shameless album plug
Sometimes in order to motivate myself to do anything, I have to array my life in sexy squalor so that getting work done becomes bad-ass and glamorous. This explains why I am sitting on my bed in a pushup bra and black lace panties (in my own defense, I had been out at a formal dinner, which explains the bra but not the undies) tangled in the duvet, surrounded by books on horror films and genocide, wearing enormous headphones, sipping red bull. (The avocado sandwich I'm considering getting from the fridge detracts from the image somewhat, I'll admit.)
On my headphones I am listening to this Nils Petter Molvaer album and ohmygod. It's the epitome of what I like in work music: instrumental, sometimes with a driving-but-understated beat, a fair bit of unpredictable sampled noise thrown in to keep it from being too catchy, and some very clean and sexy jazz trumpet. A little orchestral flourish here and a little middle-eastern influence there. It's what I like about Juno Reactor and John Zorn and Miles Davis and A. R. Rahman all wrapped up together. It's like the Black Hawk Down soundtrack, only minus some of the heavy metal edge and replacing Lisa Gerard's heartstopping vocals with trumpet.
I referenced this album in an essay I wrote called Empowerment and Exploitation in the Collaborative Ethno-Jazz Documentary, but only offhandedly, because it only happens to be named Khmer and has nothing really to do with Cambodia. I called it "brooding," which was audacious of me because I had only listened to a few 30-second clips on iTunes. Now that I have acquired it for free, I am delighted to find that I was right.
So, if you are in the mood for sexy Norwegian jazz squalor, bug me online and I will send it to you. And... forty minutes later, I still haven't started this essay.
Writing and avocado sandwich time, goddamn it. I wish I knew why I am suddenly imagining the smell of old cigarette smoke and the taste of Grape Nuts.
On my headphones I am listening to this Nils Petter Molvaer album and ohmygod. It's the epitome of what I like in work music: instrumental, sometimes with a driving-but-understated beat, a fair bit of unpredictable sampled noise thrown in to keep it from being too catchy, and some very clean and sexy jazz trumpet. A little orchestral flourish here and a little middle-eastern influence there. It's what I like about Juno Reactor and John Zorn and Miles Davis and A. R. Rahman all wrapped up together. It's like the Black Hawk Down soundtrack, only minus some of the heavy metal edge and replacing Lisa Gerard's heartstopping vocals with trumpet.
I referenced this album in an essay I wrote called Empowerment and Exploitation in the Collaborative Ethno-Jazz Documentary, but only offhandedly, because it only happens to be named Khmer and has nothing really to do with Cambodia. I called it "brooding," which was audacious of me because I had only listened to a few 30-second clips on iTunes. Now that I have acquired it for free, I am delighted to find that I was right.
So, if you are in the mood for sexy Norwegian jazz squalor, bug me online and I will send it to you. And... forty minutes later, I still haven't started this essay.
Writing and avocado sandwich time, goddamn it. I wish I knew why I am suddenly imagining the smell of old cigarette smoke and the taste of Grape Nuts.