prepare thyself - void jazz (Reptilian Snack)

The Slow Music Movement
Aug 2
3 min read

*** This blog post first appeared in TSMM's July 27th Newsletter, where you can get all the tips (and more) first ***

This is the cover for prepare thyself's, void jazz album. It shows two hooded figures facing a candle on a stone altar. Skulls, hands with goblets, a third eye and mystical symbols spread across the top of the image and it's grey background. The text "PREPARE THYSELF" borders either side of the alter. It's a mysterious ritual scene.

It’s not all chilling and Portuguese wine over at TSMM HQ, sometimes I like to shake my head and move my feet whilst drinking. I’m not sure how I stumbled across this duo from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but I’m glad I did. Curious about the musicians I now know that Andrew Kruske has quality solo project called Chameleon Treat!, which on cursory listen appears to meander through psychedelic nouveau and dream pop realms. Details on Eli Weidman are a bit harder to hurriedly piece together, but he seems to be a drummer for hire, most notably with the cool and quirky Ames Harding & the Mirage who are also worth checking.

Apparently the album was born when Kruske decided he wanted to ditch the earnest lyrics and under the influence ambling for a bit, improve his improvisational skills and make a jazz fusion album. Luckily for us he got somewhat sidetracked.

Eli Weidman and Andrew Kruske of the band prepare thyself in layered exposure stand solemnly in a dark, textured cave-like setting, wearing casual jackets. Overlapping effect creates a ghostly appearance.

The result is a banger of an album that defies easy description but hangs loosely around peak time krautrock and soaring psychedelic space rock. The grounding album opener, “atoms, nothing else“ kicks off with some minimal, mantric guitar and possibly marimba which set a keen tempo and are soon joined by Weidman’s simultaneously loose but locked in percussion. Framework set, the layers build - more synths, more guitar, until there’s a torrent of hypnotic refrains rushing through the speakers, and if you’re not at least nodding your head by this point then please call a doctor. On it’s own that would work for me but just wait for the half way bass lift off which will probably have a similar affect to the CPR administered by the attending medics. This tune is star bound and taking everyone in earshot with it.

Next up is “ghost particle” that starts off equally hurried but less densely, giving you time to put your teeth back in and comb your hair, despite the synths immediately ruffling your brain cells and attempting to prise open your doors of perception. Just as your mind starts drifting Weidman fills in the percussion and Kruske rocks in with some bastard rhythm and blues guitar and more spaced out synths, we’re off again. Next up “wormholes in fiction” sees Weidman shaking, skittering, looping and layering his percussion as a freak flag flying groove evolves, slowly loosening your grip on reality again before delivering another reality tunnel shattering finale.

This is followed by the jam session meets soothing psyche rock meets shoegaze meets space rock of “orbital decay” as the boys once again lull you into a false sense of psychedelic security before testing your lysergic limits with this constantly morphing creation. By now you’ll have lost all track of time, and the LP closer, “spirits of the prism” is here to give your tender cerebral cortex the comedown tune it is crying out for. A jazz filled motorik riddim takes you by the hand as Kruske sets the guitar and keys to ambient space rock for ten a half minutes. And breathe. The album is a trip and a half, let’s hope they get the urge to make another jazz LP soon.