Mostly, I have forgotten how to listen to records.  Really listen.  What the fuck can you expect out of listening to anything grown of 21st century mega-culture?  Do we still describe the record playing experience as an event?  With all that is available for instant reference, what can be said for the simplicity of boredom, when skipping and checking all but the presently playing sounds/songs is perme(n)ant?  What becomes of the musical dialogue, after the fact?  The truth is, you never find what you are looking for, and in a readily available society, what you need cannot be found nor sought.

I am reviewing an album a day for a month.  The submission process was brief and heralded no genre restrictions.  I follow but a few rules:

All reviews/writings are composed while listening to the albums.

I am not listening to other releases by these artists as material for the reviewing process (as much as I’d like to).  This is a testament to how one may listen with integrity to a single source.

The recordings are posted at the start of each review.  I recommend you listen to them first (or at least press play before you begin reading).  Maybe because I had to.  Maybe because I liked it.

The quantity of existing music is not without tragedy.  So much will be unheard.  The passion and focus crafted by so many artists is accessibly voided.  Particularly emergent processes wax increasingly more distilled.  All this and more can leave one in a state of aftershock.  This is why a return to listening, as an act engulfed and apperceived, is fucking important.  It does not matter how many you’ve heard.  Hear it all at once one time.

Admittedly, I desire all the music all at once.  I can’t help but feel this way.  I want to absorb everything to the nth degree.  I don’t want anything great to go missing.

As Carolee Schneemann said: “I want to show the space between desire and experience.” Let this precisely be the space where everyone is present at exactly the same time.  It is where the music goes while you’re listening to the absolute limit of ability and intention as a listener.  You discover timing.

You have the option of experiencing such a truth.  Presently seek it or grow old nursing a gnarly headache.

VK – 7/31/14 12:23a