Track list:
1 Illegal Photographs Of The Funeral Fires
2 In A Pulse
3 Dancing As Terrorism
4 Varanasi
5 Auctorial Days Of Delhi
6 So Very Sari, I Swear
7 Chest Mulct
8 The Sangha Inside
9 Sweep
10 The Ananta – Shesha Over The Ganges
11 New Years In Dharamsala
12 Leaving A New Home
13 Shesha (That Which Remains)
Release description:
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung. Vinyl version includes a bonus track, “The Creases and Shadows”.
Track list:
1 Waking Up
2 With the Sun In My Eyes
3 I’m Not Getting Up
4 Seems To Help You Fade Away
5 Nods Toward Nowhere
6 Her Name Was Tranquility
7 Inexorable, Every Night
8 To Tell You “You’re So Beautiful” Once More
9 Emptiness In the Isolatarium
10 Absolute and Underwhelming
11 Sinking Dance
12 Left In a Sunny Stupor
Release description:
Press text:
In ascending order, September.
The lava pools are a steady hue of blood red (1). This doesn’t change throughout the seasons (2). However, after months – almost 1.5 years now, the longer I stare at them on my daily walks through the bolsons, the bubbles seem to turn it into a more burnt orange (3).
In addition, my lungs feel increasingly burned, from nightly chainsmoking (4). I’ve been able to reduce my intake of wine (white wine no longer makes me nauseous) to one bottle per week (5). Usually this is after what should be the most stable day of communication with family and/or friends – of which I’m allotted one day per week, as their schedules allow (6).
In addition, there are nightmares. Reconciliation fantasies (7), or alternate realities of which are the most absurd, with shifting centuries (8).
Lastly, there is the view from waist level, and up, in kaleidoscopic form (9). Everyday is the same. This projected sunlight, symmetrical patterns, tilted surfaces – by now it should be obvious why each direction is the same – it is all simultaneous (10). I’m starting to feel this way as well – I think that is the effect of this place (11). You heard this before, and have seen this before. I’ll leave you with this – stop expecting something to change – because it already happened, you just were looking for the wrong kind of change (12).
All music by Will Long. Created with reel-to-reel tape micro-samples and homemade reel tape flanging
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung
Package description:
CD, Cassette on Two Acorns (2A28)
2xLP on Oscarson (osc no. 38) oscarson.bandcamp.com
Track list:
1 (06.23.17) From the doorway of the beef noodle shop, shoes on the street in the rain, outside the karate school
2 Rains lit by neon
3 In the middle of the moving field
4 (06.26.17) Maglev at 303 km/h
5 Text me when you wake up
6 For the entirety
7 (06.24.17) Birds inside the high halls of Hangzhou, (06.23.17) Shanghai red line, metro karaoke
8-9 Prelude to obsession I & II
10 (06.26.17) Waiting in Hangzhou
11 Our dream to be strangers
Release description:
Phonetic script: Xièxie
Chinese characters: 谢谢
谢谢 ( xiexie / xièxie ) is composed of these characters: 谢 (xie) , 谢 (xie)
English translation: thank you, thanks
to say | to thank | literally means ‘thanks’. ‘Thank you’ in Chinese would be xièxie nĭ (if you thank an individual), or xièxie nĭmen (to say thank you to a group of people).
– Chinese -> English Dictionary
A week before leaving, I bought a dictionary and phrasebook.
Covered in rain, during the days and even the nights, Shanghai was lit in a glow, a mist turning to a constant grey fog. Buildings lined with neon and lcd screens flashed, and from around corners and behind buildings, the night was illuminated much the same as the day. Cars separated the classes, their horns voices punctuating the streets, as pedestrians in groups loosely scattered the streets, talking and walking on speakerphone.
Standing by the metro escalators, there in the square with the overhanging trees of a park, there is construction all around. The buildings seem to be climbing into the darkness at this very moment. Leaving behind and moving forward. We seem to know everything already, our illusion of experience. I imagine taking your hand, I imagined taking your hand, and the lights in the subway flicker as we go deeper. Transit bookmarks each experience, every daydream, and in the end they’re interchangeable and indistinguishable between reality and imagination. Try to remember which is real.
To Hangzhou the maglev reached 303 km/h, the towering apartment buildings hunch under construction, passing by in blurs on the flat farmland landscape. I fell asleep, as you were dancing but to no music. The lilies on the lake nodded in the rain, dipping into the water. There was a Wal-Mart near the hotel where I won a pink bunny from a claw machine. I remember the beauty of the architecture of Hangzhou station, birds swirling around the pillars near the top, the echoes of the deep station interior, and the laughing at being lost. There at least we have each other, that memory, or that daydream.
Everything moves faster than we can control. Days are just flashes, moments are mixed up but burned on film, and all of the places and times are out of order. If it could only be us, only ours. If it was ours, if it was us. Sometimes everything goes faster than you can control and you can’t stop, much less understand where you are. I bought a dictionary and phrasebook, but “xièxie” was the only word I ever got to use.
– Will Long, January 2019
在出行前一個星期, 我買了中文字典和中文片語集。
上海到處都是下雨，不論白天還至是夜晚，雨在持續不斷的灰霧之下閃閃發光。我們參觀了外灘，關於未來的一切就像這種灰霧一樣渾濁。「現在抱緊我。」她說。抑或, 是我說過的話嗎？ 汽車的喇叭聲是刺穿街道的聲音；而每當我們經過茶飲店時，我們停下來。
站在這裡的地鐵自動扶梯，或站在被公園包圍的廣場，現在它們看起來歷久常新。 我喜歡那些古舊，但我亦對嶄新的抱感興趣。 像我這樣的人都認為自己已經知道那些虛幻的經驗。 我無法理解，我無法理解自己。 我們看似不同，但我們將始終如一。 我現在想像牽著你的手，也曾想像過我牽著你的手。隨著我們走得越來越深入, 地鐵裡的燈光就閃爍不斷 。如果這些景象只能跟內裡的洞穴感配搭起來，那我就知道它不能持久，它是不能持久，是不能持久…
抽煙的男人們在街上跟我們擦身而過，而我拍了幾張一包包香煙散留於地上的照片。 這就好像我們到處尋找一家沒有服務員將頭倒在桌面上睡覺的餐廳。 我們只是在下雨的城市漫步迷失，還是只是在性愛當中感到茫然？ 樹木低垂在湖面上，它們在雨中哭泣。 但是我仍然可以在臉上感覺到雨中的薄霧，感覺到我們在雨傘外面手牽手，雙手依然保持濕潤。 所有這些瞬間中，即使你不在我身邊，但你常在我的腦海之中。 究竟, 幻像與現實之間的區別在哪裡？
杭州的磁懸浮列車的時速達到每小時303公里，它經過閃亮潮濕的跨省公路和高樓，在平坦的農田景觀中迷糊的流淌著。 你身在遙遠之地，但你如就在我身旁。 一切都比我們所能控制的走得更快。 那些日子就像是閃爍的光，那些不同的時刻混雜在一起, 但它們最終卻烙印在菲林之上; 而我們曾經擁用的地方和時間都已經失序, 已不合時宜。 如果這些只屬於我們，那就只屬於我們。 假設它曾經是屬於我們，假設它曾經是我們。 有時候一切都比你能控制的要快，你不能停下來，更不用說你能否了解你所在之處。
– translation by Edwin Lo
Package description:
Xièxie is available as a 2LP edition of 300 copies, 150 silver and 150 black, a 2CD, 6 panel package edition of 500 copies, and a 2CS oversized slipcase edition of 150 copies. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu.
Tracklist:
Disc 1: MINT
Disc 2: CLAY
Press text:
Second in a series of three releases, a 45 Minute doublepack featuring some of the most engrossing House music you’ll likely hear this year or any other…
We’re still dazed from the 1st volume, but Will Long and DJ Sprinkles have already cued up their 2nd session, with Mint / Clay landing handsome on Terre Thaemlitz’ Comatonse.
The format and aesthetic remains the same as Vol.1, namely two raw pieces by Will Long, backed with extended overdubs by Sprinkles amounting to thee deepest house this side of Larry Heard’s nuclear love bunker, all subtly executed and held up as a comparison to the aesthetics and intentions (or, ironically, the excess and lack of) of that sound in relief of current, conceptually-detached takes on the original NYC deep house sound which Sprinkles was instrumental in shaping as a downtown DJ during that formative era.
Again, Will Long, who’s best known for his experimental ambient work as Celer, proves that it ain’t what you’ve got but what you know and can do with it that matters. Under-Currents places sparing samples of T.R.M. Howard – a mentor of Jesse Jackson – amidst a dream sequence of carbonated hi-hats and lingering chords urged by a plump bass drum, whilst Get In & Stay In nods to civil right activist and current Georgia congressional representative John Lewis in a lush haze of crepuscular chromatics and loping swing.
On the flipsides, DJ Sprinkles contributes another pair of incredible overdubs, lending Long’s minimal elements a richer, fleshlier feel, whether with additional breakbeats or nimbly lowering the bass and layering up spirited flutes and Rhodes. Suffice to say, they’re absolute mind-melters.
Quite crucially, the concept never gets in the way of the music, perfectly demonstrating the symbiotic nature of the music and politics in the way we imagine they intended; I mean it’s not like they want you to sit in a corner of the club pondering their ideas, but they’re definitely worth bearing in mind, especially for the DJs, dancers and promoters who act as gatekeepers for this music.
Available as:
Tracklist:
Disc 1: PURPLE
Disc 2: BLUE
Press text:
45 Minute doublepack featuring some of the most engrossing House music you’ll likely hear this year or any other – First in a series of three releases pairing original material by Will Long with DJ Sprinkles’ overdubs.
Tokyo, Japan-based American artists, Will Long and DJ Sprinkles, present sublime, durational deep house studies examining the dancefloor in light of contemporary socio-political inequalities and failed illusions of ‘Revolution’ and ‘Progression’.
It begins a series of three vinyl sets and eventually a 2CD package that effectively compare deep house’s original, economical aesthetics and function as the soundtrack to marginalised society, with its current position; repackaging and overproducing the same old ideas with empty sloganeering, operating as the catalyst of social trends, rather than an agent of social transformation.
They both make their point subtly but clearly. Two sides feature extended 10+ minute tracks by Will Long, created using relatively minimal means of rhythm composer percussion, polyphonic synth chords, and rack sampler vocals, while the other two sides provide overdub Sprinkles versions.
The beautifully absorbing results – which sound miles away from Long’s gentler ambient and experimental work – prove that it is possible to elicit subtle yet optimal responses with a well-selected palette of grooves and samples, in this case from Jesse Jackson and Rap Brown, rather than current vogue for showmanship and more-as-more arrangements.
DJ Sprinkles’ overdubbed contributions quite literally and psycho-acoustically resonate that intention, tactfully rending a farther, lush physicality and soulfulness thru deftly applied daubs of glutinous subbass pressure, airy strings and subtly shimmering FX, really offsetting Long’s trax in a whole other dimension; and via disciplined, stripped-down, full-bodied production values that rank as perhaps the deepest yet in Sprinkles’ already perfectly formed canon.
They could be taken as a call for humbleness and meditative efficiency over cliched buildups and preening vanities, perhaps a comment on “deep” house as the equivalent of a fresh tattoo or sweatshop t-shirt slogan.
Because, you know, it really does stand for a lot more.
Available as:
Track list:
Side A
1 Isotope shortage
Side B
2 Ruined repairs
Side C
3 The delay of intolerance
Side D
4 The delay of intolerance
Release description:
In November of 1938, Samuel Barber’s ‘Adagio for Strings’ was broadcast on radio for the first time. It was regarded as “full of pathos and cathartic passion”, and “perfect in mass and detail”. While it was generally well-received, it was also criticized as “suffering from repetitiousness”, and being “dull and utterly anachronistic.” It is often labeled as ‘the saddest music in the world’, and is one of the most recognizable pieces of popular classical music. In an interview with the New York Times before his death in 1981, Barber said “I wish people would listen to my other compositions.”
‘I love you so much I can’t even title this’, inspired by the music of Samuel Barber, was recorded in 2008, processed on tape and a laptop. The title alluded to a Morrissey song, and she once summed it up by calling it ‘the laziest title I’ve never written’. I remember painting the handmade die-cut sleeves in the garage, having to hold a rag over my nose and mouth to keep out the fumes. At the time, it seemed like an exercise. Studying poetry had distanced us from the world – and did we think anyone was even paying attention, anyway? The theme was overwhelmingly obvious, and the title was direct. A few years later I chose a photo for the cover of a cemetery in New Orleans – another direct message, yet like everything else, entirely unintentional. You’d be surprised how beautiful the cemetery was that day in the sun, and how you’d probably be wrong about every other assumption, as well. But then, what does that matter, either? Music only has to be.
Originally self-released in 2008 as ‘I love you so much I can’t even title this (The light that never goes out went out)’ on CDR in a handmade, limited edition.
‘I love you so much I can’t even title this’ is available on 2xLP on sky blue, white, and black vinyl from Infraction, remastered by Taylor Deupree.
Track list:
Side A
1 Experiences Of Insight And Untimeliness / Happening Too Soon, And Sooner Than Normal / Whistle, And Fade / Destinal Formlessness Of A Particular End / Missed Scene / Unrealized Excerpt / Missed Scene II / Warm Closure
Side B
2 A Perpetual Lack Of Fervor / Upwards, On Tenterhooks / Drop & Let / Memories / Hold Me Tight, But Remember I’m Not Really There / Time And Ebb
Side C
3 All At Once Is What Eternity Is
Side D
4 The Die That’s Caste
Release description:
For George and Nina Benson
I, Anatomy
My friend, 103 years old, sat across the room from me, a small gas heater nearby, with photos of family and Martin Luther King, Jr., and we talked for a few hours in the late morning. I had brought him a plant a few years before, and planted it in the front yard, but it had died the winter before.
A carnival in Costa Mesa, California. Kids screaming on the rollercoasters, the sound of balloons popping, machinery spinning, with smells of beer and popcorn all over the ground.
In an airplane flying over Papeete, the safety and welcome announcement CD skipped at such a point that the voices became a looped choir, as the plane coasted in circles around the edges of beaches, and the stewardess ran in the tipping plane in heels to fix the CD.
We made a box of tape loops in the Malibu Motel, from strings and pianos, and an old reel to reel tape of Sinatra. From the top of the cliffs, the view was completely clear, and even in a completely black and starless night, nothing stirred.
A few stories, put together with no previous purpose, than having their own place and time. In being put together, something new is formed. This was the basis for I, Anatomy. There wasn’t any intention, it was just a diary. These things happened, and became the source material, finding their directions from what was before directionless, and become the whole. Going back to these moments and memories, I, Anatomy isn’t a story, it’s one hundred stories.
The original I, Anatomy also included the EPs All At Once Is What Eternity Is and The Die That’s Caste, now together in a single edition as they were originally intended, with artwork by Christoph Heemann.