Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Nonetheless Notwithstanding Feat. Sceneries Placements – “Precedence”

Posted on December 21, 2020 by Levi Fuller

For a song that, melodically speaking, has about six notes (two different repeating three-note melodies that each occupy the first two quarters of the running time), there is a lot going on in “Precedence.” Which is fitting, I suppose, given the time in which it was created. In addition to the predominant guitar lines there are layers of drone and noise and texture. The melodies give up about half way through, and these layers take over, washing over us and leaving us, as with Darryl’s piece, in a place of uncertainty. But here, even amid the digital noise, there is some sense of calm and, dare I say, hope? Or, again, maybe it’s just a beautiful piece of music made in a strange moment in time. Either way, I’m glad the likes of Nonetheless Notwithstanding and Sceneries Placements have found their way to our weird, waxy world and shared their vision of right now with us.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Darryl Blood – “Possibilities”

Posted on December 21, 2020 by Levi Fuller

If Drekka’s track ended with someone whistling as they walk, attempting to comfort themselves in an unsettling situation, Darryl Blood‘s “Possibilities” continues that anxious perambulation, but the whistling has stopped, and at the beginning all we have is  footsteps. A rhythmic loop paces through this short but dense piece, keeping time as a piano plays in stuttering clusters and melodies. Other sounds, some more musical than others, phase in and out. Perhaps these musical elements are stand-ins for the possible futures swirling around us all in the period after November 3rd, battling for supremacy, the piano representing a semblance of order that seems to be gaining traction, but hasn’t yet won the day entirely. Or perhaps it’s just a cool piece of music Darryl made right after the election. Either way, I’m happy it’s part of this collection.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Drekka – “Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.”

Posted on December 16, 2020 by Levi Fuller

The Internet is quite a thing. Thanks to the magic of Google, I am easily able to impersonate someone who knows the Bible from the phone book, and inform you that the title for this haunting piece of minimalism from Drekka is taken from 1 Corinthians 13:8 (I don’t even really know what that means! Where is Jon Rooney when I need him?), specifically the King James version, which reads in full:

Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

Weighty words to interpret in light of our current moment. Despite the reassurance that charity never fails, the concept of knowledge vanishing away is fairly bleak to consider – but likely inevitable given humanity’s insistence on sending itself toward extinction (oh wait, was that a prophecy?).

The piece itself has a bleakness to it, an emptiness that seems to reflect that. It starts and ends with the sounds of a cassette tape being played and stopped, as if someone sent us this recording from the end of the world. We hear a combination of analog noises, drones, and odd sounds with more traditionally musical elements such as piano, what sounds like a stringed instrument, and whistling. The whistling comes toward the end, feeling to me like someone walking down an empty hall or a spooky street, trying to comfort themselves with a tune, but instead making the whole thing that much more unsettling, before, well, vanishing away. A quiet journey through the dark with our friend Drekka to mark this strange moment in history.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: KO SOLO – “Interspacial”

Posted on December 14, 2020 by Uncle Broccoli

Reggie: Have you ever swum in a silo of pudding?

Francis: You mean, like a giant enclosed vat of salt water jello?

Reggie: Yeah, like if they made an ocean-sized womb of saline gelatin.

Francis: I wonder what it would feel like.

Reggie: Probably a disorienting combination of being simultaneously trapped, nourished, smothered, and redeemed.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: secret monkey – “time unties itself”

Posted on December 14, 2020 by Levi Fuller

With this woozy dreamscape of a track from secret monkey, we have, for a time, pivoted from topical/literal to abstract interpretations of our current moment – or, to be more precise, the current moment of six weeks ago, which it feels like we are still trapped in, although today’s Electoral College vote should do something to pull us a bit out of the much of November 2020.

Which, now that I think about it, is a perfect example of the way in which time has become untied, loosened, wrapped around itself in this combination-pandemic-and-fascist-coup we’ve all been living through together for the past several weeks/months/(years?). Whether it’s on the personal level, with each week working from home and parenting a five-year-old feeling somehow like one day and six months, or on the global level, with enough (mostly terrible) news for a lifetime packed into each day, time has certainly been doing some weird things to me, and us all. And somehow the layered voice, viola, and melodica of Rae Diamond both evoke and assuage this bizarre, unmoored feeling, making things just a bit better, for just a little while. Feel free to play it a few more times to extend the effect.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Jeremy Summer – “Black”

Posted on December 11, 2020 by Levi Fuller

Jeremy Summer’s “Black” is not a song filled with light and joy. Musically it is quietly gorgeous – slow, simple, and hushed. Lyrically it is harrowing and disturbing, a list of – if my interpretation is correct – some of the all-too-common crimes against Black Americans that have recently had more light shed on them, but that go back centuries. “Black” reminds us that no matter who is president when the entitled old white guys stop yelling at each other, there is an unbelievable amount of work to be done to make this country more just. “Gasping for breath,” Jeremy begins, and he ends with “without warning / shot for nothing.” He offers no redemption, no silver lining, just a list of our crimes to do with as we will. So, what are we doing?

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Levi Fuller – “I Need You”

Posted on December 11, 2020 by Shannon García, Esq.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am biased. I love the music of Levi Fuller. I think he is one of the most talented musicians I have ever laid my ears on. He is a treasure. I cherish his music and I think you should, too. What I love most about his music is his ability to evoke and emulate emotion in his songs. This song is no exception.

The song begins with 20 seconds of breathing before the guitar comes in. After the breathing and guitar come the words “I need you.” These words gradually build up to “I need you to help me remember to breathe.” The buildup to this poignant sentence hearkens to the building anticipation felt and the breath held during those days between election night and the day the results were finally called. A time when we all needed help remembering to breathe amid the anxiety, nerves, and anticipatory disappointment we feared we’d feel with our fellow countrymen.

The song itself contains some Nick Drake-esque elements in the guitar picking and vocal delivery. It feels like a subtle, reverent homage. This song, like many that pour out of the heart and soul of Levi Fuller, contains curated notes that are plucked with mindful intention. Each note plucked layers onto the notes that came before to create richness and depth.

To listen to music so beautiful, might cause one to be ashamed by the ugliness of the world. However, this song inspires me to remember to cherish those fleeting glimpses of beauty as I find them and, regardless of the outcomes of those contentious moments in life, to always remember to breathe.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Tekla Waterfield – “America!”

Posted on December 10, 2020 by Levi Fuller

Among other things, there’s been a lot of talk about hope and love around here. And those are important and necessary things! But, if you’re paying attention at all, there’s a lot of grief wrapped up in this moment, and a lot of reckoning. Over the past four or so years, many people – particularly white people – have been experiencing an unfolding series of realizations about just how much work we have to do as a country, just how deeply racist and damaged this nation is. Many of us hoped for a strong, clear rebuttal of the current administration in this election, and instead we found out many millions of our fellow Americans are still just fine with it, and would have loved four more years. (Indeed, an appalling number are still clinging to the idea that there should or will be four more years.) Put simply, a lot of scales have been falling from a lot of eyes – even for those of us who thought they’d fallen as far as they could.

In “America!,” Tekla Waterfield wrestles with this mess in blunt, unvarnished terms. The country we thought this was, or were raised to believe it was, and the country as it has revealed itself. The hope for some kind of reconciliation, and the knowledge that it’s unlikely to come any time soon. The song is beautiful because when Tekla picks up a guitar and starts singing the result can’t help beautiful, but it is also uncomfortable and awkward and doesn’t leave you feeling great about anything, which is, now that I think about it, exactly what a musical representation of this moment should be.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: The Northenders – “Anyhow”

Posted on December 10, 2020 by Levi Fuller

Hot on the heels of Peter Spencer’s “Beyond the Demon Lover,” Scott Wetzel of the Northenders – also a new face to Ball of Wax – brings us yet another finger-picked folk song, which works beautifully as a follow-up to the Peter’s tune, both musically and thematically.  Where that song looks away from the horror of our current world and toward a better place, “Anyhow” gazes unflinchingly upon the many woes plaguing us all, ending each verse of all-too-familiar horrors large and small with “I’m gonna love you anyhow.” The chorus goes as far as imagining the very end of the world, with no beyond in site, and yet still that love persists. “Anyhow” serves as an important reminder to those of us with love in our lives that this is the world we’ve got, and we’re lucky to have each other in it.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Peter Spencer – “Beyond the Demon Lover”

Posted on December 9, 2020 by Levi Fuller

Finger-picker extraordinaire Peter Spencer makes his Ball of Wax debut with “Beyond the Demon Lover,” a simple, yearning folk tune that acts as a showcase for his beautiful guitar work and rich baritone voice. This song fits neatly in the folk tradition of songs about the afterlife – or at least another world beyond this one – such as “No Depression” or “Get Happy.” (Whether the Great Depression or 2020, it seems such songs are more often prompted by hard times on a national scale.) The singer describes a world beyond, where “a new home waits for me.” Whether it’s on the other side of the mortal plane, a widespread vaccine, or the Canadian border, I think the idea of yearning for something or somewhere else should resonate with us all in the present moment. In less than two minutes, Peter paints a beautiful picture that makes me wish I believed in an afterlife. If nothing else, here’s to a time with less lying and less grief in the not-too-distant future.

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