Dragon Chinese Cocktail Horoscope

Michael Zapruder

(Sidecho)

Pandora Radio took online music streaming to a whole new level with their Music Genome Project—tagging songs with over 400 musical attributes like “minor key tonality” and “subtle latin rhythms.”   One of the aural geniuses near the center of the project is Bay Area resident Michael Zapruder, who carries the is-this-my-dream-job title of “Music Curator” for Pandora.   No wonder his new solo release is like strolling through a contemporary showcase of some of the best creativity indie music has to offer.

This isn’t to say that the musical setting of Horoscope is scattered—though Zapruder admits that his job has made him hyper-aware of his musical dependencies. His mix evokes intelligent bits of Bob Dylan (“Harbor Saints”), Andrew Bird (“Second Sunday in Ordinary Time”), Granddaddy (“Ads for Feelings”) and surely hundreds more.

Zapruder mimics absolutely nothing—an original thematic collection that hovers near mournful piano, upright bass, and fluttered flutes.  Though Zapruder stands front and center, he calls on a cadre of more than thirty recording friends (including the Decemberists’ Nate Query), many who appeared on his previous record as the “Michael Zapruder’s Rain of Frogs.”

The true centerpiece of the project is Zapruders’ dream-sequence lyrics that narrate life clips with magnetic imagery and contemplative distance.   “Harbor Saints” protagonist has something to hide (“man can have a purpose that no angel would ever understand… walk with me and feel this knife blade that's pressed inside my sleeve”), “Happy New Year” is explanatory (“I was standing on the springs of a broken bed doing light historical research”), and phonetic phrase gems like “spiders in an ice cream cone” and “chinese church” sit in every song waiting for a quick ear.

But the lyrical winner is also Zapruder’s indulgence—at nearly nine minutes long, “Black Wine” floats inebriated through James Joyce-like episodes that deserve an award for verbal variety.  Pandora might call it “abstract narrative lyric textures.”  Whatever it is, it wins.