Monday, July 27, 2009  12:05 am 

T-Shirt of God

This is a letter my uncle wrote to me:

“I was a dude before you were a dude kid, I worked hard at the garage at day and busted balls at night, and read French existentialists in between. I skirted the edges of the spiral and saw wild colours, I fell in love a million times and broke at least one heart. I listened to the canon and the canon was the story of my life, friends in jail squeezing ink of old newspapers to cover their body with heraldics of defeat, or extricated from mangled car wrecks after being chased on the way home by the grim reaper, one drink too many is all it takes to summon that bastard. Yes, vicious divorces and naked men nursing a shotgun in the middle of the night. Regret, too much regret, and too many unpaid bills too. I never pretended to be anything I wasn’t, and I repeated the mistakes of my forebears, maybe I was born to lose, but when I stop to think about it, looking at the old photographs of drinking pals and faded away sweethearts, customised cars and worn down jukeboxes, I think, fuck, this is the stuff that real music is made of, that’s got to mean something”

This remix of A Mountain of One that Thomas Bullock of Map of Africa and Rub n Tug fame has come up with is included in the forthcoming Bones 12. It is so good, wistful blue-eyed Wichita blues of the Jason Molina sort, but with a bit of Vangelis thrown in for good measure. Halfway through it wonders whether it wants to be Let it Happen, but decides to be the Four Hoursemen instead, hence the epic riff. Gobsmacked, absolutely gobsmacked.

A Mountain of One- Bones (Thomas’ Way of the Ancients Remix)

The legend tells us of a mountain lying In the midst of the desert, one that many pilgrims have attempted to climb never to be seen again. It is not the tallest mountain, but its paths are the most treacherous, no guides to assist in its assault. It’s summit lies hidden by eternal storm clouds. forever brooding and quarrelling in their language of thunder and lightning. The mountain is a colossal question mark raking the soul of the explorer, who sits in front of it attempting to decipher its secret. Victory lies not in finding the right answer, but the right question, one which is written in the wicked precipices and craggy faces of this mountain, mocking winds kissing its rugged surfaces like an army of sirens intent on distracting the feverish calculations of the explorer. If he has enough patience, he will realise that there is no way up the mountain, but inside the mountain, the door lies hidden in an arrangement of shadows that can only be perceived under a certain light, they are the passage to a vast space at the heart of this mountain, the throne room of a lord who left a long time ago, but left the music playing.

Blues Control’s ‘Local Flavor’ is out on Siltbreeze. If good psychedelia is about getting acquainted with secrets that lie hidden beyond the thin veils of reality, then this as close as you’re going to get this year kid.

Blues Control- Tangier

labels >> A Mountain of One, blues control, thomas bullock

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