Renowned video artist, Michael Lewy, has created Mutable’s first-ever video, and we are using this video for Diplomat to kick off our new YouTube channel! Diplomat is from our latest release, Different Directions, which is available now on Bandcamp. You can find out more about M. Lewy here and follow him on Twitter (@mlewy). What a delightful monster-filled romp about disillusioned diplomats!
Lineland
Video: Logos For Love
In 2009, friend of Mutable, Lineland went on tour and created some amazing videos, and we are going to be posting them throughout the coming weeks. Below you will find a playlist of Northside, Planeta Igreja, Amtrak Emerald Board, Pat Garrett, Victorian New Worst, & finally Hollywood Graves Tinsel Spots Two Twenty. These are lovely songs, and the accompanying video adds a lot to the enjoyment. We here at Mutable would recommend you take twenty minutes out of your day to enjoy this delightful show!
Malcolm Felder is Lineland. The featured video is from his Logos for Love album shown above.
Other Occasions Not Minded
in Product
If you haven’t had the opportunity to witness a Crank Sturgeon performance, let us fill you in on what you’re missing: imagine a lanky, largely naked man, hooded in a sort of paper-mâché fish head. A tangled bevy of wires emits from this fish man to a carefully arranged assortment of toys, tin cans, plastic tubes, a well-seasoned guitar, and probably something you’d never expect could emit a sound. What comes next is an inexplicable blend of theatrical frenzied fervor and earnest, emotional noise-making. His is a truly unique voice, straddling the world of noise and performance art.
Malcolm Felder became acquainted with Crank Sturgeon and the man behind it, Matt Anderson, while studying art in Boston, and were Mission Hill roommates for several years. In the years to follow, Anderson would hone his Sturgeon persona, tour the world, and distribute countless recordings of his sonic cacophonies and bizarre rantings, eventually setting up camp in the wilds of Harpswell Maine. Meanwhile, Felder moved to New York and began Lineland, an outlet for his instrumental electronic compositions, releasing a couple albums on Audiodregs, and recently touring the states with Animal Hospital. His music takes the listener on a journey to undiscoverable lands filtered through the synth-driven prism of his overarching vision.
As a hand behind Mutable Sound, Felder says he really wanted to release a Lineland album that was appropriate for Mutable. “I wanted something that breaks from the peaceful, wordless universe of Lineland, something more meandering and experimental.” he says, “Collaborating with Matt seemed like an exciting way to do that. Though it seems our approach is at opposite ends of the spectrum, there is a humanness to his brand of noise that I love, and working with his material was immense fun.” The album they’ve crafted bridges noise, melody, spoken word, and electronica, creating a world of music that can be at times infectious, at times challenging, at times funny, and at times sublime. As Crank Sturgeon says:
Back along (a year or two ago), there was an original version of this recording: a funny little sneaky-do that snuck its way under the covers as a cassette called, “do that plural”. The little beastie was a nasty bite; an amalgamation of four-track folk slubber, rude poems, bonks in the night, and veritable murmurs of aqueducts. Around this time, I’d likewise shot Malcolm the disc of these recordings, not thinking, and perhaps unblinking of what potential rebirth could emerge. Little did I know what curves of the earth Malcolm would interpret and discover in the clumps and frottage of lo-fi bruit and mumbles; finely inking his lands with lines and striations that took a bumpy cassette and pushed it through an extruder pellet device, giving you this shrill dance of oscillation and mirth. It would be an understatement to just say that I’m in awe of his final meltdown. Instead of emailing me a mere salmon grin, Malcolm has undone all the doing, and it’s an occasion I do not mind whatsoever.
Recorded in Harpswell ME and Chicago IL
Written, performed, and produced by Matt Anderson and Malcolm Felder
Cover art by Matt Anderson and Malcolm Felder