“Step into the Phil Zone, man.”
“I’ve been tryna get deeper into the 90s, man.”
“Jerr Bear really killed it that night, man.”
“Pig, man. RIP.”
“Donna, man. DONNA. Damn.”
My roommate is terminally obsessed with The Grateful Dead and I am not. Every day I hear him wax nostalgic for shows that took place decades before his birth, compare musicians, compare eras, spout legends, solemnly eulogize his idols. What I once perceived as his pidgin Dead babble has crystalized over the years into jargon I can more-than-half comprehend. When he puts on a Dead tape, I find myself asking what year it was recorded, or who’s on keyboard. Maybe I’m getting sucked into it. More likely, a casual appreciation has developed as a survival tactic in the face of his devotion. With the Dead forced into my airspace virtually every day of my life without my input, I could never dream of listening to them alone, of my own free will. But I will grin and I will bear his selections unto eternity, not without a liiittle enjoyment.
“Grayfolded, though, man.”
A whole ‘nother beast. A project that has called me back for repeat listen after listen: live performances of the Dead repurposed into source material for John Oswald’s consonant musique concrète collage. The legendary Plunderphonics guru / OG remix artist ransacks the Dead vaults with more reverence than, say, his mind-warping “Bad” → “Dab” edit, but he isn’t afraid to make seismic changes that elevate the project into new strata of avant reconfiguration. Oswald vertically stacks multiple performances onto each other, time-stretches drifting passages into open-mawed drones, and arranges everything into “new” “compositions” comprised of the mulch of decades-worth of “Dark Star.” Jerry Garcia on his own? Alright, yeah, great. Jerry Garcia smashed into two or three or four other Jerry Garcias, conflated into a pulsing cloud of arpeggios and self-accompanying improv? Sign me right up. Stream “Clouds Cast,” a cut from Important Records (!) forthcoming Grayfolded 3xLP reissue, and allow Oswald to cast your mind back through the ages, as live Dead incarnations from the 60s, 70s, and 90s morph into improbably extended vocal lines, spastic panning shakers, and guitars on guitars on guitars on guitars… man.
The label hasn’t announced a release date yet, as far as I can tell. Rumors are floating of an upcoming preorder (a rarity for the Imprec crew). Snatch a copy before the heads get there first.
• Grateful Dead: http://www.dead.net
• John Oswald: http://www.pfony.com
• Important Records: http://www.importantrecords.com
More about: Grateful Dead, John Oswald
