Diver Down (Under)

Once upon an aeon, there was a luscious young lady that liked to pour chocolate syrup upon her own head. She'd then ask me to lick it off, but I resisted, if only because I enjoyed watching her try to do it herself. Imagine that.

For the record, that admission (and the attached picture) was not an analogy for my feelings toward Australia, nor our large base of Australian readers. I love you bastards as much as Lord Humungous craved some petroleum. I used to have a crush on Virginia Hey so, if anything, I should be granted immediate residency, if not diplomatic immunity*. Hell, I once (in a drunken haze) got down on one knee and proposed to an Australian woman, with an onion ring to signify my pure intention. That she took the ring and ate it, instead of slapping me to the cement, is enough to endear me to that segment of the world's population a thousand times over.

The point of that initial snippet was to segue, gently, into my ambivalence toward one Scott Herren aka Prefuse 73. I just never know where to stand on that issue. Okay, that's a partial truth; I do know what I think about his music, namely that I often despise it, and yet I also find myself listening to each of his releases (as Prefuse 73, that is) at least once. I understand that he's gifted, and that he knows how to make good music, but goddamn does he piss me off.**

Surrounded by Silence should have been the end of my affair with Mr. Herren. Seriously, not even an appearance by the little white boy that could, El-P, could save that album. As a disc, it was just too pseudo sui generis for my tastes. Believe what you may, but when someone labors too hard to be unique, they just reek of insecurity, and Herren did just that on the aforementioned album. Surrounded by Silence was the finale to a tumultuous affair, at least until another CD was released. Fuck, I'm so pusillanimous.

So here we go, with Herren's latest foray into musical obscurity, Preparations & Interregnums, released just a few weeks ago. Consisting of two discs, twenty-nine tracks in all, P&I is indeed a monumental undertaking, both for Herren and his listeners, and one almost gets the sense that Herren wants us to suffer as he has, to accept the ruinous life of a skilled artist. Peaks and valleys, highs and lows, pimps and hos.

Listening to the first disc, Preparations, I found myself vacillating between notions of 'this is some great stuff' and 'when is this shit gonna end' and, honestly, while that may be par for the Prefuse 73 course, that's not my idyllic musical experience. In the sense of equity, however, I can be utterly candid about my delight regarding the second disc, Interregnums. This disc is not the usual, I'll be iconoclastic Herren, which is part of why I adored listening to it. The disc is, unabashedly, a collection of low-key, synthetic beats and melodies that could -and probably will- soothe even the most savage of beastly critics.

Look, as far as criticism of music goes, I can't hack it. If Sparkles wants to give you an insightful track-by-track review, he'll get someone else to do it. Ultimately, Herren is hit and miss (mostly miss) with his music, and Preparations & Interregnums is no exception. Deal with the futility of the first disc, and revel in the magic of the second.

Nonetheless, I'm sure that I'll come crawling back to Herren the next time he releases some shit.

Kain Highwind

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* Despite the fact that Denz once informed me that it would be his personal mission in life to make certain I would never be allowed to step foot on Australian soil.

** Basically, he's the idealjetsam of music.