Back in September, when Tiny Mix Tapes premiered “Black,” the second single off Black Spirituals’ Of Deconstruction , we (I) referred to the duo’s guitarist Zachary James Watkins as a “noise composer/sound artist.” You’d have to be excused for failing to realize that I meant ‘composer’ in the most literal sense. According to his CV, Watkins holds a BFA in Music Composition from Cornish College of the Arts, as well as an MFA in Electronic Music & Recording Media from Mills College, and currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Electronic Music at both The Art Institute of California - San Francisco and University of California, Santa Cruz. A lengthy list of his works, performances and exhibitions can be found here.
Despite these credentials, Watkins actually hadn’t released a proper full-length LP of his own until early last month. Issued by Oakland-based small press LAND AND SEA and limited to 100 letter-pressed, hand-stamped copies, Mixed Raced comprises two Watkins compositions (one for electric guitar and the other for strings) “focusing on harmonics and intonation” in an effort to “reveal and transform sound into pure energy.”
The first of these pieces, “Positively Right On (for Fred Hampton),” was performed by John Shiurba and Ava Mendoza on electric guitars, and engineered and mixed by Jonah Strauss with additional mixing by Watkins himself. It’s broken down into three separate yet wholly connected movements, which crescendo in a tuning fork frenzy. Streaming exclusively via Chocolate Grinder’s high resonance vibrations, “Positively Right On (for Fred Hampton): Mvt. III” proffers the kind of controlled chaos you’d fully expect to hear from a live improvisation but can hardly fathom having origin in written composition. “Listen loud.”
• Zachary James Watkins: http://zacharyjameswatkins.com
• LAND AND SEA: http://landandseaeditions.virb.com