SOUNDTRACK: TOM ADAMS-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #53 (July 21, 2020).
I had heard of Tom Adams from Bob Boilen, but I guess I hadn’t actually heard him before. This performance is otherworldly. It reminds me in some ways of Sigur Rós, although only in the ethereal moments.
Tom’s 2017 album Silence features Tom singing and playing minimal piano. But here
what we have is Tom Adams at his home in Cornwall, England, playing four brand-new songs with minimal electric guitar and an enthralling mix of tech-altered sounds.
For the basis of this performance Adams is playing a subdued and lovely electric guitar (finger-picked). He sings some fairly simple folk melodies, but it’s when he starts “oohing” and crooning high notes that things transcend the familiar. Because even though his singing voice is fairly deep, he has an amazing falsetto. And it’ s that falsetto that he manipulates in fascinating way.
That box with all the wires in the foreground is a Eurorack modular synthesizer which, in real time, processes his majestic voice in ways unpredictable even to Tom. He wrote to tell me that, “Once the system is set in motion, you never know exactly what will happen next… I like to think of it as being a bit like the waves on the beach; to some extent, they are all predictable, yet each wave is still unique.”
“The Turning Of The Year” is a delightful folk ballad with delightful lyrics
What a day / What a day / to share with these good friends
We sing the songs we always sing until / we’ve sung them all
and through the evening our voices ring / in the rafters of the hall.
But when the Eurorack takes over, that simple trip with friends feels very different.
“A Flower Disappearing” is a slower song with a deeper guitar sound. It’s easy to forget about his falsetto and the electronics until he throws them briefly in after the verses.
I wondered though if all of the songs would be manipulated–would his regular voice hav a chance to shine? It does on “If My Love Was A Guitar.” He sings some delightful ooohing without any electronics. His songs and vocal style reminds of Nick Drake, and this song in particular fits that bill (except for the falsetto, of course).
If my love was a guitar / it wouldn’t matter where you are
you could just take me in your arms / and hear the music in my heart
…playing gentlyAnd if I was a melody / then you could take me when you leave
and anytime you felt a need / you could just sing along with me
…in perfect harmony
His amusing reaction at being out of tune is a nice moment of levity in this otherwise mellow performance. “Postcards From The Road” features an entire section in beautiful unaltered falsetto.
all the friends you still miss / you kept in touch but cast adrift / you walked away but now you’re looking back
all the stories left behind / but when you read the final lines / turn a page and start to write something new
because all the choices that you make / these are not regrets to take / with you they’re just postcards from the road.
I love the cool effects that the Eurorack provides, but it’s great to hear him sing without it as well–his voice is really great.
[READ: July 24, 2020] “The Ethicist”
This is a Shouts and Murmurs piece that is a series of questions. Typically I think this style works better than trying o stretch out a joke to a full page.
So in this one, people are writing in to The Ethicist with their problems. The Ethicist is a real column in The New York Times Magazine and people write in with serious ethical issues. Some people really like reading this column. It was started in 1999 by a humorist, Randy Cohen, who did take the ethical questions seriously. he stepped down in 2011 and others have run the column in his stead.
So this piece was written after the column had been around for two years or so.
Martin is his delightfully absurd self with his questions:
An executioner notes that the last time he put someone to death, spectators were doing the wave. He felt this was wrong so he executed them too. Then he asked their spouses to dinner. So his ethical dilemma is “When giving dinner at home, is it the host’s responsibility to serve healthful, low-calorie food?”
The answer is yes–unless he can ask their dietary preferences ahead of time.
Some of the questions are just okay, but this next one was particularly good regardless of the answer:
I have recently written two biographies of the same famous politician. One is intentionally filled with disgusting lies; the other is based solely on truth. The problem is, they are identical. Which one should I publish?
My favorite one is
My wife is having an affair with a bartender and I have been secretly filming her and her lover having intercourse. I then sell the tapes on the floor of the stock exchange. I would like her to be more wrong than I am. Who is more wrong?
The question about cannibalism is a little obvious and the one with an answer about a Magic 8 Ball is okay.
But the question about a kid threatening to blow up a school is really regrettable. Although the punchline of that one about getting revenge on someone by serving them fatty, high-calorie food is a nice call back.
The final question is from a teacher who would like to hang the Ten Commandments in her classroom. The Ethicist suggests changing “Thou Shalt Not” to “Don’t” and remove the one about coveting your neighbors wife. “You now have “The Nine Suggestions.”
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