BLOTO is going to be a bit of a change-up here, at least in style, but not really in mood or vibe. Hard to say how to present it: Jazz, dark jazz, jazz hop, experimental or what not. It’s just Bloto, a side project for a bunch of jazz heads from Poland. It’s impossible to fully know what to expect sometimes clicking open the thumbnails on Youtube. They have their digital reasons for serving up suggestions the way they do. This one is probably just regional by design. I’ve listened to so much Eastern European music in recent months that if you’re a band east of Paris, you’re probably going to show up in my feed. Some works better for me than others. This works just fine. It’s not heavily processed. The whole production sounds a lot more organic, like maybe an omnidirectional microphone was hung in a room, and then maybe they looped in the keyboards after the fact. It’s low-key, but not especially mellow. There is a darkness and an edge… a foreboding if you will. It’s super cool and it’s my soundtrack for this morning.

Where is the rest of the world outside my bedroom today? Hard to say, really. We got through all the ceremonial stuff yesterday with no violence on any grotesque scale. There were protests here and there in various state capitols. Windows were smashed at a Democratic Party headquarters somewhere or another. There were more arrests in the ongoing Capitol invasion case. There were more people carrying on in the digital realm about what it all means.

What does it mean?

It means that despite any dancing in the streets or at home in parlors or wherever, we’ve got a long road ahead. Celebration was definitely called for. People need to allow themselves a little joy. They might want to temper their optimism though. I tempered mine. There’s not going to be any real peace for some time to come. Not for the foreseeable future. How bad shit gets out there and at what point is anyone’s guess. Trying to predict the future and waiting to exhale isn’t sustainable for me though. I’m too old for this shit. This is where you’ll find me, mining the streets and digital domains for little treasures.