…surrendering control, JUAN WAUTERS – Real Life Situation LP
Juan Wauters – Real Life Situation LP is available at Apple Music, Spotify, Bandcamp.
by Walter Price
To say that the pandemic-era and all the subsequent mind-numbing social unrest, political turmoil, and the social media heist of our well-being has let creators do what they do, create. And while Juan Wauters’ forthcoming LP, ‘Real Life Situations’ isn’t to be considered a ‘lockdown album’, it was largely conceived and inspired during these trying times. And from the four preview tracks that I’ve laid ears and eyes on, this nonlinear set could and will be considered a modern classic that traverses and twists genres, vibes, and voices.
Like Zappa, Lenny Bruce, Beastie Boys, Cayone, and Mile Davis before him, Wauters is a maverick. Bending his stories into odd-shaped perfections that will not let the listener off easily. Rather, based on the singles, we’re all going to have to sit with this new album for the next several months before its full genius is fully realized.
In a write-up posted on Bandcamp, the origins of the 21-track LP unfolds, “We think we know what we want. The digital age has made it easier than ever for us to get it – we can search, skip, and customize to our hearts’ content. But something is lost in this exchange – without an external perspective, how can we know what we’re missing? Juan Wauters understands this. It’s why he’s such a big fan of radio – it takes some of the power out of our hands, opening us up to new sounds, new possibilities. This is the effect he sought to reproduce on his fifth album, Real Life Situations, a multifaceted ode to surrendering control and taking life as it comes. References to radio abound on its 21 tracks, and with good reason – the album spans genres, narrators, languages, and perspectives with the ease of spinning a rotary knob.”
The worldwide hype building behind this release, which features collaborations w/ El David Aguilar, Tall Juan, Cola Boyy, Nick Hakim, Benamin, Homeshake, and Mac DeMarco, is real and well deserved. And you can watch the films for “Real” ft. DeMarco and directed by Matthew Volz and “Monsoon” ft. Homeshake, created by DINOMOVES, now at the GTC.
JUAN WAUTERS
Directed and edited by Matthew Volz.
Starring Juan Wauters and Mac DeMarco
DeMarco / Wauters photo via YouTube
Video by DINOMOVES
The Players: Peach, Myra, Bill and John, Paul, Sprout, and Bean
Dino’s Best Boy: Bucko
Title Painting by Paul Ruskin
Animations by Peach Doble
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“Despite the circumstances of its creation, Real Life Situations is not a quarantine record. In many ways it’s the opposite of one, taking togetherness as both its subject and its primary medium.” – bc post