HEALTH, the L.A. noise band with a Twitter account that reads like their music slams, are set to headline Basilica Soundscape this Friday night in upstate New York. They'll be playing plenty of grit and gold from their latest album, Death Magic and, in anticipation, the band's Jupiter Keyes has whipped up a stellar soundtrack for the drive up. Featuring tracks from Evian Christ, Alice Glass, and Arca, it burns with black hole evoking intensity. Listen below, and scroll down for a quick catch up with Keyes.
Where are you right now? Please describe your surroundings.
I'm on a much needed vacation right now with Alice Glass and our dog Jacob. We're staying on a farm off the coast of central California. It's a quiet and secluded 60 acre organic farm a short walk from the ocean. They have goats and alpaca. And they're building a permaculture sustainable environment that is designed to reshape the landscape and hopefully last hundreds of years without the need for much maintenance our outside irrigation. It's a really cool place.
Tell us a bit about the mix. What do you imagine people doing while listening to it?
This mix is a collection of songs I really like that are mostly noisy, experimental or ambient. The mix starts with a beast of a song by Emptyset called "Collapse." Josh from Evian Christ introduced me to their music a while back and I can't thank him enough for that. His banger "Salt Carousel" is also in here. There's a beautiful and relatively new track by Arca called "Vanity." There are some ambient tracks by Chief Keef and Skinny Puppy on here.
I'd like to imagine that anyone that listens to this mix does so really loud, in a darkened room, while laying in a bath of lukewarm salt water. But I know it'll probably be listened to off of laptop speakers while you're doing something else, like folding laundry or half watching Hulu.
What can fans expect from your set at Basilica?
We're playing a lot of tracks off of Death Magic, our newest record, but there's still a lot of tracks off our earlier records in the set. They've been rebooted to fit our new bigger and louder stage setup. Our set is still aggressive and spastic, but it's also more melodic.
What's the last book that you read that had a big impact on you?
I recently read Jodorowsky's Psychomagic and it had a pretty significant impact on me. For a lot of people it's easy to dismiss the idea of metaphysical practices as simple minded ways of dealing with things we don't understand. This book explains it in a way that could feel a little more sensible to a skeptical person. What he calls "psychomagic" can be thought of as a psychological tactic using the tools of symbolism to alter your perceptions and help your brain change its habits. There's also a lifetime of wisdom embedded in Jodorowsky's writing. He's on the short list of people I'd like to meet one day.
What's your favorite dish to cook and how do you make it?
Does a peanut butter sandwich count? I'm not that particular about it. When I'm in a hurry I'll even skip the bread. I guess that's not a sandwich anymore. But when I want to get fancy I'll use bread and I add sliced banana and honey.
Tracklist:
Emptyset - Collapse
Arca - Vanity
Dreamcrusher - Antipop
Evian Christ - Salt Carousel
The Body - Hail To Thee, Everlasting Pain 1
Alice Glass - Stillbirth
Burial - River Dealer
Chief Keef - Citgo
HEALTH - Salvia
Skinny Puppy - Blood
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Ponponpon
HEALTH - Pain
From The Collection:
FADER Mix
