Ball of Wax 66 Songs: THEATH / MANNING – “Skeletons and Snakes”

Following on the heels of Disinterested’s beautifully awkward musical conversation, our old pals THEATH and Marc Manning bring us another type of sonic dialogue. “Skeletons and Snakes,” from the duo’s forthcoming project ABSTRACT HYMNS FOR TEOTIHUACAN, has similar elements of abstraction and interruption to SHALLWEORSHALLWENOTBELOVERS (what’s with all the caps these days?), but feels a bit more like a discussion, with the two players bouncing ideas off each other and responding and reacting in the moment. There are musical instruments, there are unidentifiable noises (there are probably musical instruments making unidentifiable noises), there are repeated elements and bits that pop up once and disappear forever. I don’t know who’s playing what or how, but it somehow all works. THEATH and Marc are two old friends who clearly love collaborating and making sounds together, and it shows.