MESSAGES SENT, MESSAGES RECEIVED: THE RETURN OF DISQ

"COMMUNICATION b/w/ PARALLEL"
DISQ

DISQ:
Raina Bock: Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals
Isaac De Broux-Slone: Lead vocals, Backing Vocals and All other instruments

Written, Arranged, and Performed by Disq
Mixed by Anthony Saffery & Isaac De Broux-Slone

Recorded in Isaac's basement

Produced by Isaac De Broux-Slone
Released January 25, 2019
via Saddle Creek Records

It has been nearly three full years since the release of "Disq 1" (released July 11, 2016), the debut album from Madison, WI's Disq, the power pop duo consisting of life long friends, bassist/songwriter Raina Bock and songwriter/singer multi-instrumentalist Isaac De Broux-Slone.

When I first heard that album, I was astounded to the point of immediately reaching out to their Madison music community peers for any information about them ("Disq?! They're prodigies!!" gushed Modern Mod/Dash Hounds singer/songwriter/guitarist/bassist Alivia Kleinfeldt), and then to De Broux-Slone himself all before I had even finished listening "Disq 1" in full.

Just as with the debut and sole album releases from their contemporaries in Post Social and Modern Mod, respectively, Disq's debut album was fully realized as the participants were still high school students yet the artistic reach within the album fully belied their comparatively young ages. While the album did indeed display an end-to-end "kid in a candy store" dynamism, "Disq 1" was unquestionably a work of enormously enthusiastic yet such highly controlled artistry that showcased a seasoned, mature and almost veteran approach to music composition, performance, production and most importantly, the songwriting.

As Bock and De Broux-Slone are both self-professed Beatles enthusiasts (De Broux-Slone is known throughout certain circles as being able to meticulously deconstruct and therefore reconstruct Beatle songs completely on his own in his home studio for fun--I have heard his cover of "Help!" and it is stunning in its perfection), their deep studies in the classic power pop genre were in full evidence within the compositions on "Disq 1," deftly showcasing the excellence and depth of their knowledge.

Where the spirits of The Beatles, Todd Rundgren, Big Star, Badfinger and the like were clearly in the songs' DNA, what Disq achieved so grandly were not copycat selections but wholly and defiantly original songs starring two young, idiosyncratic artists who already sounded like no one else other than themselves.

"Disq 1" was an album that not only made me want to listen over and over again (which I most certainly did), it instantly made me curious as to where the band would head next. And now, three years later, we have a taste...or better yet, a sumptuous first bite of the future music that will most assuredly arrive.

In late January of this year, Disq released a new two sided single via the Saddle Creek record label and it is a BANGER!! Continuing with their musical aesthetic which blends power pop, garage rock and lush psychedelia, Disq conceptually and lyrically builds from their debut of teenage angst into songs of a grander universality and the cumulative effect is of an even higher quality as before: the single makes me want to immediately hear it all over again while making me salivate for whatever arrives in the future.

A SIDE: "COMMUNICATION" 
-With the sound of slightly warbled, unsteady guitar, "Communication"  opens gently, yet with a quiver. Once the drums and the entire groove of the song kicks into gear, the song finds is gait allowing De Broux-Slone to make his first statement, which becomes a series of a questioning pleas to finally a pained confession.

"Can you hear me--understand what I said
I know you don't understand the way I felt
You come near me--could you hear what I said
Can you hear me--I don't know what I said

and again communication takes me farther away
and the blame falls in between perception
communication takes me farther away
will I change or will it stay this way"

Already, we can see that we are far away from the exclusivity of the high school hallways and into an on-going interpersonal quandary and aspect of the human condition that exists upon a continuous loop for each and every one of us as we attempt to navigate society and ultimately, the world. "Communication" questions if we, as individuals, are being heard, understood, ignored, accepted or rejected by others and how those feelings and impressions formulate how we communicate with ourselves in addition to others.

Additionally, and especially when De Broux-Slone sings "I feel busy--I don't know where to go," I wonder if the song could also be viewed as a commentary concerning our level of distractions with the business of living life, most crucially our smartphones and social media, distractions that affect our ability to communicate and to being fully understood, sometimes by those closest to us.

While the song's narrator is lost in a state of confusion, the music keeps barreling full steam ahead with a propulsive riff and rhythm that brilliantly deviates from its track within a gloriously arranged and performed zig-zag mid section before returning to the song's main theme complete with lyrical guitars flowing through the grooves until crashing in a brief wall of feedback.

B SIDE: "PARALLEL"
From the start, Raina Bock grounds this absolutely spectacular song with a growling, menacing bass performance which not only sets up the track's main groove but hauntingly sounds like the dark, insecure thoughts of the song's narrator relentlessly creeping up on him in an endless pursuit, threatening to take over his mind and heart.

"I feel like you've been slipping away--we walk beside but I never see you
If I did, would you have something to say--I know you do but I feel like never
Do you think about me every day--I wonder if you lied when I told you something
Something's sinking and I hope it's not the both of us and my feelings about you..."

As the narrator's anxiety begins to mount, Disq echoes the emotions by gradually speeding up the tempo with each increased worrisome thought, evoking the feeling of spiraling out of control before settling into a disturbed stasis.

"But I don't remember asking for my life to get torn down
But it hit me so shocking--hit my head all around
When I told you that I hate you--didn't want you to believe it
When I told you that I love you--don't you understand I mean it...

...am I parallel to you--how can I know what's true..."

And with that, Disq has delivered a palpable exploration of psychological ache and pain, concluding with an explosive psychedelic finale.

For two songs that richly explore the concept of disconnect, Disq have superbly created material that connects instantly. With a musical approach that packs a dynamic instrumental punch combined with strong lyrics that are direct, intimate and expansive, Disq again proves that they are indeed the real deal as they are able to generate material that can easily go toe to toe with long established artists and force them to look over their collective shoulders.

Just as with "Disq 1," I am fully impressed, amazed and enthralled with De Broux-Slone and Bock's artistic skills which unquestionably prove that they are serious musicians who are unwilling to waste any opportunities that may arise to showcase their abilities. And to that end, it is clear as a bell that they are having a blast doing just that. Isaac De Broux-Slone's remarkable vocals warmly draw you inside each selection as rapidly as his instrumental prowess with Bock, as they have devised precisely how to make each song a musical universe unto itself, therefore making a full statement with the complete work. In doing so, they have truly made it a privilege to engage with their music, as they are not remotely...ahem....phoning anything in, and never presenting even one moment that feels jaded or drenched in any sense of self-congratulatory indie rock superiority.

"Communication" and "Parallel" are songs tailor made to be blasted from open windows even as they break your heart and trust me, Disq is a band I implore you to keep your eyes and ears at the ready to receive them because I am feeling that they might be on the rise.

Since the release of this single, the band has already received positive attention from the independent music press based upon their triumphant performances at this year's SXSW festival in Austin, TX. Furthermore, the band has also been hard at work recording the next full length album, this time receiving assistance from their auxiliary members when performing live, Post Social's Shannon Connor (guitar) and Brendan Manley (drums) and Logan Severson (guitar), who is soon to unveil his own musical project called Lameena.

Such is the talent that resides here in Madison, WI and Disq have proven again that they stand especially tall. Yet with "Communication" and "Parallel," they have ascended even higher.

"COMMUNICATION" b/w "PARALLEL"
is available at...

BANDCAMP:
https://disq.bandcamp.com/album/communication-b-w-parallel

SADDLE CREEK:
https://saddle-creek.com/collections/disq/products/communication-parallel?variant=12786458361879

SYNESTHESIA'S SESSION NOTES MAY 2019: SAVAGE RECORDS

FROM THE DJ'S STUDIO DESK:
Near the conclusion of Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, as well as the Stephen Frears directed, John Cusack starring film version, our wayward leading protagonist, the perpetually restless and admittedly miserable record store owner Rob is questioned by his girlfriend Laura about ideas of what he would do with his life if his choices and opportunities were unlimited. He hedges his responses until she reveals a list that he made himself some time in the past on which he compiled his choices with his number #1 choice being the following: starting and owning a record label, which he eventually does begin and thus names "Top Five Records," a nod to the infinite categorization tactic he has applied to not only his favorite music, but to essentially all areas of his life,  most notably, his romantic life.

That sequence, among so many within that story, hit home with me and for the purposes of this blogsite, I am happy to now reveal one of those similarities with you: the idea of starting and owning my own record label.

Dear readers and listeners, I am not a man of considerable means and I am certainly, and firmly,  grounded in reality. I do not have the funds or expenses to even begin such a life altering project. This idea of having my own record label is a pipe dream that will undoubtedly remain as as such. But that said, it is indeed a fun pipe dream to have and it is one that in uncomplicated by the realities of the music business as I really wish to just submerge myself in the romance of the music business whenever I think of this imaginary label.

At this time, and regarding the mythical label, I am thinking of the musicians and artists that populate the Madison, WI music community, the very figures that I have become so deeply fond of as artists and as people over these last several years. So often, I have housed the fantasy of having a physical space and place where all of these people would be able to have a home base at which to write, record, and produce without interference from myself, and without expense to them. They could be as creatively free and fearless as they wished to be and I would just be happy to have that environment for them.

To that end, when it came time to release new material the physical place would also be the environment of the record label. And the record label's name, you ask. Of course and why not? I would call this imaginary venture...

Savage Records.

I have been thinking of this idea more and more recently because as I regard these musicians and their activities, I could not be prouder of them as they are all in stages of either renewal, re-structuring or even some sense of ascension.

DISQ
(L-R: Logan Severson, Raina Bock, Shannon Connor, Isaac De Broux-Slone and Brendan Manley)

The very end of 2018 found Post Social releasing a new two track digital single while January 2019 saw the release of a new two track single from Disq, as released on vinyl by Saddle Creek records--incidentally two releases I have yet to write about.

Two of Post Social's lineup--singer/songwriter/guitarist Shannon Connor and songwriter/drummer Brendan Manley-- have joined forces Disq's singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Isaac De Broux-Slone and songwriter/bassist Raina Bock as auxiliary members for live shows. This union, which also features Logan Severson, who is also readying his own project known as Lameena, has already soared through triumphant performances at this year's SXSW Festival in Austin, TX and as I write, they are reportedly in Los Angeles recording the second official Disq album and preparing for a late Spring tour!

SLOW PULP

(L-R: Alex Julian Leeds, Emily Massey, Henry Stoehr and Teddy Matthews at the bottom)

Slow Pulp, the collective of Alex Julian Leeds, Emily Massey, Teddy Matthews and Henry Stoehr, relocated from Madison to Chicago, IL last year and they too have returned from celebratory performances at SXSW and are about a week and a half away from the release of their next EP entitled "Big Day" plus the end of the month start of their next tour.

WOOD CHICKENS
(L-R: Griff Chickens, Alex Wiley Coyote and Justin J. Johnson)

More behind the scenes, I have been privvy to works in progress by Anna Wang, Skyline Sounds and Squarewave.  

Singer/songwriter/bassist Abby Sherman of Trophy Dad and her own project Addison Christmas has excitedly informed me that work has finally begun on her own new recordings (with assistance by De Broux-Slone). Singer/songwriter/bassist/guitarist Alivia Kleinfeldt is prepping material to be recorded for the very first full length Dash Hounds album. And Trent Prall's alter ego of Kainalu is just this close to releasing a full length album this June.

Even further, I have somehow made an appearance upon a recording as shockingly, my own laughter was used as a sample upon a recent track by Wood Chickens, who also released a new album in late 2018, produced by Madison music luminary Bobby Hussy, himself the bandleader of The Hussy and Cave Curse.

As I regard all of these bands and musicians, I remain awed by their sense of community, as support for each other is free flowing. In my role as a DJ and having an avenue to support them on the radio, I am certainly going to keep trying to have them join me on-air for as long as I am able to have them as in-studio guests. But who knows, some of them may soon be unreachable due to further success. A possibility to be sure but you know, it would be more than worth it to see these individuals grab that brass ring for I am cheering all of them onwards and upwards from my vantage point.

Savage Records...sigh...I enjoy the sound of that for so many reasons, partially because it is yet another one of my musically themed hopes and dreams, regardless of how out of reach it actually is. Yet, with this one, inside of it is the love and excitement I hold for all of these musicians and the grander hopes and dreams I carry for all of them as they have all proven themselves to me, as artists and as good, genuine human beings.

If I had a magic wand, I would make Savage Records a reality for all of them and I could get their music out into the world so it could be as widely heard as far as possible...

...and their music would always be designed to be PLAYED LOUD!!!!!!!!!!!!

SAVAGE RADIO PLAYLISTS APRIL 2019: WVMO 98.7 FM-THE VOICE OF MONONA

SAVAGE RADIO EPISODE #166
APRIL 3, 2019
1. "Madonna Of The Wasps" performed by Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians
2. "Fanfare" performed by Peter Frampton
3. "Mihalis" performed by David Gilmour
4. "Basically" performed by World Party
5. "Between Two Fires" performed by Ben Watt
6. "Love Of The Common Man" performed by Todd Rundgren
7. "Bonny" (acoustic) performed by Prefab Sprout
8. "Midnight Caller" performed by Badfinger
9. "I Don't Wanna Die Anymore" performed by New Radicals
10."Not Make Believe" performed by Fleetwood Mac
11."Luna" performed by The Smashing Pumpkins

SAVAGE RADIO EPISODE #167
"LOCAL ARTISTS, LOCAL HEROES 2019"
APRIL 10, 2019

1. "Communication" performed by Disq
2. "Afraid Of Me" performed by gobbinjr
3. "A Shot" performed by Gentle Brontosaurus
4. "Happy Loving Couples" performed by The German Art Students
5. "Who'm I Talking To?" performed by Skyline Sounds
6. "Days" performed by Post Social
7. "Dreamboy" performed by Dash Hounds
8. "In Need Of Reason" performed by Kainalu
9. "Ritual" performed by Anna Wang
10."Love Electric" performed by The People Brothers Band

SAVAGE RADIO EPISODE #168
"REMEMBERING PRINCE 2019"
APRIL 17, 2019

1. "Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic" performed by Prince
2. "Wild And Loose" performed by The Time
3. "Yes" performed by The Family
4. "Electric Chair" performed by Prince
5. "One" performed by Madhouse
6. "Noon Rendezvous" performed by Shelia E.
7. "Wonderful Ass" performed by Prince
8. "CLOUDS" performed by Prince

SAVAGE RADIO EPISODE #169
APRIL 24, 2019
1. "Ohio" performed by Cherry Glazerr
2. "Rainbow Shiner" performed by Ex Hex
3. "Fistful Of Glass" performed by Tal Wilkenfeld
4. "Psychedelic Morning" performed by Aimee Lay
5. "You Don't Get Me High Anymore" (live) performed by Phantogram
6. "Towers Of London" performed by XTC
7. "Husam Husam" performed by The Anniversary
8. "Last Lovers" (acoustic) performed by Kevin Junior with The Chamber Strings
9. "Missed It Again" performed by The Ambers
10."Run Away" performed by Weezer
11."Fire Woman" performed by The Cult

NOW PLAYING IN THE SAVAGE JUKEBOX APRIL 2019

"ALL MELODY"
NILS FRAHM
Released January 26, 2018

"LET'S CHANGE THE WORLD WITH MUSIC"
PREFAB SPROUT
Released September 7, 2009

"DUKE"
GENESIS
Released March 28, 1980

"VENICE"
ANDERSON. PAAK
Released October 28, 2014

"THIS LAND"
GARY CLARK JR.
Released February 22, 2019
NEW 2019 MUSIC: With the deep synthetic tone that would not sound out of place upon a classic Dr. Dre album, we arrive at this year's brashest, boldest, most enraged opening shot for an album released this year so far...

"I remember when you used to tell me
Nigga run, nigga run
Go back where you come from
Nigga run, nigga run
Go back where you come from...
...Fuck you, I'm America's son..."

Paranoid and pissed off, directly in the middle of Trump country and armed with guitar in hand, Gary Clark Jr. returns with "This Land," his most fully realized album to date, which combines the best elements of his two previous albums, the wildly diverse "Blak And Blue" (released October 22, 2012) and the more intimate "The Story Of Sonny Boy Slim" (released September 11, 2015). 

Where the former album was ambitiously expansive and the latter album was a tad more tentative, "This Land" finds Clark Jr. at a new artistic crossroads and the tension contained within his refusal to adhere to anyone's expectations of him as a striking blues artist or 21st century guitar hero and discovering precisely how wide his musical reach is and can be while furthermore addressing the state of affairs in 2019 is distinctly palpable and often explosive in its ferocious delivery.

With an enormous production quality that returns Clark Jr. to the sonic landscape of "Blak And Blu,"
and a nearly 72 minute running time, this new album, in addition to his monstrous blues based workouts contains the slow boil to burn of "I Got My Eyes On You (Locked And Loaded)," dabbles into reggae textures with "Feeling Like A Million," the Chuck Berry by way of The Ramones punk-a-billy roar of "Gotta Get Into Something," the Ennio Morricone/Latin samba hybrid "When I'm Gone," a stinging instrumental in "Highway 71" and the Prince pastiche "Pearl Cadillac."

In fact, as I listen to the album more and more, it feels as if Gary Clark Jr. is attempting to create his own version of a classic Prince album, a work that defies classification while showcasing his own multi-faceted songwriting skills, striking vocals, and of course the bedrock of the blues from which spirals journeys into soul, R&B, hip-hop and funk with his trademark guitar fireworks as the glue to hold everything together.

And while he doesn't quite have Prince's peerless reach (and frankly, who could?), "This Land" definitely displays Clerk Jr.'s strenuous stretch, powerfully admirable, and often amazing. I still believe that he has that GREAT album inside of him and while "This Land" doesn't quite reach that pinnacle, it is the sound of an uncompromising, seeing artist getting ever closer to that mountaintop.

"HEAR ME OUT"
REIGNWOLF
Released March 1, 2019
NEW 2019 MUSIC: Thank you, Cameron Crowe!!

I am more than certain that the first I had ever heard of Reignwolf, the musical brainchild of Jordan  Cook, was via the second episode of Crowe's vastly under-appreciated Showtime series "Roadies" (2016) in which Cook scored and his band Reignwolf possessed an unquestionably explosive appearance so dynamic, it immediately made me search the internet and local record stores for any of the band's music. Yet, aside from a tiny smattering of singles, no albums existed as of yet.

Well, now, and a whopping seven ears after the band's official beginning, Reignwolf's debut release has arrived and it has proven itself to being more than worth the wait...and it leaves us wanting even more as well as putting to rest all of these ridiculously premature notices of the death of the guitar.

As with Gary Clark Jr., Reignwolf's bedrock appears to be embedded within the blues with helpful thunderous wallops of Zeppelin swagger and alt-rock fury ("Over & Over" really sounds like a lost Nine Inch Nails track) that should make the likes of Jack White look dangerously over his shoulder.

In a scant 29 minutes, Reignwolf's "Hear Me Out" explodes with flamethrower riffs and propulsive, pounding (and sometimes, decidedly lusty) grooves while Cook's extraordinary vocals and dive bombing guitar heroics offer slash and surprise with every track, featuring the pummeling "Alligator," the slinky, sinister "Ritual," the monolithic "Keeper," and the Soundgarden-esque "Son Of A Gun" as my personal favorites.

Now that we have this small but dynamite calling card in Reignwolf's"Hear me Out," I certainly hope it is not another seven years before we hear from Jordan Cook and his bandmates again.

"ON THE LINE"
JENNY LEWIS
Released March 22, 2019
NEW 2019 MUSIC:  The year in music is still very young and without question this particular album is already one of 2019's highest achievements!

From the ashes of her band Rilo Kiley, Jenny Lewis has truly risen, and only continues to ascend, like the proverbial phoenix as her songwriting has only grown more resilient than ever.

With "On The Line," her follow-up to the excellent confessionals and peerless storytelling contained on her previous album "The Voyager" (released July 29, 2014), Lewis again bestows upon us a fully immersive collection but this time, a completely unfiltered song cycle of personal ruin (partially due to the en do her 12 year relationship with Jonathan Rice as well as the death of her Mother) and reconstruction.

Joined by an arsenal of top flight musicians including Jason Falkner, Benmont Tench, Don Was, both legendary drummers Jim Keltner and RINGO STARR (!) and the exact same producers from her previous effort, Beck for a few songs and Ryan Adams on the album's remainder--plus his guitar work throughout (despite his recent and horrible troubles I will not pretend that he does not exist and therefore was not involved with this album), "On The Line" certainly feels and even sounds like the perfect companion piece to "The Voyager."

As before, it is a work that often sounds like it was created within the same studio that birthed Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours," as that warm, dry, and undeniably hazy California vibe feels embedded within every note and groove--although this time, there is the introduction of hip-hop production techniques which have taken out the mid-range and has placed the drums high in the mix and believe me, they will BOOM through your speakers.

All of this is more than purposeful as the production completely supports the songs, which indeed showcase the turbulent evolution in Lewis' stories and confessions. Beginning with the Beatle-esque and funereal "Heads Gonna Roll" to the new day's dawning of the album closer "Rabbit Hole," Jenny Lewis' "On The Line" invites us into the progression of her life as an artist, as a woman and as a human being into a newfound autonomy and the results are the most startling of her career so far.

"MALIBU"
ANDERSON. PAAK
Released January 15, 2016

"TASMANIA"
POND
Released March 1, 2019
NEW 2019 MUSIC: Yes, we have yet another of the year's best albums without question!

My specialized brand of synesthesia received a glorious workout upon the very first listen of this album, the 8th release from the Australian band, again gorgeously co-produced by former bandmate and Tame Impala mastermind Kevin Parker. 

Pond's psychedelic funk dreamworld spectacularly weaved provided one sonic delight after another (especially during the astounding nearly 17 minute late album stretch of "Goodnight, P.C.C.," "Burnt Out Star," and "Selene," which is a galaxy unto itself)  therefore making it the perfect album for Springtime. To my ears, it is an album designed to wake the Earth from its Winter slumber and welcome all of the new colors of the season. 

"LOVE REMAINS"
TAL WILKENFELD
Released March 15, 2019
NEW 2019 MUSIC: For this, I thank my Dad.

A few years ago while on the phone with my Dad, he remarked to me about a musician he saw on television who impressed him so tremendously that he could not believe what he had seen and just had to tell me about it.

The program he saw featured a performance from Jeff Beck, but this time it was not Beck who made my Dad's head spin. For him, it was Beck's virtuoso bassist, a very young woman clearly skilled beyond her years. "The bass player, son," he said. "She's just a kid...and she...was...phenomenal!!!" At the time, I really had no idea of who he had seen but upon investigation, I discovered the identity of the bassist, whose name is Tal Wilkenfeld and ever since, I ensured to keep tabs upon her activities.With the arrival of "Love Remains," we have yet another early 2019 release that is one of the very best albums I have heard this year and from an artist that has firmly established herself as a decidedly unique and forward thinking musician.

Stretching from the bass and including her skills as a guitarist plus as a singer and songwriter, Wilkenfeld's album is by turns elegant and explosive and one that demands the fullest of your attention. Whether losing myself in the crystalline, Joni Mitchell-esque lyricism of "Haunted Love" and "Under The Sun," being thrashed around by the tornado fury of the Zeppelin howl that is "Hard To Be Alone," or throughout the remainder of the album's seven remaining, genre elusive selections,  Tal Wilkenfeld's "Love Remains" is enormously enveloping in its fullness of sound and vision. 

IMAGES FROM RECORD STORE DAY APRIL 13, 2019: MAD CITY MUSIC EXCHANGE & B-SIDE RECORDS

Unlike the last several years with Spring in full bloom, this year's Record Store Day was positively frigid! So much so, I even wondered if the cold might keep some people from venturing out as early as in years past but I was honestly surprised--and happily so--the witness that the Record Store Day patrons of 2019 were out in full force once again.

As with last year, I decided to head out at the beginning of the day to both Mad City Music Exchange and B-Side Records as the week prior to this day, combined with the events of the week prior to this one had wiped me out. I needed to recharge my batteries but not before I paid homage to two of my local record stores.

 

Heading out to Mad City, as owned and operated by Dave Zero, I was pleased as always to see him again and alongside several of his compatriots, each of them members of the Madison music community themselves, including WSUM DJ Roland Lauzums, tireless local musician/producer/promoter/record label owner Bobby Hussy (The Hussy, Cave Curse and even more) and even singer/songwriter/bassist Abby Sherman (Trophy Dad, Addison Christmas), who excitedly informed me that she has finally begun working on recording new material.

 

After making a quick check to see if the store had any copies of the new album from local musicians Wood Chickens (they were sold out), I poked around for a spell and investigated the exclusive materials readied for this special day, including a vinyl version of new Broken Social Scene material and even the new album from The Flaming Lips, which is only available upon vinyl and will not see any releases upon any other formats until this Summer reportedly. 

I soon decided upon a copy of the new album from the band Ex Hex, who actually just performed in Madison during the week. This gave me time to wait in the lengthy line and take in the sights of people in the throes of collecting and all to the sounds of The Ramones (which did inspire one of my purchases this day). With all of this ample time, I simply enjoyed being able to peer around and see what musical treats I could find.

 

 

After making my way through the line and obtaining my CD, greeting Bobby Hussy in the process, I bid Mad City fare well and began to make my way down town to B-Side.

 

Reaching downtown and B-Side Records on State Street, I entered the store, which was so crowded, I could not make my way to the back of the establishment, which indeed was the space where the exclusive Record Store Day materials were located. With the music of Funkadelic as the soundtrack, I happily saw store owner Steve Manley and his son Brendan Manley, himself the hardest working young drummer in the city (as he writes, records and/or performs with Post Social, Dash Hounds, Squarewave and Disq), manning the cash registers.

As I made my way to the "R" section for some Ramones, I was greeted by Madison musician singer/songwriter/bassist/guitarist Alivia Kleinfeldt (Dash Hounds, Squarewave, Modern Mod), who kept watch over the RSD exclusives, which were being restlessly horded over and eagle eyed.

Dear readers, I do not believe that I will ever have enough words to fully express to you how much I have always loved this particular record store. That despite its close quarters and smallness of actual physical space, the actual history, and therefore, the universe of music that is easily able to visually regard and find yourself lost in side of with each visit is astounding to me. 

 

Between scanning and staring at all of the music and memorabilia, speaking with friends and strangers, all banded together for music, all I could wish for regarding all of the record stores in my city, and in turn around the nation, is that the people who ventured out on this day will return tomorrow, the following weeks, months and so on in order to continue keeping these bastions of community vibrantly alive.

Our relationships with these establishments is more symbiotic than one may realize, and so, we have to keep supporting our local businesses for they do indeed fuel our local artists and musicians, radio DJs, concert venues and for any curious individual on the search for that discovery that just may change their lives. 

 

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL RECORD STORES....EVERY DAY!!!!!!!

SKETCHES OF LOVE, LOSS, MEMORY AND MORTALITY. "I TRAWL THE MEGAHERTZ" PREFAB SPROUT (2019 REMASTERED/REISSUE)

"I TRAWL THE MEGAHERTZ" (2019 REMASTERED/REISSUE)
PREFAB SPROUT

All music and lyrics composed by Paddy McAloon
Produced by Paddy McAloon and Calum Malcolm

Released March 22, 2019

Even though the music year of 2019 is still fairly young, we now arrive at one of the year's finest reissues.

The extraordinary, enigmatic, elegantly English band Prefab Sprout has firmly etched a permanent space in my musical heart of hearts for over 30 years of my life, as their seminal second album "Two Wheels Good" (released June 1985--and known in the UK under its original title "Steve McQueen"), entered my consciousness sometime during my high school years.

It was their shattering single "When Love Breaks Down" that instantly captured my attention but it was hearing the entire album courtesy of a cassette loaned to me by a classmate in my Journalism class that I fell so completely in love. Memories of myself strolling silently around and around my school courtyard with Walkman headphones strapped to my ears, listening to these tales of romantic woe, longing, heartache, betrayal, and dissolution set to pristine boy/girl harmonies and Thomas Dolby's crisp production are forever riveted into my brain. In fact, it is so ingrained that as I think back to my adolescence, a time whose emotions still remain powerful and instantly ready to be recalled, that those moments with that album feel to be as fully representative of my being as any other formative period. And truth be told, the girl who loaned me the cassette, almost never got that tape back as I loved it so much and perhaps, secretly, I may have felt that there was no way that she could've connected to it as much as I had.

This was the time when Prefab Sprout, and its' band leader, songwriter and frontman Paddy McAloon became one of my favorite groups as the music they created built a musical world I could lose myself inside of, be inspired by and therefore, feel completely transported. Subsequent releases each gradually found their ways into my collection. Their outstanding, bulletproof single "Cars And Girls" became a staple upon my own weekly college radio show.

And their fifth release, the 19 track, Thomas Dolby produced "Jordan: The Comeback" (released September 7, 1990), was a staggering masterpiece that combined essentially a double album's worth of concepts, suites and themes of romance, celebrity, religion and spirituality, Jesse James, Elvis Presley and even a track where McAloon actually intones the words, "Hi. This is God here..." into a glorious amalgamation that suggested nothing less than a work on the level of the finest that Brian Wilson ever released to the world. As far as I am concerned, it is one of the very best albums of the 1990's...PERIOD!

Since this era, the output of Prefab Sprout has dwindled nearly as quickly as the number of band members since as of now, the sole participant in the band is Paddy McAloon, a reality dictated by a series of health issues endured over the years including Meniere's disease and detached retinas that rendered him nearly blind for close to one year circa 1999. It was during this intensely troubling period where McAloon realized what is certainly still his most unorthodox and resplendantly sublime musical project, "I Trawl The Megahertz," which he originally released under his own name as a solo artist in 2003...and incidentally, was then only available as a not so easily obtainable as well as quite pricey import release.

I first heard this album during the early days of internet file sharing and...ahem...the appropriation of music through internet downloads, and even then, I was struck dumb by the overpowering beauty that McAloon had created. I found myself, during periods over the years, driving across the city, entirely enraptured, to the full, nearly 22 minute title track during which McAloon's lush and flowing musical thematics, which suggests Gershwin by way of Miles Davis' "Sketches Of Spain" (released July 18, 1960), provide the soundscape for a mesmerizing, captivating, heartbreaking spoken word narrative performed by the mysterious Yvonne Connors. It was unlike anything McAloon had previously composed, so inexplicably of its own musical universe, and still it felt so firmly connected to the remainder of the Prefab Sprout discography.

I bring this album to your attention at this time as "I Trawl The Megahertz" has been fully remastered and re-branded as an official Prefab Sprout album, complete with a new album cover, full lyrics and liner notes surrounding the genesis of the work written by Paddy McAloon himself and is now available worldwide, making it easily accessible to locate for all interested parties. And I am sincerely wishing that this posting inspires you to seek out this stunning, crystalline, enormously empathetic work of musical artistry.

"Your daddy loves you," I said. "Your daddy loves you very much. He just doesn't want to live with us anymore." 

Those words were the catalyst for the music that would become "I Trawl The Megahertz," as Paddy McAloon, convalescing after his eye surgery and unable to even read, found solace in listening to the voices heard upon radio call-in talk shows. The above phrase was heard during one of such programs and thus, reverberated in McAloon's mind, sparking inspiration.

The album's opening title track features a lilting, almost cinematic orchestral setting, complete with musical elements both real and synthetic, conjuring up images of a melancholic Spring day, a hall of magnolia trees with petals slowing falling to the ground. The voice of Yvonne Connors arrives in the form of a nameless character of indeterminate age, speaking to herself (as well as to all of us listening) about "the story of my life." 

Through McAloon's often stunning, literary yet purposefully heightened, poetic language suggesting a character that may or may not been artist herself, or a figure that houses a certain pretentiousness that is utilized as a cloak to mask a deep sense of insecurity, and a musical structure that utilizes a series of repetitive themes that ebb and flow, the unfolding of "I Trawl The Megahertz" becomes transcendent in its shape shifting almost dreamlike flush of memories filled with emotional rapture and crippling despair.

Our narrator, after lavishing us with a romanticism infused with war imagery of downed pilots and tending nurses, with she on the path of "the tracks of impossible love," she informs us that "I have only twelve days in Paris and I'm waiting for life to start."

A beginning that occurs only moments later to all of us...

"At first I don't notice you, or the colour of your hair or your readiness to laugh. I am tying a shoelace or finding the pavement fascinating when the comet thrills the sky." 

In a world where everyday people are foiled by everyday obstacles, both minute ("trains are late") or tragic ("doctors are breaking bad news"), our narrator finds herself "living in a lullaby" as the birth of love overtakes her...even if it may be one that is unrequited.

"You might be huddled in a doorway, on the make, or just getting by, but I don't see it. You are my one shot at glory. Soon, I will read in your expression warmth, encouragement, assent. From an acorn of interest, I will cultivate whole forests of affection. I will analyse your gestures like centuries of scholars poring over Jesus' words. Anything that doesn't fit my narrow interpretation I will carelessly discard. For I'm careless. I'm shameless. And-Mayday, Mayday, watch the needle leave the dial-I am reckless...

...Soon, I will make you a co-conspirator, if I am dizzy I will call it rapture, if I am low I will attribute it to your absence, noting your tidal efforts upon my moods. Oblivious to the opinions of neighbours, I will bark at the moon like a dog. In short, I am asking to be scalded. It is the onset of fever."

By this stage in the album (a mere nine minutes in), and this song in specificity, you will either be going with the flow or feel ready to depart this experience. But I ask of you to simply read those words again and to please capture the essence of the exquisite prose as well as humor contained. Yet, truly mine your hearts and memories of the times when you firs fell in love with anyone at any point within your lives and what Paddy McAloon has unearthed so wondrously is distinct, magically descriptive truth about how we all place the objects of our affection upon pedestals or how we are so consumed by the glories of what we witness and FEEL for another person, even against better judgements, even knowing that a hard fall might occur. And if there is someone to either catch us or ignore us in unknown.

For our narrator, at some point, her love transforms into sorrow. or as she explains, "the aftermath of fever." It is here where the romantic weight of "I Trawl The Megahertz" arrives crushingly, and especially palpable after the supreme lift of the first section of the piece. McAloon's language and metaphors are explicitly painful and tastefully unlock the flow and as a title of a previous Prefab Sprout song described, "The Sound Of Crying."

This section is beauteously mournful and so correct in its assessments and expressions of romantic pain and loss, for we do not know what has precisely happened to the object of our narrator's affections. But when she tells us "I catch the scent of apples, I hunger for a taste, but I can't see the orchards for the rain," my heart plummets. Every. Single. Time.

The song then returns to its' original conceit. "Your daddy loves you. I said, 'Your daddy loves you very much. He just doesn't want to live with us anymore'," she repeats and therefore allowing us inside of yet another of the song's mysteries. For even as she speaks to us and as she claims the story she is telling herself, is she speaking of an experience recent or of her distant past? Is she using a metaphor to help herself understand her own pain?

Even more on an existential level is the "child" to whom she is speaking to, simply herself...making this entire experience something akin to poet William Wordsworth's "My Heart Leaps Up" and its references to the phrase "Child Is Father Of The Man"--also a phrase and concept utilized on The Beach Boys' astonishment, as composed by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, "Surf's Up" (released November 29, 1971), itself a song McAloon had admittedly adored? So, is "I Trawl The Megahertz" an expression signifying the child is the Mother of the woman?

While love ends, life itself continues and our narrator is left to ascertain herself for herself and to herself while she continues to perform the act of the song's title.

"They may help us make sense of who we are and where we came from and, as a compassionate side effect, teach us that nothing is ever lost." 

So glistening and ephemeral. So tangible and recognizable yet seemingly arcane, clandestine and enigmatic, "I Trawl The Megahertz" is a musical wave that rushes over you, pulling you under and leaving you floating within. It is a masterful effort, where the sweep of the music and the words formulate a symbiotic existence, rising and falling together, subtlety and powerfully.

The vocals of the (again) mysterious Yvonne Connors have captivated me for years upon years, as the dark allure of her voice is not simply a great performance but also an act of audio magic that speaks directly to what occurs when we all hear those voices upon the radio, fully conjuring images of what these figures may look like and to that end, what they might be like in the real world. 

I have to admit that I have occasionally attempted to find out precisely who Yvonne Connors is as Paddy McAloon has not divulged very much at all, and I would imagine, purposefully so. He has expressed  how she recorder her vocals within a hotel room and how perfect he felt she was. But aside from that, not a word.

She may be an actress. She may be an accountant, for all I know. I have never even seen a photo of her and believe me, I wish to as I desire to see if she remotely resembles what I have imagined...even knowing that most likely, she doesn't look like what I am picturing at all. Such as it is in matters like this. But, her voice is deeply seductive yet without exuding any sense of overt sexuality. It is a voice that fully attracts and lures you  into her world and the story and music McAloon has devised. Yvonne Connors' voice is simultaneously expressive and detached, as if hearing her words in a fading dream, yet one that haunts you succulently.

Now, I would not be surprised if you would gather that the experience of "I Trawl The Megahertz" would be all well and finished right here. But remember, the title track is 22 minutes, leaving a full second half to explore and while the results leave the Yvonne Connors' narrator behind, her presence lingers to great effect as her story informs the remainder of the album.

For the second and largely instrumental half of "I Trawl The Megahertz," Paddy McAloon utilizes the space to showcase compositional skills that far extends from the glorious pop songcraft familiar to Prefab Sprout fans and for that matter, even from the first half of this album.

"Espirit De Corps" opens the second half of the album with an instrumental grandeur reminiscent of Aaron Copeland and "Fall From Grace" sounds like an epilogue to The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby," all mournful strings that are punctuated with the sounds of a sad, muted Miles Davis-esque trumpet.

"We Were Poor..." continues the English funereal mood and proceedings yet slowly glides into a Donald Fagen styled jazz pastiche suggesting the continuation of life despite the pain endured. To my ears, there is a fragile tension between the spirit contained within the strings, vibes and trumpet and dark pull of that despondent horn section. It is a piece that feels to suggest the adage, "such is life."

Repeating the opening strings from "Fall From Grace," we next turn to "Orchid 7" that suggests the Synclavier compositions of Frank Zappa or also the hypnotically percolating sequences and patterns of a Phillip Glass piece.

Bringing the album full circle are two especially melancholic selections, each one bridging the music and emotions contained in the title track to greater fruition by adding more troubled disembodied middle aged voices into our atmosphere. "I'm 49" explores the album's original concept by containing a series of talk radio call-in snippets and weaving them into McAloon's orchestral soundtrack, again the music and the words formulating a symbiotic relationship that is palpably wrenching.

"Sleeping Rough" finds us with the only Paddy McAloon vocal upon the entire album as he seemingly inserts himself into the album's over-arching narrative, professing his own feelings and fears that accompanied his illness and isolation. "I'm lost," he sings over and again and in a startling moment of self-description as well as suggesting a long, sad slumber like Rip Van Winkle, he plans to "grow a long and silver beard" that will fall down to his knees (nearly his actual appearance at this current stage of his life). By this point, and with a striking economy of words, the album plunges straight into the malaise of middle age, the full knowledge that youth is long gone yet old age has not arrived yet, the tension resting in the uncertainty of how much time remains.

"I Trawl The Megahertz" reaches its poignant conclusion with "Ineffable" and "...But We Were Happy," the final two selections that each feel to provide the solace, grace and hope necessary to process all that has come to pass as well as prepare for what lies ahead in life. For all of the sadness presented and experienced throughout the album, McAloon leaves us with a musical helping hand upwards, allowing us to continue placing one foot in front of the other with the hopes that love will still exist to shine its light upon us. And with this soulful wink and a nod, the album concludes. 

Prefab Sprout's "I Trawl The Megahertz" is a richly beautiful, luxuriously created album of love, loss memory and mortality, that again firmly demonstrated what a gift to the world Paddy McAloon actually is. I am hoping that with this remastered reissue, many more people will now be able to or be inspired to try and discover a work that was far ahead of its time during its original release and is still far ahead of the curve today.

Furthermore and even greater, it is a musical work of tremendous empathy and spiritual deliverance that is indeed of such sadly short supply and in desperate need in this turbulent world. "I Trawl The Megahertz" speaks directly to our collective sense of cultural sorrow and disconnect. Yet perhaps, through the listening, we can find that we really are not as alone as we may feel.

SYNESTHESIA'S SESSION NOTES APRIL 2019: SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL MUSIC STORES AND COMMUNITY

FROM THE DJ'S STUDIO DESK:
Yes indeed, that time of year is about to arrive once again--but honestly, it is a time I strongly feel that we who love music should cultivate and honor each and every day of the entire year.

On Saturday, April 13, 2019, we will once again experience Record Store Day, a celebration of the nation's independent record store, possesses a notoriety that has been simultaneously enhanced and harmed a little by what has now gained the most attention: the plethora of exclusive and high priced rare musical material by a who's who of artists all designed to get those faithful and rabid record collectors to empty their pockets once again.

Because of the commerce driven side to the promotion, it is easy to find ways to become down upon this annual event. But for me, I wish to again impress upon you what the day means to me and I wish for you to hold onto should you find yourselves braving those close quarters of your neighborhood record stores.

 For me, Record Store Day, is a day of celebration, communion and community. A day to take note of these unique and fully idiosyncratic locations that at some crucial life stage for each and every one of us called out to us and invited us inside, creating a newfound sense of home and discovery.

It amazes me to this day, the amount of excitement, comfort and security I feel each and every time I walk into one of the local record stores in my city of Madison, WI.  While at this phase of my life, I am able to have greater personal connections to the stores I frequent based upon friendships of the owners and staff members that I have grown close with over the years, that very same sense of feeling completely on home ground exists just as it did when I was a kid visiting record stores, thumbing through the stacks and knowing not one other person on site. The music and the albums were my friends and each visit felt like a grand reunion.

But doubling back to those individuals to whom now I have grown strong connections, I cannot express passionately enough about how each and every one of the, plus the establishments that they tend are so firmly grounded into the music community of the city specifically as well as the community of the city in its entirety.  I think of the local musicians who work in these stores while also creating music and performing live around the city themselves. I think of the local DJs like myself who still so excitedly venture into these establishments looking for that next great whatever it could possibly be to blow our minds and expand our hearts as we also add them into our personal collections and even play them over the airwaves.

And still, as always, what I love the most is being a witness to the ocean of happiness upon display, the happiness of discovery, the happiness of being with friends and fellow music lovers all joined in discussion and debate so cheerfully holding some musical artifact in our hands, all the while eagerly awaiting the very moment when we can sit back and listen...

That is what Record Store Day means to me and all of the exclusive,  high priced material is just a catalyst to remind us about these special and sacred places that are all inclusive and just waiting for someone new to make that unexpected first trip that could preclude a lifetime journey.

I feel that local, independent Record Stores are bastions of art and community that fully deserves our love, appreciation and even protection in this increasingly isolated age dictated by the internet, on-line shopping and our pursuits upon social media. For there is nothing like hearing music within a physical space, and reacting to it with complete strangers and treasured friends in real time. Absolutely nothing! And at its best, it is undeniably blissful.

So...as you do venture out to find that rare whatever it could happen to be item that you must have, just spend some time watching and listening and in those observations, I really think you will be able to gather what the true spirit of Record Store Day is all about.

And hopefully, it will bring you back again before next year.

Oh yeah...one more thing...whatever you happen to purchase, remember to.....PLAY LOUD!!!!!