Ball of Wax 68 Songs: Night Owl – “Mellow Moods”

Posted on June 7, 2022 by Levi Fuller

Night Owl’s “Mellow Moods” is, just as advertised, a sweet, mellow tune. The trio manage the delicate balancing act of creating a guitar-driven, bluesy, melodic piece of music that holds your interest and keeps your head bobbing (albeit slowly), while never veering off into cheesy Clapton blues lawyer territory. There are dynamics, harmonic shifts and changes, but the overall vibe is just as it says on the tin. This is  driving music, but more of the cruising-through-your-old-neighborhood-at-midnight or easing-down-the-road-in-your-cab-after-closing-time variety, rather than the full-throttle-on-the-highway-with-the-top-down sort. You know, mellow.

I look forward to hearing the many moods Night Owl is capable of conjuring at the Ball of Wax 68 release show on June 18th at Cafe Racer. Join us!

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Ball of Wax 68 Songs: Orion – “The Woods”

Posted on June 6, 2022 by Levi Fuller

Orion is a newish project of longtime Ball of Wax friends and collaborators Mark Johnson and Mike Bundy – born, I presume, of the pandemic, though I don’t know for sure. We have heard all manner of sounds from these two since Mark’s appearance as Amateur Radio Operator on Ball of Wax 1, generally involving some combination of guitars, drums, and synthesizers. “The Woods” is a calming musical exploration, all guitar and synth with a quarter-note pulse that could be a kick drum, or a synthesized kick drum, or just the ineffable, insistent ‘wuh’ that keeps it all together. The title is firmly grounded to earth, but I can’t help but imagine I’m floating through space as I traverse my way through this piece. Chords and tones float by, individual notes pop out and sparkle in the stratosphere, and is it me, or is that synth line that pops up about halfway through almost an inversion of the classic melody from Close Encounters of the Third Kind? If I may make an attempt to reconcile the earthly title and celestial sounds of “The Woods,” this would make a terrific soundtrack for an evening spent lying in a clearing in the woods, welcoming interstellar travelers.

Orion will join us live an in person at the Ball of Wax 68 release show, June 18th at Cafe Racer!

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Ball of Wax 68 Songs: Galenbaby – “Do Wild”

Posted on June 3, 2022 by Levi Fuller

In his notes for Ball of Wax 68, Galen Disston – aka Galenbaby – asks, echoing Erk Satie, “Can music be wallpaper?” But then he goes on, “If you look at the wallpaper enough, do you start to see yourself?” This, as I alluded to in regard to Domenica Diavoleria’s track, is the thing with music that’s considered (or intended to be) ambient, or treated like furniture or wallpaper, and what I believe Satie may have discovered, despite his best efforts at creating music to be ignored: You can’t stop people from looking at the wallpaper, and when they do they may discover more there than you, its creator, ever imagined. (And I say this as someone who has sat and listened to one short Satie work played over and over for hours on end.)

So it is with much of the work you’ll hear here on Ball of Wax 68, including “Do Wild.” These fluttering boops and tweeps, phasing in and out and piling all over each other, might seem at first like a series of oddly soothing noises playing in the background, but if you pay enough attention you’ll start to hear new patterns and relationships, notice when strange new timbres shift in and out, and discover that you’re actually listening for the first time in a while. Maybe even listening to yourself.

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Ball of Wax 68 Songs: Domenica Diavoleria – “Only I Have the Key”

Posted on June 2, 2022 by Levi Fuller

The music of Domenica Diavoleria – an oeuvre which has grown and developed with stunning rapidity since the release of her debut EP last September – is not something one can easily pin down or slap a label onto. I mean, if you’re looking for a broad genre, I suppose it’s electronic music, but that merely describes, inadequately, the instrumentation. With the electronics at her disposal, Domenica weaves worlds and landscapes that are somehow simultaneously alien and uncompromising, and warm and inviting. In “Only I Have the Key,” using only the merest hints of rhythm and melody, she creates a compelling and unique musical statement that rewards whatever level of attention you give it. It may be an abstract sound in your speakers as you jab away at a spreadsheet, or if you focus your mind on it, the titular key might unlock something in your brain you never knew was there. Either way, it’s a rewarding and satisfying way to spend 5 and a half minutes (or, even better, the 16 and a half minutes I spent writing this).

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Ball of Wax 68 Songs: Al Mustaqil – “What we’ve just lost (Dub version)”

Posted on June 2, 2022 by Jon Rooney

“What we’ve just lost (Dub version),” an instrumental piece by Al Mustaqil, is digital maximalism: idea stacked upon idea with frantic synth sounds weaving around a glitchy, intermittent sequenced beat that leaves little space for silence or ambience. The opening lead synth hit gives way to a rapidly approaching rumble of programmed drums, static, and guitars so digitally distorted as to have seemingly peeled right off of Pretty Hate Machine. The programmed drums begin to stutter, than advance, then retreat amid shards of heavily delayed sine and saw waves. Is it syncopation or curated glitch? Either way the result is unsettling and weirdly invigorating, an android dance tune haunted by paranoia.

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Ball of Wax 68 Songs: JNA – “Tell Me Why”

Posted on June 2, 2022 by Domenica Clark

JNA‘s “Tell Me Why” is premium grade ’80s style electro-funk track perfect for cruising down Aurora on a Saturday night, taking in the sights, like the neon palm trees of the Club Hollywood in Shoreline. This is a classic, g-funk synth sound done just right and just in time for Summer. I would love to hear the vocal side if there is one! [Indeed there is! -ed]

Don’t miss JNA’s set at the Ball of Wax 68 release show on June 18th at Cafe Racer.

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Ball of Wax 68 Songs: Sound Madrona – “I Am Filled with Hate”

Posted on June 1, 2022 by Levi Fuller

Sounds Madrona‘s “I Am Filled with Hate,” while not nearly as brutal and unforgiving as you might expect of a song with that title, contains a through-line of darkness that can’t be denied. The ping-ponging beat that starts us off has an almost relaxed, trancelike feel to it, but once you’ve been lulled into a false sense of security, a buzzsaw of low-end synth drives home the central theme. Occasionally the bass steps aside for new percussive and/or melodic elements, but it’s never far away. The primary sonic elements – electronic drums, bells, and that snarling, insistent bass – swap back and forth and layer in various combinations to create an ever-shifting, propulsive work that wouldn’t sound out of place should it end up on the soundtrack of a Lynch or Cronenberg film. I know I’ll be cranking this tune on my next late-night drive to fulfill some unholy obligation or other, which I’m sure is just as the artist intended.

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Ball of Wax 68 Songs: Kora Karuna – “Kambuche”

Posted on May 31, 2022 by Levi Fuller

Cambuche, according to Kora Karuna and the internet, is a Colombian term for an improvised dwelling. (The Kora Karuna folks are fond of using K’s in lieu of hard C’s.) An array of percussion and flute join in with the eponymous kora to invite us in to this homey little improvisation. A steady beat keeps us grounded and cozy in this musical space, while new sounds and melodies phase in and out, like friends or relatives popping in for a quick chat or a bit to eat, instruments from all over the world sharing space and breaking bread together in comfortable harmony. Even when the beat drops out altogether it’s still there, an invisible pulse holding it all together. “Kambuche,” like any day spent at home with friends or family – full of improvisations, adjustments, side conversations, and unexpected detours – leaves your mind buzzing with fleeting impressions and warm memories, ready for whatever comes next.

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Ball of Wax 68 Songs: Green Light Cameras and Saint Nefarious – “What It Is and Where It Is and Why It Is and How It Is”

Posted on May 27, 2022 by Steven Scribner

Questions, so many questions! Answers: This is what it is, and this is where it is, and this is why it is. But that one chord stays there, immobile, stubbornly seeking more answers (What? Where? Why?) while the other chords go about their business. What (and where and why and when and how) happens next is anybody’s guess.

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Ball of Wax 68 Songs: Colin Ernst – “Rocinante Rides Again!”

Posted on May 26, 2022 by Levi Fuller

Colin Ernst‘s “Rocinante Rides Again!” is, as its title suggests, a musical journey with cinematic sweep and flair. In lieu of my own review, I’m tempted to just paste Colin’s text from the Ball of Wax 68 liner notes (which begins “Deep in the far corners of a lonely pasture our hero, feeling the weight of a long life well lived, nibbled a few last blades of sweet grass underneath a crimson sky and awaited the inevitable when lo . . . could it be?!”) but you’ll have to get the physical package for the full story.

Or you can just listen to this song, which lays it all out as well as any text. A quiet, somber opening, wide open spaces and slow loping melodies. Rustling winds and swirling dust, then a cantering bass and guiro set us off on the path to adventure. Drum kit and brass join in and play us along as we dodge cacti and leap old fences, brass trading sections with a wily coyote of an electric guitar. But wait, is that an army of rattlesnakes? No, it’s just the kazoos keeping us company on our journey. This is just the end of Act I, so the tune ends at sunset of the first day, horse and rider resting by the fire, preparing “for what was sure to be their grandest most exhilarating quest yet. Or was it?” To be continued? I sure hope so.

 

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