Fallible Again Forever

9/30/2021

1. Rhododendron pt. I - d’Eon
   I tire of our photoreal rendering. Its rigid resolution. Its harsh definition. The coarseness of its textures. I yearn for the merciful blur of a cel shaded reality. To walk through meadows of ever-rippling grasses that yield before me like a green mist. To feel the phantom kiss of pixelated rain. To watch a watercolor sun rise at speed over an eternal turquoise sea, perfectly placid. These are my deepest desires.
   

2. JUGGERNAUT - Tyler, The Creator, Lil Uzi Vert, Pharrell Williams
   T gets the production credit on this song, but the shadow of Pharrell’s influence looms large. I say that because JUGGERNAUT, like so much of Pharrell’s output, strikes me as being engineered specifically to soundtrack the pre-game layup lines in a packed high school gym. I feel the tremors of the overdriven bass in my brain stem and I can smell the hard plastic of the retractable bleachers. I can see the blackened gum stains and the crescent fingernail marks where the fossilized cud has been picked at and prodded. I can visualize the two-three zone, the diamond press, the off-ball screens, the corner threes caroming off the side of the backboard. B-E- AGRESSIVE.
   

3. Soledad - Bomba Estéreo
   There’s no outrunning solitude. It nips at your heals with its rows of serrated teeth. Sure, there will be moments when you set a steady pace and leave it in your dust. When its black visage will grow so distant as to be, for a moment, forgotten.
   
   But in the end, the beast will find you. And it will swallow you whole. And it will digest you; turn you to a formless goop in its acrid entrails. And then the beast will shit you back out into the universe, only to begin its cruel chase once again.
   

4. East New York ‘96 (By No Means Interlude) - MentPlus
   Take the sample pack, string up all the boom-bap sounds on a wind chime-like contraption, hang that bad boy up, and let it sing in the zephyr of creation.
   

5. 10-Year-Taipei (Matured ‘17) - Sunset Rollercoaster
   A mood boosting tonic from the Taiwanese pop outfit. Queue it up, press play on your mobile device, and then proceed to stick your mobile device into the blender along with mango, frozen blueberries, banana, pineapple, chia seeds, and oat milk. Pulse that bastard until you start a small electrical fire. Put out the fire before your smoke alarm starts going off. When you clear the countertop of fire extinguisher powder, give the old girl another healthy pulse or two. Breakfast is served!
   

6. Bit Valley - Pearl & The Oysters
   I know you’ve been thinking for a long time about how sick it would be to have a really nice, high-quality pair of rollerblades. You go out on your walks and you see these people gliding past you on their big performance wheels; their streamlined, perfectly ventilated boots; their metal alloy frames that flash like fireworks in the evening sun. You watch them carving asphalt, and you think to yourself, “Why not me? Why should I not also be slicing sidewalk in a beautiful pair of inline skates?” Take this as a sign. It’s time to buy the blades. And when you do, stick Bit Valley at the top of your go-to blademix.
   

7. Look Back - Dora Jar
   I have elected to believe that this song is being sung either from the perspective of or as a direct address to a ghost. Which begs the obvious question—and I’m not trying to get a laugh. I don’t want anyone to have their worst ever day on tenthouseradio.com…
   
   But do any of these…
   
   Fuckers…
   

8. In Dreams - Sierra Ferrell
   Remember that summer when Sleeps, Glizz, and I decided to pull up stakes and spirit quest across the American heartland? Yup, we rode those freight rails as far as they’d take us. Crisscrossed these amber waves from Key West to Kalamazoo and back again.
   
   And remember, early that July, when we met that comely boxcar balladeer? The way her red hair fell in spring action coils down her doilied denim jacket? Boy howdy, she had a voice like nectar and a rump like an Olympic steeplechaser.
   
   What a romance we shared, all of us four. It was beautiful. Daytimes writing love songs with the steam engine chug as our drummer, nighttimes exploring each others’ bodies under jewel-box starry skies. Our souls were braided like a show pony’s mane.
   
   But she was a roamer, a wayfarer whose home was always on the horizon. And we—well it wasn’t long before we realized that, while we loved ol’ Red, we were best off with each other. Three’s company, and after a while, four was a crowed.
   
   But the day we parted—there was a light rain just outside of Tulsa—she sat us down in the last railcar on the morning train, and she played us this song. We wept and held each other. Glizz’s head was buried in my chest, mine in Sleep’s. Red plucked her last notes, and they knocked us back like buckshot. When we wiped our eyes and looked up, she was gone.

9. It’s Alright - Derrick Harriot
   Great dub track about how love is functionally indistinguishable from a severe degenerative brain disease.

10. The Coffee Cola Song - Francis Bebey
    The Black Coffee Cola must flow.

⛺