Taste is a pretty awesome word:
It’s derived from the Hebrew Ta’am; which means “to perceive,” in turn from the Aramaic Ta’em; meaning literally “flavor.”
Which in turn was likely derived from Akkadian; which kinda makes it a holy word, doesn’t it? It’s a word to be spoken and otherwise expressed by gods.
Think about it for a sec.. I got a word here whose origins lie in languages known for religious text and teachings, and it occurs to me that word opens up a cerebral-spiritual synesthetic connection of all senses physically known and more.
First intro to spiritual planes‘ always gonna be physical – we know what we perceive, and whatever sense is the initial contact with beauty’s gonna scream at the rest of them to delve in and appreciate it.
Anyway – and please bear with the apparent tangent here, because things aren’t always what we initially perceive them to be – I have this “eternal favorite” recorded piece of music I always have at ready: It’s a 1963 Deutsche Gramophone release of “Beethoven Nine – putting that thing to my ears is like biting into something you like the taste of so much it opens your mind to every sensation you felt the first time you tasted something like it.
And it’s still brand new to your taste.
Sudan Archives’ Athena was released in November 2019 on Stones Throw Records and did get a great mention on B.G.M. in the Best Albums of 2019 column back in January of this year.
Thing is though, it’s now smack in the middle of 2020 (I’m just gonna leave that part alone for now) and I’m still in awe of this thing… so it’s not that I’m late to the party with Athena; I’ve been here since it started and I’m just wondering where the fuck everyone’s got off to.. I mean the cuisine is too fucking die for.
Aaaand with that being expressed, here’s a culinary review of a few choice dishes that’ll maybe appeal to your taste buds to make you wanna try it.. and trust me, you really gotta try this.
Picture this: you’re at a section of tables in a banquet hall with this huge and beautiful, perfect-looking array of succulent looking plates of food for you as an honored guest to partake in. Like you’re in Valhalla, being praised by the gods for your strength, courage, and valor in the battle you’ve just earned your rest from. And they want you to dance, to sing, to revel and laugh, and to feast, on things no mortal arrives at before the point, you’re at now. So you approach the banquet offerings and reach for the most elegant first thing that hits you.. and when you bite into it, it sings. It sings a song so enchanting it knocks you on the floor, and you just lay there happily reeling and taking it in.
Mine would be “Green Eyes.”
This song knocks me on the floor from the get-go: the flange on the violin at the beginning adds an additional ‘percussive’ effect to the song that once you hear how it works, it’s like that extra garnishment herb you threw on the pizza for flash but it’s sooo necessary you can’t stand the idea of not having it tossed in. I mean fuck.. song’s a fucking smorgasbord of delicious.
Speaking of delicious and fitting for our Valhalla feast, next thing that catches me’s “Icelandic Moss” – and the video attached’s a complimentary dance of green – which is also sooo appropriate, because I’m feeling like I stole some sacred apples and just HAD TO pause my escape flight to take a bite —- and the bite was so succulent I that really do not giveth one single fuck-whit whither I gettest Myself caught… I’m just gonna sprawl out under this here world tree and bask in it awhile.
I KNOW, RIGHT?? I love this song – the lead in vocal’s gorgeous on its own… then beat and ambient everything else surrounding it kicks it right out the fuck door already… then comes the line, “I don’t need your open hand, no,” and she bows that upstroke.. and the combined singing of her voice and her violin’s like some divine and formless being whispering “something gets you” into my ear.
And that is mighty fucking cool.
Actually, the entire album is mighty fucking cool… I’m gonna skip back to the second track, “Confessions.”
Whether I’m listening to Athena in linear progression or it’s on rando, whatever song beckoned me, this song has me submerged and completely drowned a welcome torrent wave of deep as fuck. It’s like floating in sound-related energy than opening your consciousness synesthetically and the sound becomes pure energy.
And you can sense EVERYTHING.
Again: I KNOW, RIGHT?? Also again, it’s only the second song on the album, which only gets progressively better –
which brings me back to the Beethoven Nine:
Ludwig Van Beethoven was stone deaf when he completed that thing, but I don’t think it affected his ability to hear it.. he was tripping through a sensory astral plane of fucking beautiful, and fortunately for me as well definitely a lot of people he was able to get the message out there.
And when you get to the fifth movement “chorale” finish, that’s a mighty fucking cool topper to that particular meal.. I often skip right to it on the Karajan recording, even though I’m probably going to start the entire symphony after hearing it – like the rando/linear option on Athena makes me feel when hearing its likewise mighty fucking cool and beautiful finish – but “Pelicans in the Summer” isn’t a mere dessert topper.
It’s fucking AMBROSIA.
I’m gonna wanna hear the rest or experience unrest – and there’s sooo much rest of it: I only gave a taste of a four to fourteen portion ratio, and trust me; the rest is something you just gotta try. And savor it.. dissect every single tiny morsel of it and really, truly feel yourself digesting it.