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______________________________________________________________________________.
The Juan Maclean
Less Than Human
______________________________________________________________________________.
.date May-26-2005
.style Indie
.label DFA/Astralwerks
.cat.no. DFAEMI2131CD
.source CDDA
.type Album
.quality VBRkbps 44.1hz Joint-Stereo
.size 64,6 MB
______________________________________________________________________________.
Official release: July 12, 2005. Enjoy it now from your friends at
DPS... thanks to the usual suspects.
"Less Than Human" is the debut album from long standing DFA act and
former member of sub pop group Six Finger Satellite, The Juan Maclean.
Track by track description:
AD2003
2003 was a particularly bad year. For me anyway. That's saying a lot
since the previous thirty werenÆt so great either. I disengaged from a
long term interface that had involved genetic replication. Like how long
can you try to make a SCSI cable fit into a USB jack? And everyone
around you is looking at you like you are an idiot, and you still insist
on calling tech support every day, "this cable doesn't fit, it must be
defective." Until it dawns on you one day, "the cable is fine, the
receptacle is fuckedà" the Dr. Who style synths were important to
establish right on the first track, cuz that is where my head is at most
of the time, on the set of Dr. Who. An intro track that sets the stage
for the album: a dash of melancholy; some impending doom, a touch of
despair, and the assurance that every breath is one breath closer to the
last.
Shining Skinned Friend
A love triangle consisting of a man, a woman, and the man's gay robot
friend. So you have the man with his "white (k)nights, in dark cafes",
and weÆre talking about white nights as in white powder, snowblind and
all that business, and white knights in the sense of the Teutonic
duo's dreams of glorious union. Then the woman with her entreaty of
"hush hush, don't cry, sometimes big bots, must say goodbye." Sort of a
10cc thing, when they used the Fairlight sampling device. Ultimately the
man is crushed by the bot's good intentions, cuz the bot knows he can't
possibly reciprocate on an emotional level, and the woman gets fucked
over. Like almost all the other songs, a track about the frustration of
the persistent alienation from affection about seeking refuge in dark
places. BTW, I know there's been a lot of this robot stuff lately, but I
have a solid legacy of doing robot shit that dates back to the early
90's (as documented by Six Finger Satellite catalogue), and I take it
seriously, I'm not taking the piss.
Give Me Every Little Thing
Electronic disco that's both tuff and gay simultaneously. Like going
back to Fire Island, circa 1976, armed with what I know now. Armed with
a drum machine, a sampler, and some amyl nitrate. Tangential reference
to the Doors, who I don't particularly like, but without the Lizard King
there would be no Iggy Pop. "Partly wreaked, party wreaked, don't
stop." I must gratefully give James Murphy of the LSD Soundsystem
credit for all that. That guy has a way with his mouth. Bootsy inspired
bassline took me weeks of practice to play perfectly.
Tito's Way
Nick Atocha, the drummer on the track, he's not only a real life Latino,
but his father is an old school Latin Jazz dude in the style of the
dude's moustachioed hero. My regular whistle was being serviced in the
shop, so I spent an entire afternoon scouring lower Manhattan for a
replacement. That I had to buy one in a franchise sports shop was a
tremendous bring-down. Responding to my inquiry, the clerk dude was like
"basketball, football, or hockey"? I was like "Loose Joints", which
baffled him long enough for me to grab an official silver-plated WNBA
model. Fortunately, my spirits were lifted later that night, for three
days straight.
In The Afternoon
Another commentary on power dynamics in relationships. I started
shooting cocaine at an early age; it was more readily available than
dope. A friend of mine was reading a biography of Phillip K. Dick, who I
hadn't read yet. We worked together in Boston doing construction. One
Monday morning, he came by to pick me up for work, and he was like "what
the fuck was it with you calling me all night asking for Tessa." I was
shooting coke all night for the second day straight, and I didn't
remember a thing about it. But the eerie thing about it, Tessa was the
name of Phillip Dick's wife, and I had never heard the name before. I
immediately plowed through the entire Dick catalogue, which ushered in a
period of intense paranoia. I thought the government was watching me
through the TV and the little bug-like drones that flew around my
apartment disguised as the front door, I'd have advance warning whenever
someone came round. At one point, I realized that if I started and ended
coke binges in the afternoon, it was not as depressing coming down as it
was at 5am. You know, the sun is out, kids are in the street, etc. But
my girlfriend thought this meant I had a problem, cuz I was doing it in
the day instead of the night like everyone else.
Love Is In the Air
"Why can't you see, what you're dong to me, why can't you feel, that our
love is real.." Alienation and disconnection, the inability to
successfully initiate any meaningful convergence. Obsolete interface,
permanent incompatibility, but the flute, though evoking longing and
melancholia, offers a glimmer of hope in its final flourishes.
Alternatively titled Fife after Death. Oh, the bass line is the most
retarded I've ever done, musically speaking that is.
My Time Is Running Out
The inevitability of malfunction. I hate to bring up robots again, but
only moments after the bot becomes aware of existence, he finds a clock
running backwards attached to his internals. Some would consider this
depressing, cuz it is, but I find it rather uplifting. The five-year
plan has been quite effective thus far. I'll hold off for five years,
get some shit done, then I'm done. Me and a friend have sort of made a
pact. When the time comes, sell everything, pool our resources, and fund
the beginning of the end. It's all a matter of time, how long you can
function masquerading as a contributor to something or another. One
time, a couple of friends of mine showed up at my apartment from out of
state. They were acting really weird, they brought me some groceries and
cleaned up and shit like that. It was a really bad time, and I wasn't
sleeping much. Around midnight, I heard all these explosions outside, I
thought it was gunfire. I went and sat on a chair by the window, and
there were these fireworks going off. Shot up tomorrow mornings
breakfast. And I was like "what the fuck are these fireworks for?" And
they told me, "it's New Years Eve, didn't you know?" And I didn't, and
somehow I knew I had crossed some sort of line. And they finally started
in, getting it off their chests, like "we are afraid you are going to
die." And I meant it, I said "honestly, sincerely, if I die, don't feel
bad, it's ok with me, it's better than this. I would off myself now but
I don't have the motivation." And so I'm saying it again, just in case,
just know that I don't mind, this hasn't been so great that I don't mind
leaving.
Dance With Me
This was a true collaboration of Tim Goldsworthy, Nancy Whang, and me.
Although he's British, I feel a certain affinity with TG in terms of
moroseness or something, the English sense of humour. Someone once said
"the two guys who don't smoke pot and they sit in the studio doing these
druggy jams..." Put the piano in an elevator shaft, and just made a pass
at like 4am, weeping Windham Hill looming on the Horizon. Me and TG
cleared the studio so NW could do vocals, after plying her with bottles
of stuff I found upstairs. Went and got real inspired by a Kraftwerk
video. Came back after a few hours and heard this, the saddest fucking
plea for mercy. A fitting end to the album, although a bit gratuitous at
14 minutes or whatever it is.
______________________________________________________________________________.
01 Ad 2003 02:04
02 Shining Skinned Friend 04:30
03 Give Me Every Little Thing 05:28
04 Tito's Way 03:43
05 Love Is In The Air 02:56
06 In The Afternoon 01:55
07 My Time Is Running Out 05:23
08 Crush The Liberation 06:47
09 Dance With Me 14:05
. .
46:51 min
______________________________________________________________________________.
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▀▄ digaphobia ██████████ peace to music lovers everywhere
▀. public ██████████
▀. sound ██████████ 1real - amok - bcc - cmg - cmc - cms - diss
: █████▀████ drum - fuffens - hit2k - just - kw - nuhs - om
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. ██▄███████ _______________
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