A Portals session with Julianna Barwick recently took place in our apartment. Victoria dusted off her Mamiya medium format for the occasion. Much love and thanks to Julianna, Scott Bell, Eric Littman, Tonje Thilesen, Daniel Dorsa and the whole Portals family.
Nepenthe is out now via Dead Oceans.
The men and women of leisure shift about, a parasol fleet pinwheeling over the statues. Good-intentioned pleasantry for the cafe folk, though ultimately a vain attempt to reset the sun’s dial: a hand-fan in a heatwave. Striding clockwise, their movements catalyze mutation in unison, synched to a telepathic beat… a flamboyant, molecular jam.
The iron masses charge into motion. Off their pedestal stasis, stallions and all, they zig-zag beyond the palm frond canopies, adding one last ceremonious brim-tip to South America’s own twisted Riviera.
A departure to the envelope’s limit.
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Persona La Ave is southern space funk reverend Dylan Dawkins. These days he’s often found on stage supervising the low end for Royal Bangs. Until Persona’s proper return, there’s plenty left to groove with in last year’s Temptation EP.
Last week we made MTV a mix. For good measure, and to further underscore the artists included, it’s been placed here as well.
Sunny Dunes – Patience (Waiting For Summer)
Eola – And I Love Her [The Beatles]
M. Sage – Veridian ii
Monster Rally – Orchids
Bill Fay – Was It You I Saw Today
Candy Claws – A Glimpse of Dreamland
Night Sides – Dream [The Everly Brothers]
M O N E Y – Goodnight London
M. Sage – Veridian i
Timi Yuro – Hurt
WALL – Something On Your Mind [Karen Dalton]
Cuddle Formation – Duckfangs Tickle My Ankles
The Fleetwoods – Tragedy [Thomas Wayne]
M. Sage – Impossible Fenceline
The first and most apparent influence on Dream Believer is the music of our good friend and frequent collaborator, Matthew Sage. His work has a way of warping reference points, often recontextualizing both the beautiful and the mundane. The second is a recent dive back into the Micromix series that Bradford Cox did on his blog years ago (a collection at this point I consider historically significant, and personally one of the most profound experiences with “old music” I’ll ever have). The inclusion of “Tragedy” by The Fleetwoods is an homage to him. With those two on the mind lately, I tried to assemble a listen that made sense of this link, or at least further nonsense of it. I hear it as a compilation of songs—noctambulant & lovesick—from some lost era (at sea, perhaps), like those late night infomercials that run titles over footage of the performers. By mixing the new with the classic, and newer covers of classics, the idea is that we lose orientation with time itself—which is a microcosmic parallel of what we attempt with S&S in general.
From the onset, “Lost My Way” is not trying to find or be found. While anxious, the song maintains a meandering pace, as if accepting its fate, the mist, this labyrinthine circumstance. A voice navigates throughout, quite sublimely, almost to a point of orientation but then in the final third, latches onto the lead of a late piano. There’s a sense this could go on forever; perhaps behind the next tree is a harp, and so on, into the abyss… an alluring loop. Fortunately, its creator—Tokyo-born, Berlin-based artist Cuushe—does have the last say here, knowing just when to wipe the ground out from below us.
Butterfly Case is out September 23rd on Flau.