RIP David Lynch

 

    "...I think that everything's going in evolution. But it's a slow process and there's lots of places to get hung up and we're in one of those places right now."

--David Lynch, Search & Destroy #9

It was 2006 or '07 when Disaster Amnesiac had a conversation with a dude who'd recently seen David Lynch give a talk. L told me about how most of the time spent during this talk was upon the subject of transcendental meditation. It's known that Lynch was a long term practitioner of the activity. One has to wonder how that practice informed the last phase of his life, his dying phase. It's far beyond me to put forth any more propositions than that though, as regards David's personal journey into death of his body. Disaster Amnesiac would like to say that I've never seen Eraserhead, but have watched Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart, both seasons of Twin Peaks, Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me, Mulholland Drive, and Inland Empire multiple times each and they are all considered by me to essential to a certain way of thinking about art in general and film specifically. Lynch evinced evolution above hang ups. All of these productions of his kick major ass in their own singular ways, and they are all evolution from what he'd done previously. There are people that love his stuff and people that do not love his stuff. I can think of a few that I've known, on both sides of that coin. He was not a magnet for indifference, which is a key signifier for true creativity.

I was told that David Lynch died today. It's not sadness which I feel from that news. It seems to me that somehow Lynch wouldn't have wanted that for people. Sadness is too narrow a spectrum, especially for practitioners of transcendental meditation. His film work is timeless in its own transcendental way, and I know that that work will continue to be appreciated here and probably lots of others places too.

Live shot(s) #154!

 

All shots from Desert Drone show at Wave Archive Tucson, 1/14/2025

Below: Vulture Vault: towards personal melodic invention.

Above: Kelby Clark achieving micro-tones and sub-harmonics through Claw Hammer technique. Out on tour now.

Below: Steev Hise. Utilizing enhanced singing/songwriting for exploration of the squishy sides of self doubt. Electronic fireplace not in frame. 

Many and varied ways in which to achieve the Drone. One hears it or one doesn't. It occurs, either way.
 

Nubdug Ensemble-Third; Catsynth Records, 2024

 

It was only after six or seven spins of Nubdug Ensemble's Third that Disaster Amnesiac was hipped to the fact that there is an overarching theme to the album. According the the band's Bandcamp page, said theme is that of Julius Ceaser's reign within the then emerging imperial Rome. Nubdug Ensemble composer and leader re-posted what I am sure is a very astute bit of writing that compares William Shakespeare's play about Brutus's victim at said page, and I'm sure that it's an intellectual whopper wholly worth reading while one listens to Third. Disaster Amnesiac makes it a habit to not read reviews of releases that I'm currently preparing to enthuse upon, so that piece is unfamiliar to me, at least for the time being. What is familiar to me is the astuteness and clarity of Berry's musical compositions. Any music listener that is interested in enthused harmony, active rhythmic structuring, and melodic invention beyond what is usually deemed acceptable for these compositional elements will find many reasons to dig Third. As with all of the previous Nubdug Ensemble albums, Jason assembled a group of first call players/composers/improvisors for the realization of this current one, and it's no surprise that they do not disappoint; while every one of them deserves mention, and I admonish you to check the list of stellar musicians involved, I will single out guitarist Myles Boisen for his great six string performance and Amanda Chaudhary, who engineered Third really well. That said, there's no one who is not completely kicking ass as they contribute to this release. Third is a damn fun recording that shows Jason Berry to be reaching ever new heights of compositional and performative plateau within his singular musical vision, and Disaster Amnesiac enjoys it from front to back. What a great album Third is! I'm keeping this review short and encouraging you to scroll over to Nubdug Ensemble's Bandcamp page in order to buy a copy for yourself. I'll be heading over in short order to read that review, which will no doubt be much better than mine at elucidating the finer points of Third. Not like that's a complaint mind you. Hit us with more music soon, Jason and your cohort!

Live shot(s) #153!

 Taken at Wave Archive Tucson, 1/8/2025

Below: Grant Beyschau. Microtonal densities and attendant bliss.

Above: Chelsey Lee-Trejo Cecyl Ruehlen Duo. Drone duo conjurations with subtle tonal variations and a perfect landing. Simpatico.

Thurston Moore-Flow Critical Lucidity; Daydream Library Series, 2024

 

Despite the fact that we're now into 2025, Disaster Amnesiac continues to think about Best Of lists for 2024. Some good friends of mine recently pointed me towards theirs, and it was clear to me just how much music I had missed out on. As usual, it's humbling and awesome to realize how much great sound is produced, and how easy it can be to access most of it. Still, there's only so much time to be had and spent within the pursuit. A music lover will most likely not be able to hear the vast majority of it, even if they want to do so, even if they attempt to do so. 

This is all mentioned in relation to Thurston Moore's Flow Critical Lucidity because it's easily my pick for the best musical release of last year (an aside: the liner note lists it as having copyright 2023 and 2024 but it came to my attention within the latter year). It can be assured that Disaster Amnesiac listened to a lot of music last year, a fair amount of it being newly released (another aside: when will Black Flag write and release new sounds?), and none of it was as compelling to my perceptions as Flow Critical Lucidity. Just that title alone! Such an incredible desire(ing machine)! Of all the dynamics aspired to, critical lucidity flowing sounds top shelf. One can imagine oneself within a state of inspired clarity within that state, and that's a state that sounds pretty magical. 

Getting back to the music on the album: seven exquisite tracks, rooted within the long running aesthetics that Moore has utilized ceaselessly that also show new breakthroughs for them. New In Town kicks things off with the kind of chiming guitar tones familiar to and loved by Thurston fans. These sounds are bolstered by the imaginatively realized percussion of Jem Doulton. There's a kind of Beatnik bongo calypso feel within it that upon first listen and just about every subsequent one has Disaster Amnesiac feeling nicely espresso'ed and very appreciative of the heartfelt love for various D.C. musical acts expressed within the lyrics of the tune. I'm not sure who the lyricist named Radieux Radio is, but that entity certainly does love the sounds of the District of the 1980's. What thinking person wouldn't though, right? Next up comes the beautiful Sans Limites, almost three minutes of an absolutely gorgeous prelude that leads into a verse which should have been a big radio hit. Not sure if those are even a thing anymore but listen to the song and you'll catch the drift. Magical song writing with a very inspired musical performance. Track three, Shadow, gets into another really subtle groove, all of the instrumental players locking in to each others' lines while Moore seems to be dealing with ghosts that linger around his physical environment. The environment which I find myself in is very conducive to ghosts, so, yeah, relatable. The key is to acknowledge them; they're not to be feared. A very subtle burst of feedback kicks off Hypnogram before its melody, one of such delicate longing as to make a sensitive person shed tears of joy, starts up. It sounds as if it's a reminiscence of times gone by, recalled with affection and the joy of remembering those small moments that add up to love. The group stretches within their groove after the lyrics, and its a great one for driving and/or dancing. Disaster Amnesiac has had both experiences with the song and I can assure you that this statement is accurate. Following all of that motion, one may want to kick back and relax, and We Get High is a perfect song for which to do so. It's also the best Stoner Rock song that I've heard in decades, what with the Wagnerian visuals of its lyrics and the cannabinoid timbre of the guitars and electronic effects that are utilized on it. This one is a bong load of psychedelic power and the various groups that have either "Weed" or "Goat" within their monikers should take note and act accordingly. It's a long-ish song that could go longer for its slow, hazy groove! Rewilding shows the band getting to an almost Go-Go groove at times while the vocals warn someone that Thurston just wants to get a bit of rest and to dream of butterflies kissing his face. There's an all-percussion break down at the back end of the track that really should be sampled by some astute beat maker. A fine penultimate track on the fine LP that is Flow Critical Lucidity. This leads to the closer, The Diver, and epic Psych jam that ties up all of the varied flows within the masterpiece that the album is. Another slow burn approach that wends its way through eight minutes of guitar exploration and whimsy, and Disaster Amnesiac has noted that its ending sounds circle right back to the first sounds of the album, giving it a ouroboros type of effect. Seriously, the way that the music of Flow Critical Lucidity was arranged is much akin to that of a symphony. I have no idea if that was Thurston Moore's intention but that's how it sounds to me. 

A few thoughts tangential to the sounds: the cover image is wonderful and the gaps between songs is well done. As to the former, can you imagine putting that helmet atop your cranium and striking those tuning forks? What type of brain burn would you experience. In regards to the latter, they give the listener a nice little bit of reflective time after each track, and each of them deserve a lot of reflection. Every song on Flow Critical Lucidity is brilliant.

Disaster Amnesiac expects that Flow Critical Lucidity, my pick for best release of 2024, will be in rotation well into 2025 and beyond. It transcends considerations of mere linear time anyway.

Hardcore '25.

 For the past several weeks Disaster Amnesiac has been perusing a well worn copy of Steven Blush's American Hardcore-A Tribal History during various down time activities at mi casita. Recall purchasing the book excitedly when it was initially published. That's what, twenty-two years ago now? Blush was a participant within the initial bloom of Hardcore and all of the contributors to this oral history of the movement were too. To varying degrees every one of them do frame Hardcore as a movement. It was more than just a development within the music culture. It would seem redundant for me to recount the talking points of Hardcore as movement, and who really has time to read anymore anyway? From a purely subjective frame of reference Disaster Amnesiac has been playing Hardcore recordings that I own or have access to: Necros, Misfits, Agnostic Front. Never stopped listening to Minor Threat and various other D.C. Hardcore sounds, or Cro-Mags, Fang or Minutemen. Right now Everything Went Black is spinning in the house CD player. Disaster Amnesiac posted pics from a Black Flag show that occurred here in Tucson last Sunday. These are aspects of Hardcore that still affect my music listening, how I hear music. At least it seems that way much of the time. Other types of music share that space of course but it was Hardcore music, particularly that of Black Flag and to a slightly lesser extent Minor Threat wherein I really felt music with a kind of bodily consciousness. Obviously there are many others still hanging around this realm too. Are they watching the contemporary Hardcore shows that get posted on YouTube? Disaster Amnesiac hits the play button on them fairly often. I can't say that there's much to excite my musical synapses when they're viewed. There's a kind of formulaic aspect to them, one that's been noted and critiqued for so long now; again, the reader needn't be harangued with it from this quadrant. It looks as though people have a great time at these Hardcore shows and there's no shame in that. A couple of years back the Tucson band Bat Population played at Hotel Congress, opening for a few of the then-hot contemporary Hardcore bands. Bat Population, sadly disbanded, were not a Hardcore band. They were my favorite band of the evening. Glad that they played first, because my attention was sharp and not volume worn as I tried to pay mind to their musical band dynamics as they worked them in front of people.  Shoes with toe protection were more imperative for witnessing the second two bands than musical attentiveness, but then again it seems as though Hardcore's physicality won out over its more cerebral elements a long time ago. No need to dialectical about it. It is what it is and in some ways a person's ability to cope with that perspective can be enhanced by time spent around Hardcore scenes. There's a quote from Scream's Pete Stahl in American Hardcore: "[M]ost of the shows were in a shitty part of town...kids from the 'burbs were being exposed to the realities of the world..." I can certainly attest to having had certain blinders that my young eyes wore removed within that type of activity, on macro societal and micro personal levels. It feels almost cliche to mention this at this point that Hardcore ripped the scabs off of the cuts that life within American society necessitates. For many it did. Some hung around. Some moved on. Disaster Amnesiac held on to certain vital stances gleaned from Hardcore, of that you can be assured. My more distressing/insane/dismiss-able traits got worked out in public, with and around other really existing people, and my apologies for all that. This morning I woke up wondering about what types of events will transpire in this new year of 2025. Which part of Hardcore will people inclined to its influence use as means of surviving, coping, thriving?  Three days in and we're already seeing scenes which beg the question: how hardcore will things get?

Rench's Rifles-s/t; On Repeat Records cassette, 2023

 

 

Fans of a certain style of musical production will be familiar with Mick Barr as a guitar player extraordinaire in groups such as Orthrelm  and Chrom Tech, wherein he lays down Maximalist riffs with speed and precision. Any of his projects are worth time spent listening to. Disaster Amnesiac certainly has. That being said, the intriguing possibility of hearing this master guitar player take a turn on drums was what lead me to Rench's Rifles, the eponymous release from his 2000's-era group with Rafael Cohen and Raquel Vogl on guitars. Over the course of nine tracks the listener is treated to this trio in what sounds to me to be the initial throws of a band discovering itself, and it's a beauty to hear. Barr is clearly the leader: his drumming evinces a musical conception that, while not overpowering the guitars, takes center stage within the sound matrix. He utilizes 32nd note flourishes, burst beats, tom tom to cymbal bell runs, and other over the top techniques that drive the guitar tones made by Cohen and Vogl, which are compelling for their modal astuteness. Not that the latter two seem to mind some sticks wielding dude dicking with their flows. They sound enthusiastic about it! Their enthusiasm rings out not only within the pacing of their playing but also at times from their voices as they encourage themselves and their fellows as the jams unfold. It's the sound that a band in its initial flourishes of spontaneous collaboration makes. And it's just such loveliness.  In many ways all of the tracks can be heard as jams; there's a raw, unfinished quality to the entire set that makes Disaster Amnesiac very happy, that's for damn sure. Could you imagine how fun it must have been to have seen this band as they played live, together? Did Rench's Rifles ever play a show for other people? If so, those in attendance must have been grinning ear to ear. Sounds such as those captured on Rench's Rifles have that effect. As far as Disaster Amnesiac knows, copies of this are still to be had at Dischord Records. Spread the love from the guitar to the drums!