accidental MRI, go to sleep
one thousand pounds at the behest of the NHS to see that my brain looks like billy bear ham

Summer 2020

photographing the brain

Last mix of the year 2021 comes from long time friend of the label Alex Ho (@j0-j0armani) out of Los Angeles who has just released his debut album 'Move Through It' with us. Interview (excerpt) down below.

www.musicfrommemory.com

MFM: Hi Alex, you're known for being deeply involved in LA's party scene through your Moony Habits events for quite some years now. How did you roll into the music scene?

AH: Some friends of mine in college were doing parties at this smaller, 200 capacity club in Glendale. I was hanging around these nights, sort of helping out, and eventually decided to do some events of my own at this spot. Eventually I was doing parties at this other place 333Live in DTLA - Prince used to own the spot but then it ended up in the hands of ex-Chinese mafia guys. My last event there, we got shut down because the owners of the venue didn’t have a valid alcohol license and were missing a number of other permits. From there, I just started doing warehouse parties like a lot of other promoter friends were doing, and it became a regular thing. 

MFM: So you've been a promotor and DJ at first, yeah? When came the first steps into producing music?

AH: In college, I learned how to DJ first, yeah. At the time, I had the software for production but didn’t really know what I was doing - still don’t. But I started making some tunes that I actually liked in maybe 2017/2018, and that’s around the time I passed some stuff over to Jamie.  

MFM: Did the Covid situation affect your productivity?

AH: I had my ups and downs with Covid for sure. Isolation didn’t necessarily increase my productivity, it gave me a lot of time to think about my life and I think I just came to the conclusion that I need to be doing more. When Jamie brought up the idea of doing a 7 inch or an album, I didn’t want to just settle for the two songs so I went for the album.      

MFM: On a few songs you've collaborated with other artists too. Those guitar and percussion parts for example. How did that process go?

AH: On those ones I was actually feeling a bit stuck - I knew I had some good ideas but didn’t know where to take them. I passed the sketches to some friends and thankfully they were supportive enough to send back some nice elements that I wouldn’t have been able to produce on my own.  

MFM: What's the story behind the album cover? 

AH: For the cover, Jamie had the idea of using a photo of the city at dusk. I reached out to my friend Kaleb who’s an incredible photographer and he was able to make it happen. We originally had the idea to use a nice, vintage car along with a number of other props in the shot. We got a bunch of different shots on 2 shoots, but ended up narrowing it down to the simpler ones. 

MFM: Is there a masterplan now that you've got your debut LP out? 

AH: No real plan. I just know that I want to make more music. I’ve had a lot of help on this record - from additional instrumentation to extra mixdowns from friends. I want to be able to do it all on my own but still have similar results - I guess that’s a goal, to be a better producer. This doesn’t mean that I don’t want to collaborate with homies - I’ll likely be doing that more as it’s more real and rewarding, and it’s not just one big fantasy in my brain.

MFM: Let's talk about the mix. It actually took a while for you to, as you put it, “get in the DJ mood” and record it. How come? 

AH: It’s not that I need to get in the mood necessarily, I just haven’t been digging or thinking about DJing as much lately. I think a lot of people spent the pandemic/quarantine getting dope records and working on their DJ skills in preparation for this big reopening. And for me, despite being a party promoter, I think I got really comfortable being together with only close people in the last couple of years - being in the party feels a little foreign and crazy to me now. Hoping to catch the party bug again, but I’m trying not to force it!

MFM Mix 035: Alex Ho

The album “Ceiling Inferno.” Produced by Panagiotis Mina of Pyrgatory Studio, and based on the poetry collection “Marvelous Ceiling Inferno” by Christos Kyriakides, the album includes features by Maria Spivak, Veronica Georgiou, Tasos Lamnisos (x.ypno), and Anastasia Dolitsai (Uvglov). For its cover art, it uses documentation of Marina Xenofontos’ painting “Ceiling Inferno.” A film, also made by Xenofontos, doubles as the video-clip for the album’s first track.

Kyriakides’ collection of thirteen off-kilter poems recount his peace-making with death. The points of contact folded together in these poems are auditory, sensual, touch-felt, and intimate. Several of them trail an upbringing and coming of age set in the sidelines of sulen schools and strict parades. Transgressions abound in their verses, but are held tenderly enough to release them from their abjection. Placed on top of the collection, a silver figure of a mask sticks its tongue out: a three-way gesture of contempt, provocation, and conciliation; a calm anticipation of charon’s final obol.

Each of the album’s eight tracks takes its title directly from one of the book’s thirteen poems. Five of the tracks’ vocals reproduce the poem’s verses whole either lyricising them or obscuring them with the use of language games, techniques taken from concrete poetry, and improvisation. For the production, Mina collaborated with Cypriot musicians of differing disciplines, bringing together various styles of beatmaking and composition while also embedding his own influences from drone and noise. The album both calls back to and disperses the original, putting down Mina’s and his collaborators’ interpretations of what they read as latent in the book.

Xenofontos’ painting “Ceiling Inferno” has been hung and photographed. Its documentation is printed as the album’s cover art. Its setting: a castle ablaze, hammer, nails, ladder, and pair of heels without owner, sketch out the tone of the release. The scene can be seen as long forlorn, but also traces a recent evacuation—the intentions of an arsonist. For her film, also titled “Ceiling Inferno”, this scene is restaged and animated; the intensity of the blaze redoubled.

Text by Aris Mochloulis

Artist: Panagiotis Mina / Maria Spivak / @panayotisofficial
Album: Ceiling Inferno
Label: Pyrgatory Studio
Release date: December 9, 2021
Format: digital / vinyl (50 limited edition vinyl lathe cuts)
Buy: https://pyrgatory.bandcamp.com/

PREMIERE: Εργόχειρο — Μαρία Spivak (Pyrgatory Studio, 2021)

in my bedroom

'He's Leaving' is a previously unreleased track recorded during the 'Mug Museum' album sessions in Los Angeles. Mug Museum is out now! 

Watch Cate live this September on her upcoming UK Tour: http://po.st/CLBLive

Buy Mug Museum:
iTunes: http://smarturl.it/clb-mm-it
CD and Vinyl: http://bit.ly/ts-shop-clb

★★★★ - NME Magazine
★★★★ - MOJO
★★★★ - London Evening Standard

Follow Cate Le Bon online:
Website: http://catelebon.com/
Facebook: http://facebook.com/catelebon
Twitter: http://twitter.com/catelebon
YouTube: http://youtube.com/user/catelebon

Buy the album

Cate Le Bon - He's Leaving

Piano Improvisation 1 -  Brooklyn Academy Of Music  - 7 - 14 - 14

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtfB8MqP1jU

Warpaint - Love Is To Die (Yours Truly Session)

pigtails 20

Me Oh Me Demonstr

Taken from A Young Person's Guide To The Early Welttraumforscher. Out March 1 on tape and available now to download and stream in full: https://acolourfulstorm.bandcamp.com/album/a-young-persons-guide-to-the-early-welttraumforscher

photographing the brain

Anny Chovy

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