy to sit behind the wheel yourself and be the captain of your own ship, but isn’t it much nicer for instance to have a casual chat with a stranger than to sit isolated inside your four-wheeled cocoon? Public transportation is the black sheep of our increasingly individualized society.

This playlist is an ode to the train. The rhythmic cadence of the rails as the train rattles over it, shaking and clattering, constantly building momentum and pushing itself forward.

I like to see it lap the miles,
And lick the valleys up,
And stop to feed itself at tanks;
And then, prodigious, step

Around a pile of mountains,
And, supercilious, peer
In shanties by the sides of roads;
And then a quarry pare

To fit its sides, and crawl between,
Complaining all the while
In horrid, hooting stanza;
Then chase itself down hill

And neigh like Boanerges;
Then, punctual as a star,
Stop — docile and omnipotent –
At its own stable door.

~ Emily Dickinson / The Railway Train ~

1. Railroad Sounds, Steam and Diesel - Side A: Steam Locomotives and Some Diesel Locomotives (excerpt)
   Railroad Sounds, Steam and Diesel (Audio Fidelity, 1958)
2. Steve Reich - Different Trains (America - Before the War)
   Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint (Elektra/Nonesuch, 1989)
3. Saddleback - Train South
   Everything’s a Love Letter (Preservation, 2004)
4. The Notwist - Pilot
   Neon Golden (Domino, 2002)
5. Hood - The Lost You
   Outside Closer (Domino, 2005)
6. Hangedup - Klang Klang
   Clatter For Control (Constellation, 2005)
7. Tarentel - Hello! We Move Through Weather!
   We Move Through Weather (Temporary Residence, 2004)
8. Elliott Brood - Cadillac Dust
   Tin Type (Weewerk, 2003)
9. Calexico - Hot Rail
   Hot Rail (Quarterstick, 2000)

Stream playlist

” Minimalist, something, something… ”

01. Philip Glass - Closing
Glassworks (2003)
02. Autechre - Rotar
Tri Repetae++ - Disc I (Tvt, 1996)
03. DJ Cam - Pure Pleasure
Mad Blunted Jazz (Shadow Records, 1996)
04. Susumu Yokota - Grey Piano
Laputa (Skintone Records, 2003)
05. Aughra & Mosh Patrol - I’m Going To Sleep On It
Is There Anyone Else OutSide? (Magic Bullet Records, 2007)
06. Krause Duo - Canopolis
MK022 (2007)
07. Ommm - Sorry For Losing Your Headphones Utabi
Testing The Equipment (2005)
08. Richard Thomas - i’m carnal, and i know that you approve
I’m carnal, and I know that you approve (1999)

Note: Minimalist electronica mix. Hey this is actually pretty soft and not at all too abstract. Tho’ the mood I am in while making it is completely the opposite. (Sort of ranting, whining. This is a mess, what is this, and do something already…yadda yadda) Yes. this list is completely pointless except as a short note on various minimalist pieces I’ve been listening and scattered through out my hardrive. Hey I put a nice painting. Come on. Also: check out Krause Duo, I thought they are interesting.

image: Jean Pougny (Ivan Puni). (Russian, born Finland. 1892-1956). Flight of Forms. (1919). Gouache and pencil on paper, 51 1/8 x 51 1/2″ (129.7 x 130.8 cm). Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Fund. © 2008 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

At a corner I saw some sailors
Who danced with bared throats to an accordion.
I gave everything to the sun
Everything but my shadow.

– Guillaume Apollinaire.

High Places - Shared Islands
(David Horvitz Picture Disc / 2008)
El Guincho - Final del Archipielago
(Alegranza / 2008)
Panda Bear - Song for Ariel
(Live radio session: ma fama / 2007)
Julianna Barwick - Dancing with Friends
(Sanguine / 2007)
Taken by trees - taken too young (TTA remake)
(mp3 release only)

Cinco visiones de un sol, mariscos y cerveza que se antojan cada vez mas y un pequeño tributo al que fue mi disco favorito del 2007. No sin dar antes que me olvide un agradecimiento y saludos a GvB y 20JFG por la introducción tan necesaria a la música de El Guincho.

Photo(s): Beebs, happeningfish, trevira, caroparis, Irina.