Is Anyone Out There

It's been a long time since I've updated. Some big changes going down but this has never really been the venue for me to get into that. So of course I'm updating to post another mix (and it's an old one). I made this Halloween mix (aka an everyday mix) about 4 years ago and lost it for a long while as a result of a hard drive crash. I'm pretty stoked as I just got a copy of it again from a friend who still had it (thanks Kristen!). It's my only attempt at mixing multiple mp3s down into a single track and both parts are both are under 80 minutes so you can burn them to two cds. I think it worked out pretty well. Anyway, 'tis the season so enjoy (track list after the jump)!

Married To The Macabre: Download Here

I Keep Her Photograph Against My Heart.

I finally got around to scanning a bunch of Polaroids I've been taking over the past year. I still have a few more stacks to scan, so this is only the first batch. You can see the ones that I've gotten up thus far on my Flickr account under the set: FUJ-POLA. In order to refrain from soley making a self-promoting post I'll spend the rest of this going over how I got into using my Land Camera 250 and the resources I used to get it up and working since I occasionally get questions from friends & strangers alike. For that overview & links to resources, follow the jump below.


Patti Smith's Land Camera 250
(same make & model as mine)

Colorful Are All The Lambs.

The Balkan Situations - Valle E Gajdes

I’ve always had an affinity for whatever glimpses I’ve gotten into Balkan culture/music but it always happened to peripherally come my way and it took a while for me to really explore it on my own. However, I do have to credit The Balkan Situations, who were a nine piece band based in Middletown CT, for causing me to actively pursue an interest in learning what little I have thus far about the region. I caught them a number of years back in a warehouse in Rhode Island, playing a noise show with Lightening Bolt. They’re pretty much all I remember of that night (though in the interest of full disclosure I did kill a bottle of wine [at the very least] during their set alone and came close to shattering it on the concrete floor as I tapped along). Leave it to a group of students to maddeningly play traditional folk music in the middle of no where and show up a roster of noise bands with their ferocity and leave me totally enraptured. I managed to only catch them one other time in New Britain CT with very much the same result. Thankfully, I got a couple cdrs from them before I moved out west & they split up not too long after that. I still listen to those cdrs and something about seeing that music live for the first time really stuck with me. It was certainly the kick in the ass I needed to instill a desire to learn what I can about the Balkans and a longing to make it there in person. Anyway. They’re the main reason I wind up in Croatian-American halls for Croat Bagpipe Jams, buy whatever books I see on the region, download Balkan folk music and obsessively look at related photography on Flickr.

Listen to more: HERE

Watch them play: HERE

It Really Gets You To Your Soul.

Annnnnnd yet another mix. Not too many updates on here as of late but this blog isn't completely forsaken. Yet. This mix is mostly tracks that I've been digging lately that I grabbed from other blogs (mostly what you see on the right column) as well as old favorites and some solid standby's. It's called '+/-' and it's aight.

Various - +/-

01 - Hole Of A Heart - Epic Soundtracks
02 - Dying Day - Incubated Sounds
03 - Next In Line - Das Kabinette
04 - So Low - Carol & Snowy Red
05 - Lies On The Line - Dominion
06 - Lonely Day - Entre Deux Guerres
07 - Never Enough! - Aiboforcen
08 - Let Them Perish Like Flies - Incubated Sounds
09 - Suffering - Morgue
10 - XII - Der Blutharsch
11 - Ich Sehe Die Alle In Einer Reihe - Swans
12 - I'm A Believer - Anita Lane
13 - Afraid - Crisis
14 - Sweet Nocturne - Love Life
15 - Yagga Blues [Instrumental] - Nurse With Wound
16 - Sev Acher - Sun City Girls
17 - Untitled (02) - Ulaan Khol
18 - The Shadow Of No Man - Crime & The City Solution
19 - ...Then Poland - Swell Maps

Download: HERE

And Creation And Time Are Made From Destruction.

Swans - Die Tür Ist Zu

Preview - Ich Sehe Die Alle In Einer Reihe

Despite the lack of new material, 'Die Tür Ist Zu' (The Door Is Closed) is one of my favorite Swans releases. While at first glance it seems to be slapped together or more of an odds & ends release than an album (which ultimately is the case), that shouldn't take away from the fact that it is extremely well compiled from start to finish and a unique testament unto itself. Clocking in at 55 minutes, it's a full figured beast that has an ebb & flow which gives it a stand alone experience despite the compiled nature and availability of tracks elsewhere (whether previously released or released in different forms). While Swans has always managed to get under my skin in a disturbing & sinister way (that I do enjoy, mind you)... there's something about this release that does it so effectively I keep coming back to it (though it may very well be Gira in German which has me hook, line and sinker).

A download link can be found: HERE.

Track History After The Break.

And Their Souls Wander With The City Crows.

Sarajevo Blues by Semezdin Mehmedinović

Finished reading 'Sarajevo Blues' by Semezdin Mehmedinović a couple weeks back. I rather enjoyed it and I get the impression that I'll be giving it a few more reads over the years. I'm not exactly sure when I became fascinated with the Balkans, though I've been taken by folk music from the region for a number of years now. Recently, I'd been trying to learn more about the history of the Balkans and while I've read 'Balkan Ghosts' by Robert D. Kaplan, 'Sarajevo Blues' is now the most current book I've digested and the first by a native of the region. Unlike 'Balkan Ghosts', 'Sarajevo Blues' is a mixture of poetry, prose & short essays as opposed to a historical travelogue which I think helps my understanding of the region beyond perceptions culled from foreign reportage. Foreign reportage, seeming to be 90% of what is available when I check the sadly limited selection for the region in bookstores (but that's a separate tangent and a sore point). All that said, 'Sarajevo Blues' was fascinating and provoking & after the jump I've posted two of the pieces that I've reread numerous times.

Waked By The Trumpet Sound.

(AND AM I BORN TO DIE?) - Various Artists

Just wrapped this mix up today. The title and part of the structure comes from the hymn, Idumea (47b). A few different versions are scattered from start to finish and provide a loose overall theme that ties into most of the songs. I think it flows pretty well for the most part though it's a bit front loaded with a kind of claustrophobic energy and then tends to chill out and feel more spacious from the middle to the end. Anyway, below you'll find the lyrics for Idumea and then the tracklisting & download link for the mix itself. Enjoy!

Idumea (47b)

Tune: Ananias Davisson, 1816
Words: Charles Wesley, 1763
Meter: Short Meter (6,6,8,6)

And am I born to die?
To lay this body down!
And must my trembling spirit fly
Into a world unknown?

A land of deepest shade,
Unpierced by human thought;
The dreary regions of the dead,
Where all things are forgot!

Soon as from earth I go,
What will become of me?
Eternal happiness or woe
Must then my portion be!

Waked by the trumpet sound,
I from my grave shall rise;
And see the Judge with glory crowned,
And see the flaming skies!

(AND AM I BORN TO DIE?) - VARIOUS ARTISTS

01 - Idumea, 47b - Ivey Memorial Singing
02 - Nux Vomica - The Veils
03 - Melting Away - Absolute Body Control
04 - Mr. Ray - Suicide
05 - United - Throbbing Gristle
06 - The Naked And The Death - Siglo XX
07 - Stop Breathing - Blessure Grave
08 - The Poison For Me - Mark Lane
09 - Maikäfer Flieg - Grauzone
10 - Black Ships Were Sinking-Idumæa - Current 93 feat. Cosey Fanni Tutti
11 - Opium Song - Michael Gira
12 - Dream Of A Butterfly Inside The Skull Of A Horse - Nurse With Wound
13 - A Prayer - Madeleine Peyroux
14 - Ember - Dirty Three
15 - Rebel Grave - Nikki Sudden & Rowland S. Howard
16 - The Bells Belong To The Ashes - Die Haut feat. Anita Lane
17 - Black Death-Life Is Knife - Crispy Ambulance
18 - And Am I Born To Die? (Idumea, 47b) - Doc Watson & Gaither Carlton

Download it: HERE.