What is difficulty? Only a word indicating the degree of strength requisite for accomplishing particular objects; a mere notice of the necessity for exertion; a bugbear to children and fools; only a mere stimulus to men.
Ten Thousand A-Year
from Le Petit Journal
Black Heart Procession – “Drugs (Eluvium and Jamuel Saxon remixes)”
Blood Bunny/Black Rabbit
This 14-minute remix forms the last third of this collaboration album, and actually has a lead-in from the previous track. It takes more than four minutes for the first piano chord to hit, so enjoy the Eluvium atmospherics, which strongly remind me of track three from Palmless Prayer/Mass Murder Refrain. The chopped-up Jamuel Saxon portion is kind of incongruous with the long build-up, but it’s an interesting payoff and worth listening to. (insound)
Forget we now our state and lofty birth;
Not titles here, but works, must prove our worth.
To labour is the lot of man below;
And when Jove gave us life, he gave us woe.
The Iliad
What eye has witness’d, or what ear believed,
In one great day, by one great arm achieved,
Such wondrous deeds as Hector’s hand has done,
And we beheld, the last revolving sun?
What honours the beloved of Jove adorn!
Sprung from no god, and of no goddess born;
Yet such his acts, as Greeks unborn shall tell,
And curse the battle where their fathers fell.
The Iliad
Junior Boys – “Under the Sun”
Last Exit
I’ve never been able to handle a lot of the indie/dance stuff at a time — a few tracks of Ratatat, !!!, Chromeo, and so on is usually enough. So I rarely get to the second half of this Junior Boys album, and forgot about this excellent song. It reminds me of Spoon’s similarly spare and minor-funky “They Never Got You,” though really they sound almost nothing alike. It’s really a lot more like Studio than anything.
Los Halos – “Reasons To Smile”
Leaving VA
Loud, ebullient, and confident, this is the sound of a band at its best. An anthem for good days and triumphant returns.