Continuing our slow leak of new tracks from Nels Cline's upcoming release The Nels Cline Singers Draw Breath, the track "Mixed Message" is now available on Crypto's homesite as well as Nels' MySpace page.
Now on tour with Wilco, Nels wrote some thoughts about the song on his blog:
"Mixed Message" had the working title of "The Megasuite" for quite awhile, and it is in three distinct sections. The opening is meant to directly reference late-period Coltrane, and supplies the band with only a set of five chords to "blow" on, followed by an ascending line and grand pause in a set of three. Then, the murky middle feature for Scott [Amendola's], with the built-in limitation that he must not use actual drum sounds or pre-load his looping devices, but rather grab the last gasp of air/sound form the end of the first movement and utilize it as the basis for his "solo," or improvisation. Devin and I play a low/slow clustery 3/4 part with periodic pauses. Then it's off to the rock 'em, sock 'em conclusion, which is -- YES -- rather like King Crimson circa '72-meets-Husker Du or something. I am actually uncharacteristically pleased with my solo here, which is comprised of only a tidbit of soloing then a series of loops and loop modifications, all done "live." As for the title, like most of my titles that may be cliches of speech or one word, it is meant to have more than one meaning.
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