CLOUDWARMER is Eddie Palmer, also known as the New York half of Fields Ohio. While he embraces classic timbres such as trip-hop and plunderphonics, his music is astonishingly contemporary, as evidenced by track titles such as “I Am Piloting An Oil Tanker Through The Strait Of Hormuz.” I Know the World Reasonably Well and Am Right About Everything is a commentary on the human condition, with an apocalyptic bent; if we don’t destroy ourselves, it’s likely that aliens will finish the job. Accompanying the album is a Palmer-penned short story, part sci-fi, part magical realism, in which a man is shocked from his societal complacency. Clocking it at just under 90 minutes, the album is also generous: perfect for a Walkman and a C90 cassette.
“You are playing this tape in the safety and comfort of your own home,” a narrator intones on the opening track. For Palmer, the samples are as important as the beats, creating their own freeform narrative. The irony is that this narrator instructs, “let no other sounds disturb you,” but the later subjects will be impossible to ignore. For four minutes, one can sink into the strings and lounge, until the narrator gets stuck in a groove and the track topples into the next, oozing paranoia and fear over big beats that counteract the discomfort. And then the collection’s finest track, arriving early: “Earth Sheltered Hotel Type City Above Central Park.”
“I may be the last living man on earth,” intones the narrator. What disaster has occurred? Was humanity implicit? As the track unfolds, so do the clues. Midway through the piece, a new speaker declares, “they must change,” a phrase that will resurface and repeat at the end. But will we hear her warning? Palmer’s worry – implicit in the body of his work – is that we will not. The pensive piano underlines the point.
By track five, a heat ray has caused blackouts in New Jersey; the invasion is on! Given current events, such events seem normal, even benign. Science fiction can no longer compete with real life. “This could be our second dead planet,” one person tells another, making us wonder at what happened in the interim. Then the combination of “The Future You Planned For Is No Longer An Option” and “Wherever The Drones Go They Want To Leave” yanks listeners back to the current, unpleasant world.
The album is a cratedigger’s dream. Modern beats accompany 50s news quotes; orchestral swirls meet sampled loops. Time collapses in on itself, providing the impression of a post-apocalyptic DJ salvaging whatever remains playable. CLOUDWARMER unearths signs and warnings, prophecies and predictions. “Everything’s broken,” a woman laments. In these grooves, pop culture becomes not only reference, but history. “Where Will You Be When It Finally Happens?” asks Palmer in the penultimate piece. The sad, possible answer: the exact same place we are now. (Richard Allen)
a closer listen 