2004 : 37 "Exeter Ending" by Food

---

I was introduced to this track by the poet (and Aught Music contributor) Eric Burger at one of our "listening parties," and I've been forever grateful. Eric and I both have an interest in the "moves" that pieces of artwork can make, especially those slippery artworks that change from one shape to another. Jazz and improvised musics are great for this purpose, and if asked to produce an example I might point to this piece from Norwegian quartet Food. For its first few minutes it sounds like a soundtrack to the Mesozoic Era: all primordial slime and calls from weird insects. But a few minutes in it's found its way into a strange metallic groove: it's as though a band of automata have emerged from the swamp to thrill the dawning world with funky robotic jazz. And then in its final moments it transforms again, into some kind of squawking contraption: the automata folding up and lifting off into space, perhaps. Watching this piece "move" from the uber-primal to the weirdly futuristic, makes it feel a little bit like you've just spent seven minutes looking out the window of a very nicely designed time machine. —Jeremy Bushnell Listen: Food >> "Exeter Ending"