#exotic language

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Joe Morris - Celestial Plantation (from Exotic Language, Shades of Sound Recordings 2019)

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Reviews 312: Joe Morris

I’ve had considerable difficulty putting down my thoughts concerning Joe Morris’ Exotic Language, though not because of the music…a sonic paradise so panoramic and immersive that my mind is completely overwhelmed with hyperbolic descriptors and imagined fantasy landscapes. No, the difficulty comes from determining how to properly contextualize the work of an artist whose music has meant so much to me over the last few years and who has been a constant guidepost as I’ve explored this vague soundworld we all call “balearic”. So perhaps it’s best to go back to the beginning, which involved me trawling through the Is It Balearic? Discogs page picking out titles whose label art resonated with me…visuals that captured some indefinable spirit of beachside meditation and solar fantasy dancing. This of course led me to Joe’s Golden Tides 12”, the label art of which was given over to impossibly beautiful sunset scenes, ones that were washed out into a sparkling tapestry of golden radiance. It was exactly what I was looking for and from then on, I’ve been in a near constant love affair with the producer’s work, which has led my spirit through so many wonderful musical environments, whether it’s the mystically inclined Bahia EP on Balearic Social, the Cloud Nine 12″ on Wonder Stories, or the increasingly esoteric remix work of Clandestino, Joe’s party crew and studio project run in conjunction with Iain Mac and Nick J. Smith, who have perfected a particularly tripped out style of jacking dancefloor ritualism.

But as great as those works are, the undoubted high point for me came with the release of Jacaranda Skies on Pleasure Unit, an EP that opened Joe’s sound up considerably and foreshadowed many of the adventurous environments he would travel to on his epic full length. Across the 12”, the listener was treated to a tropical house slammer, a futuristic acid jazz ritual, and one of my favorite tracks of recent memory, “The Lost Garden,” which melted the heart with timeless string descents while mallet instruments danced amidst sparkling synths, reverberating guitars, and island percussion exotica. After the release of Jacaranda Skies, I just knew Joe had to drop an album, one that would allow his increasingly adventurous and cinematic sonics to spread all the way out, unrestricted by space or time considerations. Thus I was completely blown away in 2019 as my fantasies came true in the form of Exotic Language, the producer’s magnum opus and a near perfect summary of the many colorful sonic universes he has visited across his career. It’s a true album experience, with well considered track sequencing taking the listener on a oceanic dream journey encompassing Italo deep house, Chicago club workouts, spiritual Afro-trance, ethereal pop-ambient, acid-laced downtempo, aqueous guitar mesmerism, amorphous dub, and so much more. And though mostly realized as a solo effort, including the fantastic artwork, Joe is joined by some crucial guests in the form of Private Agenda and his son Milo.

Joe Morris - Exotic Language (Shades of Sound, 2019) We open on “Firefly Beach,” with guitar swells creating aqueous ripples amidst cricket chirps and crashing waves...the vibe not unlike Onyricon’s “Sweet Dream.” Plucked harps flow through interstellar fluids and synthetic arps smear into seafoam as momentum builds, with hand drums and cymbal taps leading to a low-key climax of downbeat ocean grooving. Tambourines shake through layers of brass synthesis and basslines blur in and out of focus…all while crystalline tones descend amidst solar flare vibrato orchestrations. Next is  “Perfume,” a collaboration with Private Agenda that, if released in the 90s, would have appeared on every single balearic comp, so closely does hit that essential seaside pop vibe, with touches of ethereal R&B married to oceanic chill-out in away strongly evoking the work of Afterlife, especially “Dub in Ya Mind (Beach Club Mix)” and the legendary “Speck of Gold.” Rhodes keys sparkle, big bottomed jazz breaks keep the body vibing, and dreampop guitars swim through ether as funk basslines slide through sexual smoke. Elsewhere, pianos constructed from ocean glass play melodies of dream melancholia alongside blazing string themes and laserbeam sequencing. And carrying the whole thing is a chilling vocal performance from Sean Phillips, his multi-layered and soulful hooks pushing the heart towards pure sunset euphoria. Our first taste of club fire comes via “A Dance With Jupiter,” which touches on Chicago house as well as the intense rave workouts of Clandestino. The track starts with loon calls, spectral rattles, mermaid hazes, and bongos popping over tubular basslines before we flash into a jacked out four-four house groove. Anxious cymbal work cuts up the air, electrified claps crack on the beat, and waves of angel synthesis wrap around the spirit while elsewhere, we breakdown into smacked kicks, brass heatwaves, and hand drum tribalisms. And as acid lines filter in from the void, the track snaps back into a tech house fever dream, with increasingly wild 303 patterns spraying neon liquids over anthemic chord riffs while 90s rave whistles are danced around by polychrome pan-pipe tracers.

At the start of “Echo Station,” cymbals flow through timelag generators, guitars flutter, and hand drums pop through mutating fx chains until we drop into a subsonic bass groove, with dubwise drum beats pulsing through a stoner paradise. Weirdo reggae riffs wiggle in each ear, with organs and trumpets mutating into insect psychedelia and metallic chords wavering through delay-soaked mirages. Spacey six-strings shimmer, pianos skip across new age sunbeams, and flutes execute LSD dances as the rhythms refuse to coalesce, creating that classical drug touch…a sort of fevered fantasy space where everything constantly shifts through humid layers of rainbow fog…the vibe not unlike the recent work of Androo. There’s a moment where the rhythms fade to gas amidst rimshot cloudforms while anthemic ocean wavefronts fade in, with touches of ambient prog glory shining through the deep blue hazes. Fantasy sequences climb playfully towards the clouds and synthesizers filter into neon magic as the dub riddims finally return, now with piano starlight sparkling amidst drunken brass fanfares. Next comes “Celestial Plantation,” wherein pads settle like a ghostly ocean fog, one aglow in prismatic hues of mother-of-pearl. Birds chirp, waves crash, and hand drums cascade through delays before blurring into a flutter of blutterfly wings…all while bass pulses give the abstracted groove a touch of tribal body magic. Melodic brass themes peel away to reveal sparkling gemstone electronics and electro cymbals hiss across the spectrum as the vibe grows ever more blissed out, with the spirit soaring on waves of coral colored euphoria. The heart overflows with balearic majesty and all bad vibrations are washed away by starlight electronics and glowing melodic crystals as Joe sets the body afloat via gaseous chill-out rhythmics. And best of all, there are these glorious moments where the spirit seems to rise above the clouds, with synths swelling and white noise hazes parting to reveal spiritual whistle tones and elven pan-pipes…a sort of new age paean to the spirits of the sea pulling the mind towards a beachside oasis, with palm trees blowing in a tropical wind while birds of paradise flit amongst the fronds.

In “Dream Clouds,” galactic vapors rattle amidst an angel choirs comprised of male cyborg breaths and glimmering fairy voices. A four-to-the-floor pulse is accented by acid bass jacking, hi-hats spread into ticking psychedelia, and clipped snares give the beat a faint disco pulse as we soar through Joe’s own paradisal imagining of Italo dream house....a euphoria-kissed fantasy world of lush dancefloor exotica…spread out, gaseous, and with billowing waves of ether stoking hallucinogenic visions. Filtering phasers infuse the aqueous pad motions, paranoid rimshots transform into kosmische energy tracers, and feedback marbles glisten in cold solar light as the snares and claps fire in that distinctly Clandestino way…the mind never allowed to settle while pushing ever closer towards hyperventilated delirium. Elsewhere, kicks pull away for a machine jazz jam, all rigid robot bopping before slamming back into fantasy dance magic, with blistering chords ringing out, white light pads bending into dolphin sirensong, and crystalline chords conversing with reverb-soaked cricket chirps. “Acid Safari” hits similar notes of freaky forest acid as “Mangrove Dawn” from Jacaranda Skies, though replacing that track’s ritualistic percussion flow with fat-bottomed rave breaks and a dubwise bass skank. The baggy and zoned out 90s-style beat science is accented by industrial tom-tom splatter, echo-soaked hand percussion, cave crack snares, and mechanized cymbal hiss, with the mix increasingly suffused by monkey howls and orchestral heatwaves. Sunbeam guitar percolations and syncopated synth riffs morph through delay layers until the vibe grows murky, resulting in a mystical environment of dispersed rhythms and machines that growl like jaguars. Cosmic acid lines diffuse in and hand drums carry the soul towards the heart of the jungle, with sunlight filtering through the dark tropical growth in the form of six-string echo dances. Blasting back into sunshine rave breaks and dub-kissed psychedelics, mutating acid lines roar at the edges of the mind and as we move towards the end, saloon-leaning Rhodes chords portend a cinematic western sunset while string synths melt towards an impossible horizon.

There’s some mystical magic happening within “Spirit Walker,” with Joe taking deep inspiration from Larry Heard as he crafts an ambient house epic. But that’s not all, for amidst the mermaid choir fantasias, harmonious whalesong hazes, and clouds of cyborg psychedelia, snare drums rattle into a free jazz fever dream, shakers keep a hypnotic pulse, and hand drums alight on adventures of Afro-beat intensity…the track coming together as some inspired amalgam of ecstatic future dance energy and ancient tribal magic. Animalistic acid lines growl down low and dream house piano chords blur through sunset colorations until eventually being replaced by pure trance vocal synthesis…these chopping waves of angel bliss pushing the mind towards transcendence. There’s a moment where the basslines pull away, leaving behind a gaseous world of spiritual jazz, wherein pianos decay while cinematic pads are surrounded by whooshing layers of aquatic ambiance. Then, as we slam back into Afro-house firedance, balafons and kalimbas weave in and out of the Goan voice layers…a mix of idiophonic rainfall and slow motion trance ecstasy that could float my spirit forever. Closer “Milo’s Theme” begins with morphing synth chords…like pianos obscured by alien foam. Hovering sea-spirits radiate aquamarine while dream sequences dance ear-to-ear and after a gaseous burst, we flow into an immersive groove of downtempo drumming and bongo tropicalia. Chopping vibrato hazes diffuse in and out of empty space, guitars sing spiritual songs of seaside blues, and gemstone melodies flow upwards as feedback tracers mimic sad seagull cries. Then, the rhythms disappear and the song gives over to a new age soundbath, one that celebrates the newness of life with joyous baby babbles (sourced from Joe’s son Milo) and bubbling strands of melted ocean glass. And after a climactic reprise of sunset groove majesty, with layered guitars, tremolo psychedelics, and squelching piano chords hovering over post-rock rhythmics and balearic beat expanses, we return again to a world of ambient sea-spray, abstracted echo weirdness, and gurgling infant breaths.

(images from my personal copy)

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Overall Analysis of Ice Planet Barbarians

Ice planet barbarians at metabook24 is the book that started it all — Ruby Dixon’s cult fave series which mashes up sci-fi and romance to whisk readers away on one hot alien planet adventure. The story starts when a bunch of women are taken on board by The Mighty Gar (a naughty alien or seven) and an abductee crashes their ship on the frozen world that is far from home. Though large and powerful, the Sa-Khui are steeped in tradition. At first, Georgie and the other women are nervous by suspicion of these barbarians. But things take a drastic turn when they realize that those who had caught them cannot be sure to whom the women truly belong, as others are vying. At the center of it all is Vektal — a fearsome fighter who becomes Georgie’s chief love interest. He is strong, naturally protective, and holds a deep honor in his spirit. Read More…

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