Sugar was originally conceived by Harmony Korine to be a four-way split between Alvarius, Nyoukis, Will Oldham, and Absalom (Korine’s “White Metal” band). But Korine went MIA and Oldham hadn’t heard of the project when Dylan asked him about it later. By this point, Alvarius and Dylan had already finished their respective contributions and, rather than scrap the project altogether, decided to create a collaborative piece to take up the missing second side of the LP. Dylan sent over source material, which Alvarius cut, spliced and mixed in with his own sound sources (including some drunken answering machine messages from Mr. Korine).

So what’s the listener to expect from this stew? Those familiar with Alvarius B will find much of his range represented in his five songs: quasi-ethnic ramblings, wordless vocal ramblings (w/the TV on in the background), Django-esque guitar runs, and the absolutely amazing and unclassifiable “DJ South Bitch,” which is sort of all of the above. Dylan’s solo contribution continues in the vein of his Shield That Pierces the Earth album, with a simple sanshin (I didn't know what it was either. Check here for more info.) underpinning that eventually gives way to subtle tape manipulation, musique concrete, and generally engaging, but head scratching sounds of all sorts. The collaborative piece runs the gamut over its 24+ minute duration: broken electronics, field recordings near a gas ‘n’ sip (or some such), shortwave radio, actual songs (!), the aforementioned answering machine rant, ambient cafeteria noise, thunderstorms — you know, pretty much everything.

Edition of 500 copies. Hand silkscreened sleeves with two-color silkscreened insert printed by the kind and able folks at Parallel Lines Press. Nude cover rounds out the deal.


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