200 Words: MAZOZMA
(In 200 Words, we highlight a new record we like a lot, via a 200-word review by Marc Masters and 200 words (or so) from the artist about whatever they choose.)
MAZOZMA - Heavy Death Head LP (Feeding Tube)
Intensity and calm share top billing on Mazozma’s Heavy Death Head. The entire album feels like a dark cloud, but it hangs in the air rather than growing darker or generating thunder and lighting. There’s even surreal safety in the music’s thick shadows, a kind of walled-off space where real thoughts and emotions can be faced without danger. It’s mind-altering, but mostly in the sense that its disruptions and mysteries provoke mental clarity instead of sowing confusion.
You can tell Michael Turner (who previously made his great, morphing music as Ma Turner and now goes by Mazozma) is working through something here, but what compels me toward Heavy Death Head is that it never feels like that something is just one thing. There’s life stuff happening for sure, but there are also musical and creative demons being confronted and dealt with. The sounds that Turner chooses and the songs they form refuse to align into slogans even as they allow multiple avenues for listener entry. The pressure to simplify complexity is as primal a battle as any, and Turner has bravely fought it for quite a while now. In that arena, Heavy Death Head is one of his clearest victories.
– Marc Masters
<a href="http://feedingtuberecords.bandcamp.com/album/heavy-death-head">Heavy Death Head by Mazozma</a>
MICHAEL TURNER on Heavy Death Head
I find it difficult to write about Heavy Death Head. It's a heavy record about death. The title literally means: "I'm a head and I'm dealing with death". I drafted versions of this column where I attempted to skirt around these facts but it was impossible between the squelching sub-human warble, high pitched frequencies dive bombing into total mud, suicidal lyrics and a deceased parent on the cover to boot! Depending on your palate, it can be an unsettling listen. Heavy Death Head was written and recorded between September 2015 and January 2016 with myself playing and recording the material. I used minimal gear being a parlor guitar, key-monica, hand percussion, field recordings (deconstructed, tweaked) and both the human and animal voice. I recorded most of Heavy Death Head in my former studio in Lexington, Kentucky (two songs had some tracking done in Louisville by Jim Marlowe (Tropical Trash) with the addition of Jim, Phillip Farmer, and R. Colburn contributing effected voice, Rhodes, sax, drums). These batch of songs were supposed to mirror aspects of a morning ritual I was working on to cope with the loss of my mother (Stella Dianne Turner, 10/24/47-08/20/15) but the rituals never came to fruition in the sense I had imagined. I found myself lost in the music composition and recording end of things. Once the recording was done, mixed and sent to get mastered, my interest in listening to the record or conducting any sort of ritual was beyond me. Shock set in. 2016 grew stranger. I broke my former band up, I withdrew further, some deep-seeded friendships of mine violently dismantled, my then-marriage cracked on its last leg. My mother’s passing was getting to me more and more. It caught up with me quickly. Luckily my eyes opened. The life I had in Kentucky had become a parody of itself. In October of '16, I severed ties and moved to Western Massachusetts. Slowly I was able to rebuild. I fell back in love with the little things in life. I found a new group of friends. I fell in love with someone. I can now recommend you throwing this on at parties. Shit's weird and dark but look out your window, shit IS weird and dark. Find a new dance within your perception of what it is you gain from Heavy Death Head. Maybe you can dream up a ritual, whatever you want to call it, a way in which to surf your own losses. Perhaps disregard Heavy Death Head all together and cast your own spell. Just be careful what you wish for.
Heavy Death Head is out now on Feeding Tube. Buy it here.
