The New Inside of You

This morning I put on some Soul-Junk and suddenly my questions about "making it new" started to be answered. For a while I've been struggling with the concept of originality, esp. relating to music, as I tend to be of the It's-All-Been-Done mindset. (This leads me not to give up, but to attempt to create within the paradigms that I most admire/respect/enjoy; I will think things like "Man, I wish I could write a song that captures joy and melody the way Ozma does," or "I want to make a really good Mates of State-sounding song.") I still believe that imitation-following in the shoes of art that moves you-- is a way, and a good way, to make music, but Soul-Junk blows my mind so much that I have to stop and listen to what they have to say. And what they have to say is this:

"'You got the new locked up inside of you/ time to hit it with the bolt-cutters and bust right through/ If anyone is in Christ then you are a new creation/ so reflect your creator with origination."

And maybe that sounds CCMy, but it isn't, really the sentiment is so far away from most of the pablum that passes for music made by Christians, and not to mention the MUSIC which destroys all paradigms of rock and hip-hop you might have imagined, insane sounds coming from people and machines working together to make something horribly and awfully beautiful.

This is what I love: these are crazy Christians and they are not on the same ish that "the World" is on, nor are they on the weak ish that the purveyors of CCM culture peddle. It is new, it is unstoppable, it is effing sanctified.

The whole Sounds Are Active label is a wealth of completely new sounds I could never have imagined would exist. Get the word out about this label.

Please enjoy the following:
A recent interview with Glen Galloway
Autosmuddling (from the album 1958) OH MY GOD,* THIS IS SONG IS INSANE (also, this track features my new favorite rapper, Bizzart)
Horse Posing As Unicorn (from the album 1957)

(*no, really)