Track By Track: Cru Servers – Blubber Tottum
Let's get odd. Really odd.
Next up on the Glaswegian imprint 12th Isle is Cru Servers, a two man duo with a taste for rugged machinery and experiments. Their sound is unconventional and does not tend to pay much regard to stereotypes or lineage. Melodies flutter faintly in the background whilst the slow moving interchange between parts makes for a unique and wholesome listen. The label described the release as follows, which pretty damn well sums up the whole thing.
"The inaugural LP drubbed from the Glaswegian machines of Cru Servers is perhaps best framed as what it would sound like if early life took its first steps out of the primordial gloop, dragged itself ashore, decided to make dance music and discovered they had a knack for it. It dangles precariously in the fault lines between discordantly melodic rhythm tracks, steadily paced chaos and swamp-soaked bass oddities. Laden with eerily familiar samples yet always in a world of its own."
We've invited them to explain each track on the new album, which is already sold out on the labels bandcamp but will be available in all good record shops by the end of September. Only the good ones though…
THE TRACKS OF BLUBBER TOTTUM ILLUMINATED BY WAY OF COMPARISON WITH THE 9 LORDS OF THE NIGHT OF AZTEC MYTHOLOGY
A1. Incubation on Ram Skins
Xiuhtecuhtli ("Turquoise/Year/Fire Lord")God of fire, day and heat. The lord of volcanoes Ruled the first hour of the night, named Cipactli ("Alligator").Scholars have long emphasized that this fire deity also has aquatic qualities. Xiuhtecuhtli dwelt inside an enclosure of turquoise stones, fortifying himself with turquoise bird water.
A2. Shot to Life
Tezcatlipoca ("Smoking Mirror") May, night sky, the night winds, hurricanes, the north, the earth, obsidian, enmity, discord, rulership, divination, temptation, jaguars, sorcery, beauty, war and strife.
A3. Dorito Rook
Piltzintecuhtli ("Prince Lord") was a god of the rising sun, healing, and visions. Known also as "7 Flower " he was also a god of hallucinatory plants, including mushrooms. He was the lord of the third hour of the night.
A4. Ark Bile Top Ups
Centeotl ("Maize God") maize (which was called Cintli in Nahuatl,was brought to this world by Quetzalcoatl and it is associated with the group of stars known commonly today as the Pleiades. usually portrayed as a young man (although a debate is still ongoing), with yellow body colouration.
B1. Deithe 2 Hansy
Mictlantecuhtli ("Underworld Lord") god of the dead and the king of Mictlan (Chicunauhmictlan), the lowest and northernmost section of the underworld. The worship of Mictlantecuhtli sometimes involved ritual cannibalism, with human flesh being consumed in and around the temple. Mictlantecuhtli was associated with spiders, owls, bats,and the northern compass direction, known as Mictlampa, the region of death.
B2. Granite of Blobs Ghost
Chalchiuhtlicue ("Jade Is Her Skirt") Aztec goddess of water, rivers, seas, streams, storms, and baptism. Chalchiuhtlicue was also patroness of childbirth.
B3. Whale Vomit Windfall
Tlazolteotl ("Filth God[dess]") Tlazolteotl was called "Goddess of Dirt" (Tlazolteotl) and "Eater of Ordure" (Tlahelcuani, 'she who eats dirt [sin]'), with her dual nature of goddess of dirt and also of purification. Sins were symbolized by dirt. Her dirt- eating symbolized the ingestion of the sin of those who confessed, and in doing so purified it.She was depicted with ochre colored symbols of divine excrement around her mouth and nose. In the Aztec language the word for sacred, tzin, comes from tzintli, the buttocks, and religious rituals include offerings of "liquid gold" (urine) and "divine
excrement"(holy shit).
B4. Accursed Share
Tepeyollotl ("heart of the mountains"; also Tepeyollotli) was god of earthquakes, echoes and jaguars. He is the god of the Eighth Hour of the Night, and is depicted as a jaguar leaping towards the sun. In the calendar, Tepeyollotl rules over both the third day, Calli (house), and the third trecena, 1-Mazatl (deer). He is the eighth Lord of the Night.
B5. Yellow Domes & the Dawn
Tlaloc (Rain God) Tlaloc is also associated with caves, springs, and mountains, most specifically the sacred mountain in which he was believed to reside. His animal forms include herons and water-dwelling creatures such as amphibians, snails, and sea creatures, particularly shellfish.
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