Ball of Wax 39 contains songs from a bunch of new artists – some of them so new that they didn’t have band names when they initially submitted their songs. One of those artists, Taylor Delph, contacted me out of the blue with a few tracks he’d recorded and wasn’t sure what to do with – which is exactly why I started this whole thing in the first place, so thank you Taylor – and I believe only named his project Lost Wisdom just before I needed that info for the physical CDs.
On “Who’s from Aleppo Again?,” Delph takes one simple chord progression and milks it for all it’s worth (one of my favorite approaches), adding and subtracting layers, building complexity, weaving melodies and harmonies and mysterious lyrics into a blissful three-minute chillout. This is the kind of track that John Cusack could cue up in his record store and say “I’m about to sell five copies of Ball of Wax 39.” Heads would start nodding, wallets would open, and the coffers of Ball of Wax would be $13.75 richer (after the store takes its cut). I don’t know if this blog post will have the same effect, but I’m open to it. (Click here to buy BoW 39!)
Lost Wisdom is unfortunately not playing the BoW 39 release show on March 7th, but hopefully Taylor will be out there playing live soon.
Full disclosure: I just realized this is the second time I’ve made the same High Fidelity reference on this blog. Get a new line, Fuller! The previous one was three and a half years ago, though, so I’m guessing there aren’t many people out there who would have caught it if I hadn’t dug it up myself.