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FROM ANDROMEDA AND BACK RADIO: SKIES THAT DO NOT FADE

I remember being in Chicago back in the day, listening to an FM rock station. After a bevy of alternative rock, the DJ suddenly put on the Waltz from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. At the art store where I worked, one of the young hipsters immediately yelled, "Tchaikovsky!" and began conducting with her hands. I'll never forget that moment. We had gone from, say, Throwing Muses to Tchaikovsky, and I remember thinking: How cool was that? Here was music making its own case. It didn't plead. It didn't demand. In its own way, it rocked. And then, after that glorious interlude, it was back to alternative rock. The funny thing was that the classical piece had not seemed out of place. It held its own. It brought to the table its own heft, its own weight. It wasn't preachy. It wasn't better than. It was simply another fiber in the fabric of the day. And maybe that's the way great music should be heard. Not fenced off by genre. Not placed behind glass. Not approa...
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TERRA FIRMA PLAYLIST: THE KNOCKOUTZ #1


The Knockoutz Performing At Tasty Bar

What do Gunz and Lucky--as The Knockoutz--actually sound like? That's the tantalizing question.

We've said Gunz's voice is a smooth, low-slung contralto — kinda Karen Carpenter-ish. And Lucky alters beats and arrangements so that Gunz can ride over the construction easily. Looking through the library, I came up with a song The Knockoutz actually cover: Afterlife's "Falling," from their masterwork LP Simplicity Two Thousand.

Gunz sits slightly lower in the register than the fabulous Rachel Lloyd on this Afterlife classic, but she has the same kind of style. She gets under and around the melody, acting almost as another instrument in Steve Miller's production. As Lucky scales and reshapes the beats, she builds the song around her partner's love for the torch-like words while keeping those same aggressive downtempo vibes.

The Knockoutz love this song, and with its sublime architecture giving equal play to singer and producer, you can hear — and, dare I say, see — why.

It's all in Terra Firma. Hop aboard. There's a lot to hear before the darkness arrives and challenges everything, reducing even such joy to mere memory — if that.


More Terra Firma:

Three Women vs the Galaxy: Jennifer "Gunz" Rocker


I'd love to hear your thoughts, so speak your mind. Leave me a comment or feel free to hit me up at: fromandromedaandback@gmail.com. And thank you!


 

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