Mixtape: Colossus
Dream journal: There's mail from Alynda Seggara on the dining room table. Inside, a cassette packaged in a foldover shell made of thick, recycled paper, decorated with simple drawing — something abstract, yet definitely floral. "Hope you like it," reads the note. When I hit play, the rumbling chords of Hurray for the Riff Raff's "Colossus of Roads" unspool like the horizon — endless dusk, uncertain hope. I already know and love this song. But as it ends, Alynda returns to the opening question: Do you love me and do you love me? The ascent and descent of the melody — its gentle challenge, really — becomes the bed of an ambient koan, words repeated and stretched into an Ebow guitar jam that slips through the shards of the very American dream Alynda dissolves. We never quite return to the song's stream of consciousness, yet the deafening bloom of its internal howl fills my chest as drums, horns and distortion join the thrawl for what seems like hours. I wake up.
Coincidentally enough, the night I had this dream was the night I was supposed to see Hurray for the Riff Raff at The Atlantis. I had even gotten the kid down for bed early and still forgot; I blame Tired Dad Brain. And, yet, my dreams reminded me. —Lars Gotrich
Stream the Viking's Choice mixtape via BNDCMPR. Follow my Bandcamp collection. Tracklist below:
Mdou Moctar, "Funeral for Justice"
Amalie Dahl's Dafnie, "We Don't Want Your Stupid War"
Hurray for the Riff Raff, "Colossus of Roads"
Kelly Moran, "Butterfly Phase"
Caroline Davis & Wendy Eisenberg, "Attention"
Ganavya, "Seal"
Josh Johnson, "Free Mechanical"
Gileah Taylor, "Dream Explorer"
more eaze, pardo & glass, "still part of the ceiling"
Aziza Brahim, "Thajliba"
Combo Chimbita, "Margarita"
Ill Considered, "Linus with the Sick Burn"
Mister Goblin, "Good Sun"
Midwife, "It's OK 2 Lie 2 Me"
Paper Wings, "Is It True"
Couch Slit, "Ode to Jimbo"
Morgul Blade, "Heavy Metal Wraiths"
Beans, "Zwaard 1"
Goran Kajfeš Tropiques, "Unity in Diversity"
Glass Beams, "Mahal"
Celebration Summer, "For Want Of (Rites of Spring cover)"
Mekit Dolan Muqam Group, "Bash Bayawan Muqam"
The Ophelias, "Black Ribbon"
Elsa Hewitt, "Citrinitas"
Cleek Schrey & Weston Olencki, "Milledgeville (300)"
Jules Archive, "An Ontological Novel"
M. Sage, "Three Bashful Stallions"
Sugar Plant, "Blue Submarine"
Tarot, "The Winding Road"
Church Chords, "Recent Mineral"
Whitelands, "The Prophet & I"
Buck Curran, "Sadness"