TRACKS AND NOTES
Spencer Zahn | Song: “Cyanotype” | Album: ‘People of the Dawn’ (Double Denim, 2018) … Spencer Zahn, of Brooklyn, plays the bass and a ton of other instruments and on this track composes — or improvises — in the company of some deep acid-jazz talent (Dave Harrington, of Darkside). The samples are my addition: Patti Hearst, then Susan Atkins, and then Mia Farrow as the title mom in Rosemary’s Baby. Women in distress, in trouble of different kinds — this is a theme across the volume that follows.
A Certain Ratio | Song: “Houses in Motion” | Album: ‘acr:set’ (Mute, 2018 [recorded: 1980]) … If it sounds like Talking Heads, that’s because this previously unreleased track, recording in 1980, is a cover of that band’s song from the album Remain in Light. Factory Records and Greater Manchester mainstays, A Certain Ratio recorded and socked the track away that year, back when the Heads’ record was just out, and then their version of “Houses in Motion” emerged last year on ACR’s box-set retrospective.
Malibu Ken | Song: “Acid King” | Album: ‘Malibu Ken’ (Rhymesayers, 2019) … The duo of Portland, Oregon MC Aesop Rock and multi-instrumentalist TOBACCO — who is also known as the frontman for Black Moth Super Rainbow — deliver a dark story of Satanic doings and murder on this backwoods soundtrack to a cult-killing epic you’ve never seen (because it hasn’t been made).
MC 900 Foot Jesus | Song: “Shut Up” | Album: ‘Hell With the Lid Off’ (Nettwerk, 1990) … Accompanied by DJ Zero on this track, Mark Griffin, who is MC 900 Foot Jesus, is taking us into the wide open otherspace of its sampled speaker’s mind. Much of the album, the first of the Dallas musician’s catalog — though, this track emerged a little earlier, even, as a single in 1988 — deals, to some extent, with mental illness. The more I listen to this cut, the more I feel there is a strength in the woman’s words, and that she is intelligent, and, ultimately, the difference between understanding her complaint becomes less important than knowing that she very well understands her own argument.
Kid Loco | Song: “A Grand Love Theme” | Album: ‘A Grand Love Story’ (Yellow Productions, 1997) … This pretty little piece is from the second album by France’s Jean-Yves Prieur, working under the Kid Loco moniker. The sample at the end of this comes from a segment of Girl Defined, a YouTube series produced and hosted by Kristen Clark and Bethany Baird, who are ministers in Texas. Their message primarily focuses on the subject of God and women.
Jimothy Lacoste | Song: “Getting Burberry Socks” | Album: ‘Getting Burberry Socks’ (Black Butter, 2019) … Timothy Gonzales, aka Jimothy Lacoste, is from Camden, that patch of north London, and he’s become kind of a big deal — from YouTube famous to festival famous. Here’s a long read about his emergence and rise in The Daily Beast.
Clara Luciani | Song: “Nue” | Album: ‘Sainte-Victoire’ (Clara Luciani, 2019) … A rising pop star in her native France, the Parisian singer has issued her first record twice, and “Nue” is on the new edition. The first release, the 2018 version, has the orange cover; the 2019 reissue is yellow.
Clément Froissart | Song: “Amour Armure” | Album: ‘Amour Armure’ (Sister Records/Believe, 2019) … The former guitarist and vocalist for the French band Concorde strikes out on a solo flight with this track. It’s a sad lyric, the translation of the title is “Love Armor”, and there’s a tragic little video to watch too, click here.
Mastered by Matt Girard, Revolution Sound Studio, 2019