“In Philosophical Explanations, (Robert) Nozick says the question of life’s meaning is so important to us and leaves us feeling so vulnerable that,we camouflage our vulnerability with jokes about seeking for the meaning or purpose of life: A person travels for many days to the Himalayas to seek the word of an Indian holy man meditating in an isolated cave. Tired from his journey, but eager and expectant that his quest is about to reach fulfillment, he asks the sage, “What is the meaning of life?” After a long pause, the sage opens his eyes and says, “Life is a fountain.” “What do you mean life is a fountain?” barks the questioner. “I have just traveled thousands of miles to hear your words, and all you have to tell me is that? That’s ridiculous.” The sage then looks up from the floor of the cave and says, “You mean it’s not a fountain?”  The Meaning Of Life - David Schmidtz

” Muting the noise”

1. Dj Sprinkles – Grand Central, Pt. II
   Midtown 120 Blues (Mule Musiq, 2009)
2. The Advisory Circle- Erosion Of Time
   Other Channels (Ghost Box, 2008)
3. Intrusion-Angel Version
   The Seduction Of Silence (Echospace, 2009)
4. Manufacture-Swollen Car
   Putting The Morr Back In Morrissey (Morr Music, 2002)
5. Windy & Carl – Btwn You + Men
   Songs For The Broken Hearted (Kranky, 2008)
6. Belong- A Sunny Place For Shady People
   Tour Ep (Not On Label, 2006)
7. Terre Thaemlitz-Get In And Drive
   Muting The Noise (Innervisions, 2008)

[Non noise]

Image: Colin Jenkinson

The brink-of-Spring-Winter-blues are contagious… much like good music. Below is a quick soundtrack to close out the cold, hush the hibernation, and ease on down the road to a seasonal rebirth – enjoi.

First a howling blizzard woke us, then the rain came down to soak us; and now before the eye can focus – Crocus. ~Lilja Rogers

Analogue Transit – Analogue
(Gearheart/ 2009)
Analogue Transit – Projector…
(Gearheart/ 2009)
Fever Ray – If I Had a Heart
(Fever Ray Deluxe LP/ 2009)
Fever Ray – Seven
(Fever Ray Deluxe LP/ 2009)
Port O’Brien – My Will Is Good
(Threadbare/ 2009)
Hird – Fading Blues
(Moving On/ 2005)
Hird – Water Under My Bridges
(Moving On/ 2005)
Port O’Brien – I Woke Up Today
(All We Could Do Was Sing/ 2008)

Photo Credit: Sekator

When he woke up, the dinosaur was still there.
- Augusto Monterroso.

1. Electroid 2000- Moogsters Revenge
   A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind Vol. 2  (Platipus, 2008)
2. Johnny Jones & The King Casuals – Purple Haze
   Come Get It I Got It (13 Amp Recordings, 2002)
3. Czeslaw Nieman – Z Listu Do M
   Katharsis (Polskie Nagrania  Musa,  1975)
4. San Ui Lim – Frustration
   Prog Is Not  A Four Letter Word (Delay 68 Records,  2005)
5. Música Dispersa- Cefalea
   Folk Is NoT  A Four Letter Word (Delay 68 Records, 2005)
6. The Gaslamp Killer – Anything Worse
   My Troubled Mind (Brain feeder, 2009)
7. Bo Diddley - Elephant Man
   The Black Gladiator (Cheker, 1970)
8. Titán-Chemix
   Titán (Nuevos Ricos, 2005)

Image: Here

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

- George Gordon Byron.

.

” Short list for second decade of third Millenia. ”

01. Radiohead - How To Disappear Completely
Kid A (2000)
02. Mokira - Hiss
Cliphop (Raster-Noton, 2000)
03. CéU - Malemolencia – Instituto Remix
CéU (Six Degrees, 2007)
04. Orlando Cachaito Lopez – Wahira
Cachaito (2001)
05. Max Ernst – Privleg
New Forms: Contemporary Electronic Music In The Context Of Art (Raster-Noton, 2000)
06. Boxcutter - Fieldtrip
Glyphic (Planet Mu, 2007)
07. DJ Spooky – Dance of the morlocks
Songs of a dead dreamer (Asphodel Records, 1996)
08. Bruno Coulais – Brother Aidan
The Secret Of Kells (tôt Ou tard, 2009)
09. Saltillo - A Hair on the Head of John the Baptist
Ganglion (Suspicious, 2006)
10. Medeski Martin And Wood – Midnight Poppies / Crooked Birds
End Of The World Party (Just In Case) (2004)
11. David Shrigley – Don’ts From Bits And Bobs
Late Night Tales: Four Tet (Late Night Tales, 2005)
12. CocoRosie – Tekno Love Song
Noah’s Ark (Touch & Go Records, 2005)

note: A deep night list/2 a.m. in basic posting form, but forward looking in content. A list about imagining what the next decade will sound like for the motel. Downtempo in hip-hop, electro, dances and recent minimalist with voice in speeches and singing. It almost feels like a movie soundtrack, something that I’ve heard a lot from watching too many movies in the past few weeks. It is also imagining what downtempo will sound in the next 10 years. Things are unhurried, regaining natural pace and beautiful proportion, moving away from last decade without naively rejecting it. Beauty that is sublime and nearly impossible to exist. It is not delicate or fragile, but simply hasn’t happened yet. Clearly imagined yet uncertain if ever to exist. I opened with Moka’s favorite album and expand from there, exploring new night texture hopefully finding something new for MdM.

image: Jurij Treskow

-Hear is not the right word. I became a telephone. Edith was the electrical conversation that went through me.
-Well, what was it, what was it?
-Machinery.
-Machinery?
-Ordinary eternal machinery.
-And?
-Ordinary eternal machinery.
-Is that all you are going to say?
-Ordinary eternal machinery like the grinding of the stars.
-That’s better.
-That was a distortion of the truth which, I see, suits you very well. I distorted the truth to make it easier for you. The truth is: ordinary eternal machinery.
-Leonard Cohen. Beautiful Losers, 1966

1. James Pants – Thin Moon (StonesThrow Records, 2009)
2. Ocuban – H. Ratnani (Unsigned?, 2009)
3. Washed Out – Feel it all Around (Transparent, 2009
4. Keaver And Brause – Awake (Dealmaker, 2009)
5. Nite Jewel – What did he Say (Italians do it better, 2008)
6. Florence and the Machine - You Got The Love (Jamie XX Rework feat. the XX) (not on label, 2009)
7. Unknown Artist – Its No Good (Bullion remix) (not on label, 2009)

This is quite a contemporary list for me, an assortment of the songs that are stuck in my head. Lots of late night listening to the James Pants album, regretting (and secretly enjoying) the guilt coming from spending money I’m meant to be saving for overseas. All these tracks seem to have a kind of lovely DIY aesthetic – they all seem marked by particular hands, machines, times, scissors, and places. Brazilian beatmaker Ocuban’s brilliant debut album (which appears to have been self released) fits alongside the strange tape hiss of Nite Jewel. XX’s rework of Florence and the Machine (an immensely fun track to play to a crowd) works well with Bullion’s semi-soaring remix.

P.S. there is a little Outfoxed event going down this Wednesday night @ Killing time, Melbourne, Australia. Ill be playing records from 9-1.
Pic: Author’s