Deep Voices 129

Operating in the outer realms

Deep Voices 129 on Spotify
Deep Voices 129 on Apple Music

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Hello, welcome to Deep Voices, a weekly newsletter featuring a one-hour playlist from me, Matthew Schnipper. I work hard to feature artists across time and genre that may not otherwise be getting the attention I think they should. These playlists and their accompanying text are always free. On the weekends, I publish an additional newsletter, Down the Wormhole—musical revelations, recommendations—just for paying subscribers.

I know asking for a paid subscription is a big request. More than four years into this project, I am hugely grateful for those who can afford to support Deep Voices, my writing career, and the quest to spotlight more musicians who deserve it. If you can afford to support Deep Voices, please subscribe. Thank you!

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This playlist went through many changes, but it always had Mal Waldron. This week’s first song, “Right On” is the lead off track from Waldron’s 1970 album The Opening, a live solo album with touches of free jazz. It’s not a wild song, more pensive than anything else, but for a most bop and post-bop pianist, he plays with real frenetic roughness that’s not present in his otherwise careful catalog. The song is over seven minutes long, and initially, when compiling this playlist, I let length lead the way. My first few iterations had a number of songs of double-digit minute running times. But it felt like a needless exercise in duration. You have to earn that type of time.

Most of my work time the past month or so has been spent working on a second draft of my book, which is a tedious, agonizing process. I listen to music while I’m revising, but nothing too taxing. That has felt a little lame! So, this week, I wanted to dig back in and find an odd array of songs. Not obstinate music, but music that takes up unexpected space. One by one, I deleted everything except Waldron. I revisited a weird album I had trouble wrapping my head around, Vittoria Totale’s Solo Voce and included 30 seconds of her talking. I kept poking around. I loved discovering Martina Berther’s bass experiments, a gleeful Enrico Rava song, something darkly meditative from Flora Yin-Wong, drumless electronics from DOVS, and a track from Këkht Aräkh, which has to be the first emo black metal project. I listened to the 2021 solo album Silence by Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip. He’s not exactly an underground name, but Silence has none of the pop overtures of Hot Chip’s catchiest work. It’s a stark, vulnerable record, something that a major figure in the indie world didn’t need to make. For him, it must have been a necessary choice.

I like weird music. Despite that being the case for 30 years at this point, I still sometimes struggle to convey why. Let me try here: I think I find idiosyncrasy to be art’s most appealing trait. Experimentalism is about messing around, about curiosity, discovery, and then about making a rare connection with someone else operating in the outer realms of sound. Still, I know I can’t live out there all the time. Sometimes, like this week, when I have to focus on something non-musical, I need what I hear to be grounded. But if I spend too long on Earth, I feel stale. Consider this week’s playlist a refresh.