Calgon Emmanuel, take me away! The A-side to this latest Contrasts pairing is amazing. And then it drops! But it returns lusher than ever. I am in its grasp, the sudsy bath enveloping my senses as I let my body go limp into the fade out…but I open my eyes to a new world, one underwater with magical creatures singing to me in docile tones. A full-body feast as I dive deeper into my Cousteau fantasy, only to come to find the Mariana Trench is a portal to the Earth behind the sun, outer space lovely this time of year. But Earth 2 is not the magical world I was expecting, Evan Caminiti’s dismal splash of acid rain on a world in ruin waking me from my Magellan cruise. As I desperately seek shelter, I find eves and overhangs impossible. When I encounter a shop or coffeehouse, thinking it a fine place to hide until the drenching rain subsides, I am skirted out the door. The world is turning dark and the gutters begin to swell. But I realize I am not in a fantasy, nor am I on Earth 2. This is the world which we have created, shunting Emmanuel’s beautiful forward progression for Caminiti’s gritty noir. We are a society growing cold, at odds with the Utopian idealism of the Golden Rule. I will endure this cold, pounding rain because it is the punishment I deserve for a fool’s errand. I fall asleep in the gutter, naked and exposed for the world to kick.
More about: JD Emmanuel & Evan Caminiti
