We (Deerhoof) took Delta to the east coast a couple weeks ago, and on Delta a movie is $6, so forget that. But they had a bunch of albums to listen to for free, and I found some doozies. Probably everyone else on mog has heard them already, but it takes a few plane flights for me to catch up.

Caetano Veloso "Ce" was such an inspiration, sophisticated deep down but so simple on the surface, it makes you think you can do it too which is a great feeling. Not exactly a true feeling but a great one. But it can give you that push that you need to try and make it true.

Mavis Staples "We'll Never Turn Back" was a complete shock. I'm a fan of early Staples Singers, albums like "Pray On My Child" and "Freedom Highway" but hadn't heard anything recent from Mavis. Besides her singing whose timeless quality seems to sum up all American roots music at once, the music was really something special. Whatever it is that they have is something that is very hard to imitate or simulate. Micro-subtleties of rhythm that are beyond the capabilities of any machine or program. Extreme sparseness and restraint of playing on the one hand, extreme looseness, freedom, and unkempt tones on the other hand. Each person plays so little and so quietly, but the way they react to each other it all adds up to such a forceful, irresistable whole.

After great effort on the plane not to embarrass myself by weeping in front of total strangers, I got home and tried to figure out what I'd heard. Found out that the record was produced by Ry Cooder who also played guitar (through Pops Staples' original amp). The recording was magnificent, a redefinition of "hifi" - meaning not that it sounded slick, but that it sounded real, utterly clear. Everyone is obviously playing in the same room together, the snare drum rattles when the upright bass hits certain notes. The dynamics of the playing are left perfectly intact, so sometimes somebody covers somebody else up for a second, and it's quite beautiful. The drummer is Jim Keltner, who I and everyone have heard a thousand times but on a song like "Eyes On The Prize" plays with a totally unmuffled, "unproduced" sound and a kind of off-the-cuff-ness, almost randomness, that is not a style I normally associate with him. Truly amazing.

They say that mcahines are more precise than humans but of course the exact opposite is true. When you hear somebody say something to you in a powerful way that really touches you, that's precision. Machines are only extremely approximate. "We'll Never Turn Back" hit the nail right on the head, it is devestatingly precise.