Howdy y’all,
Gonna talk about all that^^^, share a mix made in collaboration with CLUB DIEGO, share a cool mix of Uyghur pop music from NTS Radio, and more. Peppered throughout are some recently developed photos taken over the past 6 months.
In Episode 72 of the Toasted Sister Podcast, host Andi Murphy speaks with Algonquin storyteller and death doula Chrystal Waban. The podcast which is normally about indigenous food culture shifts towards a conversation on traditional views and practices surrounding death. Waban speaks on a beautiful Anishinaabe tradition of weaving cedar mats for birthing babies onto. The mat is kept with the person throughout their life and upon dying the person is buried with the mat resting under their head along with more fresh cedar under hands and feet.
The act of burying a cow horn filled with manure is to return nutrients and introduce special enzymes to the vineyard and soil. The foundation of organic farming and natural winemaking is land stewardship– putting more back into the land from which we take. While natural winemaking is free from pesticides, chemicals, additives, and additional sulfates, biodynamic farming takes the practice further with esoteric, lunar-cycle based and often pseudoscientific practices of cultivation alongside very low intervention in a grape’s transformation from fruit to alcoholic beverage.
This is a bottle of ‘Le Cri du Loup’ (“the cry of the wolf”) produced by American winemakers Populis + Licorne Mechante using 2019 Mendocino County carignane grapes via carbonic maceration in a Berkeley CA basement. It’s $20 and it’s delicious. On the nose there’s a fantastically fragrant white lily note. It drinks smooth with lots of mouth-watering minerality, warm yeasty character, medium-short tannic structure, pronounced but well balanced acidity, and subtle undertones of tobacco flower, funky cheese, dark red cherry, or even cranberry sauce.
After death there is often feasting– as healing, as celebrating, as honoring, and as communing. Food, wine, conversation, and possibly music to remember you by. Murphy and Waban talk of a practice of preparing your funeral feast- what food would you want served at your funeral? When the feasting begins, a plate is made for you and left outside, on a shore, buried, or burned to be returned to the elements.
Grapes will ferment into wine on their own- they don’t need humans. By harnessing this process we can form a relationship with the fruits as stewards of the land, preparing optimal situations for fermentation leading to amazing wine. I love Sandor Katz’ idea of fermentation as a metaphor for life. Organisms, micro and macro, changing inevitably uncontrollably and spontaneously. We nurture our own fermentation- growing and transforming into something else entirely sometimes, often out of our control. We deal with the variables of change as they come but hopefully nurture ourselves so we have the best abilities to adapt.
This past month I teamed up with my pal CLUB DIEGO to mix an hour of beats, soundscapes, old school house, and various electronic musical ephemera. We compiled and mixed this very last minute while drinking through a liter of Chilean wine on my roof and it’s here for your enjoyment~~~ 🎵
Tracklist:
SUPER PASSIFLORA - GALDRE VISION
MY STAR - LAUREN PAKRADOONI
COS CO BYLO - EHH HAHAH
LIL MUFUKUZ (FEAT. DOOM) - DABYRE
NO ONE HOLDING THEIR TONGUE - ASA TONE
BESIDE MYSELF - MICHELE MERCURE
DOVETAIL - AHNNU
INTO THE FUTURE - MINDS DESIGN
WOLVERINE: ADAMANTIUM RAGE; BOSS 2 THEME - DYLAN BEALE
ETHEREAL BURN - BENEDEK
OXIDATIONBRIAN ELLIS - JIN HIYAMA
DREAM WAVE - BRIAN ELLIS
COSMIC CARS - CYBOTRON
DREAMS OF CRYSTAL - PLEASURE MODEL
6 SON - RAÚL GÓMEZ
FOR GATO - SPARKLE DIVISION
MONEY HUGGER - LIONMILK
IUNO WENIMO - TIZIANO POPOLI
UNKNOWN - DJ LIOFOX E BASTA
Last month, Los Angeles-based DJ, artist, and producer of Discostan Arshia Haq hosted Robert McDougall’s Taklamakan Highway program on NTS for a special show of contemporary Uyghur Pop music from East Turkestan. The hour long mix is a seamless party of Uyghur BOPS combining infectious reggaeton dance rhythms with traditional Uyghur folk music and passionately melismatic pop moods from Central and South Asia. Think “Indian Pop meets Russian Folk Karaoke jams” for a rough idea.
Aside from the fact that this mix slaps, it’s a rare, highly curated, and loving display of a culture so buried by meaningless political borders and to our western experience. China has oppressed this largely Muslim minority group for over a century and only recently have the Uyghur’s plight been so recognized and called out.
Tasting Menu made an instagram~~ You can follow us @gravelbisque for a ridiculous charcuterie of video and audio blips and stay up to date on our musical mischief, interests, and releases. Stay tuned as we have an upcoming release on the small Slovakian tape label, Mappa Editions. 🌵🇸🇰📼🪨🎶
Thanks for being here and reading. Be well, friends. Stay curious, stay ridiculous, stay awhile, and…
yeehaw <3 ,
Cody