I'm way late to post a tribute to MF Doom. I love this guy, but honestly, haven't listened to him on a regular basis if at all in quite some time. One of the 'methods' to my creative process is curating (read: micromanaging) the media I consume, and just like I haven't read any of the novels Irvine Welsh has released since Skag Boys - and he's one of my favorite authors ever - I very rarely listen to Hip Hop. RTJ4 broke that mold a bit this year, and if there was ever a time I felt like I needed to step out of my own headspace and try and reconnect with the world around me, it was the summer of 2020, hence I dialed back in a lot more Public Enemy, Kendrick, etc. But a lot like Guru and his Gang Starr and Jazzmatazz, MF Doom, or perhaps more accurately, Doom and Madlib's 2004, one-time collaboration Madvillainy, I just haven't gone back there in quite some time. Doom's recent death made me revisit the record, and move beyond it to some of the stuff I missed.
READ:
I finally finished my re-read of the entire Gideon Falls series by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino. I will say, great book, great ending, but the abstract, Twin Peaks-meets-Grant-Morrison-like premise and evolution of the book left for a slightly frustrating aftertaste. Still, really cool series and, reading it in a binge is a totally different experience than reading it monthly/yearly, as you really see how much heavy lifting Andrea Sorrentino's art does. The issues fly by at about five minutes a piece, so there's a cumulative frenzy effect after you pass the half-way point.
The art in this book really blows me away. I don't normally bond this strongly with the art in the stuff I read, but this... this really transcends a lot of what people are doing to push the medium. And while some of it is obviously influenced by and predicated on books that Grant Morrison and various artists conceived over the last 25-30 years, Mr. Sorrentino really stands on his own.
Playlist:
Steve Moore - Bliss OST
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta: Saturnarian Poetry
The Used - Vulnerable
Turquoise Moon - The Sunset City
Cocksure - TVMALSV
Drab Majesty - The Demonstration
Card:
Illumination.
