nocturnal weeks: September 2009

Monday, September 28, 2009

all colours come to agree in the dark

Ive been really enjoying kyp malone's solo album under the moniker 'rain machine'. perhaps one of my top three albums of the year thus far, so put on some headphones and listen to a few tracks for yourself. As well, a couple chad v.g. b-sides from soft aeroplane i enjoy at the moment.

Rain Machine - Driftwood Heart
Rain Machine - Smiling Black Faces
Rain Machine - Winter Song
Rain Machine - Desperate Bitch
Rain Machine - Leave The Lights on
Chad Vangaalen - Corvette
Chad Vangaalen - Did You Find Peace?

Download Link: https://www.yousendit.com/download/ZW9DQk15eFVwcFZFQlE9PQ

History of the Night

Throughout the course of th generations
men constructed the night.
At first she was blindness;
thorns raking bare feet,
fear of wolves.
We shall never know who forged the word
for the interval of shadow
dividing the two twilights;
we shall never know in what age it came to mean
the starry hours.
Others created the myth.
They made her the mother of the unruffled Fates
that spin our destiny,
thev sacrificed black ewes to her, and the cock
who crows his own death.
The Chaldeans assigned to her twelve houses;
to Zeno, infinite words.
She took shape from Latin hexameters
and the terror of Pascal.
Luis de Leon saw in her the homeland
of his stricken soul.
Now we feel her to be inexhuastible
like an ancient wine
and no one can gaze on her without vertigo
and time has charged her with eternity.

And to think that she wouldn't exist
except for those fragile instruments, the eyes.

Jorge Luis Borges

all images by lorna simpson and printed on felt panels or news print: http://lsimpsonstudio.com/

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

jousting with shadows

i find blu's work/art fascinating: often temporary, most often for a temporary online audience, a fluid use of static frames, political and satirical (yet less obvious than a lot of stencil art), and performed in the forgotten spaces of the city. perhaps it is the fact that it not for sale galleries, that while the canvas turns to rubble so does the work, that attracts me most. i posted the video for 'muto' some time ago and the new video 'combo' continues to further my fascination. each frame itself a piece of 'art', something university activists would surely buy prints of at urban outfitters before their safe local gathering of bored middle class issues and the poverty of action, but the frame is not to be found. white wash and white wash falls like justice and joy...

COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop) from blu on Vimeo.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

i mistaked you for a chanterelle...

its been a while since i've posted, yet again, but with my thesis done and a job found i should be able to post more regularly again...

i figured i would post some new stuff i've been into lately. firstly, alela diane's last album was an over produced mess which lost what had originally made her music capitivating. her new 10' ep with alina hardin seems to be moving back to the rustic acoustic mountain sound that got her attention in the first place. Califone are one of my all time favourite bands and for the life of me i cant figure out why they dont get more attention (although if they did i would probably bemoan it). Anyway, there new album, 'all my friends are funeral singers' is absolutely amazing... the two wooden sky tracks are from their tour ep - thanks to tyson for the help - and the songs continue with the quality of their recent album. not sure about super group monsters of folk yet, but i dont mind these two tracks. the clientele's new album is their best since strange geometry, nothing new, but they pull it off well. kings of convenience seem to be getting close to a new album, although riot on an empty street is a b-side from their last album of the same name. i hope they return to their darker and glacial side for the coming record. kurt mother fucking vile, i love this album and his previous work so much, just great rock music. and finally, while i can't get behind the new fuck buttons album, i like this b-side to their single as it has a very animal collective rhythm and such... not sure why i just wrote all of that, moral of the story listen to califone and kurt vile...