a r t i s t : Kurt Weisman
t i t l e : Spiritual Sci-Fi
d a t e : 2008
l a b e l : Important (IMPREC150)
g e n r e : Indie
r l s. d a t e : Feb/2008
t r a c k s : 08
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 46,6 MB
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While Spiritual Sci-Fi is a result of work that Kurt Weisman
has been undertaking for the last 10 years it's certainly also
worth noting that he's a multi-instrumentalist in the
acclaimed folk outfit Feathers as well as a member of J
Mascis' Witch. Kurt's stunning musicallity and absolute
compositional prowess makes this an extremely compelling and
wonderfully musical experimental pop-folk recording. The dense
& original arrangement makes recalls the majesty of Van Dyke
Parks album Song Cycle.
Linked below is the entire MP3 for the track Spiritual Sci-Fi.
Listen 20 times and listen closely.
Kurt Weisman is a New England composer in his late 20s around
whom all the wheels of life seem distinctly sped up (he's
known for his extreme falsetto as well as pitching up his
voice beyond Beatle and into cartoon). Hair is cut into
strange shapes and then suddenly shorn, moustaches appear and
disappear with alarming frequency, cyber punk outfits melt
into freak folk into noise into French bohemian complete with
beret (red wine hippydancing at uptight in-store free jazz
shows). And it's all taken way too far to be considered
staying in fashion. He fills these forms with the content they
suggest to him (and his unique eye here is one facet of his
genius) until they bear the mark of a kind of insanity, layer
upon layer obscuring the original, the figure constantly
shifting into the ground for another figure.
The songs already sound like they're floating above something
else when you hear them with just voice and 12-string. These
are not regular songs with weird production. The alternative
to the expectation refers to the expectation. He seems to know
every tricky thing that's ever happened in pop music and how
to take it further but then takes that further by giving verse
2 all these ear-stretching variations on verse 1. There's a
lot of weird meter stuff, little skips and jumps or little
things that get stretched that seem inspired by his own
computer micro-editing techniques. The "song" and the
"production" are a snake biting its own tail.
It's not just electronic sounding stuff (filters, pitch
shifts, time stretches, delays, videogame sounds, synth
sounds, noise, beats) that lives all over these songs, there
are also all sorts of weird parts his friends put on top too.
Music teachers, ex jazz students, self-taught searchers: New
England is the future of music. Chord upon chord upon chord
upon chord. The "chord" is dead. This is something else.
None of this is some kind of other from another genre or some
critical or ironic side of his personality, it all grows from
the same spirit that made the song itself. Some process is set
into motion that's so creative it becomes destructive but
somehow it all feels really good and also really spiritually
and scientifically accurate. Kurt knows we're all going to die
and that it's o.k. The whole history of the composition is
right there in the same space just like the planet, the
universe, the soul. Creation and destruction are one.
http://www.importantrecords.com/releases/imprec150_release_pag
e.htm
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01-Cat People of the New Ice Age [04:25]
02-The Great Flood [04:50]
03-The Young Pioneers Discover Magic [08:16]
04-Closeup of Reflection in Insect's Shell [00:37]
05-Spiritual Sci-Fi [03:35]
06-Camp Arden [02:38]
07-Mother Daughter Day [03:23]
08-The Metal Glass Band [06:34]
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34:18 min