Deep Voices - Playlist #12
Hurricane's always coming
Deep Voices #12 on Apple Music
A true mixed bag today. An unmixed collection of music I pick on Spotify is not, like, the work of Brancussi but I sure do treat it that way. Last year I interviewed Kim Gordon and she said that she is not a musician and that music is not art. This was dispiriting. Music is history, entertainment, emotion, ideas. It is most certainly art. So while the act of listening and organizing is not quite curating, it does feel closer to that than a science, or to a tossed off piece of entertainment. There are, of course, no stakes to the creation of these playlists and perhaps that is why I treat them so seriously, as everything else at the moment has stakes that reach unimaginable heights. Figure out how to perfectly sequence three songs and you can do anything. Easier said than done.
That said, starting next week I’ll be transitioning from twice a week playlists to once a week. Some of the feedback I’ve received is that it is too much music to really take in. And if you want to treat it like art and not entertainment that takes dedication. An hour of music takes a long time to hear.
Playlist Notes:
Rhodri Davies designed his own harp for this album of solo improvisations. It’s very cleanly recorded but a little kooky, which I like as an opening track here, an amuse bouche of sorts. If you find it annoying, well, it’s only a minute long.
When I put the David Skidmore/West Coast Percussion song on my baby sat up from his mother’s arms and started feverishly looking for where the music was coming from. He probably wanted to eat it.
Laurel Halo doesn’t sing much on her music these days. I wish she would. On “MK Ultra” from her 2012 album Quarantine, she sings with the kind of off key pleading of a true convert. “Hurricane’s always coming,” she says, “So take cover or run.” Like a street preacher. See you at church.
I’ve been waiting for the right mix to end with Jack DeJohnette’s “Four Levels of Joy.” From the mid-’70s, it’s got some underlying notes of funkiness, but it’s mostly a timeless electric piano vamp. Or what’s a slowed down vamp? A stroll? You know what, is four levels of joy even all that many? Is this song sad? I thought it was happy. Most of what I listen to is brutally morose. That’s why I kept tearing this mix up and putting it back together. Too many bleak songs called “Black Helicopters” or “December.” From now on, only songs with joy in the title. Fuck, maybe music is entertainment.