39 entries for September 2021

Jorge Ben: Força Bruta (1970)

Mixes complex harmonies with Brazilian dance rhythms, orchestra with folk instruments, and is generally a good time.

Sam Gendel and Sam Wilkes: Music for Saxofone and Bass Guitar (2018)

Full of strange and wonderfully creative sounds, beatboxing, and melody-less improvising, all of which were recorded live with something like loop pedals. I really dug the mouth percussion and head-banging stank face grooves on THEEM AND VARIATIONS; as well as the beat from dental fricatives on GREETINGS TO IDRIS. The inconspicuously-named TRACK ONE has this remarkable throat falsetto riff and manages to build a movement-inducing rhythm that simultaneously feels sparse and full-bodied, drizzled with a solo of quartal explorations on thirteenth chords.

[Internalizers don't act out their emotions immediately and instead let them foster and intensify.]

[The idea that one day they will change is a healing fantasy, created by a child's mind and not adapted to adult reality.]

[The child of emotionally immature parent creates a role-self that transforms into what the parent wants them to be.]

[The role-self has no energy of its own and needs to steal from true self. It is insecure because it's made-up and afraid of being revealed as an imposter.]

[Healing fantasy of people being there for me. Role-self of being available.]

John Collison – Growing the Internet Economy

[Products that succeed in the United States are not the same as those that succeed in other countries. The local customs in Indonesia, or even in the UK, can necessitate a different approach.]

[Anger is a normal response to abandonment, and we can experience it even when feeling unseen or unheard.]

[Enmeshment is different from emotional intimacy. The former implies fulfilling roles that re-inforce dependency whereas the latter implies building trust through getting to know each other and mutual acceptance.]

The Art of Productive Disagreement

[Being civil, skirting around difficult topics isn't enough.]

[Disagreement is rarely about facts, but about values.]

[Seeing what happens, making a prediction and then wait, implies there's nothing to argue about. Everyone learns something. It's a way of creating rituals.]

[Celebrate cognitive dissonance from being wrong because it's a sign of learning.]

[In new spaces, ask what is nobody allowed to talk about. The closer it is to the surface, the more taboo it might be.]

[Put the facts aside: what does each party want? what do they think is going to happen? How much is it going to change the future? Let's check back in a month, no rush to solve this, we'll still be friends, it's about our relationship.]

[Biases are functional and everyone needs them to survive.]

[Parental rejection can result in the child lacking confidence that others can be interested in them. Instead of asking for what they want, they avoid interacting out kf fear to burden someone else.]

[The need and desire for deep connection is not merely human, but genetic, coming from evolutionary imperative to be part of the group for survival.]

[Dismissively saying that one didn't mean it is a way to egocentrically focus on the intention as opposed to the negative impact of bad actions.]

[Not knowing who you are or being given space to explore it is like having puzzle pieces that don't fit together, which results in inconsistency.]

[Inconsistency can maladaptively bond the parent and child because the once in a while there is a reward.]

Pino Palladino + Blake Mills: Chris Dave

From Notes With Attachments (2021). Grooooooovy, jazzy, funky, with intricate clicking and clacking, and water glasses played with a violin bow.

Steve Lacy: Raps (1977)

Beautiful chaos from one of the free jazz greats: plenty of clashing notes, disjunct rhythms—everything’s broken as it should be.

Kasai Allstars: In The 7th Moon, The Chief Turned Into A Swimming Fish And Ate The Head Of His Enemy By Magic

Spectacular album title. Features traditional sounds and singing by Congo-based musicians mixed with modern production techniques. If you dig this, check out the Nihiloxica from #014. Lots of groovy, funky bits where I found myself practicing Rich Brown’s modal improvisation tips from #012.

Fikret Kızılok: Zaman Zaman (1993)

Chills me out, quiets me down—music to sway. This Turkish rock singer creates an old sentimental sound using acoustic instruments. My favourite is Oysa Ben with looping chord progressions, sounds of the shore, vinyl scratching, seagulls. Nice also to hear the warm piano on İki Parça Can.

Blood and Dust: Rites of Blood and Dust (2020)

So far away from what I normally listen to that I needed to look up the genre in Bandcamp (it says ‘ambient ritual ambient atmospheric horror dark ambient drone horror drone melodic dark ambient queer Montreal’). I often struggle when listening to music that calls itself ambient because I tend to find it sort of ‘empty’, but this was very clearly not the case here. Many tracks have this tasteful way of shifting the meter from a ‘three’ to ‘four’ feel, or gradually building intensity, or contrasting between arhythmic and groove, textural and instrumental. In the Hollow of a Hill somehow works in a flute and maybe a cello… This is not passive listening but a sound experience that’s well put-together: I recommend hearing from start to finish.

[Is there a kernel of truth. How is it being spun?]

[Information is a verb, something that happens to you.]

[Inform-ation as reception.]

[Information is reaction.]

[We see not the world but our model of the world, periodically updated.]

[Hot I'll tell you. Cool you'll tell you.]