A book within a book, Hystopia is actually the novel left behind by Eugene Allen, a Vietnam vet from a slightly-alternate version of the 60s where John F. Kennedy survived Oswald’s assassination attempt and is serving his third term in office. Opened and closed by various notes and testimonies from friends and family members, Allen’s work makes up the majority of the novel, a narrative imagining characters from his time in Vietnam once they return home. The kicker, though, is that while they are back in the States, they never really ‘get home’, with the war following them back to a dystopian (but far from unrecognisable) America ravaged by biker gangs and forest fires.

In an attempt to solve the crisis of PTSD and violence, the government turn to an experimental psychiatric method called ‘enfolding’, where veterans reenact traumatic scenes while dosed up on a tranquilliser, Tripizoid. While even the doctors working on the project believe the technique to be without substance, it proves paradoxically effective for many subjects and blanks memories of combat. “Confusion is undoubtedly an element of the curative process,” writes Means. “In most cases the patient does forget about it, becoming fully immersed in the reenacted trauma’s nullification of the real trauma”.

Which isn’t to say it’s a silver bullet. Indeed the novel opens with a “failed enfold,” Rake, a man filled with the sort of all-consuming rage and propensity for violence unique to men forced into the sacrifices of war only to end up on the losing side. We find him with Allen’s sister, Meg (whom he has almost certainly kidnapped, and has undergone some degree of enfolding too), as they drive across Michigan on an anarchistic rampage of murder, drugs and destruction. Eventually, they reach the home of Hank, Rake’s former sidekick who has developed a love of trees since enfolding, a man who tries to protect Meg and figure out a way in which they can save themselves from Rake.

The second strand of the story deals with another enfold Singleton and his colleague Wendy, government officials breaking protocol to meet up and fall in love, who somehow end up on the trail of Rake, as though their rule bending was in fact a conspiracy on the part of their superiors to engineer the operation. Again though, confusion reigns, with Singleton’s boss admitting that a key part of being a commander is having the “gumption to go back and revise history”, talking of writing operation plans after the operation in order to ensure they are correct.

This sense of counter-history runs throughout the novel, from Singleton and Wendy’s quest and Hank’s transformation into peaceful nature-lover, right down to Eugene Allen’s re-telling (re-imagining?) of his sister’s story. What becomes important for these troubled people is not discerning the capital-T Truth but rather finding a variation they can believe in. More often than not, this involves a sense of mission, the victim’s need for order in the face of chaos, the desire for purpose or meaning in “an age when everything else seemed to be spinning deeper and deeper into despair,” anything which enables them to form a narrative of the world in a way they would like it to exist.

“It was crazy, he admitted, but it kept him going and like all good delusions it was fuelled by genuine hope and dedication to the truth”

And that’s what sets apart David Means’ Vietnam from that of the postmodern cannon. Yes, it is full of claims and counter-claims and impenetrable paranoia, but rather than using these to trace a descent into bewilderment, Hystopia utilises them to chart a way out. In a world where confusion and conflict constitute the resting face of the planet, maybe disinformation is needed not to obscure the truth but rather create it?

Here’s a playlist of songs that are suitable or relevant in one way or another, or maybe just capture the mood of certain characters and scenes.

Tracklisting:

1) Search and Destroy – The Stooges
2) IN EVIL HOUR – Battle Ave.
3) High & Wild – Angel Olsen
4) My War – Black Flag
5) Everything Falls Apart – Hüsker Dü
6) Saigon Shrunken Panorama – The Mountain Goats
7) Rugged Country – Japanese Breakfast
8) Meg – Hovvdy
9) Love, Come Save Me – Right Away, Great Captain!
10) I Need You To Tell Me Who I Am – John Moreland
11) Drugs To Make You Sober – Jeremiah Nelson
12) Are We Failing? – Hallelujah The Hills
13) Flaming Home – Mount Eerie with Julie Doiron and Frederick Squire
14) Lovers as Mirrors – Paper Bee
15) Forgetting is Believing – Nathaniel Rateliff
16) Redemption:1 (An Army Man And His Self-Discovery) – Justin Vernon

Hystopia is out now via Faber & Faber (UK) and Farrar, Straus and Giroux (US) and you can get it from most good bookshops. Check out the other works by David Means on his Goodreads page.

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Tracklist:

1. Trying To Walk – Kissed Her Little Sister
2. Kickar Grus – Johan Hedberg
3. Harvey – Alex G
4. I Kept Your Teeth in a Jar By My Bed – Gorgeous Bully
5. Hypochondriac – Diveliner
6. Hallow – Cloud Boat
7. Hunting – Dearest
8. Rain, Windows – Sad Souls
9. Weeding Riverbanks (Excerpt) – The Volume Settings Folder & Tanner Garza
10. Side A (Excerpt) – Wes Tirey
11. Elevator Song – Keaton Henson
12. Y.O.Y.O. – Thom Byles
13. Accept That the Mark Will Outlast You – Old Earth
14. Dog – Jeremiah Nelson
15. PRPL – Ava Luna
16. Wire Frame Mattress – The Wytches
17. Post Holiday Dead Song – Tyrannosaurus Dead
18. Shut In – Strand Of Oaks
19. Pocket Knife – Liam Betson
20. Jean Moulin – VTCN RADIO
21. Temporary View (feat. Sampha) – SBTRKT
22. Yogyakarta – Derek Piotr
23. Can’t Do Without You – Caribou
24. Days With You (feat Sinead Harnett) – Snakehips

If you missed them, we have such mixes for January, February, March, April and May too.

June Mix from Wake The Deaf on 8tracks Radio.

The post June 2014 Roundup – A Mixtape appeared first on Various Small Flames.

In fact, it was Statz who alerted us to Nelson’s new release, describing it as an EP he feels strongly about. Trusting his word, and feeling an obligation to finally cover Nelson in a proper post, we dove into Whittier.

On first impression, the EP seems a tad gentler than previous release Drugs to Make You Sober. The tempo is undoubtedly slower; the guitars played down a little, the drums are more relaxed and the swinging harmonica set to the side, leading to a sound that is more reflective and mournful, having a tangible end-of-the-night feel. Opener ‘Heart & Soul,’ is a good example, with neat guitar work accompanying Nelson’s crooning vocals. ’Isolation has taken its toll on me’ he sings amongst other lyrics of regret and remorse. ‘Truckers in Drag’ is a slight change of tack – the song is imbued with the weird dream-like feel of a Father John Misty song, as the narrator waits for a storm to pass in Missoula while truckers in drag try to get him drunk. ‘Dog’ has a similarly strange atomsphere, with the intensely satisfying build up from near-slow motion drums to clattering crescendo reminscent of Chad VanGaalen.

Nelson’s lyrical capabilities have always stood out, and Whittier is no different. The temptation with folk music, especially jangly good-time folk music, is to allow the energy be the focus and, as a result, lose something from the lyrics. Nelson has a talent for both poetic and narrative-driven songs that seem to owe as much to the written word and they do folk songs. Indeed, ‘Truckers in Drag’ works like short story, something Denis Johnson might write, with enough images and clues to set a scene and context.

Even the instrumentals, such as ‘Interludes’ (which by definition should be merely filler between the ‘proper’ songs) are intricate and delicate and carefully crafted, proving their worth is far beyond beefing up the release.

You can buy Whittier on a pay-what-you-can basis via Bandcamp.

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I’ve been a fan of Statz for a few years now, ever since his album Old Fashioned was released on Yer Bird Records (see our post from early 2012). But I must admit this is my first exposure to anything by Harty, although this is certain to change now that I know the name. The pair recorded the album sitting next to one another in a studio in Denver, using no edits or overdubs, just good old fashioned musicianship. In an age where lots of collaborations are purely digital, it’s refreshing to see that these kind of partnerships, those built on friendship, still exist. And I think this relationship shows in the music. This is clearly the work of two musicians who have full respect for one another, and this respect lays the foundations for what is an honest and intimate collection of Americana.

12 August features songs from both artists’ back catalogs. Opener ‘Home’ appeared on Harty’s A Long List Of Lies, while ‘Call Me Last’ was on Statz’s Budapest Sessions EP. ‘Witchita Waltz’ was written a good few years ago at a songwriter’s retreat by Statz, along with songwriters Jeremiah Nelson, Brooks West and Brad Hoshaw. It first appeared on Statz’s Ghost Towns, although the version on 12 August is slightly more stripped back and uses the pair’s vocal harmonies really well.

The album also contains a couple of covers. ‘Paradise’, which tells the tale of the coal mining industry and its aftermath in rural Kentucky, was originally written by John Prine back in 1971, and closer ‘Worrisome Years’ is a cover of Greg Brown.

12 August is out now on Money Wolf Music and available on both digital and physical formats via the Josh Harty and John Statz Bandcamp page.

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Across his work I hear a number of influences. ‘I’ll Get Back To You’ and ‘Glorious’ are reminiscent of The Mountain Goats, ‘Brother, Follow’ has suggestions of Andy Hull and ‘Sunlight & The Sea’ is much more of a rock song, something that Jeremiah Nelson might have made. This isn’t to say that Adem does not have his own sound, the comparisons merely show how varied he is able be.

Adem is a storyteller and his songs are richy created with a passion and anger.  ‘Brother, Follow’, standout track on the new LP Armour, highlights this perfectly; An age-old disatisfaction with society, exasperation at the situation all underpinned with with a yearning for something, a hope that prevents the song from being downright violent but rather a furious wish for better.

Armour is due for release on July 24. Previous releases can be bought here.

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