MFT EP IN A WEEKEND #8:  The Immortal Hermaphrodite

Beyond the world of humankind, outside of time and space, cycling through the eternal play of opposites, exists The Immortal Hermaphrodite:  the embodiment of both the male and the female archetypes in creative synthesis, at once fully unified in its being and dynamic in the contrary aspects of its self.

Experienced directly by John Dawson, Ben Lumsdaine, Scott Schmadeke, and Dani Graf. MFT’s EP in a weekend #8, The Immortal Hermaphrodite, is a portal to a mindscape of sweet nectar and ecstasy.

As I understand it, and I am a flawed being so please forgive me if I mess this up, MFT’s EP in a Weekend is a tradition where one person is chosen to assemble a group of three musicians who have not collaborated previously.  These musicians then collaborate to produce an EP in about two days’ time.  In this instance, John Dawson was chosen by the MFT EP in a Weekend lineage holder and then he selected the other three musicians.  All those involved in the project were familiar with each other’s work and familiar with each other personally, but as required by the laws set before them, there had been no collaboration between these individuals before this experiment.

Now, this experiment was by my estimation a great success.  What it sounds like to me is a group of talented and passionate performers making music that they really want to make.  This is in no small part due to the wisdom and experience of John Dawson, an accomplished producer, engineer, and musician who is a great asset to Indiana’s underground music community.  In organizing this production John first spoke with Scott who he knew to be an exceptional keyboardist from Scott’s work with TV Mike, a one time resident of Bloomington.  Scott recommended picking up Ben who they both knew as the drummer of Cooked Books.  John then selected Dani because he knew she could really groove, John having enjoyed her work as a percussionist in the Motown stylings of Bloomington girl group The Vallures.

The first night the group got together they listened to records and talked about their vision for the project.  Some of the songs they referenced were "The Chase" by Giorgio Moroder from the Midnight Express Soundtrack, "Radioactivity" and "Trans Europe Express" by Kraftwerk, "Junkie Chase" from the Superfly soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield, and "Go Bang."  John also prepared for the session by watching the movies "Starcrash" and parts of "Galaxy of Terror."  The group immediately found common ground and the foundation of their shared vision was laid out in a live jam which would later become the title track of the EP: The Immortal Hermaphrodite.  Everyone agreed that the record came together quite naturally and that it felt good doing it. 

Having introduced the talent behind this work, let me describe the music itself.  It is groove based ambient music that evokes a retro-futurist aesthetic not unlike former Bloomington resident Dylan Ettinger’s album “New Age Outlaws.”  For those unfamiliar with Dylan Ettinger’s work I definitely recommend checking it out even though he’s a puny little punk and if he ever went toe to toe with me I’d tear him to pieces like this black hole is doing to this star:

But he knows that. I mean, the dude says he's retired, but he's really just scared of me.  Now THAT'S the truth. 

Anyway, The Immortal Hermaphrodite could easily be the score for a psychedelic-sfi-fi-sex-thriller showing at midnight in New York’s East Village in the early eighties.  Or better yet, imagine you went to see a movie where ESG, The Happy Mondays, and Can hopped in a time machine designed by George Clinton expecting to sit silently and invisibly over Erik Satie’s shoulder as he composed his Gymnopédies, but something went wrong and in a flash you found yourselves grooving in some other dimension and nobody says a word or even thinks twice about it. 

You’re just grooving there. 

Forever.

888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

These recordings feature musicians from:

http://musicalfamilytree.com/band/cooked_books

http://musicalfamilytree.com/band/harpooner

http://thevallures.bandcamp.com/album/the-vallures

http://musicalfamilytree.com/band/thee_open_sex