“It’s 11 years since New York’s experimental jazz duo, Swami Lateplate, released their debut, Doom Jazz. To be fair, both its members, Bobby Previte and Jamie Saft, are extremely well-respected jazz musicians and they have been busy with other ventures. Drummer Previte, now in his 70s, has been a presence on the NYC jazz scene since the late 1970s, collaborating with the likes of John Zorn and Elliott Sharp.” Swami, salami, doom Jazz bomby.
“Pathei Mathos means “learn a lesson,” but more literally it refers to “learning through suffering.” Valerio Marras, through his project S A R R A M, takes this phraseology explicitly from Aeschylus’ tragedy Agamemnon, where, in an exposition full of powerful dramatic irony and foreshadowing, the chorus describes this essential component of wisdom to which humans are subjected. The concept of knowledge resulting from and culminating in suffering is arguably a core concept of Greek tragedy. And it’s also a part of life, which Marras aims to convey by channeling his experiences and emotions through Pathei Mathos’ ambient soundscapes.” Life is pain, pain is growth.
I’ve listened to a lot of metal. I’ve listened to a lot of very average metal. I’ve listened to some pretty bad metal. Despite all this, I was simply unprepared for Ajna. You see, Ajna is on another level entirely. True story: “Because of Ajna, I could not complete the train journey to work this week. It was halfway through my 5th listen when something cracked. “Why would the Boss Ape force this upon me?” I mused. “Is this a test of my loyalty?” If so, it was a stern examination. The pointless sound effects; the bizarre vocals; the bite-sized, jittery riffs; these all congealed into a force that simply overwhelmed my brain. I could no longer compute, and the only response was to laugh. So, I did. I howled and cackled and coughed up my coffee.” Small horse, big confusion.
“There is something special about music created by artists who must collaborate with each other from afar rather than together in person. Take the short-lived yet beloved synth-pop duo, The Postal Service. Two artists, electronic musician and DJ Jimmy Tamborello of Los Angeles and Ben Gibbard, singer of the indie band Death Cab for Cutie, of Seattle decided to collaborate with each other undeterred by the distance between them. Jimmy and Ben overcame said distance by sending recordings back and forth via, no joke, the United States Postal Service. I find this mode of collaboration endearing, and I still hold The Postal Service’s one album Give Up near and dear to my heart. Dark ambient doom-jazz band Last Call at Nightowls followed the same formula The Postal Service employed to create their debut album Ask the Dust.” Suspicious package.
“When you hear about certain genres, do you have an image that pops into your head? It’s not always fair, but the most obvious one is black metal. You just got an image of a corpsepainted weeboo hanging out in a dark forest. Boom. I’m a fucking magician. What about sludge? Did you see a backwoods redneck with a twelve-gauge and a six-pack? Sporting beards, greasy locks, and enough flannel to challenge Saskatchewan?” Not your hick uncle’s sludge.
