LINER NOTES
(for Mark Sampson)
“to take the hair off
the sides of the head
& leave just a strip
along the top,
scalping pretense
for the baldness of statement
building a new music
on the bones of the old”
—John Sinclair, Mohawk
Amsterdam, January 2013, John Sinclair performs fresh bloom ditty bop into the mic' vocalized from his extensive book of verse: always know: a book of monk. Twenty poems captured in a singleshot session and carefully trimmed down to ten.
Poems, first conceived and developed through the 1980s with streaks of fresh editing and new dedications right up to the session itself, John navigates some of these texts for the first time in over twenty years, free-styling a freshly energized sincerity and attention.
I accompany John’s poetry by clipping at the tempo of the original songs recorded by John ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie, Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker and Thelonious Monk. These legendary songs are further utilized by John so each song title of his poem can piggy-back upon the same song title of an original bop composition set in history, for extra rooting.
Fly laid down drums, turntables, cello-bass, flute, glockenspiel, all cutting around the lead line of John, recorded by Tim Egmond at Eistudios.nl, passed along to Si at Framework studios in Birmingham for mastering, visualized with the post-industrial imagination of CHU, and given legs by Mark Iron Man, Mohawk sees the care and attention a John Sinclair record deserves. Relax and listen up while John cuts a new world of constructive words into your head.
"mohawk mo-
hawk monk & bird
& dizzy
creating a nation of music
Amsterdam, January 2013, John Sinclair performs fresh bloom ditty bop into the mic' vocalized from his extensive book of verse: always know: a book of monk. Twenty poems captured in a singleshot session and carefully trimmed down to ten.
Poems, first conceived and developed through the 1980s with streaks of fresh editing and new dedications right up to the session itself, John navigates some of these texts for the first time in over twenty years, free-styling a freshly energized sincerity and attention.
I accompany John’s poetry by clipping at the tempo of the original songs recorded by John ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie, Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker and Thelonious Monk. These legendary songs are further utilized by John so each song title of his poem can piggy-back upon the same song title of an original bop composition set in history, for extra rooting.
Fly laid down drums, turntables, cello-bass, flute, glockenspiel, all cutting around the lead line of John, recorded by Tim Egmond at Eistudios.nl, passed along to Si at Framework studios in Birmingham for mastering, visualized with the post-industrial imagination of CHU, and given legs by Mark Iron Man, Mohawk sees the care and attention a John Sinclair record deserves. Relax and listen up while John cuts a new world of constructive words into your head.
"mohawk mo-
hawk monk & bird
& dizzy
creating a nation of music
—John
Sinclair, “mohawk”
Special thanks to John Sinclair, Mark Sampson, Tim Egmond, CHU, Sean Newsham, and Simon Reeves. Extended thanks to some of those people I have witnessed show sweet support for John: Clay Wyndam, Mark Ritsema, Henk Botwinik, Sydney Daniels, Joeri Pfeiffer, Nick Smith, Dylan Harding, Martin ‘Youth’ Glover, Al Clayton, Elliot Levin, Gary Lammin, Charles Shar Murray, Gilles Riberolles, Ted Jackson, Larry Hayden, Dr. Tim, Mary Jo, Aaron Cole, Janne Svensson, Leslie Lopez, Mau, Vicente Pino, Tom Worrell, Frenchy, Soul Lucille, Laith Al Saadi, Kenny Post, Walter Noons, Deborah Charles, Nigel Blunt, Prop Anon, Rev. Ferre, 622, staff at Café 420, David Fenton, Hans Plompp, Joseph Subgenius, Ben Dronkers, Tom Tornado, Sebastian Balint, Karl Wortmann, Celia Sinclair, Beyonce, Sunny Sinclair, Ben Horner, Adam Brook. Thanks to all poet-activists worldwide and to our ancestors who laid it down for us
—Steve
Fly
Amsterdam,
08/13
FATTENING BLOGS FOR SNAKES 2014
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Thank you for reading, and for your feedback. Please support John Sinclair. Love, steve