Nobody & Mystic Chords of Memory

Tree Colored See…

(Mush Records, 2006)

A former member of the Beachwood Sparks, his girlfriend and a producer that has worked with Project Blowed come together to create an album that should defy categorization, but instead contributes another second millennium electro/indie smash up.  If the first Mystic Chords of Memory album, filled with West coast folk pop, is familiar to you, simply add a bit of electronic/hip-hip production to that and the world has Tree Colored See…  The music is definitely soothing; you can make love to it, you can fall asleep to it afterward.  Driving across the vast plains of this nation coupled with listening to the album may be fatal though.  Relatively strong song writing along with guest appearances, including Omid (another producer associated with Project Blowed) keeps this offering interesting.  A hallmark of good collaborations, though, is not being able to differentiate what party is responsible for what.  And on a number of occasions, there is no way of telling who birthed these melodies.

Joshua Jug Band 5

Joshua Jug Band 5/Damascus Doldrum

(Gulcher Records, 2007)

If you own The Quinne Tapes from the Velvets’ catalog and you’re familiar with any of their extended form improvisations, this entire disc from the mysterious and foreign Joshua Jug Band 5 ostensibly use that touchstone as a point from which to create the seven tracks collected here. All of this has been previously released on CDr, either on Slippy Town or Ramadan. But in furthering the comparison between these recordings and those ever so priceless Velvets tapes from the ‘60s, much the same can be said for both in terms of audio quality. JJB5 sound distant and fuzzy, and to be certain, that adds to the ensemble’s mystique. Being a vocal free offering (apart from the moaning on Track 6 and mumbling on Track 7) instills a modicum of haze regarding identity, which allows the listener to become completely lost in each excursion.

To decide upon a standout track seems to be reckless exertion, but obviously the longer the track, the better the opportunity to explore musical themes. Track 2 takes the final minute or so to jangle in a garagey repetitive way that other tracks do not. The warbling from Track 3 on what’s either a flute, keyboard or controlled distortion recalls ragas whilea lithe and trebly guitar pick a path through a melody. But again, in a way familiar to fans of John Cale’s sonic experiments with the Velvets, these noises are a welcomed tone lavished upon a listeners ears. The next underground sensation? Surely not. But JJB5 worked to push what listeners can palate. And push far they did. Oddly enough, Jakob Olausson, whose musical adventure this is, recently released a Sub Pop album entitled Moonlight Farm, which works more within a folk and blues idiom. Shifting themes or focus seems sensible considering the fact that one man can explore an idea only so much after that idea being initially culled forty years earlier.