I Found You

I’d have to place the moment somewhere around 14 months ago — it was a casual social media or podcast reference recommending Fred again..’s Tiny Desk Concert. I knew of Fred. I knew of Tiny Desk’s general vibe. But what came of the pairing was something I hadn’t anticipated. The entirety of the near-half hour set is impeccable in its gentle brilliance and delivery, and I can’t recommend it enough, but The Moment for me came 28 seconds in.

The first song of the Tiny Desk set is one called “Kyle (i found you),” which is complemented by a visual accompaniment on a screen in the background, behind Fred, syncing visuals of a poet — a poet named Kyle — sampled and mixed to accentuate a rumbling of tender piano. It’s beautiful. It absolutely is. But that’s not the “holy shit” thing about it for me. I’m revisiting it again now, as I write this, and again I’m overwhelmed by it. I used to know Kyle. Our paths crossed for a while when I lived up in Minneapolis. I was in bad shape at that stage of life though. I made a lot of mistakes in those years and burned many bridges on my way out when I left town, but in the few exchanges I had with Kyle in the years that followed he never seemed to hold anything against me. I always appreciated that. And when I saw that moment on the Tiny Desk video, a strong feeling of pride came rushing to and through me. I’d lost track of his work somewhere over the past few years, but man, was this ever one hell of a way to be reminded of someone from your past.

In the most recent update to his Red Hand Files series, Nick Cave recalled recent experiences on the road with his band, writing, “The world had grown thoroughly disenchanted, and its feverish obsession with politics and its leaders had thrown up so many palisades that had prevented us from experiencing the presence of anything remotely like the spirit, the sacred, or the transcendent – that holy place where joy resides. I felt proud to have been touring with The Bad Seeds and offering, in the form of a rock ‘n ’roll show, an antidote to this despair, one that transported people to a place beyond the dreadful drama of the political moment.” For me, Fred again..’s music is an antidote to despair, and to see him re-contextualize a familiar voice in a way that delivers a worthy message to a whole new audience awakened within me a feeling of revived spirit.

About two months ago Fred again.. played the Target Center in Minneapolis. The Target Center, for those who don’t know, is the big arena that overlooks and dwarfs First Avenue. First Avenue, for those who don’t know, is a special place. And for that show, in the big sports arena, across from the city’s spiritual center, Fred gave the stage to Kyle. As a fan, I can’t express how proud of him. I wasn’t there, but even watching a clip of it on YouTube inspires within me a much needed break from the collective despair Cave mentioned.

“And they never name the villain / Like a single burning bush is a sign, but not a million?”
-Guante & Big Cats “Whatever You Do, Don​’​t Put the Words ‘Climate Crisis’ in the Title”

Kyle performs and makes music under the name of Guante. He and his longtime collaborator Big Cats released a new album titled All Dressed Up, No Funeral this past summer, but they’re only just now celebrating it with a proper release show. Theirs was the last show I saw in Minneapolis before I left the city, and I wish I could be there as they once again take the stage together. The new album is solid, led by a strong opener, “Whatever You Do, Don​’​t Put the Words ‘Climate Crisis’ in the Title,” but for more context I also added my favorite track of theirs to this week’s mix (the YouTube version, at least, as it’s not on Spotify). I also suggest you check out his website, as you might appreciate some of his other work (hell, you might have already come across it, and didn’t even know it!).

As best I can recall, the first time I saw Guante perform was at a pro-union street festival in the summer of 2009 called One Day in July. While I moved on to another event after his set that day, in doing so I missed out on seeing another of Minneapolis’ finest perform as Brother Ali headlined the event. I started feeling an itch of Twin Cities nostalgia last week after spending some time with a Nardwuar interview with Ali, but I’ve since dug myself deeper into that feeling by immersing myself in some of his most recent work. Beyond his collaboration with producer unJUST, which was featured on last week’s update, this week’s mix bears a track from Ali’s forthcoming full-length release, set to drop in February. Included here is my favorite from a handful of tracks released as a primer for what’s to come, titled “Head Heart Hands.” Additionally, another track of his is included, titled “Uncle Sam Goddamn” from his 2007 album, The Undisputed Truth. While Ali has, himself, moved on — having relocated to Turkey nearly a decade ago — he kept the Twin Cities connection going by linking up with longtime Atmosphere producer Ant for the upcoming project. For those interested in hearing more from the latter, Ant just released an album of his own in the form of Collection of Sounds: Volume 1, which dropped in September via Rhymesayers.

“Welcome to the United Snakes / Land of the thief, home of the slave / Grand imperial guard where the dollar is sacred and power is God”
-Brother Ali “Uncle Sam Goddamn”

A recurring theme in my life while growing up was that of owning a lot of music, but rarely listening to much of it. What I mean is, I’d buy an album to listen to a track or two, while saving my full-album binges for artists I cherished. This week I revisited one such album, which I certainly owned in the past, though had failed to ever fully listen to — that being Orbital‘s In Sides (available on Amazon).

Aphex Twin recently released a pair of remixes to his mind-bending single, “Blackbox Life Recorder 21f” (I can’t recommend the music video for this song enough, in case you haven’t seen it), but they both drifted by me without consequence. What they did do was inspire an appetite for some ’90s electronic music; cue In Sides. It’s not so much that I have a memory of buying the album, but rather that it just appeared in my life. Its cover is sticky in the way hazy dreams are sometimes hard to shake — I vividly recall the feeling and general makeup of it, though its exact details evade me. I most definitely picked up In Sides somewhere around the time the English duo found success with “The Saint” (it’s kind of wild to think about how espionage-chic was a thing for a minute; like, the Propellerheads did well by leveraging a retro aesthetic and James Bond vibes; crazy, huh?), but that’s largely where I stopped with my exploration of it.

In now listening to In Sides, it creates a much more clear picture of the duo’s sound during that period than “The Saint” would otherwise paint. The album’s proper single, “The Box,” is strong (as is its video, which is ripe with ’90s electronica visuals and also somehow eluded me ’til now) and it has a glitchy track, in the form of “Petrol,” which helped satisfy my thirst for ’90s Aphex Twin. “Adnan” is the pick I went with for this week’s mix though, as I appreciate how it progressively builds across its nearly nine minute run-time; orchestrating a layered bed of sound in the process that left me frustrated I hadn’t given it the time of day all those years ago.

Listen to R▲ZZ D▲ZZ WEEKLY on Spotify or YouTube

1) Guante “The Hero” (produced by Big Cats)
2) Brother Ali “Uncle Sam Goddamn”
3) Kendrick Lamar “reincarnated”
4) Blockhead “Orgy At The Port Authority”
5) Naughts “Obnoxious”
6) Orbital “Adnans”
7) Ab-Soul “All That”
8) Big Cats & Guante “Whatever You Do, Don’t Put the Words ‘Climate Crisis’ in the Title”
9) Brother Ali & Ant “Head Heart Hands”
10) Amyl and The Sniffers “Chewing Gum”