In order for Brad Dunn – a brilliant old friend who (is it possible?) last appeared on BoW way back on Volume 31 – to give us a song about the future, he had to look back into the past: To the long-gone mid-’00s, those heady days of CD-Rs, house shows at Dearborn, and the births of Ball of Wax and Hollow Earth Radio. The words for “Malfunctioning,” written and recorded about fifteen years ago, came from his then-five-year-old daughter Camille, describing an apocalyptic drawing she she had made. A plodding, almost-in-tune old upright piano and Brad’s lyrical electric guitar musings draw us into the song at first, laying the groundwork for the tale to come. A guitar/piano unison line tingles our spine (that spot at the end of the phrase where the guitar hits a few harmonics and the piano plays its own variation on the theme just about kills me every time), before Brad’s plainsung baritone jumps right in: “This world is made of trash . . .” and the story continues, Brad giving the words their due gravity, despite the youth of their author.
The story ends with a mystifying (even to the singer) Jesus reference, and the guitar and piano play us out, providing ample time to ponder the meaning of it all. I am thrilled to be able to bring this song to you, all these years later. Thank you Brad, and thank you Camille, for entrusting these words and music to Ball of Wax.
I wonder how many others out there marvel at your track sequencing, Levi? Putting each volume must be like the joy of building mixtapes and I’d wager you’ve made your share of those in the days before Ball of Wax. I’ve been impressed since this volume came out with the way Brad’s gorgeous track follows the four prior, as if you’re guiding us purposefully in a zig-zag off the straight and narrow through instrumental and noise territory and then BAM–crystal clarity, a solid, loping tempo, and ruminations on an object of (until I read this review) dubious existence…hence the phone to call Jesus line as a comparator, maybe?
As far as verbally marveling goes, so far it’s just you and our kind mastering engineer Moe. (Apart from not having to do the work, the other main benefit of having someone else master is to know at least one person is paying attention to the sequencing.) I guess now it’s two!