Julius Eastman Memory Depot, The

Jace Clayton
The Julius Eastman Memory Depot
New Amsterdam

Minimalism consisting of two pianos and a laptop. The two longish piano pieces were originally composed by Julius Eastman, a gay, African American minimalist composer that veered between being a pioneering figure of the minimalism 1980s Downtown New York scene and battling alcoholism and crack addiction. Jace Clayton AKA DJ/rupture builds upon the original compositions by creating a beautiful live sound of two virtuoso pianists playing while their pianos are hooked up to a laptop with effects. If you like minimalism, you’ll love this. Beautiful, strange works. RIYL Steve Reich, Elodie Lauten, Tim Hecker

Evil Nigger
******1. (6:00) Intensifying and fading in and out strong piano minimalism trills plus some faint electronics. Left hand joins in and adds deep drama. Outstanding minimalism
***2. (3:09) Previous track melody being fed through effects and loops and stretched out getting kind of alien. Very cool, Ends intensely playing into the next track
*****3. (2:57) cont. from previous track, More right hand piano, weird seriously creepy something bad is going to happen effects with killer jangly piano that gets Very intense. Here’s comes the hand with the knife which turns into cacophonous thunder slow fade into next
*4. (10:02) More of the original melody this time with low bass rumbles and mid register effected keys. Trills turn into beeps and weird noises, muddles around then melody starts pulsing back. This weird alternating dance of piano minimalism melody and strange weird effects and atmospheres that fade in and out

Gay Guerrilla
*5. (7:49) A single repetitive note slowly gains company. Meditative but with propulsive forward energy gradually circles higher
***6. (7:49) Slow eerie circling music. Reminds me of the Caretaker. Piano becomes just atmospherics for awhile then sneaks back in quietly and grows in intensity
*7. (3:19) Propulsive yet mildly discordant mid-register that builds up while circling agitatedly
***8. (3:10) Piano melts down into big bassy sound then reemerges and melts up from big bassy to frantic circular minimalism. Great cacophony calms down going into next
**9. (6:13) continues from last. Thoughtful, pensive minimalism with electronic string orchestration back up. Big build

Callback From The American Society Of Eastman Supporters
10. (3:20) Rejection voice mail into melancholic piano and female vocalist singing the equal opportunity employer spiel