The folks at /daily/ have decided to commune and draw up the specifications for a musical canon that
will provide the framework for “taste.” The results: something more carnival than cannon. This isn't a
project borne of consensus, but of doing the dance along tangential circles. We take no credit if you
snarl “blasphemy!” or sing “hallelujah” - there's only hell for those who aren't ready to boogie on down
in the big top.
Over the course of the following weeks, we will drip feed in batches of five (unordered) the albums that
consist the chart, paired with serious and/or whimsical writings for your reading (dis)pleasure. So put
on your dancing boots and light the fuse - yee-haw!
Doopees - Doopee Time
1995, For Life
by R
The pallor of death hangs about on the oblique, but not without a little sense of
wonder, of adventure - of love. Well, ain't it great that Caroline's got Susie by her
side in this grand ol' journey? Brave and inquisitive is Caroline; patient and
understanding is Susie: we can't help but be enthralled by the drumming of their hearts.
Watcha Weeeeee-ooooo-ooooo
Keep the decibels coming Doc! And the heart, what an organ, how its sounds resist the
order of time, stringing us along with the past and squelching the future backwards into
us. Tremulous in this psychedelic state, our thoughts turn to love. Why are there so
many love songs? Goddamn Caroline, I don't know - that's the way it is, the way I guess.
A way to another place, via the ringing of a steelpan or the wistful singing of a
chanteuse or something else. A way somewhere else.
Watcha Weeeeee-ooooo-ooooo
Oh Caroline, we don't want you to go, though maybe you have already gone, gone from this
time and this space. You got it right, life's not only about having a good time. But
Susie is just as right: it also means it's not just about being down and out.
Watcha!
Do Peace!
Lift To Experience - The Texas Jerusalem Crossroads
2001, Bella Union
by Notacop
Lift To Experience is an obscure shoegaze band from Texas that only released one album
of full material, but what an album. The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads is an ambitious
concept album about the Christian apocalypse destroying the habitable world outside of
Texas. The story goes that three good ol' boys from Denton Texas are visited by an angel
who asks them to lead people to Texas through the power of righteous rock music so that
God can establish the Second Jerusalem (there's a humdinger of a line that became a
meme: “The USA is the center of JerUSAlem”, atrocious stuff, I love it), there's a bit
of a crises of faith and the obligatory doubt, before the band ultimately accepts their
roles as the new prophets shortly before the ambiguous “storm” at the end of the album.
So, it's a Christian rock album. You might dismiss it out of hand based on this fact
alone - modern Christian popular music too often evangelizes in a really gross colonial
way or else is infected with cocksure American exceptionalism. And, to be fair, the band
is pretty earnest with this stuff. This album was pre-September 11th, and so lyrics like
“When America falls the world will fall with her” are received differently now than they
were on release. So much of this album presages a reckoning for America, it is hard not
to simultaneously see it in the shadow of 9/11 and also read into it deep disaffection
for the state of the world during America's victory lap following the fall of the Soviet
bloc.
At this stage, I briefly want to touch on the album cover, as most reviewers for this
album seem unable to resist commenting on it. It looks “bad” (set aside for a moment
that the cover is an homage to classic deep-south hip-hop covers that have an equally
ridiculous aesthetic of visual noise). On the face of it, Lift to Experience is a deeply
unattractive prospect for a listening experience, that so many people are disarmed by
it, and what's more, grow to have a love for this album should tell you something.
Shoji Aketwagawa, Kan Mikami, Toshiaki Ishizuka - 大勘定 (Daikanjyo)
2002, Aketa's Disk
by Feels
On July 25th, 2001, all space outside the confines of Aketa No Mise, a jazz club near
Tokyo's Nishi-Ogikubo station, ceased to exist for roughly an hour. Most people didn't
notice, but those who did would relentlessly pursue any opportunity to revisit the world
they had briefly glimpsed then.
Fittingly, this record is intimately connected with Aketa No Mise: not only did the
venue's owner and namesake Shoji Aketagawa participate in the performance and release
the recording on his label Aketa Discs, the ocarina he used to bridge the gaps between
piano numbers was also manufactured at the ocarina workshop adjunct to the club, which
is also depicted on the album cover.
Beyond the ebb and flow of Aketa's piano veering from gently sensual - some would say
erotic - waltz melodies to dissonant free jazz freakouts conjuring veritable
thunderstorms on the stage (not to forget his folkloric ocarina themes lending the
pieces a touch of the shamanic), the wholly improvised performance features the
impassioned - at times seemingly possessed - crooning and sparse enka-inspired guitar of
psychedelic blues-folk maestro Kan Mikami, while the drumming of Toshiaki Ishizuka
provides a stable foundation, his fills expertly matching the energy of his
collaborators.
Somehow, even the recording seems to retain some of the performance's ability to shrink
the world to the size of a room between the confident reverberation of the very first
guitar notes and the ferocity of the final duel between piano and drums. The crowd
applauds and geometry unfolds once again.
World of Echo - Arthur Russell
1987, Rough Trade
by Selib
Arthur Russell, together with the engineer Eric Liljestrand, spent countless nights in
the 80s locked in a studio to work on the material that would become the album World of
Echo. And build a world of echo he did. The album consists almost purely of Arthur's
singing and cello playing, but is also drenched so wetly in effects that it sounds both
incredibly intimate and enormous in size. While Arthur's unusual voice and the loose
structure of the album may cause some listeners to bounce off the album quickly, it will
reward multiple listens as it slowly unravels its complexity and gorgeous songwriting.
Arthur was notoriously unsatisfied with his own work, with the majority of it being
released as archival compilations by the label Audika Records, and many songs on the
album exist in many different forms. 'Hiding Your Present From You' and 'Let's Go
Swimming' for example reappeared on the 2015 compilation Corn in a garage-disco
rendition. 'Tower of Meaning / Rabbit's Ear / Home Away From Home ' calls back to one of
his few modern classical compositions. 'Treehouse' also exists as a bubbly and fun disco
version mixed by Walter Gibbons. Arthur's discography shows that a just plain good song
will sound good in all possible forms it's presented in.
Even now, more than 30 years after the release of World of Echo, its story hasn't ended.
Just this year in 2023, Audika has released 'Picture of Bunny Rabbit', a collection of
songs from the World of Echo sessions that sound just as wonderful and worthy of a
release as the original project. And on the 2020 release of one of Arthur's live
performances, 'Sketches for World of Echo: June 25 1984 Live at Ei', we can discover the
full 20-minute long version of the edited down album version of 'Let's Go Swimming'.
And who knows what else Arthur still has in store for us… 30 years after his passing?
It's easy to make the assumption that Ground Zero doesn't only sample Heiner Goebbles'
swagged out jazz work, but also takes his whole style and just adds guitars to it.
If you are not fucking stupid, it becomes quite clear that they do so much more.
Pekinese Opera's beauty lies in, well, its beauty. It is able to contrast the ominous
tension filled layers of toots and howls with these bombastic communist marches (even
more noticeable on the live performances). Perhaps a commentary of sorts, but all I (and
so should you) care about is this odd serenity that appears from two objectively chaotic
extremes.
And 'extremes' can be taken quite lightly here. This whole thing is so goddamn
digestible and accessible. Like yea,this won't get any radio play any time soon, but
Opera hits every checkbox of the avant teen tourist.
It's just pretentious enough with its samples, has its lead member involved in that one
meme EAI album, and started off by playing fucking John Zorn.
It's all there for the tourist - a quirky aesthetic and obtuse cover, ripe to be plucked
and placed at the top of their topsters chart.
And this whole thing has me thinking. Why isn't this the case? With the explosive rise
of Tiktok, Ground Zero is a time bomb ready to bust on a new generation of horrid
avant-teens. Is Revolutionary Pekinese Opera soon to be the anthem of this new
generation? If you have Billie Eilish, one of the biggest pop stars in the world,
sporting a Blod Besvimelse shirt, how far away are we really from a Ground Zero standom?
Is this a bad thing? The aforementioned John '100 gecs for boomers' Zorn only holds a
foul taste in my mouth due to the numerous dogshit clownmusic bands his influence
spawned into existence. But as Schopenhauer - was it Schopenhauer? Yes, I believe so -
anyway, Schopenhauer once said that "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is
ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being
self-evident."
Anyway, I really don't know, and I don't know if I even care. The album is fucking
great, and at the end of the day, what even is a review other than saying 'I like it
because it sounds nice'. All of Pekinese Opera's elements are a recipe for a quirked up
obnoxious disaster, but somehow they made it work.
It sounds nice!
