Papa M :: “Ballads of Harry Houdini” - Drag City Records
A magician’s magician and a musician’s musician, David Pajo, or more commonly known as Papa M, has been behind the cosmic controls and the nocturnal narration of his generation’s nerve center since the mid 1980s, while participating in local hardcore bands like Obscene Routine, Maurice and Solution Unknown, before eventually making the cultural connection with longtime friends and bandmates Brian McMahan, Britt Walford, Todd Brashear and Ethan Buckler, where they would later go on to form one of the most influential outfits to not only come out of the state of Kentucky, but within its respected genre as a new generation and decade of social sound was carefully situating itself just as the dynamical dust settled for all to see and hear. Of course, we’re talking about Slint, but that's not why we’re here. Sure, it has so much to do with Pajo’s incredibly iconic introduction into popular music as we know it and his highly sophisticated status within the culture of sound, but since the release of his monumental sophomore album back in 2001 entitled “Whatever, Mortal”, the musician has kept his black suede shoes on the disastrous gas pedal of life with such gigantic grace and flawless style that has since gone on to reflect and capture the electrifying essences of one of the greats of his generation. Being one of the earliest artists to sign with the legendary Drag City Records as far back as the mid to late 1990s, Pajo has confidentially secured his place in the culturally significant catalog’s lineup as well as being one of the earliest fundamental indie sounds to harmoniously hail from the dynamical decade’s universal underground.
With the recent release of the highly sought after and sonically studied “Peel Sessions” from the hive mind of Ariel M and its preliminary members Cassie Marrett, formerly known to many as Cassie Berman, the late Tony Bailey, and Tim Furnish, it’s without a doubt that Pajo and his cosmic charm is back, though it never ever really left. His most recent album, entitled “Ballads of Harry Houdini”, is a cold, calculated collection of songs that sting, rhythmically ring and spiritually sting as they soulfully surge through the body’s elaborate cage of ballads and tonal trickery before flying out through the fingertips and into the ears and eyes of its listener’s eager senses. While we live in a culture that is oftentimes this suffocating society of endless energy, constant crisis for content and many other laborious elements of human movement, Pajo has always taken his time when it comes to releasing solo material outside the many collaborations that also occupy his creative time. His last album “A Broken Moon Rises”, having come out back in 2018, has given the notorious artist ample time to work and connect with various bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the trailblazing punk outfit, Gang of 4, while simultaneously giving him the infamous “hired for guitar” label that sincerely reflects the many different layers and identities of his contemporary suave.
Photo: Shane McCauley
Dedicated to the late and great Steve "Houdini" Albini, whose passing last May absolutely shook the foundation of music like no other. He was either on your favorite record or simply helped bring to life one from someone you adored. Pajo had been both a fan and friend since the early days of Big Black, and without Houdini there would be no Albini and without Albini there would most certainly not be a Papa M. The album explores the many lives and deaths of the past, present and future of thematic resistance. Its sonic structure is both death defying and gloriously gripping as its calming core inspires its anatomical audience of ethereal ears to blend the many sunsets of familiarity and total comfort into this soft, sobering collection of blissful ballads. With tracks like “Ode to Mark White”, an oldie but a goldie, “Rainbow of Gloom” and the album’s stunning opener “Thank You For Talking To Me (When I Was Fat)”, “Ballads of Harry Houdini” is perhaps his most compelling work since the early days of “Whatever, Mortal”, but without any sort of age-old comparison of past lives lived, and melodic memories faded, Pajo’s mark on today’s sound is both undeniable and universally unique and if your humble curiosity has brought you to this specific stage of the veteran musician’s career, then your in for a sublime surprise.
https://flow.page/davidpajo
