Ball of Wax 69 Songs: The Lesser Fugu – “Artful Making”

Posted on December 12, 2023 by Michele Khazak

Emiko Blalock wrote and sang a sweet song about childhood memories of her cousins; a song for the love of family and community; a song about “losing and making space.” Her friend Levi Fuller (they used to play in a band called Pufferfish together) came in and filled out the instrumentation. Together the two of them are called The Lesser Fugu.

Emiko’s vocals are clear and confident, delicately delivering an entrancing lyric. Levi’s instrumentation starts beautifully with a bass line and builds, adding shimmering and thoughtful guitar parts, as well as percussion. “Artful Making” is a gorgeous collaboration.

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Ball of Wax 69 Songs: The Lonely Coast – “Ase Chonguri”

Posted on December 11, 2023 by Michele Khazak

I once had the good fortune of hearing this duo perform at a friend’s summer garden party. I was absolutely transfixed. “Ase Chonguri” is a stunning example of what makes The Lonely Coast so very good. This song has the weight of a dirge. It feels like a deep ache of bittersweet longing. Valerie Holt and Anne Matthews’ close vocal harmonies and precisely plucked accompaniment summon a sublime pang of emotion. Listen to it twice.

Don’t miss The Lonely Coast’s set at the Ball of Wax 69 release show this Sunday, 12/17 at the Rabbit Box Theater!

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Ball of Wax 69 Songs: The Disillusionments – “The Artesian Whale”

Posted on December 11, 2023 by Michele Khazak

The mood of this song is like being out in the desert in the early spring of a year when all the flowers bloom. You’re definitely wearing a cowboy hat, and you look really good in it. You’re also on just the right (small) dose of psilocybin. The guitar hook carries you through, and the vocals are dreamy and just off in the distance enough that you can’t tell if they are saying something or not. I wanted to email Tyler and Marc (BLAKE|MANNING aka The Disillusionments) and ask them, but then I figured it was better left a mystery.

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Ball of Wax 69 Songs: Doubtful Lake – “Coordinates”

Posted on December 8, 2023 by Levi Fuller

Doubtful Lake – a bass guitar duo comprised of Josh Machniak (aka Party Store) and Al Karpinski (Time Pieces, Six Parts Seven, many other things) – came about in response to the Ball of Wax 69 duos prompt. Their simple goal was to “make something using only bass guitars that was melodic and interesting to us,” and in my own semi-professional opinion, they have absolutely succeeded – even without the “for us” qualifier.

“Coordinates” starts with a warm, quiet wash of arpeggiated bass, calm and soothing despite the odd time signature. The second bass soon comes in with melodic lines in the low end, its crisp tone providing contrast. An interlude of whole notes – again in contrasting tones, now clean vs. distorted – suspends us momentarily, before we are placed back into the original riff, the second bass playing higher up at first in a variation on its original theme, and the cycle is repeated. For the third round, the first bass comes back in a different key, and its melodic counterpart keeps the distortion on for just a few higher melodic phrases, before the duo brings things to a close, with one bass drifting off softly and the other crashing down with some heavy low-end, as if to offer a parting reminder that, no matter how subtle and pretty it might be, this is, in the end, the land of bass.

I don’t know what Josh and Al’s future plans might be as far as this project goes, but I would absolutely love to hear a full album of double-bass meditations from these two some time. (And hey, fellas, if you’re ever looking to complicate things with a third bass [not to be confused with 3rd Bass], you know where to find me.)

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Ball of Wax 69 Songs: Venice Rover – “The Knife is the Hardest Instrument”

Posted on December 8, 2023 by Lattney B. Jones

I love anything “off kilter,” and Venice Rover’s contribution to Ball of Wax 69 is all about that particularly unsettling state of existence that lies in that transitive valley between the hollow hills of backporch country jam and the cloud-cloaked mountains of mystery tunings.

I desperately want to end my write-up there. Any further words from me, no matter how plagiaristically or pugilistically poetic they get, will cast no additional light upon “The Knife is the Hardest Instrument.”

But I never know when to quit. Besides, how can one not say more about a great song with a great title?

If you don’t find your steps immediately staggering and drunken upon the first licks of the guitar or forthright and upright at the understated piano accompaniment, then maybe the few other instruments (I think there are others in there. I want to believe somebody is playing a little buzzy-stringed toy or some plectrum device somewhere in the mix) will fill out the parts of your brain that should otherwise be moving as the music dictates. If nothing else, you can fall in step just before the first minute mark when things combine cinematic score exposition with an almost straightforward dance tune.

But you’ll get just less than thirty seconds before the vestibulo-ocular reflex goes all grain-wonky again and the best you can do is try to aim for the door as the guitars see you out. Whether or not you find yourself kissing dirt, grass, or concrete, the nagging voice that never leaves the back of your mind will be asking you: Was that yawing, yawning, half-mechanical, half-organic buzzing there the whole time?

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Ball of Wax 69 Songs: Ghostflower – “El Nacimiento”

Posted on December 7, 2023 by Levi Fuller

The mysterious Arizonan (Tucsonian?) duo Ghost Flower describe themselves as “ambient classical flamenco laced with hip hop beats,” which is about as accurate and succinct a self-description as I’ve heard from any musician or band (my own projects very much included). That said, there are a lot of musical directions the combination of flamenco and hip hop could go, and I don’t think all of them would necessarily be for me. This, though, is a wonderful meeting of musical minds and worlds. Finger-picked classical guitar, both clean and processed, weaves in and out with ambient hums and drones, electronic beats, and powerful bass (seriously, listen to this tune on a system with a sub-woofer and feel it) to create (you might even say birth) something entirely new, infused with flamenco, post-rock, ambient music, and hip-hop.

Ghostflower is one of several exciting projects from Tucson to grace Ball of Wax collections over the past few years – thanks originally to our old friend Lattney, but very much also to Tony Martinez of Sceneries, Placements, who I believe is also half of Ghostflower. Many thanks to all our Southwestern sonic adventurers! Enjoy that whole non-rain thing you have going down there.

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Ball of Wax 69 Songs: Michael Owcharuk & Kate Olson – “Make It So”

Posted on December 6, 2023 by Levi Fuller

I regret that I have only enough familiarity with Star Trek: The Next Generation to recognize that the title of this sweet, sweet jam from Michael Owcharuk and Kate Olson is a reference to that series’ beloved Captain Picard. Michael and Kate are both deeply accomplished musicians in the local jazz scene and beyond, who can be seen composing and fronting their own ensembles around town, as well as supporting an incredible range of artists in just about every genre. (Holiday burlesque fans in Seattle, catch them right now as 2/3 of the Land of the Sweets band!)

All of that to say, it is an absolute joy to hear what happens when these two get together and musically bond/geek out over a mutual appreciation for this much-adored franchise. “Make It So” is an unapologetically fun tune, brimming with good-natured glee, toe-tapping bass, and sweet, soaring sax. Since I don’t know enough about TNG to properly place this music in that universe, I’ll just turn the rest of this review over to Michael and Kate, who say, “This song could be something playing in 10 Forward or in a holodeck nightclub. Unfortunately we couldn’t get Riker to play trombone.” (Hey, I know what a holodeck is! And I’ve heard of Riker too. I think he has a beard.) Clearly, the Force is with Michael and Kate, as Dr. Spock would say. (Did I get that right?)

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Ball of Wax 69 Songs: Orion – “In the Wind”

Posted on December 5, 2023 by Lattney B. Jones

Contradictory though it may seem, subtlety is the dominating theme in Orion’s contribution to Ball of Wax Volume 69. This edition is built upon duos, but you could almost imagine a solitary figure in a bedsit with a synth and a guitar for the first third of the track.

If this whole song were composed simply of that softly tremulous guitar and the space it gathers between each rising and falling lick, it would still be a winner. Something so diaphanous deserves a place on any compilation, any album, any EP. But Orion are not here just to lull you—they’re here to tickle some cilia and test some sensitivity.

And so it is that a smooth bass tone comes into play just before a gorgeous and gorgeously-reverberating vocal cries out from the depths of a place far beyond or below that bedsit. I’m already fully committed to this one, and THEN Orion slip in a percolating rhythm track that, combined with everything else, still somehow feels somnambulant.

I don’t mean sleepy so much as soothing. All of this feels like it’s happening inside my head, rather than my headphones. Even the fine drum track that kicks things up to speed doesn’t oppress the overall mood. If anything, its hardlined hits and syncopated snares add to the dreaminess.

Orion shows that they know what they’re doing with “In the Wind” when they fade everything else away for an ambient outro that plays with a mic left on the floor for some distorted and ghostly effects, before seeing us out with what is certainly meant as a cue tone signaling that all you’ve just experienced was a dream.

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Ball of Wax 69 Songs: THEATH * MANNING – “Canon of Metathesis II”

Posted on December 4, 2023 by Phil Chamberlin

To my ears, the beat drives just a touch faster, just a bit harder than the ambient opening suggests. I’ve learned that “metathesis” is a word that’s used for both the analysis of language and the analysis of chemistry. Both senses of the word are about exchanges: of sounds, of bonding. And that’s appropriate here, since the coldness of the ticking drum machine contrasts nicely with what sounds like the real-time, human manipulation of atmosphere. (Is that an EBow?) The sounds fade into the shadows, as we all eventually do. And you can dance to it, too, especially if you’re one of the shadows.

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Ball of Wax 69 Songs: the moth stays – “match cut”

Posted on December 1, 2023 by Levi Fuller

The formidable duo of Suki O’Kane and Rae Diamond – performing as the moth stays – keep us on the experimental orbit Till the Teeth launched us into, with this compelling, playful percussion/viola duet. The two multi-faceted artists and creators have been collaborating together since some undisclosed time in the 20th century, “expanding a Venn diagram that includes breath, tuning, movement, the natural world, durational forms, and edge ecologies,” which leads me to believe that this track is just a small, tantalizing taste of a compelling body of work. Not even the tip of the iceberg, but perhaps a snowflake on the tip of the iceberg.

And like a snowflake, “match cut” is delicate, unique, and beautifully rendered. As with “Quirquincho,” this piece feels both composed and improvised, as if it happened completely by happenstance but also knows exactly where it’s going but also might be a little bit surprised by where it ended up – like a moth fluttering around a light and choosing to stay, perhaps. I stand eager to experience whatever else this duo might bring into the world.

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