ANI MAG

Our current status seems to be “taking the scenic route-” positioned somewhere along the asymptotic line of one particular project's total physical realization, pretty high up on the slopes, which is to say in a region that is defined by the beginning-middle-end of an artistic climax that occurs after threshold levels of expression and productivity are passed concurrently- yet at the same time intentionally separated, attempting to document with appropriately objective levels of approbation and criticism, living in the moment, keeping it real, etc.

The result is somewhere between procrastination and responsibly idle evolution, or, delaying gratification in favor of perceived or theoretically higher levels of future satisfaction/release. Again impulse v. counter-impulse. Taking longer to get there (where?); taking the scenic route.

The idea of the moment is this: living beings exert magnetic force and so have a magnetic field which flows around them, fluid-like, in a specific direction conducive to maintaining life. Illness is an indicator of improper flow, and by the specific positioning of beings with healthy magnetic fields (i.e. the “laying of hands”), the magnetic fluid of an ill person or animal can be restored to its proper flow.

This, as far as we can tell, is not actually the case. Bunko. A field of study completely truncated, relegated to the likes of faith-healing, folk medicine, quaint pseudoscience, the ideas of weirdos. Yet animal magnetism still exists as a pair of inseparable words (symbols). They still represent a concept, albeit one which historians and scientists, those entrusted with a certain documentation of human progress, agree is invalid and therefore worth no further investigation. In spite of this, the phrase remains true, remains valid as an object for as long as it exists within the structure of a language with definitive rules.

So it is that animal magnetism inevitably becomes a document of a certain human progress regardless, and in this form is again validated, again warranting further investigation, again open to interpretation, which is where we enter the picture.

“Wry Thing” rolls over from 4/4 to 6/8, manifesting twice in the last six months on arguably equal terms, hence the version presented here. “Headache” an exercise in lengthening motif across repetition (in this case thrice). “Holly” as companion piece to companion, more details to be revealed at a future date. “Free Born Natural” was recorded with a busted Harmony-brand acoustic guitar tuned from the standard EADGBe down one-and-a-half steps and comprises two identical yet discrete performances panned to either side of the stereo spectrum.

The day after, as I write this and we suit back up to address the bigger recording project at hand, I'm aware of yet other detours, other diversions, other runarounds ahead and behind. Or maybe they're just ways, paths, routes. In any case, this one has proven quite scenic indeed.

T.J. Masters
October 2014