The Orange Spotlight

Marco Mahler

It's the dirt road that eventually gives way to thick fragrant tar, the warm and gentle field of golden hay underneath so much waste of brick and neon. It is the shock and awe of marriage, and the awkward understanding of parenthood. It is abrasive shift from the southern grace of Virginia to the harsh reality of Brooklyn. This is the journey and the melody of Marco Mahler. His journey is filled with change, and the ability to quickly adapt when faced with something new. "Design in Quick Rotation" takes a warm and intimate look at how not only man must adjust, but how communities, cultures, the world in general must adjust consistently. However, this tiny adjustments mound and the results are not always what we had hoped for. Marco blends his skilled guitar play with small sonic eruptions to build a road map of his journey.

"Close your eyes/it's going out on printer number fifty/abandoned model home communities/your heart beat putting me to sleep/it's design in quick rotation"

Design In Quick Rotation (mp3)/Hike The Lake/Orange Chinese Car (mp3)/1 s and O s/Think Tank/Study Airports/Otmar Elmer/Lawnmowing Daydreams/Standing Still Faster/Fields/Go Crocodile

Stream the entire album here

Michael Layne Heath "Sacred Grounds" (Kendra Steiner Editions, #78)

"So look at Sixth Street/The mess near Market/The deluded, the forgotten/Those who hit urban mung running/Those who have thrown up hands/in the final stretch/Many already spun out and shambling/at dawn to the blare and swear" from Sixth Street Souvenir, 1993

Keeping with this week's spotlight theme of change, Michael Layne Heath makes his Kendra Steiner debut with a small, but urgent collection of poems entitled "Sacred Ground". Michael, a somewhat well-known music reviewer and liner note writer, has seen a lot change in his life. He has walked the streets, he has had the relationships, he has listened to the greats, but in face of it all he still searches for what is truly sacred. The end he comes to this conclusion, "Love is all there is and ever shall be".

There were only 59 copies of this chapbook printed and I sit here cherishing #33. To get your copy visit Kendra Steiner Editions.