Beneath a roiling veil of darkness, a burning sibilance and embedded urgency fuse together, forming a cathartic gravity pulling us toward an intersection point. Even though we constantly deviate from our forward path, the call beckons us back. Slow-moving bass drones slither beneath the surface, a shifting foundation that holds “Tralineation” in an amorphous cocoon. Reyes’s guitar wields surgical steel peppering the expanding soundscape with granular luminosity. Hovering above the mist, Ambre Sala’s voice transmits like a beacon. Lia Kohl’s ghostly string arrangements haunt the outer shadows while “Tralineation” continues to gather mass.
Travis, of the legendary ONO (of which Reyes is a member), is the knife’s edge, sharp and incisive. His words sting, delivered with pointed acuity. He repeats the phrase, “How deep, the grave,” throughout, each time fueling the fire. The velvet hammer drops and shatters our reflection, sending us back into the fire.
Waitin’ for that great gettin’ up mornin’. Gentle bandits of equal justice under law torture largo and its anointed fixtures. Stephen Foster (1826-1864) jangled everyman’s nostalgic seasonal plunder. We wait with him; tomorrow largo for Old Black Joe. Every morning, 21st century Blacks plow and plant 19th-century cotton, midnight into extreme close-up inconsistently faded. Waitin’ for that great gettin’ up mornin’. We pay reparations to fare-thee-well overseers whose names we carry until we bury our outhouse appellations. We pay reparations to Nigerian and Senegambiam kings, to Angolan and Kongolese priests, and to west-central African secret societies whose mockingbirds sold us. We waitin’ for that great gettin’ up mornin’. —travis
“Tralineation” appears on Jordan Reyes’s forthcoming Everything Is Always, out on October 28 via American Dreams. Stream below and pre-order HERE.
Foxy Digitalis depends on our awesome readers to keep things rolling. Pledge your support today via our Patreon or subscribe to The Jewel Garden.
