I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: SUFJAN STEVENS–Astral Inter Planet Space Captain Christmas Infinity Voyage-Songs for Christmas Vol. VIII (2008).

I downloaded this disc from an online source.  And no I don’t feel bad about it because it wasn’t officially released, so no one is losing money.  If it ever gets released I’ll surely buy it.

Volumes VI and VII are unavailable anywhere, so maybe when he finishes vol X, Asthmatic Kitty will release another box set of his Christmas EPs.

So this disc is a radical departure from the five volumes in the box set (who knows what he got up to from 2006-2007).  It is so different that I had to wonder if it is actually his release or just an internet prank. I mean, the cover is crazily different, the title is outrageous, and the music is…well, I’ll get to that.  On the other hand, Sufjan’s voice is so distinctive, that it’s hard to see how anyone could have pulled that off.

The title certainly implies space-age keyboardy stuff and that is exactly what you get.  There are virtually no acoustic instruments at all (except for “Christmas in the Room,” which is done mostly on piano.)

The traditional songs include: “Angels We Have Heard on High”  which has a fully electronic sound, but which works very well with the ethereal nature of the song.  “Do You See What I See” on the other hand is very mechanized.  It has vocals processed through a robot voice for some of the song.  And the backing vocals seem to be deliberately dissonant. The chorus, on the other hand is still quite cool.  “Good King Wenceslas” has the same electronic robot type voice, but that voice performs the entire song.  It’s disconcerting at best.  “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” is a keyboardy instrumental, with space effects thrown in for good measure.  “Joy to the World” is next to last.  It runs over seven minutes and is very mellow.  As with his previous recording of the song, I don’t care for the pacing of this version.  It’s very slow and meandering for what I often think of as a, well, joyous song.

“Christmas in the Room” is an original that is sung by someone other than Sufjan (no liner notes for the download).  It’s the only song that is not electronic, being done on a piano (although there are some keyboard flourishes in the background). “The Child with the Star on His Head” is a 13 minute (!)  song that is primarily instrumental. The first half of the song is very mellow (with gentle horns and a mellotron, I think).  The last 7 minutes are a cycle of the same refrain (with la la las) and a gorgeous trumpet solo (!).  The final three minutes are sort of a keyboard winding down, almost like a space ship lullaby.  It’s a beautiful piece even if it is wholly unexpected on a Christmas EP!

[READ: January 6, 2009] “The Gangsters”

I enjoyed this story immensely.

This line sort of sets up the basis of the story: “According to the world, we were the definition of paradox: black boys with beach houses.”

And so, what we have is a bunch of young black kids vacationing in Sag Harbor. Benji and Reggie are brothers, born one year apart and inseparable until they become teenagers.  The story is set when Benji turns 15, and the brothers are drifting apart, with different summer jobs and, for the first time on Sag Harbor, slightly different social crowds.  Or, to be more specific, some of their social crowd has changed a bit, willing to rebel against the privilege that they have.

And so we see these teens stuck between the two worlds of “private schools to teach us who to use a knife and fork, and sort that from dat,” and “keeping it real” or “the great narrative of black pathology.”

Benji and Reggie’s oldest friend is N.P. (I’m not giving away the hilarious origin of his name).  N.P. has been hanging around with Randy, a new kid to the circle…too young for the older crowd but too old for them.  Randy shows off his new B.B. Gun.  And Benji explains that this is the ideal set up for a Thursday disaster (the kids’ parents worked back home from Mon-Thu, and so the kids would be on their own.  They would instigate plans all week, which would build up until they exploded on Thursday).

You can see pretty that with the introduction of the gun, something bad is going to happen, especially when all the kids decide to get one.  Naturally, they decide to have a BB-gun fight.  Things progress as you might expect, the only question will be who will be hurt in the fight and how badly.

The story was very compelling, surprisingly funny, and drew in a lot of resources to show the culture of Sag Harbor circa 1985 (including a Run D.M.C. rap-off).

The only thing I didn’t quite believe in the story was the parents’ muted reaction to the incident.  I suppose it’s possible that they didn’t really notice, but knowing my parents, they would have spotted it the second the drove in.  Maybe it just felt like the build up should have led to more of a confrontation.  (Of course, that’s not really what the point of the story was, so it’s not really a big deal).

Aside from that minor complaint, I really enjoyed the story and would be interested in reading more by Whitehead.