#growing at the edges

[itsallhoney]

Angel's Rest Trail, Jamie Hale // Wasteland Companions, Mutual Benefit

[dustedmagazine]

Mutual Benefit — Growing at the Edges (Transgressive)

As Mutual Benefit, Jordan Lee creates rich, complex, baroque folk-rock that rewards close listening. On his new release, Growing at the Edges, he employs the talents of a dozen other players to craft an album on which many of the songs patiently move though several movements via sophisticated arrangements. Part of the record’s undoubtable appeal is how it veers between swooningly romantic and chillingly melancholic, often during the course of a single song.

The fact that the instrumental interludes feel as intrinsic to the whole as the full-blown songs says a lot about how much attention Lee and co-producer Gabriel Birnbaum have paid to the arrangements. Early in the track list, “Remembering a Dream” is an elegant waltz featuring vibes, piano and strings, soon followed by the prominent woodwind intro of “Prefiguring.” Later in the record, “Winter Sun, Cloudless Sky” foregrounds wavering keys, and finale “Signal to Bloom” is an instrumental epilogue with prominent upright bass that revisits the melody of the opening title track, accompanied by wordless coos and lilting flute.

On the vocal songs, Lee’s voice may prove a hurdle for some. However, it sits so discreetly in the mix that it becomes a texture, the lyrics melding into the flow rather than a prominent feature. “Season of Flame” builds into a haunting coda, while “Wasteland Companions” offers up a crisp syncopated beat and rich swells of woodwinds. As the album progresses, there’s a gradual accumulation of themes and atmospheres that proves mesmerizing and deeply satisfying. This perhaps betrays the influence of Brian Wilson collaborator Van Dyke Parks, who had a winning way with the kinds of arrangements whose filigrees and elaborate instrumental contributions could prove intoxicating. Not to say that Lee quite belongs on the same plane, but this is a beautifully realized series of songs, and certainly his finest since 2013’s Love’s Crushing Diamond.

Tim Clarke

[piasgermany]

[Album + Video] Mutual Benefit veröffentlicht im Oktober das neue Album "Growing at the Edges"!

Der in New York lebende Sänger, Songwriter und Multiinstrumentalist Jordan Lee alias Mutual Benefit hat sein viertes Album "Growing at the Edges" für den 6. Oktober angekündigt (über Transgressive).

Für Mutual Benefit, der seit 2009 unter dem Namen auftritt, ist der Titel seines neuen Albums besonders vielschichtig. “I became interested in the unruly first signs of growth after a disaster, and the beautiful ways lives start to blur into each other through relationships”, erzählt der Songwriter. “Edges are where spaces are negotiated.” Eine neue Dimension bekam der Titel, als Lee 2019 seinen Wunsch verwirklichte, seine Bandbreite als Songwriter und Pianist auch um weitere Instrumente und das Produzieren von Soundtracks zu erweitern. Über einen Zeitraum von fünf Jahren arbeitete der Musiker an den zehn Tracks, die dabei allesamt verschiedene Versionen durchliefen. “In songs that before would maybe resolve in a predictable place, I started doing these what if’s. What if it went somewhere unexpected instead?”

Für "Growing at the Edges" holte sich Lee zudem zwei wichtige Personen mit ins Boot: den Multiinstrumentalisten Gabe Birnbaum von Wilder Maker aus Brooklyn, seinen ersten Co-Produzenten, und die Geigerin Concetta Abatte, die Streicherarrangements beisteuerte. Das Zusammenspiel von Birnbaums Jazz- und Country-Riffs und Abbattes kammermusikalischen Arrangements verleiht den neuen Songs ein Ensemblegefühl und eine ganz spezielle Lebendigkeit.

Klanglich ausladend mit gelegentlich durchscheinenden Country-Einflüssen, diente die neue Single "Little Ways" Lee während der Pandemie als positiver Anker, um durch die unsicheren Zeiten zu kommen. Der Song entstand in einer Phase in Lees 30ern, in der Bekannte Häuser kauften und Gärten in Hinterhöfen anlegten, während er immer noch in einer beengten Wohnung in Brooklyn hauste und sich fragte, ob das Leben aktuell nicht vielleicht etwas auf der Stelle tritt. “I eventually found contentment through staying in the present moment and noticing how our inner and outer landscapes change a little each day and that it is our relationships that make a place meaningful.”

Tracklist "Growing at the Edges": 01. Growing at the Edges  02. Remembering a Dream  03. Beginner’s Heart  04. Prefiguring  05. Untying a Knot  06. Season of Flame  07. Wasteland Companions  08. Winter Sun, Cloudless Sky  09. Little Ways 10. Signal to Bloom

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[otaku553]

Quite frankly still obsessed with the three of them

A little procrastination doodle

[tojisun]

(yelling) and if i said ghost—

[caitlynspistol]

what if red becomes more feminine the more she gets to know/be with chloe? what if she grows softer, slowly losing her thorns, bc she realizes that it’s okay to let loose a little, it’s okay to cry whenever she’s sad or when she sees something cute, it’s okay to giggle at something funny, it’s okay to want to be held, it’s okay to want to dance around their room and castles if she feels happy or excited, it’s okay to wear dresses bc she feels pretty and adores the compliments chloe gives her, not bc her mom forced her to?? what then

[abby-howard]

Top five reptiles.

1. Goanna, and yes it's because of Rescuers Down Under

2. Green tree python, cuz they change color from when they're babies AND they are always sitting there like that

3. Tuatara cuz they're the only remaining member of their whole clade, they're very special. Gotta include them as the underrepresented guys

4. Alligator snapping turtle. This animal would kill me. On purpose!!

5. Alligators. I fear them, I respect them, i dream of them nightly.

[zmichelle1234]

ROB/DOB: Small town adventures where the biggest threat is often the old man on the other side of town that hates kids

RTTE: The teens move out of their small town and battle capitalism

[internetwerewolf]

DEL TORO I AM PUTTING MY HEART IN YOUR HANDS AND LOOKING AT YOU WITH BIG WET EYES PLEASE DO THEM GOOD

[skunkes]

[todayisafridaynight]

[itsallhoney]

Untying A Knot | MUTUAL BENEFIT

tangled in knots, peeling at layers, holding in words stuck in time, living in me to live what i'm not, reflecting a twisted logic's hold i want to know how it feels to be free

[puppyeared]

Was nobody gonna warn me that I would fall a little bit in love with every character in Stardew

[cryptidstealingyourcreditcard]

i headcanon ruff and tuff as being like 6’3 or even 6’4 like these fools are eldritch-horror-style tall

[transmechanicus]

Saw someone talking about T making your teeth sharper and i cannot understate how made up that is. Next you’ll tell me it makes you hunger for human flesh and howl at the moon. Not to say that you can’t do that, i fully support those things, but they’re unrelated to being on T.

[aroaceleovaldez]

once again thinking about the worldbuilding in the riordanverse of "names are power" / "belief is power."

The Tri were only able to become immortal through convincing enough people to worship them that it became true. Monsters and immortals only exist through continued belief, and if enough people believe that they're dead or gone then it becomes true, like Pan. Their varied forms exist and manifest as they're believed in and called upon. Names call attention and epithets summon aspects. They're acknowledgement. Belief. Putting a name to a concept creates it as an individual.

And that's so fascinating when you start applying it to demigods. How much of their abilities are based on belief in themselves, in expectations of each other, in their parents' expectations of them? We've seen mortal figures who became immortal in some form or another because they were remembered. Even the lares - ancestral house gods, who persist because they're remembered. They have a legacy.

At what point does a demigod achieve that status? Rumors and whispers about them so persistent that they slowly become true. "I heard that Jason Grace is the son of two gods, does that make him a god?" "I heard Percy Jackson defeated a titan single-handedly. That he can create hurricanes without breaking a sweat. That he can control blood." After awhile, after enough rumors, does it become impossible to tell where they end and the legends begin? Isn't that what being a demigod is; half-legend?