Press play
Hand your ears over to the Face.
The transformation comes suddenly/ immediately in the very first incendiary moments of the first track, where bass and drums gather the fuel, inhale the oxygen, and hand the rappers the match. As Face Candy exhales, the crowd ignites – all these tracks gathering their thrust from the unmatchable momentum of live performance. Indeed, this incarnation of the organism tends to eschew the sterilized safety of machine-addicted studio overproduction in favor of the unchained barbarism of face-to-face encounters with reality. Reality, beautifully recorded on tour, lovingly mixed and mercilessly edited in a spirit which brings to mind the exotic tapestries of the ancient jazz master producers (the image of Teo Macero lingers – and like his work, repeated listenings reveal and reward).
As we listen on, we become aware that we are actually witnessing the spontaneous creation of these tracks being improvised into existence. This is the collective act of the rare visionaries who liberate themselves (and all of the rest of us in the bargain) as they proceed.
Searching individually.
Striking together.
Reflecting our lives
in Real time.
And no, this is NOT the self-indulgent “noodling” derided by frightened, reactionary, squeamish critics. Here we have committed, energized, disciplined, feeling artists with their ears and hearts wide open; brave souls balancing on the knife edge of high risk artistry; constructing (sometimes simple, sometimes complex) forms as if by a series of inspired miracles; all elements evolving seamlessly through the entire arc of this CD .
At one point in the narrative, Eyedea responds to an audience request for Star Destroyer by rhyming with the request, after which he explains, “We’re not gonna really do any songs. Is that cool?” No songs? Where do these “pieces” come from? I am tempted to say “Free Style meets Free Jazz” when asked to illuminate the song-writing process. In some ways, these categories paint an accurate image. All members of the group are invited and obliged to draw on the conditions/emotions of the moment in creating their particular pieces of the whole-
Spontaneously
Freely
But, in reality, categorical verbiage (or any words, really) fail to capture what you experience when you listen to this record of “where we were.” It feels to me as if we are midwives at the birth of a new (as yet unnamed) form of expression. A new artist-specific poetic combination of
pleasure
insight
and intensity
That invites us inside ourselves where our personal sorrows and joys explode into view on the inner landscape; and in a seemingly contradictory shift; we discover our essential unity
Unity with the rhythm
Unity with the lyric
Unity with each other
Unity with that fire which consumes the illusions of “past” and “future” and leaves us the pulsating Phoenix of “Right Now!” as our only companion.
- Dean Magraw