Banana Nutrament

6/13/2005
Haunted Beats

The recent resurgence of interest in Arthur Russell has been met with enough comps and reissues to sate the public's newfound appetite for his unique avant sounds. Still, when I stumbled across this track by Russell's frequent collaborator and co-producer Nicky Siano, I felt something like an archaeologist tripping over a relic left behind after the excavation. While Siano's work is wholly his own, it's still firmly within the framework of the Sleeping Bag sound he helped create.

Nicky Siano - Move
Visit his website here
**Buy Nicky Siano's The Gallery here**


Siano initiates the proceedings with flashing strobes of tambourine, as if calling down an invocation to a shamanic rite. Breathy exhortations to move coupled with jungle animal vocalizations lay down the sultry but propulsive atmospherics. I can remember
looking at the distant New York City skyline as a kid in the mid-80s, at that time it was a mean, bad place with lots of interesting people, and had you told me this was playing at some steamy East Village party, I would have believed it. It's somewhat sad listening to this, as it is not only comes from another era, but from a period that will not likely return. Much has been said about the corporatization of New York City and many have waxed sentimental on how things were "back in the day", I won't get into that, but it is troublesome how all the major artists New Yorkers swoon over are transplants from other parts of the country or other corners of the world. Washington might be the seat of government, but New York is the seat of culture, or at least a major one, and there is very little homegrown talent bubbling up from the sidewalk these days. I'm certainly not counting NYU dorm room bands emulating the StrokesInterpolKillers axis, and I guess there are people in the Brooklyn fringes making interesting sounds, but how many are in it for the long term? I won't be a total pedant and work in the analogy of late period Rome's fall being hastened by it's unwillingness to produce anything original from within itself, but it goes without saying that New York would be a more exciting place to live if it produced a few more truly native artists like Siano rather than being a stage for those imported from elsewhere. Or I could be completely wrong, and in 2025 DJ's will be unearthing NYC's finest current day musicians.


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Theo Parrish - Blue Out

"Blue Out" isn't my most cherished Theo Parrish cut, but it is his most accessible work and a good introduction to his sound. In his songs he builds a natural bridge between early house music and modern soul, sort of a Farley Jackmaster Funk by way of the new millenium. I particularly love the interplay between the somber synth background and the hyperkinetic keys catching their own tail, almost like a conversation between an old man and his rambunctious grandson.

**Buy from Sound Signature's online store**
**Buy Theo Parrish records at MusicStack**
Here's a link for the APT DJ lineup, he had a monthly party there, but I don't see anything for June