RIP
1955 – 2018
From Another Music in a Different Kitchen (1977)
Deep House With Some Sparkle: “Cookie Man”
From the new Cioz EP: Lucky Man
on Get Physical
Surging New Sounds From John Tejada: “Subsumed”
from Live Rytm Trax
on Palette Recordings
A Lovely, Spindly New Track From Jeff Tweedy
“How Hard Is It For A Desert To Die”
from his latest solo release, Warm
on dBpm Records
Out Of Thailand: Onuma Singsiri’s “Mae Kha Som Tam”
from Sound of Siam: Leftfield Luk Thung, Jazz & Molam in Thailand 1964-1975
on Soundway Records
Saigon’s Vân Sơn: “Cô Tây Đen”
from the new release, Saigon Supersound Vol. 2
on INFRACom!
Herbie Hancock’s “Ostinato (Suite For Angela)”
from Mwandishi
on Warner Bros.
Mwandishi / Herbie Hancock – Fender Rhodes piano
Mchezaji / Buster Williams – bass
Jabali / Billy Hart – drums
Mganga / Eddie Henderson – trumpet, flugelhorn
Mwile / Bennie Maupin – bass clarinet, alto flute, piccolo
Pepo Mtoto / Julian Priester – tenor trombone, bass trombone [Read more…]
Rousing New Afro-Beat From The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
“Fight So Hard”
from Naming & Blaming
on Hope Street Recordings
Haruki Murakami’s “The Wind Cave”
Excerpted from Murakami's recent novel, Killing Commendatore Translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel Read Riot Material's review of Killing Commedatore
When I was fifteen, my younger sister died. It happened very suddenly. She was twelve then, in her first year of junior high. She had been born with a congenital heart problem, but since her last surgeries, in the upper grades of elementary school, she hadn’t shown any more symptoms, and our family had felt reassured, holding on to the faint hope that her life would go on without incident. But, in May of that year, her heartbeat became more irregular. It was especially bad when she lay down, and she suffered many sleepless nights. She underwent tests at the university hospital, but no matter how detailed the tests the doctors couldn’t pinpoint any changes in her physical condition. The basic issue had ostensibly been resolved by the operations, and they were baffled. [Read more…]
In The Grand Scheme Of Things
It sounds like someone wound up the wrens
and let them go, let them chatter across your lawn
like cheap toys, and from here an airplane
seems to fly only from one tree to another, barely
chalking a line between them. We say the naked eye
as if the eye could be clothed, as if it isn’t the world
that refuses to undress unless we turn our backs.
It shows us what it chooses, nothing more, [Read more…]
For A Breakout Jig: Dança do Zumbi
by Zombie Disco Squad (feat. MC Oscar)
from Brazil Bass
on Bunda Locca
Clipping New House From Steve Spacek: “Gimme Da Love”
The Maghreban Remix
From Moxie Presents Volume Four
on On Loop
A Critical Look At Deborah Sengl’s The Last Days of Mankind
The Last Days of Mankind
Artwork by Deborah Sengl
Contributions by Marjorie Perloff, Matthias Goldmann, Anna Souchuk and Paul Reitter
DoppelHouse Press, 176 pp., $38.95
doppelhouse.com
Excerpted from the DoppelHouse Press edition, publishing at the end of the month, which examines Deborah Sengl’s The Last Days of Mankind.
“The Document Is a Figure”
by Matthias Goldmann
Deborah Sengl’s project The Last Days of Mankind originated as an exhibition at the Essl Museum in Klosterneuburg in early 2014, the year that marked the centennial of the beginning of World War I. The artist used 176 taxidermied white rats as actors presenting forty-four scenes from Karl Kraus’ documentary anti-war play The Last Days of Mankind (Die letzten Tage der Menschheit), which comprises 220 scenes and filled 800 pages in the original edition. Due to its length and stage directions, which include the appearance of 12,000 horses, the play has never been performed in full. This “horrible symphony of deeds”[i] is, as Kraus’s preface puts it, unsuited for human audiences and “intended for a theater on Mars.”[ii] There have been numerous attempts since the nineteen sixties to stage this unstageable play; Sengl’s installation was not the only one in 2014, though certainly it was one of the most commended. [iii] [Read more…]
Jordan Wolfson: Art and Objecthood
at the Broad, Los Angeles (Through January 20, 2019)
Reviewed by Emily Nimptsch
“I was mostly just interested in the physicality of what I’d seen in the animatronic field, and I was also interested in making a sculpture that had the potential to be chronological or structural in the same way a video is. My hope is that the work dips in and out of spectacle.” 一 Jordan Wolfson
Beginning with the iconic Venus of Willendorf and her luscious curves, the Western art historical tradition has long associated the female body with consumption and objecthood. Now, in this modern age of technology and the #MeToo Movement, provocative American sculptor Jordan Wolfson’s hypersexualized animatronic figure currently on view at the Broad Museum deliberately challenges the viewer with its seemingly stereotypical depiction of women. Undoubtedly, this demeaning representation is bound to trigger consternation and spark debate. The artist is no stranger to this kind of controversy. His violent virtual reality-based installation at the 2017 Whitney Biennial shocked and horrified both critics and visitors alike. While the Broad’s (Female Figure) is far tamer in comparison, it does effectively question the progress of gender equality in America and echo Edouard Manet’s Olympia (1863) in its subversion of the male gaze. [Read more…]
John Biscello’s Nocturne Variations
Nocturne Variations
by John Biscello
Unsolicited Press, 324 pp., $18.00
Nocturne Variations is a twenty-first century presentation of avant-garde literature.
Super. But what is avant-garde? Avant-garde is a French term that means advance guard — people and ideas that are ahead of their time. It’s a concept that refers to artists, composers, and writers whose works oppose mainstream values. As a noun, avant-garde is defined as new and unusual or experimental ideas in the arts. Often connected to political activism (think of Theater of the Absurd, Bob Dylan, and John and Yoko), there exists a misconception that avant-garde must always be politically driven. [Read more…]
New Work From Indian Wells: “Closer”
From the Phantom Rising EP
on Friends of Friends
From The Late Richard Swift, “Kensington!”
1977 – 2018
From The Hex
on Secretly Canadian
Too Soon Gone: The Late Richard Swift’s “Broken Finger Blues”
From his final release, The Hex
on Secretly Canadian
Reggae-Soul In Jerry Jones’ “Compared To What”
From Jerry Jones at the Hotel Kingston
on Studio One Records