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Kang & Kodos (Single Version)

by The Blot

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about

The eighth chapter of The BLOT songbook is "Kang & Kodos" by MARISSA JOHNSON & NICHOLAS KRGOVICH (music) and GENEVIÈVE CASTRÉE (illustration).

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It's Chapter Eight and that which we've come to know as The Blot, a shape-shifting force, feeding on ideas and experiences, has changed again. We have come to the midst of the west, a commercial landscape where life subsists on the synthetic and the processed. We happen upon this world as in a dream, where elements of the whole are presented as vibrant images, gleaming briefly before rolling seamlessly into the next bright scene. This is a place where the thing itself is hidden, and we instead get the shadow and the echo, the simulacrum of the original. For the Blot to move freely in such a world it must embrace new and cryptic shades.

And so, beginning in "the toner section of the Office Depot," what we perceive are objects and individuals that may or may not have encountered the creature. We are given the image of a pallet jack, removed of its load, and ink spotting the floor, and we must infer that the Blot has stopped by to fortify its reserves. But this is more than a mere bookshelf. This is a technicolour dreamland of modern inventions. There is colour in those cartridges. And how much ink did it drink? Only the Blot itself knows what kind of creature we're dealing with now. It has fled like a fresh breeze in the bright night, and if we see it at all in the remainder of the song, it comes to us in disguise, or another form entirely.

In lush choral textures, keen poetry, and instrumentation that varies with every scene, Marissa Johnson & Nicholas Krgovich carry us through a world spotted with primary colours and littered with corporate name droppings. Their meditative photo-study pronounces the mundane exceptional, and the flat dramatic, as layers of sound and images are piled on and swiftly cast away. A pen explodes in slow motion, enshrouding a cheap sweater in a shield of ink. A Starbucks logo shines like a medallion, holding a piece of the magic that once lived large in all things.

Geneviève Castrée somehow manages to encapsulate the whole of the act, while giving us a moment among many. We see what the song does not show, our creature, newly minted in colour toner and markers; an absolute shadow upon the bright world. But in the colour is character, the will to change, to grow, to take whatever it needs or desires and make it a part of its whole. In the new clothes of our three artists The Blot is quiet and celebratory, dark and sparkling, free, loose, and one with us all.

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Nicholas, Marissa, and Geneviève are all legends of the north Pacific. Originally from Quebec, Geneviève (genevievecastree.com) is a multi-faceted artist who works in illustration, has published several comic books, and is a prolific composer and performer, making music as Ô Paon (www.opaon.ca). She now resides in the north-west United States where she makes earth magic alone and with her community. Marissa and Nicholas are both from Vancouver and have spent years building an amazing discography alone and in collaboration. Marissa fronts Weathered Pines (weatheredpines.com) and has contributed her voice and posi-vibes to a billion albums. Nicholas (nicholaskrgovich.com) is the man behind many terrific projects including P:ano, Gigi, and No Kids and his new selfy-titled solo record is here :: 7ep.net/onlinestore/catalog.php?epcd=068.

We are once again incredibly lucky to have these artists dedicating their time and talent to this living collabortive project. If you like this chapter please do follow and support our authors' efforts elsewhere!

lyrics

A pallet jack abandoned,
Ink leaking on the lino,
"Linda leave your till, clean up on aisle 7".

Meeting minutes on the paper,
Tracking stripes across the notebook,
Her hand is cradling a tired face,
Imprinted with her pillows folds.

She lifts the pen but for a moment,
Her sweater clearance at Club Monaco,
Has now taken on a new shade,
As the black ink in her pen explodes.

You got me driven to distraction,
What I need now is my Starbucks,
It's all I want, it's all I need,
Cranking through my system.

So I'm fixated on the logo,
Spot-colour on an empty cup,
I pay attention to the white space,
Never detracting from the siren.

credits

released April 18, 2013

license

all rights reserved

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