WILT_2023-01

A playlist of songs that intrigued me from Sunday to Saturday. Week of 1 Jan 2023 to 7 Jan 2023.

1. First Light – Ill Considered, Theon Cross, Kaidi Akinnibi, Robin Hopcraft, Ralph Wyld
2. Wanna Know – The Soft Pink Truth
3. Myself When Young – Dorothy Ashby
4. I Am So Happy With My Little Dog – Shabason & Krgovich, Joseph Shabason, Nicholas Krgovich
5. Crime Seed – Meditations on Crime, Gang Gang Dance, Harper Simon
6. All that she wants – Clea Vincent
7. Rosin Immersion – Al Cisneros
8. Suicide of Judas – Al Cisneros

Hyperlink to Spotify playlist: WILT_2023-01

Notes

And just like that, we find ourselves in 2023. Some with promise and some with dread, some looking for change and some who do not mind more of the same. It’s funny how one orbit around the sun is defined in this construction of society. I can see how we base our concepts and perceptions of time around the pattern of the seasons, but so much more of modern society has also been built on top of this concept. But lest we forget, we constructed these concepts, and we choose or allow ourselves to be swept up in it.

I don’t think it’s wrong to follow these social constructs. It aids us in being more, because it allows us the ability to believe that tomorrow might come, or that things will continue or need to continue in some way, shape, or form. But it is also useful to step back and step out once in awhile, particularly when we feel that life is not heading anywhere, we can take some comfort in the fact that a spinning rock orbiting a celestial star may not have any inherent meaning whatsoever, save for what we choose to impose on it. Maybe there’s some comfort there that we get to define what our lives mean, because this cosmic joke already had its punchline, and it’s only on our way home that we loose a weak chortle that nobody else really hears.

Music-wise, I am very pleased to start the year with Ill Considered’s First Light. It already starts off strong with the drones of a saxophone resting atop the energy of bass part that’s allowed to fill out more space than it normally should. However, it’s when the whole band comes in that everything gets taken to the next level. For one thing, I thoroughly enjoyed Then Cross’s authoritative tuba arrangement that gives this brilliant arrangement some foundation shattering groove.

Wanna Know I added because its groovy disco bass line was just so tasty and frolicking.

I immediately added Myself When Young by Dorothy Ashby when I heard the harp and jazz arrangements. Upon further explorations, we also learn that Ashby played the Japanese koto on the album ‌The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby.

There are some great guitar licks in I Am So Happy With My Dog by Shabason & Krgovich, so that’s why I included the song. It’s a nice song too, and it is about a dog. Kinda cute really.

Crime Seed was rather interesting to listen to, but it was definitely the vocals by Lizzi Bougatsos of Gang Gang Dance that enamoured me. Overall, it reminded me of something Goat might do if someone sampled them or produced them in a different way, but this is an interesting electronic psych rock mashup that turned me into the direct of Gang Gang Dance, which I should do a bit more listening on.

When I first heard this cover of All That She Wants by Clea Vincent, I was immediately taken in, but it was only after multiple listens that I’ve grown to absolutely love this version of the song. Starting with Vincent’s fiendishly cheeky and carefree vocal performance, to the vintage synth work that accompanies the song, it’s simplistic but indelibly infectious. In fact, it might be my favourite way to enjoy this song, day or night.

We close off the playlist with some pieces by Al Cisneros (former bassist of Sleep). I love Cisnero’s work on Sleep and Om, while his solo work tends to be more minimal or still in a draft stage, they are still fun explorations into the realm of dub music.