RomanianMyth – Folk Language 6.8

           Occasionally I find something so weird, so utterly bizarre that my mouth sits agape. When I discovered this weird group of laptop-wielding gypsies my reaction was entirely appropriate. You see I’ve hoped and longed for the day where “Polka-Noise” would become a genre. As I looked down at the description of this band and saw “Power-Polka” my eyes welled up with tears. Years of searching for a ridiculous genre finally bore fruit. 

                How does the music stand up? I’d say fairly well. The group references elements of Pita and Farmers Manual to some degree. Pita’s influence can be felt in the beginning of the album which for me is the stronger half. “Haulita” sounds remarkably similar to early Pita sonic experiments. For a noise album, this is about as gentle a beginning as anyone could expect. 

                “Cosmar Popular” may be the most punk part of the entire album. Starting off with sweet, delicate violins RomanianMyth set off trying to destroy the music. On “Folk Wedding” despite the heavy dollops of noise (even a beat!) it never loses focus of energetic samples. For a finale, they have the distorted to death “Natural Natural song” which sounds like a CD skipping gone very wrong.

                This may have been better had they employed multiple noise techniques besides simply layering noise on top of the samples. Using Pita as an example, had they decided to work with the samples to create a larger sound (such as in Pita’s famous song “3” off of ‘Get Out’) I might have been a bit more compelled by what was occurring. Despite that problem, I enjoyed this short diversion of an album. For a noise group, they have a fantastically absurd sense of humor.Wander on Laptop Gypsies.

Matt Margo

                Matt Margo ought to drive you wild. With his finger in so many pies, it is pretty difficult to avoid bumping into him. I’ve seen him (virtually) in countless ustream chats. In his own words, he’s still exploring himself as a person, as a writer. Though he is exploring, he’s doing a great job. Since I see him everywhere I notice how much of other people’s work he readily consumes.

                “Cormac McCarthy’s Dead Typewriter” combines a few of his interests. Besides the joy of being named after a still living author’s supposedly deceased typewriter, he has multiple categories one can submit under. It is a literary blog but Matt appears to be a bit more open regarding what counts as poetry, what is art, sound, and photography. Sometimes the lines blur between each form. Matt realizes this and offers what are extremely welcoming terms. 

                A lot of the submissions celebrate the beauty of randomness. There are an unusually large amount of ‘algorithmic wordchains’ and ‘asemic writing’. For Algorithmic wordchains you can technically read them though they prefer to be near-nonsensical. Whoever can read asemic writing probably has some serious issues or is incurably insane. 

                Other submissions are a bit more graspable and slightly less experimental. Flarf, that delightful poetic form, is given a home, as are fiction dribbles and cut-ups. Really, I don’t see enough people doing cut-ups so it is good to see someone wants to give them a home. See Logan K. Young’s piece for an example of the form’s madness. Even though he didn’t state it, normal poetry of the make it yourself kind, occasionally appears on its hallowed pages. The fiction dribbles keep up the slightly cryptic tone Matt has set for the site. Keeping a piece only 50 words long reminds me of the ‘micro-story’ genre, a one I used to dabble in a long time ago. 

                Harsh noise gets some attention. As a big fan of noise, I’m glad to see I’m not the only one. Though seeing the harsh noise releases on his blog further convinces me that noise fans exist on the internet. Noise fans otherwise can never admit to it in person or even meet each other in person. Sometimes I think geography exists for the sole reason of keeping weird music fans apart. My personal experience hasn’t shown me any other alternative reason. Matt knows the genre well as he puts a ten minute limit on the noise pieces. Without any kind of structure, noise often outstays its welcome even with its few fans. 

                The site is full of love. Under the contributors section, he allows any contributor to write as much or as little about their work, lives and interests. I’m glad to see Matt taking a more personal approach to literature and music than “Here is a link to their blog. Have fun.” Reading about each one of the contributors makes me happy. Whatever the contributor did is suddenly humanized. Now I think of the contributors as people rather than faceless people on the internet. Having spoken with people about their perception of bloggers, Matt’s approach is something more people ought to be doing. Most people I speak with barely think of the individual behind the actual pieces of writing. Seeing how some of his contributors do multiple art forms (Matt and a Finn named Jukka-Pekka Kervinen) cheers up me enormously.

                Despite the dead typewriter, the future looks bright for Matt Margo.  To celebrate the blog’s three month anniversary (in blog years, three months equals a year) he’ll be doing a live reading of some of the material this evening at 7:30PM on ustream. I’m excited by this prospect. Harsh noise walls may or may not be played as he’s particularly fond of them even creating his own noise project accessible here. I’d suggest he look into a favorite genre of mine, yet to be created, called “Polka-Noise”. By this evening I hope he gets some pictures of butterflies or carrots (those remain the only submissions he has not received). I’m dreaming of a noise dance party.

I listen to bands that don’t even exist yet

The expression the wearer has is not necessary, but it helps.

Yes, you know those kids who seem to listen to the coolest bands you’ve never heard of? Well, there’s now a time machine created, allowing those very children to travel forward in time to be at the fringe of all the hippest, most relevant trends. Then they come back from the future ready to lord over all others their extensive knowledge on bands that haven’t been born. Preposterous you might say. I thought so too until I saw the future of music. Let me try to give you this rare ‘sneak peak’ into the future.

Obviously there are a few problems with forward time travel. For one, you can’t exactly go back in time because that would mess up the whole time/space continuum. Also, all those really memorable ‘I was there’ moments would go out the window, and that can’t be allowed to occur. Rather, the preferred way of doing things is to say ‘I was already here’. If back in time this happened, we’d be pretty doomed. The loft holding the Velvet Underground’s first performance wouldn’t be big enough. And after you’ve been there you can only go back from whence you came. Waiting too long will force you to live in the future forever. 

Powered by an assorted amount of rare vinyl records in a Red Hook basement, this Time Machine has a few amazing talents. By seeing into the future, you could theoretically try to alter the world, but generally music snobs do too much music-related research to ever make this a serious issue. Rather, a bigger talent is the ability to purchase relevant merchandise and wear it to impress the other hip lads. 

A few things happen in the future that make sense but might not seem obvious to the casual listener. I’ll explain them as best as I can.

1.       In the future, Carsick Cars from Beijing, China are referred as the creators of the indie rock scene in China.

2.       In the future, there are a million Jaap Blonk cover bands. Apparently in the future the only people who breed in large numbers are noise heads. They live in secluded villages in the Idaho wilderness waiting for the world to end and brew their own Kombucha. Most of them are actually really nice.

3.       The world does end but the soundtrack is mostly Lady Gaga, which is a bit of a let-down. It is meant ‘ironically’ I think. Or rather, I hope.

4.       Nostalgia for the 90s occurs. I was right about this. It is mostly grunge based unfortunately, but there are pockets of shoegaze and Post Rock. The most relevant city in the US becomes Auburn, Alabama which creates a band to rival Slint’s weirdness. They are called “The Okie Dookie Corral” and it consists of former Jesuit priests. 

5.       Detroit becomes the center for the highest level of art. It blooms and flourishes following the end of the world. The end of the world doesn’t really end the world but rather marks a new era. That era is kind of like how we live now but with more art, thin-crust pizza and a steadier supply of blog-gable MP3s. 

6.       After the end of the world, the genre I created “Polka-Noise” really takes off. 

I’ve seen the future with my two eyes and am vaguely indifferent to what happens. Just as an FYI, if you ever decide to follow through and visit the Time Machine’s keeper, make sure to take your shoes off before you enter her house. She’s really particular about it. 

After you’ve traveled forward in time, you get a free t-shirt as well. Use it wisely.