FOR a MOMENT

"For a Moment," India ink on 4" x 6" watercolor postcard. One of the cards I sent out for the 2020 August Poetry Postcard Festival.

—

FOR a MOMENT

I remember Rilke’s laughter
in the backyard

intoxicated on absinthe
or the words that Esmé spoke

syncopated rhythms of jazz
echoing the flames of the firepit

both disrupted for a measure
or three

then all was black,
spectral, gone.

—

All artwork and poems by Troy Kehm-Goins © 2020 Troy's Work Table Publishing.

DEVIL DANCE

"Devil Dance," India ink on 4" x 6" watercolor postcard.

—

I've taken to illustrating some of the songs I've been listening to. I choose a color scheme, throw an album on the turntable, find the track I want to illustrate, and get my palette knife, brushes, and pens moving.

The above illustration for the song "Devil Dance" by Khidja, as found on the 2019 album In the Middle of the Night represents three spins through the track. The first listen I used the palette knife to lay down some "L" forms and "pulses." The second listen I used a color shaper to add colored dots to the postcard. The third listen I used a pen to add the black "figures."

India ink colors were yellow, orange, bright red, red, magenta, and black.

Nineteen minutes of music and there is birthed an interpretation of "Devil Dance."

FOUR ALBUMS

Clockwise from upper left: In the Middle of the Night by Khidja; Source by Gábor Lázár; Civic Jams by Darkstar; and Articulation by Rival Consoles.

—

These four albums have helped keep me sane during the past couple of months. They've been musical companions in the late evening and early morning hours when the rest of the household is soundly sleeping.

In the early months of the pandemic, I found myself reading a lot (especially poetry and short stories), praying, and walking. As a quasi-normal sense of routine and rhythm returned to my workplace and home, I found less time spent on reading (mostly due to exhaustion) and walking (due to injury). I purchased a turntable so that I could play vinyl albums that I hadn't been able to spin for nearly twenty years.

Each of these albums is unique from the others, even as I believe they share some similarities. (1) There is a dreamlike quality to the tracks. (2) The tracks are individual, but function almost as parts of a larger movement. This is something that I enjoy about albums (and find it more prevalent on vinyl than other formats), but it seems that is lacking in many current productions. (3) Tracks are primarily instrumental, and when vocals are present they tend to function as another instrument alongside the synthesizers, sequencers, percussion, programming, and other electronics.

—

Album: In the Middle of the Night.
Artist: Khidja.
Label: DFA.
Category: Experimental house and techno.

Tracks:

1. Don't Feed the Animals (Hiding in Your Room).
2. Devil Dance.
3. I Can Never Relax.
4. I'm So Bored.

Favorite track: "I Can Never Relax." There is something slightly off-kilter, bordering on sinister but then pulling back, that intrigues me. Plus the electronic throb that undergirds the piece just grabs me from the beginning. "Tell me, can you feel good?"

I don't know how to explain how much this album has captured my imagination since I stumbled upon it's tracks in a late-night internet rabbit hole. All 25½ minutes of the album speaks directly to my id/shadow.

More album info HERE and HERE.

— 

Album: Source.
Artist: Gábor Lázár.
Label: Planet Mu.
Category: Electronic and electronica. Braindance and IDM (intelligent dance music).

Tracks:

1. Source.
2. Stream.
3. Phase.
4. Excite.
5. Focus.
6. Effort.
7. Route.
8. Return.

Favorite track: "Focus." At times I hear echoes of Aphex Twin in these beats, which is a good thing.

This is deconstructed dance music that is simultaneously academic/clinical and emotional/approachable. The album collapses time—looking back at types of electronic dance music (past), living in the moment as a piece of art in it's own right (present), and providing tracks for other DJs to sample (future). I think the album functions as an examination of the "sources" of music that influenced Lázár and as a "source" for others to build upon.

More album info HERE and HERE.

—

Album: Civic Jams.
Artist: Darkstar.
Label: Warp.
Category: Electronic and electronica. Shoegaze.

Tracks:

1. Forest.
2. Jam.
3. 1001.
4. 30.
5. Wolf.
6. Loon.
7. Tuesday.
8. Text.
9. Blurred.

Favorite track: "1001." The vocals on this track are catchy, dreamy, and, for the most part, undecipherable. There is so much manipulation on the vocals that they easily become one with the insistent percussive beat and "low growl" and "ethereal hum" synthesizers that ground the track.

Dream-oriented dance music with pop leanings, this music has been haunting me both while I sleep and while I'm awake.

More album info HERE and HERE.

—

Album: Articulation.
Artist: Rival Consoles.
Label: Erased Tapes.
Cateogory: Electronic and electronica. Dancefloor and techno.

Tracks:

1. Vibrations on a String.
2. Forwardism.
3. Melodica.
4. Articulation.
5. Still Here.
6. Sudden Awareness of Now.

Favorite track: "Vibrations on a String." I love the squelch of the organic synthesizers, the metronomic precision of the percussion, and the light throb in the background. At times, this reminds me of some of Orbital's work or even something I would expect to hear in another Blade Runner sequel.

There is a playfulness on this album, perhaps even a hopefulness, if one can identify such in instrumental music. The album is sequenced perfectly; I cannot imagine it laid out otherwise. Every time I listen to the album I discover new sounds buried within the tracks. Something seems to emerge anew each time the needle hits the grooves.

More album info HERE and HERE.

—

I've been listening these albums just for the pure enjoyment of the albums themselves, as well as when I'm writing or painting. I've even been experimenting with new painting techniques, using the time constraints of individuals tracks to see what I can do with a palette knife and various colors of India ink while the track plays.

PIMIENTO

"Pimiento," India ink on 4" x 6" watercolor postcard. One of the cards I sent out for the 2020 August Poetry Postcard Festival.

—

PIMIENTO

It was jazz you wanted
and jazz you got.

We bipped and bopped
through one cold beer
after another.

The backyard brick patio
was never more alive
than that particular night.

—

All artwork and poems by Troy Kehm-Goins © 2020 Troy's Work Table Publishing. 

PERSEPHONIC

"Persephonic," India ink on 4" x 6" watercolor postcard. One of the cards I sent out for the 2020 August Poetry Postcard Festival.

—

PERSEPHONIC

We dreamt a garden in the midst of our concrete and chaos. We named the animals. Sebastian. Siobhan. Shawn. Simeon. The garden grew and greened. All was splendor until the fruit ripened and we couldn’t keep the pith and flesh and juice from passing our lips. Then we could once more smell the notes of asphalt and tar and turmoil beneath the petrichor that promised summer rain.

—

All artwork and poems by Troy Kehm-Goins © 2020 Troy's Work Table Publishing.

DEMOLITION DERBY I and II

"Demolition Derby," India ink and Montana BLACK spray paint on 4" x 6" watercolor postcard. One of the cards I sent out for the 2020 August Poetry Postcard Festival.

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"Demolition Derby II," India ink, Montana BLACK spray paint, and iridescent calligraphy ink on 4" x 6" watercolor postcard. Another card for the August Poetry Postcard Festival.

—

In the case of both of these cards, the image came before the poem. The first "Demolition Derby" was originally heading in a different direction, but I didn't like how it was turning out, so I added some spray paint. Once I did that, the car came into focus, and details followed. The "monster truck" that emerged reminded me of my father's high school friend who raced in demolition derbies. On a couple of occasions, we got to visit him at the fairgrounds and be down "in the pit" and watch the races. The poem was birthed with those memories in mind.

About two weeks later, I learned that my father's friend had died from COVID-19 after being hospitalized in an out-of-state intensive care unit for a couple of weeks. The second image was a reaction to his death, although I really wasn't quite sure what it was. I just knew that it was another "Demolition Derby" piece. Perhaps it was a smash up on the course. The Wife thought it was an eyeball. (Maybe it was/is.) Anyway, the poem soon arrived, mostly writing itself.

Not only do they stand as memorials of a sort to Fred, however. The addition of the spray paint shifted my thinking about the art I was creating for cards, as well as freed me up to experiment with my process in other ways.

These two cards were a couple of my favorite of the entire month. Partly because they are paired together. Partly because I was a bit looser in my approach to both, in image and word. Partly because the poems and their illustrations worked well together.

—

DEMOLITION DERBY

I’m the driver
     and you’re the driver
and there is no driver

dented fenders
     and dragging tailpipe
and flattened tires

yet still we persist
     and still we insist
as metal twists

and our engine
     smokes and flames
and we run and laugh.

—

DEMOLITION DERBY II

the ghost teeth
     grit as they did
in real life

when the engine
     stalled and the
flames arose

only then was
     the collision
remembered.

—

All artwork and poems by Troy Kehm-Goins © 2020 Troy's Work Table Publishing.

THE GATES of JERUSALEM

"The Gates of Jerusalem," India ink and iridescent calligraphy ink on two 4" x 6" watercolor postcards. Sent to separate individuals (as "The Left Gate" and "The Right Gate") as part of the 2020 August Poetry Postcard Festival.

—

THE LEFT GATE

The left gate is law—

stark, stern, immobile
protection for the chosen few

its gems as though
knife edges—
angular, unfriendly,
dead and cold

like the prayer-polished
hearts of those within.

—

THE RIGHT GATE

The right gate is righteousness—

a door cracked ajar
in subtle invitation

Come in, come in
it calls to all passersby—

the gems of its door
glitter as though

adorning the crown
you’ll be asked to wear.

—

All artwork and poems by Troy Kehm-Goins © 2020 Troy's Work Table Publishing.

CREATIVE COLLOQUY

Today was a Creative Colloquy day. Today was a Troy's Work Table day.

My erasure poem "Funeral" was published on the Creative Colloquy website. You can read it HERE. The boxes prior to the words are intentional, although they are rendering differently depending upon the web browser and/or device. (Which I really like. It injects a bit of play into the poem.) They are placeholders for Melville's missing words, phrases, and sentences.

I read five poems at tonight's monthly Creative Colloquy ZOOM Literary Gathering. Three recently written interrelated body poems: "The Saint of Second Street," "White Noise," and the aforementioned "Funeral." Two August Poetry Postcard Festival poems: "Molt" and "Tree."

And the work of the other four readers was stellar.

It was a great day filled with the beauty of language and laughter and story and conversation.

CREATION IS PERFECT

Creation Is Perfect by Minimal Compact is indeed a piece of perfected creation.

There is a largeness to each of these tracks that opens them up beyond their original recordings. Perhaps it is the maturity of band members, the accumulation of life experience, staring toward the ever-approaching limits of mortality, or all of the above. But this definitely feels like their most realized album. And it is not simply a “greatest hits” album. It truly stands on its own, even though all but one of the eight tracks are revisitations and reimaginings of prior songs.

—

SIDE A

Track 1 > “Statik Dancin’”
Minimal Compact, 1981
What a great version of this song. (Probably my favorite.) From the wood block beats to the bass pulse to the guitar noodling over the top of it all. Then additional guitar noodling. Then Samy’s deadpan voice. Gah! “Dancing! Statik dancing!” If this is Minimal Compact’s “jam” song, then this version of it deserves to be lengthened, remixed, expanded upon.

Track 2 > “Take Me Away”
One by One, 1983
This track just gets right to work. Pulling no punches. The interplay of Malka’s and Samy’s voices, in the midst of music that is a bit irritating and grating, reminds me a bit of early music from the Sugarcubes. Except with a distinctly Middle Eastern bent.

Track 3 > “Nada”
Deadly Weapons, 1984
For me, this track has the same tone, atmosphere, feeling of “New Clear Twist” from —. There is a somber sadness that plays against the electric guitar and it is beautiful in its melancholic juxtaposition. And the guitar plucking between the anchor beats of drum and bass at the end? Haunting.

Track 4 > “Raging Souls”
Raging Souls, 1985
There is an echo of a Wire track here, but I cannot quite think of which one. (Something on The Ideal Copy?)  But that doesn't mean that this track isn't wholly a Minimal Compact song because it absolutely is.

SIDE B

Track 5 > “Not Knowing”
Deadly Weapons, 1984
This track give me “film noir” vibes when it opens. I can’t exactly name why. But it’s there. And it continues.

Track 6 > “My Will”
Raging Souls, 1985
If there were a track on this album that could bring me to tears, this is it. The interplay between Samy’s and Malka’s voices is absolutely beautiful, especially when Malka sings, “Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, my will is stronger than me.”

Track 7 > “The Well”
Deadly Weapons, 1984
The Mediterranean flavors on this are spot on. Voice, guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums are hypnotic sync and I could imagine this just going on forever.

Track 8 > “Holy Roller”
Creation Is Perfect, 2019
Calliope-like opening leads into pulsing thrum. Then more layers, more instruments, then the vocals. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve listened to this particular track in the short amount of time I’ve owned the album. It is stunning. The unison of voices. The harmony of voices. The countering of voices. The mixture of English and Hebrew. The song never sits still, but rather keeps shifting “beneath my feet.” “The voices in your head won’t stop.”

—

This is one of those albums that I will either wear out the vinyl or a needle. I've already played it over and over. I have several Minimal Compact albums on CD but I am absolutely glad to have this one on vinyl. It helps me to slow down and really focus on the music, which this album absolutely rewards!

POETRY POSTCARDS

Troy's Work Table is participating in the August Poetry Postcard Festival. TWT's first postcards with new poems and art heading out in to the mail and toward the the mailboxes of other participants.



Meanwhile, the first August Poetry Postcard Festival poem/card sent to me arrived in the mailbox this afternoon!