Isotope 217º >> Birth of the molecule

º.º.º Isotope 217º - "Kryptonite Smokes The Red Line" º.º.º

(Thrill Jockey Records, 1997)

You can tell by now that in addition to tremendously stealthy basslines, I love & require splashy, trebly, off-kilter ("syncopated"), jazzy drumming, even in non-jazz music.  You don't need a big Neil Peart-size monster drum kit do this, just a little jazz-oriented one like a Gretch Catalina Club.  Look back at old pics of the innovative jazz drummers and they were almost all playing Gretsch, except for a few who were paid exorbitant sums to use other brands.  I have no idea what this track's name means, though another standout track on the album (The Unstable Molecule) is named "Beneath The Undertow" in homage to Charles Mingus' 1971 autobiography Beneath The Underdog... So I assume this one has some clever meaning behind it too?

Jeff Parker & Rob Mazurek, Nov. 2000 issue

This snazzy group was comprised of John Herndon (Tortoise, 5ive Style, The For Carnation), Dan Bitney (Tortoise), Jeff Parker (Tortoise, Chicago Underground Quartet), Rob Mazurek (Chicago Underground Trio/Quartet/Orchestra, solo career), Matt Lux (Heroic Doses).  Several Isotopers went on to form a group called Exploding Star Orchestra, though Tortoise continues to be their mothership.  Despite being the only non-"famous" member of Isotope, Matt Lux really steals the show with his drumming, full of shading and restraint, often sounding right on the verge of breaking out into pre-emptive strikes.  If your jaw is not near the floor during this song, then you have a lot to learn about drumming, my pal, or you just have no soul.  Lux has an amazing knack for playing like a hybrid of a human and a machine, drifting into rigidity and then breaking back into loose, funky stuff.  This album is only 35 minutes long, but is flawless and is simply beyond essential.  I got it on LP in March '98 while dying to hear the new Tortoise LP (which I got at the end of that month through mailorder, a little before it officially hit stores) and was pleasantly stunned by it.  To this day I still marvel at all the cool little details in it, and once I try to listen to one song I invariably end up playing the whole album at least once or twice, feeling like I'm being transported in time to a much cooler era either several decades behind ours or several centuries ahead of it.

In early '05, this guy Colby who owned a record store called Rocks Off RPM in New Orleans told me he had just gone out to eat with his old pals Tortoise while they were in town for a concert; he knew them from when he lived in Chicago.  He asked them about the status of Isotope and was told that they had no plans to get back together.  I remember sort of shrugging and thinking about how anticlimactic the breakups of one's favorite bands can be, when those bands fly so far under even the indie radar that they don't even bother to put out a press release to tell people they're done, and then their fans have to find out months or years after the fact.  I guess most bands just sort of realize that it's time to move on once the momentum is dwindling.  No one wants to be the band that hangs around for a few decades after its prime.... well, Sonic Youth do want to be that band, but they're Sonic Youth, so they can.  And everyone always cites R.E.M. and Neil Young, but they never even had a "prime," in my opinion, just some random great songs, usually an average of one per album, but I digress.

Note: This album came out in Japan with two lengthy bonus cuts, and in Poland with just one of them.  I'm trying to acquire those tracks (the 7-minute "Ode To Philophony" and the 23-minute "Expedition Rhombus") for possible posting on here.

I just found out about 5 minutes ago that Osama Bin Laden is dead.  America, fuck yeah.


Planets with similar climates: Jack DeJohnette - "Dream Stalker" (1978),  David S. Ware Quartet - "Aquarian Sound" (1992), Miles Davis - "Bitches Brew" (1969), Super E.S.P. - "Everything Seems Prescribed" (1998), Nicholas Payton* - "Velvet Handcuffs" (2003).


Currently wondering if: Marky Mark's mom called him Marcus Mark when he acted up as a kid.


*Might finally get to see him live this weekend, at Jazz Fest