on first hearing burn my letters a tear bounced onto the creaking floorboards. it’s melancholy and slightly off-centred splendour made me think of the late mark linkous. Just as his work trod the line between happiness and heartache whitten creates a landscape to mesmerise in his wonky sparklers of (mostly) downtempo constructions and intensely personal text. assuredly this is a man who’s life is being lived, fully. he’s been rolling around the rock circuits with st johnny and grand mal, working with flaming lips, mercury rev, antony and the johnsons and many many more players. and it shows. even if this cassette release has an air of the basement, its complex web of instrumentation has the mastery adhesion of dave friedmann within its silky strings. both delicate and with weight and volume these songs flow, shuffle sideways, burst forward, but often jerk with an untethered obliqueness. a honing perfection glistens, albeit with a hand dipped in the dirty water of love and passion.
For All and None
We’re all sold out of Burn My Letters – first solo album by ex-St Johnny / Grand Mal mastermind Bill Whitten! While tapes are gone you can still cop a digital download of the album and/or watch a playlist we put together that features highlights from Bill’s career.
And since we did Volume 1 of BML-related mixes we might as well do Volume 2, right? Well, this one is built around an outtake called Jewels Fill the Gutters, just one of many album outtakes that you can find on Bill’s Soundcloud page. Think Zoviet-France, Underworld, Biosphere, Asmus Tietchens and so many more!
Tracklist
William Carlos Whitten – Jewels Fill the Gutters
Jonathan Sharp – Kendall Steam Gathering, 1975
Miracle Whips – The Stockade – new band featuring members of Mercury Rev, Sparklehorse and Swervedriver
John Avery – That Marilyn Walk
Petridisch – Live at H0L0 – NYC performance caught on camera by Cryostasium
Jeff Mercel – Lunescape No. 13
Live for Each Moon – Meditation on Su Tissue
Zoviet-France – Static Fields
Retsoor – Here Comes My Girls
Namanax – The Medicined Man
Asmus Tietchens / Vidna Obmana – Opening
Underworld – Tongue
Grey Frequency – Ufology (Album Sampler)
Biosphere – Black Lamb and Grey Falcon
Su Tissue – 2nd Movement
Further Reading
Turn Up the Volume
Myriad Muzik
Ghettoblaster
William Pinfold
Tabs Out
Heaven Pop Magazine
K-Postpunk