New Monday #83
Happy Monday -
#83! I find it hard to believe I’ve managed to write this thing for 83 weeks in a row. As you can probably tell from the all-over-the-place nature of New Monday, I am all over the place. There are days I feel like I’m doing a recall on a console that has all the numbers and markings worn off.
I’d bet that a lot of you are similar, struggling with that creative brain that likes to do everything and then take a nap after eating a bag of Cheetos. The buzz acronym these days is ADHD, but I prefer to think of it as easily bored... which explains why I am constantly tinkering with the format of NM and changing things, poking around for new things to write about.
Easily bored. I hope I don’t bore you lovely people.
ADHD, CHEETOS, and BOREDOM
Send this article to your significant other, boss, or co-worker the next time you get yelled at for leaving a hammer on the dining room table, forgetting to set the alarm system or working on a new project instead of finishing the one that’s three days overdue.
Screw reading the whole thing—too dull. Here are the juicy bits:
"Incredibly enough, however, among nomadic Ariaal, those with ADHD traits tended to be better fed and healthier than non-ADHD counterparts. He speculated that their fluid attention style would make them more vigilant to potential threats to their herd, to signs of disease or malnutrition, or to sources of food or water."
This explains the Cheetos.
"Chen found, based on genetic methods, that ADHD traits were overrepresented in these early migrants. People with ADHD traits likely spearheaded the move to populate the earth. It’s unclear whether that’s because people with those traits were more likely to initiate migration, or whether they were better able to adapt to new places."
"Perhaps ADHD traits were useful in environments involving nomadism and migration, but in modern society, with its demand on having to sit for hours a day and remain relatively stationary, it is a detriment."
This explains the boredom. Time to migrate the tribe to the Fertile Crescent, a Tigris and Euphrates Riverside gated community.
Less Boring Music
Some interesting stuff, with a decidedly Middle Eastern element to it.
Bab L’Bluz is what you get when a female vocalist from Morocco (Yousra Mansour) meets a multi-instrumentalist from France (Brice Bottin). Take Led Zeppelin, swap out the singer, trade the bass for the Gimbri, the guitars for the Awicha, wrap it in old school funk and record it live to tape. Well, no. I don’t think to tape: it was cut at Real World Studios in England.
Bab L’Bluz is Moroccan blues with a bit of Jorma Kaukonen psychedelia.
The new album is Swaken (well, a year old, but new to me); their first record is Nayda! Nayda is lighter on its feet. Swaken is some heavy stuff!
They can definitely put it down live.
Magnum Innominandum translates to something like, “The Great One Who is Not to Be Named.” So... like Voldemort but as chill trance/vaporwave. Evidently, the name refers back to HP Lovecraft and Cthulhu.
The album is called إمبراطورية مستحضر الأرواح. It translates to “Necromancer Empire."
The music is anything but scary: It’s what’s playing in the lounge before you get on the Star Ship that takes you to Fhloston Paradise. Vaporwave.
Magnum Innominandum is the brainchild of St Louis producer/multi-instrumentalist/beautiful maniac Jim Miles. You gotta love anyone who names their Insta partyfamine. They have a bunch of records out. Whatever Jim is up to, he’s incredibly prolific—an album out in March and an album out in May, each full of songs, grooves, slammed together with samples. Wonderful, interesting cover art. This guy has a lot of creative energy and a real willingness to do what he wants to do and to hell with the world. We need more of that in music.
A Lesson
This week, I break down heavy guitar sounds using our WOW Thing plug-in.
I use the WOW Thing for fixing bass and kick issues—my go-to fast fix for that. But the original reason we made the WOW Thing was to get classic metal guitar sounds. It doesn’t add distortion. It doesn’t add compression. But it does add some magic. And, of course, some WOW.
Listen
Great song, live to either 8 or 16 tracks. Cut at Western Recorders in 1969 on a United Audio 610, or perhaps a UA 2100, which is exceedingly rare. There are 2100 modules on Reverb. Check out the pictures — the last one is “Let me put my console movie shorts on, Eddie."
Back to the song: squint down on the verses. Just about dead center is a rhythmic clicking, on the 8th notes (the song is in 5/4). What the heck is it? Could be a drumstick on a ride or a hihat, but it has no ping to it. Can you hear it? It seems to cut when the drummer does a roll or a fill. My guess is a hihat but, man, is it loud, and once you hear it, it’s really hard not to hear it. I might have wrecked the song for myself!
And that is it for this week. A short one.