Mira Calix - Skimskitta

by Chris Jones

published: 5 / 8 / 2003

Label: Warp Records
Format: CD

Chris Jones that the age of industrialization has not quite died with 'Skimsitta', Mira Calix's third album for the Warp label

Review

Somewhere there's a movie that this music goes to. The star of the movie is a factory. or more accurately the machines inside the factory. The time spanned in this movie is sunset til six in the morning. The workers have all left for the evening and the machines have some free time of their own. Some just spin their gears a bit, while others exercise their levers and robotic arms. A typewriter in one of the offices (yes, it's an old factory) tests all of its underutilized keys: ^ { | / z _ The combination of sounds creates a soft hum backed by what sounds like a heartbeat. Occasionally there are clangs and sparks and skittering noises. It's all subtle enough though that even the night watchman doesn't notice. Or not in a conscious way anymore. "That's just what a factory sounds like at night," is what he told himself many years ago. It seemed saner than all of the other alternatives he could think up and he really didn't want to endure the questions that would surely follow if he mentioned any of this to his boss. The machines seemed perfectly happy with this arrangement as well. They continued to click and chime away like a bunch of old friends having a chat down at the pub. There were lulls in the conversations from time to time, but never any uncomfortable pauses. Lkewise, there were times when they all seemed to be talking at once, but even then they never reached the point where they might draw unwanted attention. and this is how things went each and every night in this old factory, from sunset til six in the morning.

Track Listing:-

1 Again, It Starts
2 Poussou
3 Woody
4 Savanna
5 The Wolf, The Sheep And The Door
6 Flicker
7 Do I Ever
8 Six Not 6
9 I May Be Over There
10 Distracted 2
11 Isibuko
12 Pearl
13 Like Spoons
14 Shadenfreude
15 Hiccup
16 Suffix
17 Simple (Almost Mix)
18 Do You Open Always
19 Little Long Gone
20 Two Seasons