I just got Mercury Rev's "All is Dream". Is anyone familiar with this record? I was really surprised to find some startling similarities between this record and Bath/LYBM - am just listening for the first time now, but initial observations about the peripherals:
First of all, the tile "All is Dream". Additionally, its release date was within weeks of Bath/LYBM's release date, and the inlay booklet is peppered with Hebrew letters with symbolic meanings (i.e, chet is used for "fence" in this booklet), guitar mappings, planetary zodiac symbols, and other occult allusions. Has any motW fan ever investigated this?
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
assignage
Just got back from tour and found myself without a job to really rely on for the time being. So while I float at home seeking out medical studies or temp work, and not really able to "go out" due to the unemployment, I have the days and nights available. I have a couple drawing projects on my plate; one is a CD cover for a UK band called The Red Word - the other is some KD vinyl preorder merch for the Hydra Head store. (Please don't ask about it).
Aside from trying to conceptualize some drawings, I've been able to take some time to focus on writing - I mean in several-hours-long sessions instead of the usual one-hour a night after work type of thing. This kind of forced introversion is what I've been missing since I moved to NYC; I had it in 2007 when I was living in CT, hence the massive amount of work that went into Blue Lambency Downward, and here it is again - Preceding every album of mine, there has been such a period, and I'm coming to realize that it's perhaps a necessary step to any new, serious writing, since all of that music is so personally deep.
As probably all the readers of this blog know, the next recording I have planned is the maudlin of the Well project in February. So with my mind in that place, a lot of new writing in a rock-based genre can't help but hearken the mood of motW. I actually noticed recently that all the time the boundary I had been trying to define between what was motW and what is Kayo Dot may have been exaggerated. I had always thought that KD's writing was more deliberate - and it is, in a way. But at the same time, there are these periods of forced introversion like I mentioned above, which are bottomless and out-of-time, which when called back to memory are even hazy and dreamy... and which always result in a record. All of my writing has come out of this state - it's just the post-state that gives the music an identity - the level of involvement in shaping the concept.
So as an anxious music listener, I want to record these new tunes as soon as possible and am tempted to have them become a part of the motW record. To be faithful to the project though, it's really against the rules to bring new songs in from scratch, so I'm not going to do it. I don't think I'd want to leave these new songs alone anyway; basically, what has always been defined as a motW tune to me is music that has come in as an idea and then has been pretty much left as-is, without much shaping or censorship by the conscious mind. And because of this, that music is imbued with the melodic, harmonic, and structural identity of all of my influences... a chord progression or lick manifests itself because it makes sense to the memory, and it appeals easier to many listeners because it makes sense to their memory.
Aside from trying to conceptualize some drawings, I've been able to take some time to focus on writing - I mean in several-hours-long sessions instead of the usual one-hour a night after work type of thing. This kind of forced introversion is what I've been missing since I moved to NYC; I had it in 2007 when I was living in CT, hence the massive amount of work that went into Blue Lambency Downward, and here it is again - Preceding every album of mine, there has been such a period, and I'm coming to realize that it's perhaps a necessary step to any new, serious writing, since all of that music is so personally deep.
As probably all the readers of this blog know, the next recording I have planned is the maudlin of the Well project in February. So with my mind in that place, a lot of new writing in a rock-based genre can't help but hearken the mood of motW. I actually noticed recently that all the time the boundary I had been trying to define between what was motW and what is Kayo Dot may have been exaggerated. I had always thought that KD's writing was more deliberate - and it is, in a way. But at the same time, there are these periods of forced introversion like I mentioned above, which are bottomless and out-of-time, which when called back to memory are even hazy and dreamy... and which always result in a record. All of my writing has come out of this state - it's just the post-state that gives the music an identity - the level of involvement in shaping the concept.
So as an anxious music listener, I want to record these new tunes as soon as possible and am tempted to have them become a part of the motW record. To be faithful to the project though, it's really against the rules to bring new songs in from scratch, so I'm not going to do it. I don't think I'd want to leave these new songs alone anyway; basically, what has always been defined as a motW tune to me is music that has come in as an idea and then has been pretty much left as-is, without much shaping or censorship by the conscious mind. And because of this, that music is imbued with the melodic, harmonic, and structural identity of all of my influences... a chord progression or lick manifests itself because it makes sense to the memory, and it appeals easier to many listeners because it makes sense to their memory.
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