Eternals

eternals

I’m very excited to have received my copy of The Eternals’ latest release, Approaching the Energy Field. If you’re not familar with their music, here’s the scoop: there are all manner of things cooking in their pot (dub, punk, jazz, soul, hip-hop, etc.) but what they serve up is far greater than its ingredients. This is first-rate music, amenable to any listener who cares as much about music as s/he does the broader state of things.

Damon Locks and Wayne Montana have been playing together for over two decades, and though they’ve occasionally performed and recorded in groups extending beyond their current duo lineup, this new set of tunes strikes me as their finest work to date, not only for its performances, arrangements, and guest players, but further because they’ve hit their stride as a directorial unit, equally adept and focused at every stage of this record’s development, from writing to arranging to recording to mixing. Provocative, thoughtful, driving, ambitious, urgent – this record is an event.

Energies: A Note on Music and the Music Industry

I do not accept as axiomatic that all musical performances and recordings that are for sale are part of the music industry, or what my friend J. calls the Competitive Music Industry. I do not believe that all performances and recordings are in competition with each other, nor that any performances and recordings are in competition with each other unless they opt into the Industry.

In contrast, opting out of the industry provides musicians and their music the opportunity to be heard by a community who shares aesthetic, social, cultural, and political ideals. The fact of the performers and the fact of the audience are literally in concert, qualitatively equal.