Time Wharp: “East River Dusk”
Brooklyn’s Time Wharp (AKA Kaye Loggins) wrote an entire album called Spiro World, inspired by the prescription drug Spironolactone. According to the Mayo Clinic:
Spironolactone is used in combination with other medicines to treat high blood pressure (hypertension) and heart failure. Lowering blood pressure can reduce the risk of strokes and heart attacks. Spironolactone is also used to lessen the need for hospitalization for heart failure.
A serious side effect is a slow or irregular heart beat. At the risk of reducing art to biography, you can hear the psychological fixation on metric regularity in our highlighted track “East River Dusk.” The repeated musical phrases establish a steady undercurrent, freeing a cavalcade of woodwinds and assorted electronica to run riot in the heavens above.
Interesting to note that the side effect of a slow or irregular heart beat can be stimulated by high potassium levels. No small irony, then, that a chunk of this album was recorded at Plantain Recording House. Careful there!
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A glitzy downtempo soul-inflected hip hop promenade.