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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Ball of Wax 68 Songs: Lisa King – “Lunaria”

Posted on May 25, 2022 by Levi Fuller

The only voice you will hear on this volume of Ball of Wax is Lisa King’s breathy, tossed-off “all right,” leading her acoustic guitar into the gentle groove she’s established on hand drums to ease us into the landscape of “Lunaria.” Yes, this volume is instrumental, and yes, that generally means no voices, but if Lisa King wants to lead us into this lush musical world with a little verbal affirmation, who am I to say no?

“Lunaria” – a piece of music as charming and lovely as its namesake flower – would do just fine as background music in pretty much any setting, but its greatness really shines through when you listen closely, ideally on headphones. That “all right” really pops out, for instance, but I also love the way the verses and choruses flow into and contrast with each other, the way the instruments play together and leave room for each other, and then, maybe my favorite part: At the very end of the song, with mere seconds to go, we hear a new voice, a pensive organ winding up a new melody, but the fade-out has already begun, and we’re left to imagine where this song might have gone, what musical delights that sweet, lonely organ might have hinted at.

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Ball of Wax 68 Songs: Time Pieces – “Boundary Problems”

Posted on May 24, 2022 by Levi Fuller

Time Pieces is a new project featuring several recognizable NW rock names, most notably from my perspective being Allen Karpinski (of The Six Parts Seven, who were not a NW band, but hey, people move) and Chris Early (of many things, but whom I first met when he was slinging bass for Ball of Wax OGs Amateur Radio Operator). What we have here is a sneak peek from the band’s forthcoming not-totally-instrumental album, to be released later this year on Porchlight Records.

“Boundary Problems” is a well-hewn slab of instrumental rock: propulsive and layered, melodic, anthemic, and satisfying, but variable, with unexpected sounds and twists along the way. It starts off big and just keeps getting bigger, guitars piling up upon guitars deliberately, artfully, pulling back here and there for a breath, and then pulling the floor out from under you about halfway through for a half-time bridge with some gorgeous new melodic guitar flavors. From there it all builds back before the band shifts into a gear they’d been keeping secret, so as to utterly, blissfully, wallop you over the head in the closing seconds. To say I’m very keen to hear the full album when it’s released would be a severe understatement.

I am really looking forward to Allen and Chris’s set opening up the Ball of Wax 68 release show on June 18th at Cafe Racer. You won’t want to miss this one.

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Ball of Wax 68 Songs: Monika Tiken – “The Opening”

Posted on May 23, 2022 by Steven Scribner

From the dark fog of our imaginations, Monika Tiken‘s contemplative soprano sax emerges singing of the beginnings of things. Then just as quickly it is gone, back into hazy light (maybe it was never here at all?). We await what follows.

 

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Ball of Wax 68: Live at Cafe Racer on 6/18!

Posted on May 23, 2022 by Levi Fuller

Ball of Wax 68
Featuring Night Owl, JNA, Orion, Nick Jaina, and Time Pieces (Allen Karpinski and Chris Early)
Saturday, June 18 at Cafe Racer
8pm doors. Ball of Wax 68 compilation included with entry.

It’s happening! Yet another live, in person Ball of Wax release show, this time at Cafe Racer’s cool new spot in Capitol Hill! This should be a delightful evening with old and new friends of (mostly) instrumental sounds, celebrating the release of our (entirely) instrumental new volume. Keep your eyes and ears on the blog here, as we’ll start rolling out tracks today!

 

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Submit Instrumental Music for Ball of Wax 68!

Posted on March 25, 2022 by Levi Fuller
A kalimba sitting on top of a sparkly turquoise electric guitar

Accepted without exception.

Well, another volume of Ball of Wax is out in the wild . . . which means it’s time to solicit submissions for the next one! Since it’s been 15 years since the last all-instrumental BoW, I figured the time was ripe to do it again.

Please send in some new sounds without voices or words! There is no requirement for submissions to be exclusive to Ball of Wax; newly released or forthcoming elsewhere is totally fine. (And yes, I have publicly declared my pre-acceptance of any and all electric guitar/kalimba duos.)

Deadline: April 9th (earlier is great too.)
Guidelines: here

Please spread the word. I can’t wait to hear what you’ve got.

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Ball of Wax 67 Songs: Joshua Dennis – “Take a Little Moment Back”

Posted on March 22, 2022 by Levi Fuller

This volume of Ball of Wax has been quite a journey. 23 tracks of myriad genres, touching on post-apocalyptic optimism, dystopian paranoia, rebel girls, cardinal cats, and so much more. Joshua Dennis‘s “Take a Little Moment” back feels like the perfect way to pause and reflect on it all: A few minutes of gently strummed acoustic guitar, Joshua’s soothing voice, and some strange but lovely little background noises wrapping us in a sonic blanket and reminding us to take a moment from running around in circles, however we can, wherever we are, to focus on what’s important. (I’ll also add that it flows pretty nicely right back into Track 1, if you want to just keep this listening party on repeat.)

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Ball of Wax 67 Songs: bequiet – “Где я?”

Posted on March 21, 2022 by Patrick J Gibbs

bequiet is Almaz Salikhov, a Russian music producer and artist living in Helsinki, Finland. He was one of over 100 musicians whose work appeared as part of TELEPHONE, the global online art game of whisper down the lane. A sampling of the music of TELEPHONE was featured on Ball of Wax Volume 64. The more than 900 TELEPHONE artists (I will confess that I was one of them) represented 72 countries and 488 cities from across the world. The game, largely played in the first months of the COVID pandemic, and its many creators demonstrated that art in its many forms transcends borders and barriers with an ability to relay content and meaning in even the most trying of times.

With “Где я?” bequiet again exhibits the ability of art, music in this instance, to initiate a dialogue and evoke a specific exploration despite the possible divides of language and distance. Backwards instrumentation opens the song, creating a sense of wonder and mystery. Soft, hazy lyrics roll in, carried on a breath originating from afar. There is uncertainty in the air. The melody begins to find its feet, becoming more steady but not quite secure. A new voice, this one trancelike in a gentle chant, enters the mix with a meditative quality. It is searching. The chant stops. The melody fades. Once again the song opens up. bequiet creates a spacious soundscape with the rise again of those long, airy vocals and the backwards playing. bequiet’s short, beautiful song causes its listener to slow down, to enter a brief state of contemplation. Before looking it up, one can already guess that Где я? will translate to “Where am I?”

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Check Out This Song: Nic Masangkay – “Mothers”

Posted on March 20, 2022 by Levi Fuller

New music from Nic Masangkay is always a reason to celebrate (you might remember their track “Diaspora Lover” from Ball of Wax 55, or their cover of Moe Provencher’s “Like Moon River” from #59) , and their newest single “Mothers” does not disappoint. “Mothers” is a study in musical and lyrical contrasts: Nic sings about trauma and pain and relationships over a soothing, pulsing bed of synths that makes you want to drive around town at night with your windows down, feeling the breeze on your face and the bass in your body. And this is one of the great strengths of Nic’s music: A casual listen brings the pleasurable experience of hearing a new musical gem from a gifted songwriter and producer. On further consideration of the lyrics, and Nic’s delivery of them, we hear pain and trauma, yes, but also love and desire and the search for a new way to honor our matriarchs.

As Nic writes about this track, “Love is not trying to control or possess someone else’s journey in a way to heal our own personal trauma. More importantly, as a survivor of child sexual abuse, I learned how not to repeat some of the violence done to me under the guise of ‘love.’ ‘Mothers’ proves it’s possible to love beyond the unhealthy and violent patterns we are taught.” This is a lot to infuse into a less-than-three-minute pop song, but Nic handles this weighty task brilliantly. “Mothers” is a gorgeous, subtle, heart-rending piece of music that I hope leads you to explore the rest of Nic’s catalog, and to join me in following their musical journey wherever it leads.

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Ball of Wax 67 Songs: Drekka – “Without Revelation There Is No Love [Instrumental]”

Posted on March 17, 2022 by Patrick J Gibbs

In 1989’s Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music, Peter van der Merwe wrote “Of all harmonic devices, it [a drone] is not only the simplest, but probably also the most fertile.” Drekka’s “Without Revelation There Is No Love [Instrumental]” begins with a drone that slowly pulses, breathes, and establishes the musical landscape from which the rest of the song’s instrumentation is grown. Initially, there is nothing but the drone. Slowly, a guitar begins to take root. A deliberate percussive beat nourishes the mix. One can imagine the sun rising and shadows stretching across a field. Life finding its way. A season unfolding until the harvest. The instrumentation falls. And there is nothing left but that most fertile drone.

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