Dec 27
2008

Remixing the Ying-Yang (sic)
Artist: Beowulf Jones, Pork Lion

For those not in the know, Rapscallionz were a progressive/absurdist Hip-hop duo straight from the heartland of America’s biblebelt, Bloomington, IN. Although shortlived, the impact left by these fine Rap stallions (see how i did that?) still rumbles through churches of the midwest to this day. Consisting of Baked regular Josh Millrod (aka Neil Bolton) and Matt Nowlin (aka Grafik Lequist, Esq.), I had the privilege of recording their debut full-length, Enforcing The Ying-Yang, over the course of a weekend amid their legendary east coast tour during the summer of 2006.

Following their demise, the Baked Beard Company pushed thru a number of ‘tribute’ tracks; an assortment of remixes, covers, and even a fully realized Pork Lion vs. Rapscallionz single (which pending a vocal overdub will hopefully/eventually find it’s way to a lathe 7″ in 2009). What follows were the first two remixes to hit the streets during the winter of 2006, made by what later was to become The Fairy Godmothers.

BEOWULF JONES>>> “National Pie Championchip (Cheeseburgewr & French Fries remix)” (sic) [128kbps]
Rather than switching up the instrumental track like conventional remixers tend to, B. Jones opted to instead sub out the vocal tracks, while leaving the instrumental fully intact. Through tireless use of the AT&T Voice Synthesis Demo and meticulous manual time aligning of the verses over the course of New Year’s Eve 2006, the track was premiered at a party of epic proportions later that night @ Joe’s Arcade.

PORK LION>>> “Buddy Bolden Interlude (blaxploitation dub)” [320kbps]
A heavily ring-modulated butchering of album’s interlude track paired against a vocal hook from an session outtake which has never seen the light of day (though is fully torn a new one on the forthcoming pork lion vs. 7″), topped off with a little dash of Sun-Ra groove.

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Dec 26
2008

F.B.I. in Beards - Waving Genitals and Manuscripts
Waving Genitals and Manuscripts (theoretical c-22, 2007)
Artist: F.B.I. in Beards (Pork Lion)
Full size cover: here

This is the first tape i assembled of my solo improvisations living @ the ol’ 141. I made a few copies on a wobbly deck that wavered like the dickens and sent it to a few folks under the F.B.I. in Beards moniker. As a nominal tribute to Ginsberg’s “Howl,” this was a collection of tracks fittingly inspired by the continued dissolve of the footprint of the once thriving anti-establishment nyc underground. Historical venues giving way to high rise luxury condos, the streets littered by the overpour of name-brand night life, and swanky irony as far as the eye can see; it was a final acknowledgment of an inevitable sellout of what little respect was left.

The One Eyed Shrew That Winks Out of The Womb >>> [320kbps]
Minimal, yet jagged. Four oscillators. buzz buzz buzzin’. The idea of something seemily unchanging, yet in constant evolution; The inability to repeat, only reflect on and imitate in hindsight moving forward.

Jazz or Sex or Soup >>> [320kbps]
A sedate juxtaposition to ‘Shrew’ using one of those Music From Outspace build-it-yourself kits (assembled by Cauchy Riemann).

Ride from Battery to Holy Bronx on Benzedrine >>> [320kbps]
This track dates back a bit to when I first moved into Harlem and had no tv or internet. Living in a prewar building, you sometimes have to learn to make sacrifices. One such i ran into very quickly was the realization that my entire studio had to run out of a single power outlet. While lacking adequate socket multiplicative devices (surges, conditioner, etc.), I recorded this track live with a single ring modulator.

Under The El >>> [320kbps]
My apartment is/was/will always be filled with guitars of all shapes and sizes (and tunings!). This was the fine array of the acoustic ones available during my run of stacked improvisations during spring 07. Some are mine, some are Jims, one is Josh’s.

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Dec 26
2008

A while back while I sifting thru the postwar ‘classical’ LP section at Academy I stumbled upon a 3 song compilation of up-and-coming contemporary composers (released in 1966 or so) which featured a then relatively unknown emerging composer named Steve Reich and his new tape phase piece “Come Out”. The record was still shrink-wrapped with a note designating it for intended use on college radio only and it was not to be sold. $3 later, I was the proud owner of possibly Reich’s first release, a wet dream to a private press fanatic and contemporary music fiend like myself.

It was a few days later when I stumbled upon a syndicated rerun of Family Guy just at the right moment to catch Olly’s “It’s Gonna Rain” forecast. I totally nerded out, immediately realizing what I had to do; It was Reich’s first work after all, and arguably one of the most important landmarks in twentieth century composition, how could I not?

I guess it would’ve been more ‘accurate’ for me to attack this project by phasing cassettes, but I instead opted to do the number-crunching and calculate out the number of frames I had to time stretch the sample to sync up in ~1 minute.

Quite frankly, I have a hard time believing I am the first physically associate the two, but here it is none-the-less.

[320kbps]

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