The application of intelligence apart from emotion sometimes is necessary. Structuring a CD intelligently requires consciousness of the whole unit rather mere production of a series of tracks. When listening to a challenging, full-bodied recording, the listener can well ask: What on earth is this about?
Sexotica from Sex Mob on Thirsty Ear poses that question. This recording steps out of convention for electronic mixing and musical composition. The mixing is guided by Good and Evil, whose artfulness Thirsty Ear recorded a while ago. The compositions are authored by Steven Bernstein from Sex Mob and Danny Blume of Good and Evil. The inspiration: "Exotica", a conglomerate form of South American, Caribbean, and Hawaiian music originated by musician Martin Denny in the 1950’s.
This recording raises listener awareness. More and more music is concerned with inviting attention to both meaning and to nothingness which is a valid entity in the existential sense. Weighed against sound, in general, these sounds sometimes lack seductiveness and are repellent; but they uphold principles that can carve out gorges of innovation leading to their acceptance in the musical lexicon.
These pieces are disjointed, languid, tropical and behind the beat. They encourage sticking with them to discover their ingenuity. The collaboration among brass, the acoustic and electronics works. Different worlds combined reinforce the dynamism of each because each can really be heard and appreciated, bent pitches and all. The interjection of voice in the forms of words, phrases or questions reinstitutes the basic, human origins of the music. The words point to sustaining primeval jungle phantasmagoria as well as the reality of the recording process.
The music makes me wish I were back in the 50’s at Don the Beachcomber’s with Martin Denny's band. It was all very easy then. But we need to be where we are now.