TRACKS AND NOTES
Daniel Knox (featuring Jarvis Cocker) | Song: “Capitol” | Album: ‘Chasescene’ (H.P. Johnson Presents Records, 2018) … Knox’s story is so strange it hardly seems real, and he writes songs about it that appear on this, his fourth album. Slow and secret poisoning, to which he says he was subjected — a partner doing the deed — haunts the record. “Capitol” would seem to carry part of the tale, or its emotional information anyway, and Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker sings each word like it is a deadly day he has been given. As IDES evolves, songs like this one help set the tone and approach for a given mix.
Moderator | Song: “When I Dream” | Album: ‘Sinner’s Syndrome’ (Melting Records, 2018) … Based in Greece, the producer’s ear in Moderator’s world is bent toward sounds that could have crept from jukeboxes in lonely bars somewhere back in the 1950s. This is mainline late-night stuff, and it’s so good that it gets two spots on IDES 2. The transition to the third track, after this, is an example of cutting from a song well before it’s over, using Kyle MacLachlan’s last line as Agent Dale Cooper — lifted by yours truly from the final moments of ‘Twin Peaks: The Return’ — to stick the landing.
UNKLE (featuring Mink and Elliot Power) | Song: “Ar.Mour” | Album: ‘Ar.Mour’ (Songs for the Def, 2018) … The brain child of English producer James Lavelle, UNKLE traces its many incarnations back to the early 1990s, to the birth of trip hop. Lavelle has been the constant in UNKLE, all these years, and this new cut comes from ‘The Road: Part II (Lost Highway)’, which is his latest mixtape release, scheduled for March 29, 2019. Check out the video as well; it’s worth your time.
Marvin & Guy (featuring Allo) | Song: “Notte” | Album: ‘Solar Warriors’ (Life and Death, 2018) … The spirit of Tangerine Dream moves through the music that Italian producers Marvin & Guy create on this track, and the voiceover hearkens to a kind of electronic music specific to the early 1990s that works best to my ear. Across the next several tracks, I’ll start to note samples, ones I’ve introduced, but for this selection the trick is to stay right out of the way.
Marenn Sukie | Song: “Mosaic” | Album: ‘Mosaic’ (Apollo Records, 2018) … Chris Roth is a UK-based producer who goes by the moniker Marenn Sukie. He’s a crazy smart crate-digger — here’s one example of his knowledge, an article about his favorite Polish jazz records for sampling. My own samples on this track include the return of Agent Cooper, sewing the idea from before to the middle of the mix, and then it’s Donald Trump in one of his most bizarrely poetical moments — the Mississippi rally of October 2, 2018 (the bit starts at about 1min14sec) in which he mocks Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. When Trump rants there’s almost a tempo to it … you can actually mix his madness. Later, we hear the incredible David Frost, the first of several samples from an interview the journalist conducted with Robert F. Kennedy, taken from ‘David Frost Talks to Bobby Kennedy’ (Douglas, 1968).
Tosca (featuring Anna Clementi) : Song: “Oscar” | Album: ‘Dehli9’ (!K7 Records, 2003) … Austrian duo Tosca wear their interest in India on the sleeve of their album title from the turn of the century (dehli is a pronunciation of Delhi). Anna Clementi is a Swedish-Italian singer known for the attention she gave to the work of John Cage. The samples here are further lifts from the Frost/Kennedy interview, which was the last the presidential candidate would give before he was shot to death in 1968.
Overjoy | Song: “Same” | Album: ‘Same’ (ONE / HALF Records, 2018) A trio from Los Angeles, the group is two DJs — Metty and Hoff — and Alexis Moraites, a singer/songwriter. I’m not one of those listeners that gets taken-in by voices very often, but there are in the world some lyrics that seem to be sung by exactly the right voice. And isn’t it also the case also that Lex’s vocal and the notes that Anna Clementi sings at the end of the previous track make a kind of marriage?
Moderator | Song: “Burning Bridges” | Album: ‘Sinner’s Syndrome’ (Melting Records, 2018) … An album so good, I needed to give it two places in the mix. The samples Moderator chooses for this one include Paul Newman as Ram Bowen in ‘Paris Blues’ — a film by Martin Ritt, released in 1961. “Honey, I live music. Morning, noon, the whole night. Everything else is just icing on the cake.”
Eyedress : Song: “Ancient Love” | Album: ‘Sensitive G’ (Lex Records, 2018) … Filipino singer, musician, and producer Eyedress (aka Idris Vicuna) gives us one of those bedroom recordings that an artist brings together in a complete way, no compromises. One of the advantages of mixing for the ear — rather than the feet, at least in terms of what IDES is meant to do — is that these soundscapes can open up and a bit of chaos and dissonance can reset the context for what comes before and/or afterwards. Eyedress and “Ancient Love” is a strong example of how that works.
Mastered by Matt Girard, Revolution Sound Studio, 2019