Today’s an amazing day, because it’s the first day I’m watching spring training baseball on MLB TV! I’m just beyond stoked, although my beloved Phillies are looking pretty inept against the Yankees. It’s OK, it’s just the young kids playing. They can mess up all they want. They’re not the… ahem… future or anything.
Speaking of the future, I’ve decided for some reason to pop this CMMZOZMM // Electronic Quartet tape in the player and listen on headphones while the game plays in the background. First things first – if you’re trying to pronounce that word where only one-eighth of the characters are vowels, go ahead and give that right up. It’s an abbreviation consisting of the first and last initial of each of the four players comprising the “Electronic Quartet.” Well, sort of – MZ is for “Mike Meanstreetz,” obviously. But the rest work! There’s also Cameron MacNair, Omar Zubair, and Maneesh Raj Madahar, the CM, OZ, and MM, respectively.
Now that I have, or have lost, your attention, let’s talk about that “future” that I’ve alluded to. Whereas is a gastric nightmare of electronics and percussion and guitars, all applied like Sonny Sharrock would in a timeless vortex, where you could neither move forward nor backward but would remain in stasis forever. Which notes did you play before the others? Which came after? Doesn’t matter. They all sort of exist at once, all observable, and over two 20-minute tracks, CMMZOZMM reassigns all the theories you ever had about physics and music. Your relativity to Relativity has been compromised, because if you can pass through the gauntlet of Whereas in the same molecular configuration, if your DNA remains unchanged, then you’ll understand the implications for the future of science. Sustainable energy, faster-than-light travel, you name it – it will all come to pass on the inspiration Whereas gives its listeners. Provided that they’re scientists of course.
Now listening to that proved to be way more inspiring than watching this awful game, and the fact that every commercial break featured the mic-drop Verizon commercial with the Silicon Valley guy three times per break was a soul-sucking experience every half inning. But I didn’t have to listen to it. I listened to CMMZOZMM concocting vibrant magic for forty minutes. Turns out that was all I needed to get through it. Nicely done, CMMZOZMM – nicely done.
Posts
