A wise man (probably Confucius) once said, “At the first inkling of success, pursue it like a wild cheetah chasing its prey on the open grasslands of Africa. Then, once you have success decidedly within your reach, snap its neck to eliminate the likelihood that it will slip away from your otherwise ferocious death grip. Hoist success over your shoulder and carry it back to your camouflaged residence, where you, along with anyone you deem important enough, will be able to enjoy a succulent feast comprised of bloody and uncooked achievement, which won’t leave you wanting for some time.” Maybe it’s not a perfect analogy, but I believe the basic message of aspiration is one that we should all follow, and Motion Sickness of Time Travel a.k.a. Rachel Evans seems to be doing just that.
In addition to three limited-edition cassettes released last year, Evans garnered serious attention with her meditatively coma-inducing (in a good way) album Luminaries & Synastry, released on Digitalis last June. It’s regretful that the album didn’t make our end-of-the-year list for 2011, but I attribute that more to unawareness (including on my part) than the possibility that it simply didn’t measure up to our standards.
In any case, my eyes and ears are wide open for the recently announced 2xLP Motion Sickness of Time Travel, due out May 15 on the Editions Mego offshoot Spectrum Spools. As its self-titled… title might suggest, the release promises to be Evans’s most dedicated and tremendous undertaking to date, consisting of four tracks, each over 20 minutes in length. Stylistically, “big changes in sound and scope are evident; a shift from the murky, mysterious haze of the older recordings into a highly addictive concentrate of airy tones and gem-like glow, each track forming a universal sky-map.” Meanwhile, the album cover depicts what appears to be a pastry on top of a rainbow signpost, opposite a mountain of khaki-colored sludge. If that isn’t evidence of a monumental achievement, then I don’t what is.
Motion Sickness of Time Travel tracklisting:
01. The Dream
02. The Center
03. Summer of the Cat’s Eye
04. One Perfect Moment
• Motion Sickness of Time Travel: http://motionsicknessoftimetravel.blogspot.com
• Spectrum Spools: http://editionsmego.com/spectrum-spools
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