Ray Caesar - Returns of the Day

Returns of the Day was one of the highlights of the recent Five Year Anniversary group show at Jonathan Levine gallery. I have been consistently having my head blown by Ray Caesar's work for some time now. However, this piece stands out as something new or at least unique in Caesar's catalog.

First there is all that lovely light and shadow play. The ornate molding, so quintessentially Caesar, whites out in the light flare on the left and is consumed by shadow on the right. Then there is the inclusion of motion and action. His previous work has often featured the posed or at least still figure. Here the composition is alive with the movement of the figure in to the frame and exquisitely the arc of the figures knife wielding arm slashing through the scene. The image is poised on the cusp of action, hung on the anticipation of violent menace (albeit violent menace perpetrated on a birthday cake).

However, the detail that really sucks me in to the piece is the peculiar spinal ridge that rises up out of, yet appears to be part of, the lovely lacquered table. So incongruous of the immaculate setting, so mysterious and oh so very shiny. Which leads me to one last observation. The luscious black of the lower half of this work, in all it's texture and fine detail, could this have been executed in another medium? The ability of Caesar's work to be as textural and lush as oil paint in a digital medium has always amazed. But could we now, in this piece, be seeing the high rez digital print outpace the storied medium of oil on canvas? It will be interesting to see what the artist does over this next year.

Swingshift: The Series

The familiar double chime of the subway doors stirs me. My head enveloped in a chemical fog, my eyes refuse to focus. I lean in through the blurred surroundings trying to decipher the warbled string of syllables running from the overhead PA.

“Avenue X / McDonald, next stop”


So begins my new black humor occult-noir series, Swingshift, for T21. It is going to be a woozy rawkus ride with our man Dick Swingshift at the controls. Dick is an old school shamus, straight out of grainy black & white films and dusty pulp novels. Dick is also a practitioner of the arcane and the occult. The series follows Dick as he stumbles his way through a complicated twenty first century reality hyper-saturated in technicolor and pop magick.

The first episode, Dog Days' Nights - Part I, is now live and new instalments will follow every two weeks. I am essentially making it up as I go along. To that end any feedback will be greatly appreciated. Please drop your thoughts and reactions in the comments here or feel free to shoot me an e-mail if your too polite to slag me off in public.

Also, if you missed the early Swingshift story Cheer, T21 has re-posted it as a nice introduction to the series.



Swingshift: Dog Days' Nights - Part I

Swingshfift: Cheer

Swingshift Archive

Conjurers' Dub (mix)

image via The Afflicted Yard

There is no silence in that Abyss: for all that men
call Silence is Its Speech.
- the book of lies

For some time now I've wanted to assemble a mix comprised of the deep, dark, dubby tunes that soundtrack my late night writing sessions and dark nights of soul. This mix rides a thick black night groove through headier Shackleton productions, stripped back dubstep and echo drenched, slow burn dub-techno. It's laced with a haunting Tikiman vocal and The Space Ape's hypnotic delivery and bookended by TKDE's glorious doomjazz.

It's built more for head-nodding meditation than peek time dancing. A sustaining anti-lullaby for babes of the abyss

Conjurers' Dub (mix)  by  kelcey

(00:00) Demdike Stare - Extwistle Hall
(01:40) The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble - Seneca
(05:35) Harmonia '76 - Sometimes In Autumn (Shackleton Remix)
(09:50) Shackleton - Asha In The Tabernacle
(15:35) Vindixatrix - Private Places (Shackleton & Mordant Music Version)
(20:50) Emika - Drop The Other (Scuba's Vulpine Remix)
(25:00) Pangaea - Dead Living
(29:20) CV313 - Subtraktive
(30:35) Rhythm and Sound feat. Tikiman - Na Fe Throw It
(38:00) STL - Checkmate (cv313 Remodel)
(39:35) Fever Ray - Seven (Marcel Dettmann remix)
(44:15) Martyn feat. Space Ape - Is This Insanity? (Ben Klock Remix)
(47:00) Red Shape - Dark & Sticky
(50:00) Pendle Coven -Uncivil Engineering (Calm Mix)
(52:05) Deadbeat - Teach The Devil's Son
(58:00) Beat Pharmacy feat. Space Ape - Ghostship (Deadbeat dub)
(62:00) Appleblim - Within
(65:15) The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble - Embers

The Daughters of Erzulie

"I reach the corner of Washington Square Park and my feet freeze up short of the curb. My ears draw whispers from the bushes. My mind populates the shadows with darting figures. The small patch of artificial wild appears alive with menace. I gaze up at a towering elm with the moon nestled in its high branches. The Hangman’s Elm, as they call it on the walking tours."

My new story, The Daughters of Erzulie, is up at Troubadour 21. It's my contribution to the excellent T21 horror series and is paired with another cracking essay by Chris Deal. You can find the previous installments of the horror series here. I recommend each of them highly.

Erzulie is my take on the classic ghost story, set in my old Greenwich Village stomping grounds. It owes a debt to Pete Hamill's brilliant novel Forever for it's initial inspiration and to Carly's exhaustive research into paranormal NYC.

I hope it's as much fun to read as it was to write.

Some days you wake up and...

During a rather dark and reclusive stretch of my life, this Jenny Holzer postcard always sat on my desk next to my laptop. I used it as a talisman (and judging by the drink rings also as a coaster), focusing my paranoid fancies onto something external and benign while I stared deep into the abyss. The casual, moderate voice normalized grand delusions into everyday occurrences.

To this day, when the days get short and the nights get cold, I wake to find myself repeating the phrase to myself. A mantra to get me through the morning dread.

End X 10

I've started off the new decade by digitally recreating a 10 year old mixtape. Copies of the original tape were given to a few friends with an early version of Music For End Times.

Nearly all the tracks in the mix were released between '95 - '99. It starts out with a bit of Illbient and Asian Underground sounds easing in to a run of Metalheadz style Drum & Bass rollers and than rolling out through some banging warehouse techno and over the top trance. In the spirit of the original there are still a few dodgy mixes left in.

Some of tunes still sound fresh to my ears (Jamie Myerson, Source Direct). Other tunes make me question the effects of sustained ecstasy use on musical taste (Drop Bass Network, Binary Finary). In the end it's a fun survey of the underground electronic sounds of the late 90s.

END X 10  by  kelcey

1) Toshiro Mayuzumi- The Creation of Eve (1966)
2) Mocean Worker – Detonator (1998) (palm pictures)
3) DJ Spooky – Sum Ill Shit (Clinton Street Dub) (1998) (asphodel)
4) Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – Nothing Without You/Tery Bina (The Dhol Foundation & Fun-Da-Mental Remix) (1997)
5) Osmani Soundz – Spiritual Masterkey (1997) (mango)
6) Miles Davis – Bitches Brew (1970)
7) Ian Pooley - Vital One (1996) (mille plateaux)
8) Jamie Myerson - Music For The Lonely (remix) (1997) (sm:)e)
9) E-Z Rollers – Soundclash ('99 edit) (moving shadow)
10) Known / Unknown – Rollers Edit (1999) (moving shadow)
11) Adam F – Metropolis (1996) (metalheadz)
12) J Majik – Face II Face (1997) (infrared)
13) Source Direct – Black Domina (1996) (science)
14) Elijah - Chiming Fugue (1995) (home entertainment)
15) DJ Rolando - Shining Path (1997) (Underground Resistance)
16) Luke Slater – Love (loved) (1998) (novamute)
17) Neil Landstrumm – Praline Horse (I Ate The Whole Bag Remix) (1996) (tresor)
18) Goio - Basic Needs (1995) (drop bass network)
19) Speedy J - Pannik (1997) (plus 8)
20) Kai Tracid - Tiefenrausch (Oliver Lieb Remix) (1999) (tracid traxxx)
21) Binary Finary – 1999 (Matt Darey remix) (1999) (wiggle)

Audrey Kawaski - Radiant Allure

One of the first things you notice in Audrey Kawasaki's paintings are the eyes of her gorgeous figures. These narrowed yet aloof eyes draw the viewer into the paintings seemingly against their will. Yet they give nothing away, no glimpse of emotion or psychology, just the gentle possibility of desire. For any sort of emotional theme or narrative the viewer must turn to body language of the figure or to the symbolic items, often animals, and often in silhouette, or the setting. Even than the curiosity which those enigmatic eyes have inflamed is only partially satiated.

Another striking feature of Kawasaki's work is the color pallet and texture. Using washes of oils on wood panels she is able to evoke a soft dreamlike tone. The grain of the wood rises gently through the thin paint at times flattening the image and drawing attention to the works superficiality. While in other places the play of wood grain and oil washes create a sense of depth and a complexity of textures.

I had not seen much of Kawasaki's work in person until very recently but personally the more recent pieces have an gained an attention to the use of light that has taken the work to another level. In the recent Jonathan Levine show, Hitorigoto was the first painting hung next to the door. It was the only piece in the show where the source of the soft melancholy glow, so essential to the allure and intrigue of all of the pieces on display, was made visible. What I find most interesting is that this soft light that emanates from below the image frame only touches the skin of the figures, never the setting or other imagery in the paintings.



In the striking Yuuwaku even the hairdressing remains unlit, flat and nearly silhouette while the warm lantern glow shimmers from the cheeks, shoulders and breast of the alluring figure. This contrast sets the figure apart from its surroundings and adds to dreamlike unbalance of the viewing experience. All of these techniques and details combine in the lush figurative painting of Audrey Kawasaki trapping you in that enchanted moment just after twilight when street lamps switch on, or here lanterns and candles are lit and the possibilities of a fresh night are yet to be exhausted.

Time-limited prints of two of Kawasaki's recent paintings go on sale for January 23rd at 3:00 pm PST. Check her shop for details.