Negativland was asked to be guest editor of MAGNET this week, which poses a challenge to such a large collective of members with extremely disparate tastes and obsessions. Members Peter Conheim and Mark Hosler came forward to share what’s been on their minds lately and, indeed, what’s informed their thoughts and work over the years. The group’s new album is entitled It’s All In Your Head and, being entirely about faith, monotheism and why humans believe in God, comes packaged inside of an actual King James Bible. And while religion and intolerance are posing the biggest and toughest dilemmas facing the world today—well, excepting that climate business—Negativland will focus instead this week on such things as sounds, pictures and books. And the impending death of everything due to digital technology.
Peter Conheim: Los Siquicos Litoraleños. You can’t even pronounce their name. Even if you can, and even if you are fluent in Spanish, the name is meaningless. But the music is some of the strangest and unclassifiable you could ever find, living in some warm and moist nether region between Beefheart, early Residents and cumbia. And they hail from the Argentinian countryside. They seem to delight in hi-fi and no-fi, sometimes within the same song, and cannot be danced to under any circumstances. The Sham Palace label did the world a favor by compiling an LP’s worth of their magical moments, and there’s even play-by-play printed analysis for each song tucked into the liner notes.
Video after the jump.
