Aaron Rosenblum - State Fair! Volume 1: The Midway CS (Hank the Herald Angel Recordings, 2023)
A long-awaited release, highly anticipated amongst the freaks, punks, and scoundrels of Kentuckiana's archival field-recording underbelly, "State Fair!" has finally emerged in its glorious physical form and does not, of course, disappoint.
Now gather round, seekers of thrill, and lend an ear if you dare not fear "the truth" (*your weight or birth month), for the fairgrounds are abuzz with SOUND [echo: sound... sound...]. Sounds so vivid you can almost smell the thick, wet, cotton-candy-meets-agricultural-waste scented air of a dwindling mid-south summer as Rosenblum patiently guides his listeners through three hypnotically bustling phases of Amusement Concrète...
"Recorded August 21, 2013 at the Kentucky State Fair and Exposition Center, Louisville, Kentucky
Three portraits of idiomatic dialect captured at the Kentucky State Fair by field recordist, musician (Sapat, Son of Earth), and radio producer (Radio Presque Rien, Kentuckiana Sounds) Aaron Rosenblum. Three generations engaged in the great American project of separating fairgoers from their cash, trading money for personalized amusement, anger, frustration, and heroics.
The elderly guesser (pictured on the album cover) who, after a lifetime of estimating “your age, your weight, or what month you were born,” is also accidentally or intentionally something between an oracle and a philosopher who “might know the truth, but I might not.” The young game operator, already a master at both the game - lifting a prone glass bottle upright using only a fishing pole-like rig with a ring for a hook - and the art of making it look and sound easy while making the prizes seem worth the effort. The middle-aged dunking booth insult clown weaving a ceaseless stream of invective, criticism, and bile into a soliloquy of vocal tics, imitation sound effects, and horror-show laughter designed to hypnotize and enrage, with no need to mention the prizes on offer as the contestant’s real victory is the respite from Bozo's tirade as he hits the water."
Limited-release, high-quality C-24 with custom-printed photo card insert in hinged polypropylene clamshell case. Available online exclusively from Technique Street!