Dangerous Moves: Mayor of Ponce goes where the wild things aren’t
Friday, November 20th, 2009
SNOOZIN' AND LOSIN' IN HENRY COUNTY
It ain’t as easy as it looks. This foolishness can be taken for granted, these reckless acts overlooked. But these Dangerous Moves require a fierce cunning veiled under ignorant bliss. It’s craftiness, deceit, deception and stupidity all thrown into a high-ball glass.
Yes, I’m being a bit theatrical. It’s basically me and some other clowns getting wasted, and then me trying to piece together scribble on cocktail napkins to meet a loose deadline — all while trying to come off half-intelligent. The trickery is the difficult part. And mostly it seems all for naught.
Many of my ideas for Dangerous Moves sizzle like firecrackers when jotted down on paper, but a wrong turn here, a miscalculation there, and the sparkle never materializes — a fizzle of follies. In a one-word analogy, there have been some bombs. Between the alcohol-tasting and messy note-taking, most of these things never pan out. So if you thought the ones that made the cut were bad…
South Side Snooze
I’d been trying to put this one together for months. It seemed like an absolute homerun sitting pretty on the south side of town. I’ve got the local knowledge in my back pocket, I thought. With my home field advantage, there’s no way it could let me down.
Wrong. (more…)
Atlanta’s Connect crew, holding down the designated spot for deep house Thursdays is joined tonight by Alex Barck of the German collective 
White Denim’s Fits wields a dizzying, ADD aesthetic that brims with rhythmic dexterity. By design, nothing stays in one place for too long. “Radio Milk How Can You Stand It” opens with a wash of noise that bursts into rhythms snaking through funk, psychedelia and art-rock terrain. The music careens wildly, crashing against the noise-damaged, Tex-Mex spaz of “El Hard Attack Dcwyw” and the spaced-out dub of “Sex Prayer.” At the half-way point, the group’s meds seem to kick in as “Mirrored and Reverse” settles into a groove that continues its wild directional changes but tames the atmosphere. The group’s execution of such lurching musical bouts is impressive, but the rapid-fire nature of it makes Fits an exercise in difficult listening. (Downtown Music) 3 out of 5 stars.
Though his production work on albums for Aesop Rock and other elite indie rappers gets a lot more attention, Manhattan beatmaker Blockhead has quietly been releasing consistently strong solo albums in the last half-decade. His tracks for other artists tend to be more in the hard-hitting, slicing-and-dicing, traditional hip-hop vein, but albums such as his latest, The Music Scene, give him an opportunity to be more atmospheric and experimental, and at times, to simply space out. The disc is at its best on such creeping, smothering instrumentals as “Attack the Doctor” and “Hell Camp,” which are as compelling as the work of turntablists DJ Shadow and RJD2. One wishes, however, that Blockhead would ditch the canned, vintage-sounding voiceovers he often employs to make things a bit more ironic. On The Music Scene’s title track, it’s a ’50s-style educator chanting, “We call that a joint” – which is pretty silly. (Ninja Tune) 4 out of 5 stars.
Who are you?
Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel’s latest offering captures two sprawling masses of improvised drones too harmonious to be called avant-garde and too experimental for stuffy modern classical terms. These sounds are the product of two minds sharing a single headspace and letting the music drive – which is typical of the Atlanta duo. From the onset of the 23:56 minute opener “Live at Eyedrum,” the lines are blurred as each instrument’s respective whines and whirs waver in a dream state. The longer 33:18 minute piece, “Live at Kavarna,” embodies everything the subconscious mind finds appealing when deciphering the beauty in whale songs, haunted house sounds and dog whistles. Here, they collide with the cerebellum in a graceful, slow-motion crash. Put it on and drift away. (Self released) 4 out of 5 stars.
