Rchl drops some harsh language on the fact that Sarah is at the Zola Jesus concert while Rchl writes her response. Sarah shrugs her shoulders and says “hey, sometimes artists travel from west to east.” ZJ will be in NYC next week.
Zola Jesus – “Collapse”
Full album stream plus song by song breakdown from Zola Jesus here.
From: Rchl Brwn
To: Sarah Braunstein
Wow. So many interesting associations and digressions! I’ll try to focus on Conatus, though. I agree that track three is the first to start poking me. It just didn’t grab deep enough, so the hooks ripped some of my flesh and had to come back for more during track four. But you know what? I’m listening to “Vessel” again right now and I love the distorted noise at the end! I actually think it’s this build up of tension that makes the clean beginning of “Hikikomori” stand out. Nika, keep giving me more of that dirty distortion please. It takes me back to all night industrial dance parties at the Phantasy in Lakewood, Ohio. Seriously though, the last minute of “Vessel” sounds like it could have come off a Skinny Puppy album. Awesome.
No, I have never heard The Knife’s experimental opera. How did I miss that? I love The Knife and Fever Ray. Thanks for putting me on to more weird music, Sarah! Oh, and I completely agree with you that my calling “Shivers” a perfect pop song comes from a twisted sense of Zola Jesus reality. Speaking of mutated perspectives, I have not seen any of those ten films Nika says inspired Conatus. I’m ashamed to admit that I studied film! I mean, they are so obscure that again her sensibility reminds me of the heyday of the guitar-driven industrial sound, when sampling bizarre films was commonplace. Her taste in film, the sci-fi opera work-in-progress (plus her voice and composition, of course) only augment my respect for her and plunge me deeper into our Zola Jesus ocean. I am so intrigued!
Damn! (I can’t say Fuck!, right?) [Editor’s note: She can say “Fuck!”] You’re at the Zola Jesus concert right now! What should you ask her? It seems so obvious. Sarah, ask her if she’d like to join our slumber party. I think we would have a great time watching movies, listening to music, lying on the floor and writhing in our collective pain. Or not. But I would like to ask her when the last time was that she laid on the floor to listen to music and what music it was. I know what it was for me. I was sharing the sorrow of Unearthly Trance’s Electrocution album with someone who had never heard it before. It was so intense we needed to bang our bodies on something hard. By the way, I think your phrase “primordial sludge” would be more apt to describe UT’s doom than something The Knife did. Nice, though. I like it.
Ok, enough of these digressions! In addition to what music has most recently caused her to thrash about on the floor, I would want to know what Nika Danilova’s favorite sci-fi novel and comic books are too. And… if she’d like to come to our slumber party. Hey! She’s playing NYC next week. Maybe you could come over from Chicago and we could really make this happen. No? Well, you can’t blame me for trying.
I love Conatus and think it’s a great record. I highly recommend it to those who like intelligent and moody, vocally driven, electronic music.
“Safety net don’t hold me now. In this hole, I’ve fallen down.”
Rchl
Get Conatus here:
Sacred Bones Records | Insound Vinyl | Amazon
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