Shoe Collector

Theo Slavin has to be one of the weirdest and coolest dudes I know. He was nice enough to help me get into photography either on street or in studio. And in fact I owe him a lot towards how I take pictures today. At that time I was producing a lot of unhinged work. Theo, Sean Custer and I would walk around San Francisco and get as many snaps as I can. Those were the crazy days where I could just bounce around and try to hone in my skills through film photography. And to this day I still try to press that shutter as much as I can.

Despite that Theo has many projects on his belt (The Brankas, Balloon Time, etc.), but for some reason this newest project has me intrigued. I only say this because this was more of a conceptual piece to me. For as long as I've known Theo his approach and meanings to his pieces were clear, but foggy. And those meanings never needed to make sense. This is what this record showcases to me. This shit absolutely does not make any sense and I love that about the record.

Theo started out as a grind to record something everyday be it loops, beats, noise and whatever to somehow make them into songs. A lot of cool ideas are manifested with this practice and the movement of it all is oddly smooth. You can hear the influences of Nick Reinhardt here, but somehow has an industrial free jazz approach to the compositions that he can certainly call his own. You can hear the movement start to gain traction, but out of nowhere suffocating fart sounds of a low G note nearly blows up my ANKER speaker.

It's amazing to know that a person like Theo can develop such a neurotic composition, but end up having it move at a pace that is breathable to us nerds that love the suffocation of noise. I hear what he's doing here and for the most part am able to follow, but there are certain times where I can get a bit lost and then end up back on track again. This is a record you'd want to grab if you're a fan of experimental sounds like this.


Grab the tape HERE


- Arthur