ELLIPSE ELKSHOW (CD) "PG: THE MIXTAPE: IMPRESSIONS ON LEAVING"

DEDICATED TO PG (the music and arts community,) Rudy Guthrie, Nano (happy birthday, brother,) and my AYoHH/Producer Chat homies.

The music contained on this album could definitely benefit from having a little context. ..

If you have never been to the city of Evansville, Indiana, then the references spread throughout this mixtape will not make a lick of sense. This music was produced by Ellipse Elkshow, aka Todd Elkshow Huber (aka myself), as a vehicle for releasing and expressing the emotions surrounding a very specific time and place that was layered in complicated feelings, littered with the need to actively shelf and avoid reacting emotionally to certain aspects of the situation as to cary out responsibilites, and was wrought with connections to every single creative person i know and respect in the town that I grew up in. The situation i'm referencing had the unique quality of being THE THING that i had spent nearly every waking second on for the past 6 years. If you are already aware, you can probably skip all this, but if you are reading this and aren't a part of our local art/music community, I am referring to a place called PG ("Pupienus's Glove") that was open from 03/15/13 - 12/31/18, in Evansville, Indiana.

For years now it was clear to me that the amount of time necessary to keep the gallery, music venue and cafe moving without the ability to afford hiring the number of people that were needed meant that the luxury of planning or even imagining life beyond or outside of working at/on/in/for PG was an imposibility ... up until a couple of weeks ago. I mention this because it had always been extremely apparent to me that were we to be forced to close up shop, It would be one hell of a shock to my heart/mind/life. Indeed, i was not wrong.

The music on this album came about when I was so overwhelmed and preoccupied with PG closing and all that entailed, that the final event - during which I was booked to play a set - was less than a week away, and I had not begun. I knew I couldn't just play a "usual" set (which is a funny thing to say, because i never ever play the same set twice,) nor could i just DJ other people's music and feel comfortable having that be my goodbye to the space that had meant so much to me (and to a whole entire community, as i've been told) ... a space that was my whole entire world for 6 years. So I decided to just think of what it might take to redirect every emotion that was overwhelming me and try to direct that back at the people who were listening/watching. So much sadness and anger, gratitude and love, hope and despair ... so, I didn't sleep for 4 or 5 days/nights and went as close to the edge as possible without stumbling over. From December 26th - 30th, i would come home from PG every night, either from cleaning/organizing/and tying up loose ends, or from the final week of shows (all of which felt oddly like valuable opportunities to tell people how much they mean to me, while at the same time it had this vague mourning feeling with lots of kind exaggerated kind words to me ... almost like I was attending my own funeral,) and would begin the nightly attempt to express what seemed unexpressable. It was lunacy, already, to feel so indescribably intense about what was happening, but even more absurd to think there was a way to communicate this to an audience.

That's what this album is... the pure insanity of having to end a thing that meant the world to me and so many other people, not because the function of the space was no longer needed, not because the project/experiment had come to an end, and not even because my health had deteriorated or because i could no longer pay my bills without begging and borrowing ... because that had happened years before ... but, because we could no longer fight of the soul-sucking/beauty-crushing tendencies of politically unethical and rigged economic system that places manipulation, selfishness, competition and greed before the needs of community, the importance of collaboration and cooperation, and the agony/ecstasy of working, creating, sharing and living with honesty, integrity, compassion, and devotion.

Speaking of money and property distinctions ...
Some of the songs contain a couple somewhat lengthy musical segments by artists that I truly respect (a step closer to a dj-mix in that sense, as the chunks are substantial enough to be well beyond what I would just call "sampling,") hence calling this a "mixtape" rather than an "album proper."
Some of the mixes are rougher and contain mistakes, this was a choice to not correct these after the fact ... as they are a testament to the emotion involved in the project.

[SIDE NOTE: And it was monumental, to me, to understand some of the creative impulses and inspirations i have with music lend themselves to be outside of mathematical timing structures. I used to always listen back to those segments, that I had deliberately caused to sound a certain way, and would feel disheartened and alienated that i had spent so much time, effort and care to create a sonic situation that i knew would be viewed as a mistake to the ears of many listeners who aren't so open to the predictable side of audio. I will no longer force myself to censor or correct these situations to fit within the comfort zone of those who have fetishized certain retro genres of music to the point that anything veering outside of those structures is "not real music" or "incorrect, immature, or unlistenable," on any artistic field that exists.]

This music is interpretive story telling based on true events, using any voice, instrument, or interface available..

The references to sadness and anger were lived through tears and struggle and rage. The sarcastic references to jazz were concerning the fact that, at the time, the information we had was that our community oriented art and music space was to be taken over by someone in the community that was known for acting dishonestly for their own gain, for playing dirty and always winning no matter the cost, someone who only let people know who they really were when they had decided they could no longer personally benefit from faking a friendship with them - and the only other option for them at that juncture, is war. We were told this person would be taking our building - not out of a lack of knowledge of what it was to so many people but more likely BECAUSE of this knowledge. And the only believable and realistic information came from those who had been offered jobs at the new establishment ... that it was to become "an upscale eatery, like a piano bar or jazz bar." Basically, the opposite of the sacred space we had created for over half a decade.

There are many samples throughout taken straight from the mouths of the people of this community, fellow musicians and artists, peers, and creative friends. These quotes are not used in an effort to prove how important or special the space we all created had become to so many of us, This already was common knowledge amongst the community that lived it. They serve to help tell the story more truthfully, not completely clouded by my own perceptions and emotional blinders.

I hope people who hear this enjoy it, or at least understand it and can value it in some manner.
The set that I played on 12/31/18 (the final PG show,) is contained in here, but this mixtape is twice as long, and has all the other stuff that there wasn't time for in a live context.
It will be up on Bandcamp to listen to or download for free, but i will be having a very limited number of cds made, and will be asking for a small donation for those, to cover costs.

This does mark the end of an era ...
of the space on Franklin street known as PG. (And fucking Rudy Guthrie ... man ... the purest embodiment of an Evansville creative ... and, when i was a real youngin, he was one of the first people i ever met that just kept it real, all the time, as though he didn't have a choice to be anything other than straight forward and honest ... and, if you know me now, you might also be aware of how important that was to me at a young age ....R.I.P. buddy!))
But it also marks the beginning of PG, as a family, a community, a art and media cooperative and business, and is the very first CD released specifically for the PionEAR Group (PG) Record label. It will be the second album to appear on that label, the first was/is the AYoHH18 Mixtape (The Evansville themed, A Year of Hip Hop 2018, collaborative Mixtape by producers, rappers, engineers, DJs, artists and organizers from Evansville.)

Thank you for everything.

LOVE
todd (ellipse elkshow) huber
01/2019

#WeAreEverywhereNow
#PGLives

"THANKS. WE LOVE YOU. THANKS."