#john raw

Pregnant - John Raw (PBUH073)

Daniel Trudeau and the expanded Pregnant crew are back with us for their latest album, John Raw, a first segue into more conceptual songwriting. Exotic production and frenetic loops form a backdrop for Trudeau's characteristic weirdo-pop, and the character of 'John Raw' emerges in the album's pointed puns and in the infinitely delicate blending of audio influences; jazz, rap, R&B, spoken word, and free-form beats abound, with accents and vocal novelties making for unusually rich margins. The Sacramento News & Review ran a wonderful summary of the project this morning...

"Two years ago, Daniel Trudeau received a weird, cryptic email. Someone—or something—named John Raw needed help committing suicide from the digital world. It starts like this: 'I am John Raw. I am an intern at presence. My existence is a test that will display the symbiotic experiences of lives that can co-mingle within two social experiences/lives.'

John Raw then went on to define a few terms. 'One Duo' means a person who lives physically and digitally. 'Buried in the Garden' is someone completely submerged in the Internet. 'Kid Need' is the physical world. John Raw is 'Buried in the Garden' and wants to experience 'Kid Need' and therefore requires the help of 'One Duos.'

Trudeau is a 'One Duo' and sought the assistance of other 'One Duos,' those 20 other artists, to fabricate John Raw in the physical world so that John Raw can die in the digital world.

Who is John Raw? That’s a layered question. Let’s start with something slightly simpler: Who sent that first email? A person? A spambot?"

Read the entire article here, and grab the album for freeze over at our Bandcamp. Thanks for everything this season, to everyone whose grabbed a tape or download... we've got at least a couple more tapes for you before year's end, so thanks again for staying tuned.