Pitchfork

It's always nice to witness a musician in a genuinely invigorated mood, especially when the artist in question is someone as productive as Prefuse 73. The world at large recently caught a glimpse of Prefuse 73 (aka Scott Herren) in such a mood, courtesy of a news update on Herren's website. The man's making some fairly bold statements, and the proclamations in question revolve around two albums in various stages of progress-- with the distinct possibility of more to come.

The first of these continues Prefuse's collaboration with former On! Air! Library! singer Claudia Deheza, who appears on the last track of the EP Reads the Books. Herren is currently "pre-mastering" their year-long sessions, and says on a post to his web site, "These recordings are literally the most beautiful and cherished things I've musically been involved in."

Then after describing the recording process (ah, good times!) and jonesing on Deheza's admittedly siren-like voice, he continues, "She's the star, I'm just the backbone. With her vast and open mind, she'll be a household name due to the fact that she can rock over anything and give it light. It is something I loved making and it's bulletproof from any outside opinions." Damn. And as if that wasn't enough, he concludes, "I have the illest dandruff ever." Exactly. Wait, what?

Next up, in the more gestational "writing" stage, is Herren's "most ambitious Savath y Savalas album ever (I guess)." And while he spends most of the time defending the record against generic labels like "world music", Herren can settle on a few words to describe the record's all-Castellano lyrics: "It's fucking sad." There's also talk in the post of a host of high-quality collaborators, but no specific names.

After touring intermittently through the past few months with Battles, Prefuse 73 has joined up with that band's utility soloist Tyondai Braxton and former Black Dice percussionist Hisham Bharoocha to form a new band. As intriguing as this as-yet nameless band might appear, Herren is quick to point out the following: "Don't expect anything. This is just music between three friends that want to do something we normally don't do."

Finally, Prefuse 73 has announced a foray into the film world. Spanish director Roger Gual, whose co-directorial debut, The Smoking Room (2002), won a Goya (Spain's national film award) for Best New Director, is working on a new feature entitled Remake, and Prefuse is recording songs for the project. The film's story concerns a group of friends who return to the commune in which, 30 years prior, they lived together-- only to find conflict with the lone friend who maintained his hippie ideals, and remained in the commune house, after everyone else had moved on. The film is slated for release in Spring 2006.