just a small folder of songs that have been accumulating, of which the unifying feature is that they are vocals only or vocals mostly; collected in service of my fascination with the directness of the approach. straight from their mouths to your ears, with a few exceptions that do not trouble me in the least. play in whatever order:

amapola dust / alejandra and aeron — clawless / gowns — fen flowers / richard youngs — last night when we were young / christina carter — learning to draw / alistair crosbie — nibelungen / nico — no june (loin des samba) / esp summer — pray me away / the shitty listener — the banks of the mosson / shirley collins — the stars spell your name / jandek — the way i feel inside / the zombies.

Gotta make a metamucil run. xo

nothing to say, really. just pissed off. here: short but not sweet.

crass. yes sir, i will, track one: you’ve got to make such a noise to understand the silence | our love of life is total, everything we do is an expression of that, everything that we write is a love song | why is it that the kind and gentle are subjected to violence and ridicule? how is it that the small and mealy-minded have gained so much power? | there’s little to see and feel but the sighing and dying of our world. but for suffering we might have been a part of it rather than apart from it.

heroin. a portion: we’ll never be able to justify the things we do. for all we destroy, we only place the blame on something else, other than ourselves. i am ashamed. at times i am convinced that humans are a mistake

mohinder. mission: please stop. oh god, stop before something breaks. something has got to give. this is not procedure. something is out of order

rorschach. synthetic intelligence: self proclaimed intelligent beast. self proclaimed master race

downcast. hate comes easy: hate comes easy for you. when pushed too far hate comes easy for me too

youth of today. disengage: in this age when everything’s falling apart. disengage. don’t think i’m crazy for not wanting to take part

universal order of armegeddon: visible distance. this is your industry. i will not let inside me, no. i steered clear long and hard ago

man is the bastard. man is the bastard: [i don't have the lyrics in front of me; not much to add to the song title, anyway]

born against. resist control: war waged on the people. government lies fueled by fear. trust the unity of money and machine gun, a bullet in the head for my indiscretions. how much oppression can you take? rise above its time to fight back. “cease and desist” orders the police force. rise above. RESIST CONTROL

i was going for summer, but i think i got fall. may your summer be sunny, windswept, and jangly.

a few of these songs apply to a specific summer—that of 2004—and what was playing in the backyard when hil and i met, or in the long weeks after in my room, or on our long drives up and down the coast.

canada / his name is alive — e.t.a. / damon and naomi — false alarm / bugskull — sometime in the morning / the monkees — so so sick (7″ version) / unrest — les fleurs sont des bonnes auditrices / es — love comes slowly now / garbage and the flowers — lolita ya ya / the ventures — motorcycle boy / courtney love — pegasus rock / morwell unlimited meets king tubby — groovy kind of love / wayne fontana and the mindbenders — hey gus / pip proud and alastair galbraith — the darkness beneath the trees / the child readers — a summer long since past / virginia astley.

listen.

This mix might seem a little schizophrenic, but I’m feeling each track in a sunburned skin/chapped lips sort of a way. I think this is music for the after-party, sounds best accompanied by a sparking fire pit and stars glittering on the sea. xo, hil.

listen

here is another stab at a mid-fi collection, this one spanning many more years, recorded formats, and musical genres/scenes/whathaveyou. in my dreams these songs would be played back by a penguin-tailed dj using two polished, silver-horned gramophones in a dark, smoky nightclub with candles and crystal decanters filled with congac on every table. the sequencing is mostly haphazard (alphabetic by song title) and not thought out at all, but it works well for me.

[hedge of nerves 01] / loren chasse — moonboys / knit separates — baby lemonade [1970 radio broadcast] / syd barrett — bad vibration / e.s.p. neighborhood [i.e., e.s.p. summer] — did you ever see a dream walking? / gene austin — femme fatale (live, 1966) / velvet underground — five / kicking giant — it’s a fine day / jane — me and my shadow / “whispering” jack smith — rosy retrospection / the caretaker — simmy / warn defever — singing a song to the stars / ukulele ike [i.e., cliff edwards] — sleep in my coat / the shitty listener — something happened / alastair galbraith — the folks who live on the hill / maxine sullivan — whistlers 4, stereo, alberta june ’98 / stephen p. mcgreevy.

i am really tired of obscurity for obscurity’s sake. i am really tired of intentionally microcosmic editions when it is known that the number of individuals interested in a given release will be greater than the number of copies available. i am really tired of format fetishism. i’m tired of finding that most things shrouded in mystery aren’t worth finding. that said, for one willing to dig and sift, there were some really great tape/cd-r releases in the last few years. of course, i never would have heard/heard of them were it not for kind hearted bloggers digitizing and spreading content. and sure, i allow that the folks below might not truly be driven by the perception that “severely limited edition” = awesomeness, and i realize that it is sometimes easier to work “small” and move on.

here is a haphazard compilation of tracks (in some cases entire cassette sides) maybe more for my own listening pleasure than yours; all tending towards the dreamy, hazy, peaceful, blunted side of things. no attempt here to document a scene or movement, just a lucky dip into my hard drive. 14 tracks, about 1.7 hours. maybe just put this on and go about your day.

contents: broken replicator / sean mccann — der pfeifer im tal / im jahrtal — infinite life / sundog peacehouse — journey / duncan cameron — memory of self / dolphins into the future — message sans soleil / uuhuu — oh a golden falcon / v — pale rose cream / christina carter — [no mutant enemy, side a] / bee mask — the boto / high wolf — thursday / black eagle child — [gold 01] / sun watcher –  walk alongside tails of the sound / gkfoes vjgoaf — [wand in the beak of a yellow bird 03] / kane pour.

listen.

I’ve been feeling a little slighted by the campaign these last few weeks because we have gone a month without contact from the artist(s) and then yesterday a remix was released on Analog Suicide by Tara Busch, and a link to download the remix “as a gift” was posted to Muu Muse. The remix is a fruity carnival of chaos, including a Beatles-esque calliope, totally out of line with the dark and disturbing vibe of the rest of the campaign. You can read about the “mysterious” package that Tara received, and how she is so shocked and honored to receive it here. I love her update to the post, reiterating her shock and awe, especially since there is a release planned on Amazon. It must have been hard to enter into a contract with someone who is totally anonymous. *eyeroll*

As Randy Jackson would say, “I just don’t know, Dog.” I’ve been really dedicated to the campaign, contributing to conversation on youtube and other forums, trolling wiki articles about goats and gods, searching for clues that might reveal the slightest piece of info that will reveal the artist. Now the “art” is being pawned on Amazon and iTunes? An iTunes app, really? Your “art” is broken, my friend.

At this point it’s not really a huge secret that Swedish artist Jonna Lee is probably the woman in the video called ‘b’ here:

There has been a lot of question relating to the quality of Jonna Lee’s previous releases, and much judgment has been cast regarding ability. The weird thing is that you can’t find a single person she has worked with that seems to fit the profile for IAm, she’s got the keyboard player for Travis for a fiance/producer, she has recorded with Ed Harcourt, and um, that’s about it really. The other people/projects aren’t even worth mentioning. The only evidence we have that this is her is that she physically looks like the woman in ‘b’ and the vocals seem to have a strong accent, which she has. There are a few interviews floating around on the internet which you will find easily if you care enough to bother, where she talks about her love of electronic music. She also did a Nitzer Ebb and Depeche Mode cover, both of which were atrocious and bland. Still, I guess that gives her inclination, and the fact that she mentions having recorded some electronic music in 2007 and finding that it “felt wrong” and scrapping it, makes it a little more than a longshot.

Here is why I am able to remain even the tiniest bit interested after being dragged through the mud by someone/s who went from semi-original and interesting to corporate music snoozefest: The first full release (above) is called ‘b’ and the second clip available on Amazon in just 2 days, is titled ‘o’. There was a time when I speculated, all on my little lonesome, that this might be Boards of Canada. b. o….? The cover art for ‘o’ is a floorboard, and all the tags in the virals have had the same tag: WOOD. Why does it make a difference to me if this is Boards of Canada? Because I know I could trust the end product, for one, but the other thing is that I would expect those brothers to have utter disregard for their audience. They are an established duo who have put out consistently good stuff, and elusive is totally their thing. If you’re some Swedish pop singer who is trying their hand at international success, my advice would be to not charge people 99 cents for a download on Amazon, and to not involve every outlet accept dutiful followers of your campaign, who feel they are being played as fools (see popjustice, livedaily, or the youtube channel among others) while you dish out more “anonymous” packages to players in the corporate cog. Yes, they even sent a mystery package to Mtv, who dutifully blogged the package alongside a big diatribe about how they had NO IDEA who the package was from (try sending an unmarked package to VIACOM and see how fast it is returned to sender) and how great it all is.

All I have “invested” in this campaign is time. I won’t be buying the releases on iTunes and Amazon, as I am not into spending money on an mp3. The whole thing seems really antiquated already. If you’re going to actually sell music, make it tangible.Not many people will by air when it’s all around them for free. Offer it on white vinyl with some pretty packaging? Try me. We’ll see on Sunday, I guess, if this would be worth the 2 minutes it takes to download it from rapidshare.

JJ  are the first band that I’m going to write about here, you will like them.  By them I actually mean these two really mysterious people (are you sick of the whole elusive musician thing yet? I’m there) from Sweden.  The woman is named JJ, I think and they are releasing on both Secretly Canadian and Sincerely Yours.  They were here in Austin for SXSW with The xx which would have been fun to catch. Oh well. Honestly, I’ve given some attention to The xx and my initial impression was “meh, too Sonic Youth redux” but Ryan didn’t hear it as strongly as I did. I am really critical/bitchy, you will see.

Anyway, you can skim the intertubes and find a few interviews with JJ that reveal a little more about who they are, but I find that it’s usually a disappointment, so we’ll skip all that. If you desire names and other details, see Last.fm where you can also listen to other tracks without navigating youtube.

Not all the songs are good, and they’re kind of all over the place, but shuffle around and you’ll hit on something great. Like this!