♫♪  Various Artists: Opal Tapes - Cambiare

In early Winter, amid the foliage and flotsam of fringe tiki, my pal, a rum-centric bartender by trade, had a dream inversion. Everyday barback tasks failed to go off without a hitch. Blenders broke and membrane-red slush overflowed, staining Aloha shirts. Garish garnishes wilted; unsteady jiggers fell and wasted free pours of top shelf like sand in an hourglass.

He awoke in a sweat, with a feverish tropical disease, fearful of serving the next round lest the simple task go awry. The only way he could expunge his nightmare of stormy bartending was to act out the dream in public, making improvised messes colorful as the vomit outside of Pat O’Brien’s. This performance sublimated his mild fears and anxiety about his dream clumsily coming true.

Cambiare, a compilation on Opal Tapes, collects 14 grim and minimal tracks evoking a similar sublimation of “the job gone wrong.” Simultaneously sinister and mellow, this well-calculated sequence plays out like an occupational thriller, where small dangers lurk around the corner. Tame fears anticipate impending on-the-clock disasters. Slow-motion “fantasy street” beats conspire with straight-lined and cinematic minor chord accidents. Artificial searches down digital hallways yield no concrete results. The ever-present epidemic of repetition triggers slight increases in stress levels.

The musicians prepare us well for these twists and turns (cleanliness is favored over clutter in these efficient arrangements), yet we can’t predict them. Their sources are mysterious. The recitation is slow, turning the alarm-clock twists into character studies and heightening the suspense, before they are faded back in line. In order to keep their job, they’re going to have to play ball.

• Opal Tapes: http://opaltapes.bandcamp.com

Chocolate Grinder

CHOCOLATE GRINDER is our audio/visual section, with an emphasis on the lesser heard and lesser known. We aim to dig deep, but we’ll post any song or video we find interesting, big or small.

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