DJ Mayonnaise
Still Alive CD ABR75
- Post Reformat
- Easily Distracted
- May Days
- The Windham Song
- 15 Amp Circuit
- Strateegery (Featuring K-the-I???)
- Dawson's Anthem 2005
- Munjoy Moments
- Quiet On The Set
- The End Of The Beginning
- Elecinstv2
'Still Alive' is both a fitting follow up to 'Stories' and a reinvention of sorts. While DJ Mayonnaise is still a master of sample and scratch, he's turned his attention to the art of composition and subtle details. Though 'Still Alive' has its moments of quiet, rainy-day beauty, these serve as counterpoints to a brightness that permeates the songs. Simply put, this album, too, is alive.
Lead track “Post Reformat” opens with pop 'n' click percussion, panning drum and a gurgling synth. But what seems a mechanical give-and-take turns organic as the particulars are played out on the turntables: minor whirrs, a distorted vocal sample, glassy scratches. It's evident that Mayo is aware of every sound's place within the song, and he proves this throughout 'Still Alive'. His synth work combined with the guest instrumentation breathe living air into the album, and by the time Cambridge, Massachussetts wordsmith K-the-l??? drops his devastating Howard Zinn-by-way-of-Biggie Smalls diatribe on “Strateegery”, we feel as if we've been listening to a clear voice the entire time.
Mayo stretches out on 'Still Alive''s second half – hear the atmospheric jazz and digital croaking on “Dawson's Anthem 2005,” the Tubewar Army-inspired synth and squelching distortion of “Munjoy Moments,” and the overall hugeness of “Quiet on the Set” - before bringing the album to its final breath. But even as “The End of the Beginning” comes to a quiet close, 'Still Alive' leaves us with the notion that tomorrow's a new day.
DJ Mayonnaise has indeed returned.