THE HAIRLINE CRACKS

Dan Melchior

Excerpts & Half-Speeds LP

Kye 016

Sorry for the delay, citizens: actually had this one in the can (no, not that can) for a few weeks now! The boss been gettin' me up at oh-dark-thirty the past few weeks, which sucks the breeze outta me long before the sun peaces out and, ya know, life really begins.

'S it me? Or is this place turning into the Dan Melchior fan club mud room? I sure does stomp and stutter a good bit about his recorded works, and I ain't about to stop now. So slip off yer Stacys and get comfy.

I read elsewhere that this here's supposed ta be Dan's "fan-shedder," kind of a DMZ dropped smack in the middle of his demographic. Trouble is, it seems perfectly sensible to me. Anybody with attention to pay must've noticed these homegrown "experimental" tendencies snaking through many of his records--including last years much-applauded Assemblage Blues! Why laurels for "tendencies" and none for full-bore? 

Surely there are some that got more than they bargained for with Excerpts, but I think all there is to like about Dan's modus is in full view here, if not better illuminated. There are drastic dynamic shifts, elegance and sentiment brushing up against a third-beer sense of humor, and a healthy enthusiasm for alternate recording techniques--not to mention the re-purposed dollar bin sleeve. The thing rightly reeks of continuity, but then I suppose we humans are built to detect such things. (We invented that shit, after all.)

So whether you want it to be Vibing Up the Senile Man, a sly nod to The Faust Tapes, imaginary outtakes from Like Flies on Sherbert, or exactly what it say it be (How novel! --Ed.), which is to say another good wrinkle, you oughta pony up and needle down.

Pardon me while I return to the sloth position.


Dan hisself has half a handful left and so do Kye.