rat092: dax pierson "nerve bumps (a queer divine dissatisfaction)"

rat092: dax pierson " nerve bumps (a queer divine dissatisfaction"

2021 - LP/CD/CS/DL

OUT NOW!

 

Dax Pierson’s first full-length studio solo album is coming to LP/ CD / CS / and digital via San Francisco’s Electronic powerhouse imprint Dark Entries Records and Oakland’s Ratskin Records collective. Dax Pierson, an Oakland, CA based electronic music underground legend has pushed the boundaries of experimental electronic music once again with his two-plus years in the making soul-moving, full-length experimental electronic opus “Nerve Bumps; A Queer Divine Dissatisfaction’’.

On “Nerve Bumps” Pierson blends hip hop, funk, and jazz sensibilities, with complex, dark, harrowing percussion, John Carpenter-esque arpeggios, 808 trap/anti trap-influenced drum programming, musique concrete conceptual experiments, nodding to later Talk Talk and fellow queer producers Matmos, who’s new album, Pierson contributed to Futuristic synthesizers cut through layers of fog, as Pierson’s heavy, bombastic drum programming bridges new worlds within themselves, pulling rhythmic influences from sources as diverse as Prince
and The Revolution to Moor Mother, and Ras G.

For an album that’s mostly instrumental, Pierson tells a complicated, nuanced and inspiring story, which is both a privilege and a gift to experience, but only on Piersons’ terms. Tracks such as “I Slay The Pain” reiterate once again that although Pierson has to live his life as a quadriplegic, often in a motorized chair, this, nor any other singular experience defines him as an artist nor a person, and this is the story, one of the stories told within the near forty minutes of “Nerve Bumps”. Throughout the record, Pierson mainly utilizes the voice as additional instruments, and yet even with very few discernible lyrics, the story’s narrative and timing is never lost. Honesty, empathy, and humanity bleed through the speakers like a dark liquid just underneath the skin’s surface. For Pierson, music is his lifeblood, both as a creator and a listener. The epic, cinematic synth heavy “For The Angels”, plays as a masterclass in heart and body moving rhythms and undulating synthesizers, the only track from “Neve Bumps” to be
previously released (albeit in live form), takes on an even bigger life in this studio version. Pierson methodically moves us through unknown landscapes and we discover a path into his world, and we now have the privilege to peer inside. Pierson’s breathtakingly complex and endlessly rewarding sonic worlds created on “Nerve Bumps” utilize self-constructed systems, custom designed and integrated to tell his story with as few creative limitations as possible. “Nerve Bumps” realizes this to his fullest in a spectacular show of force of contemporary electronic prose, a magnum opus within Pierson’s musical lexicon.

The album’s title, “Nerve Bumps: A Queer Divine Dissatisfaction” which references a quote from American dancer and choreographer Mathra Graham, who once stated, “No artist is pleased... There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.” This quote, which addresses a universal conundrum amongst artists of all disciplines, also served as Pierson’s personal manta throughout the two year writing and recording process of “Nerve Bumps”.


Pierson used this mantra as a mental and psychological weapon against the pain, and physical limitations of living as a music producer who also happens to be quadriplegic, as well as the abnormal and often violent peaks and troughs of producing as a Queer, Black Disabled artist in America, as a member of the human race in a crumbling world being torn apart at the seems by capitalism, ableism white supremacy. The album’s cover displays a painting of the same name, titled simply “A Queer Divine Dissatisfaction” by Pierson’s partner, renowned multidisciplinary visual artist Chuck Nanney. The title serves as a conceptual throughway through Pierson’s idiosyncratic processes in the creation of both “Nerve Bumps” as well as validation of his own experience as both a musical inspiration to many as well as a survivor.

“It’s the thing that I can’t not do, it’s the thing that keeps me going. Without this I don’t really know what I would have”

- Dax Pierson

The near-impossible and often horrifying experience of completing “Nerve Bumps” under the painful and exhausting realities of an almost constant schedule of dialysis, hospitalizations, surgeries, and recovery periods where he cannot produce, Pierson has been forced to constantly re-adopt and reinvent his relationship to making music. Pierson directly confronts the listener with an act of solidarity to the disabled community at large with the track “Snap” “Snap”, the album’s shortest, and darkest and perhaps most abstract track, begins with sputtering orchestral swells which slowly become encapsulated by splintering shards of Pierson’s voice - cracking, layered and transposed across multiple spaces sonic and mental spaces, shifting between demonic growls and hymn-like chants, each with their own architecture holding the contents of pain, change, recovery, resilience, and triumph.

”Snap” , a continuation/remix of Pierson’s 2019’s, “A Snap of The Neck” which Pierson iterates the phrase, “Don't take your physical abilities for granted, for you lose them with a snap of the neck” - a sort of mantra referring to a 2005 accident which partially paralyzed Pierson. Although the album’s shortest track, clocking at just over a minute, “Snap” serves as a lesson about Pierson’s relentless determination to relearn new music production methods, as well as share his experience with losing certain physical abilities.

“I had to wait for certain technologies to exist” -Dax Pierson

Pierson’s music mimics his personality in many ways; it’s generous, robust, warm, nuanced, and detail oriented, and with “Nerve Bumps” we get the full scope of Pierson’s deep-seated investigations into his musical and philosophical practice and the existential and very real frustration of a world that was designed for him.

The albums’ epic, near twelve-minute closer serves as a beautiful distillation of the complex web of experiences and emotions that unfold throughout a careful listen of “Nerve Bumps” . The album’s closing, and longest track, “NTHNG FKS U HRDR THN TM” is a perfect distillation of the complexities of human emotion displayed across the near forty-minute sonic journey of “Nerve Bumps” The warm, heavy, punching synthesizer programming bends us down a psychedelic spiraling slope with a masters hand. For a largely instrumental album, Piersons’ uncanny ability to turn musical spaces into their own
worlds, packed with information and rich with discovery and reward, allow us the privilege into the psychological realm of Pierson’s own personal electrified Afro-Futurism. “Nerve Bumps” is Pierson’s magnum opus to date. The seminal work from one of the bravest artists we know. We hope it transports you sonically, conceptually, and spiritually across as many spaces and rhizomes of beauty as much as it has us. 

credits

Releases February 26, 2021

Nerve Bumps was mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The front cover features a painting of pink and green horizontal stripes by Pierson’s partner, artist Chuck Nanney. A photograph of Pierson’s wheelchair by Lenny Gonzalez graces the back sleeve. Dax’s guiding mantra throughout this journey has been a quote from choreographer Martha Graham: “No artist is pleased… There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”

 

BUY FROM BANDCAMP

Nerve Bumps (A Queer Divine Dissatisfaction)

Dax Pierson

Dax Pierson’s debut solo LP is coming via San Francisco’s Electronic powerhouse imprint Dark Entries Records and Oakland’s Ratskin Records collective. Pierson, an Oakland-based underground legend, has pushed the boundaries of experimental electronic music with his soul-moving opus Nerve Bumps; A Queer Divine Dissatisfaction, an endeavor two long
Dax Pierson’s debut solo LP is coming via San Francisco’s Electronic powerhouse imprint Dark Entries Records and Oakland’s Ratskin Records collective. Pierson, an Oakland-based underground legend, has pushed the boundaries of experimental electronic music with his soul-moving opus Nerve Bumps; A Queer Divine Dissatisfaction, an endeavor two long years in the making. On Nerve Bumps, Pierson blends hip hop, jazz, John Carpenter-esque arpeggios, trap/anti trap-influenced percussion, and musique concrete-informed experiments. Futuristic synthesizers cut through layers of fog as Pierson’s bombastic drum programming forges new worlds within themselves.
Pierson tells a complicated and inspiring story on Nerve Bumps, which is both a privilege and a gift to experience. Tracks such as “I Slay The Pain” reiterate that although Pierson has to live his life as a quadriplegic, this does not define him as an artist or as a person. The cinematic “For The Angels” plays as a masterclass in heart and body-moving rhythms and undulating synthesizers. Pierson directly confronts the listener on “Snap”, an act of solidarity with the disabled community. Sputtering orchestral swells become encapsulated by splintering shards of Pierson’s voice, evoking his relentless determination to learn new music production methods as well as share his experience with losing certain physical abilities. The album’s closing track, “NTHNG FKS U HRDR THN TM”, is a perfect distillation of the varied emotions explored on the album. Warm, heavy synths masterfully guide us down a psychedelic slope through the track’s twelve minutes. On Nerve Bumps, honesty, empathy, and humanity bleed through the speakers like a dark liquid just beneath the skin’s surface. For Pierson, music is his lifeblood, both as a creator and a listener.
Nerve Bumps was mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The front cover features a painting of pink and green horizontal stripes by Pierson’s partner, artist Chuck Nanney. A photograph of Pierson’s wheelchair by Lenny Gonzalez graces the back sleeve. Dax’s guiding mantra throughout this journey has been a quote from choreographer Martha Graham: “No artist is pleased… There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”
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Dax Pierson’s first full-length studio solo album is coming to LP/ CD / CS / and digital via SanFrancisco’s Electronic powerhouse imprint Dark Entries Records and Oakland’s Ratskin Records collective. Dax Pierson, an Oakland, CA based electronic music underground legend has pushed the boundaries of experimental electronic music once again with his

Dax Pierson’s first full-length studio solo album is coming to LP/ CD / CS / and digital via SanFrancisco’s Electronic powerhouse imprint Dark Entries Records and Oakland’s Ratskin Records collective. Dax Pierson, an Oakland, CA based electronic music underground legend has pushed the boundaries of experimental electronic music once again with his two-plus years in the making soul-moving, full-length experimental electronic opus “Nerve Bumps; A Queer Divine Dissatisfaction’’.

On “Nerve Bumps” Pierson blends hip hop, funk, and jazz sensibilities, with complex, dark, harrowing percussion, John Carpenter-esque arpeggios, 808 trap/anti trap-influenced drum programming, musique concrete conceptual experiments, nodding to later Talk Talk and fellow queer producers Matmos, who’s new album, Pierson contributed to Futuristic synthesizers cut through layers of fog, as Pierson’s heavy, bombastic drum programming bridges new worlds within themselves, pulling rhythmic influences from sources as diverse as Prince and The Revolution to Moor Mother, and Ras G.

For an album that’s mostly instrumental, Pierson tells a complicated, nuanced and inspiring story, which is both a privilege and a gift to experience, but only on Piersons’ terms. Tracks such as “I Slay The Pain” reiterate once again that although Pierson has to live his life as a quadriplegic, often in a motorized chair, this, nor any other singular experience defines him as an artist nor a person, and this is the story, one of the stories told within the near forty minutes of “Nerve Bumps”. Throughout the record, Pierson mainly utilizes the voice as additional instruments, and yet even with very few discernible lyrics, the story’s narrative and timing is never lost. Honesty, empathy, and humanity bleed through the speakers like a dark liquid just underneath the skin’s surface. For Pierson, music is his lifeblood, both as a creator and a listener. The epic, cinematic synth heavy “For The Angels”, plays as a masterclass in heart and body moving rhythms and undulating synthesizers, the only track from “Neve Bumps” to be previously released (albeit in live form), takes on an even bigger life in this studio version. Pierson methodically moves us through unknown landscapes and we discover a path into his world, and we now have the privilege to peer inside. Pierson’s breathtakingly complex and endlessly rewarding sonic worlds created on “Nerve Bumps” utilize self-constructed systems, custom designed and integrated to tell his story with as few creative limitations as possible. “Nerve Bumps” realizes this to his fullest in a spectacular show of force of contemporary electronic prose, a magnum opus within Pierson’s musical lexicon.

The album’s title, “Nerve Bumps: A Queer Divine Dissatisfaction” which references a quote from American dancer and choreographer Mathra Graham, who once stated, “No artist is pleased... There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.” This quote, which addresses a universal conundrum amongst artists of all disciplines, also served as Pierson’s personal manta throughout the two year writing and recording process of “Nerve Bumps”. Pierson used this mantra as a mental and psychological weapon against the pain, and physical limitations of living as a music producer who also happens to be quadriplegic, as well as the abnormal and often violent peaks and troughs of producing as a Queer, Black Disabled artist in America, as a member of the human race in a crumbling world being torn apart at the seems by capitalism, ableism white supremacy. The album’s cover displays a painting of the same name, titled simply “A Queer Divine Dissatisfaction” by Pierson’s partner, renowned multidisciplinary visual artist Chuck Nanney. The title serves as a conceptual throughway through Pierson’s idiosyncratic processes in the creation of both “Nerve Bumps” as well as validation of his own experience as both a musical inspiration to many as well as a survivor.

“It’s the thing that I can’t not do, it’s the thing that keeps me going. Without this I don’t really know what I would have”

  • Dax Pierson

The near-impossible and often horrifying experience of completing “Nerve Bumps” under the painful and exhausting realities of an almost constant schedule of dialysis, hospitalizations, surgeries, and recovery periods where he cannot produce, Pierson has been forced to constantly re-adopt and reinvent his relationship to making music. Pierson directly confronts the listener with an act of solidarity to the disabled community at large with the track “Snap” “Snap”, the album’s shortest, and darkest and perhaps most abstract track, begins with sputtering orchestral swells which slowly become encapsulated by splintering shards of Pierson’s voice - cracking, layered and transposed across multiple spaces sonic and mental spaces, shifting between demonic growls and hymn-like chants, each with their own architecture holding the contents of pain, change, recovery, resilience, and triumph.

”Snap” , a continuation/remix of Pierson’s 2019’s, “A Snap of The Neck” which Pierson iterates the phrase, “Don't take your physical abilities for granted, for you lose them with a snap of the neck” - a sort of mantra referring to a 2005 accident which partially paralyzed Pierson. Although the album’s shortest track, clocking at just over a minute, “Snap” serves as a lesson about Pierson’s relentless determination to relearn new music production methods, as well as share his experience with losing certain physical abilities.

““I had to wait for certain technologies to exist” -Dax Pierson

Pierson’s music mimics his personality in many ways; it’s generous, robust, warm, nuanced, and detail oriented, and with “Nerve Bumps” we get the full scope of Pierson’s deep-seated investigations into his musical and philosophical practice and the existential and very real frustration of a world that was designed for him.

The albums’ epic, near twelve-minute closer serves as a beautiful distillation of the complex web of experiences and emotions that unfold throughout a careful listen of “Nerve Bumps” . The album’s closing, and longest track, “NTHNG FKS U HRDR THN TM” is a perfect distillation of the complexities of human emotion displayed across the near forty-minute sonic journey of “Nerve Bumps” The warm, heavy, punching synthesizer programming bends us down a psychedelic spiraling slope with a masters hand. For a largely instrumental album, Piersons’ uncanny ability to turn musical spaces into their own worlds, packed with information and rich with discovery and reward, allow us the privilege into the psychological realm of Pierson’s own personal electrified Afro-Futurism. “Nerve Bumps” is Pierson’s magnum opus to date. The seminal work from one of the bravest artists we know. We hope it transports you sonically, conceptually, and spiritually across as many spaces and rhizomes of beauty as much as it has us. credits releases February 26, 2021

Nerve Bumps was mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The front cover features a painting of pink and green horizontal stripes by Pierson’s partner, artist Chuck Nanney. A photograph of Pierson’s wheelchair by Lenny Gonzalez graces the back sleeve. Dax’s guiding mantra throughout this journey has been a quote from choreographer Martha Graham: “No artist is pleased… There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”

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    Adhesion 3:39
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    For The Angels 4:43
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    Snap 1:15
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    I Slay The Pain 4:22
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    Catch 3:22
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    Kelflex 4:02
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    For 2_24 3:03
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    NTHNG FKS U HRDR THN TM 11:42
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"NERVE BUMPS" on Pitchfork's Best Electronic Music of 2021

"A former member of Anticon-affiliated groups Subtle and 13&God, Dax Pierson has been involved in the Bay Area music scene since the early ’00s. His solo discography in all that time might have been more voluminous, had a 2005 van accident on tour not left him paralyzed from the torso down. It took him years to develop a compositional method adapted to his disability, and it’s tempting to say you can hear that gestation in his debut solo album, Nerve Bumps (A Queer Divine Satisfaction), which overflows with ideas. Created on iPads and Ableton Live, the album flows like the output of a machine with a mind of its own. Elements of techno, acid, industrial, rap, and synth pop collide and combine, spinning off fractured beats into uneven time signatures and flurries of post-classical melody. Yet for all its turbulence and contrasting emotions, it is a remarkably focused sound, sure in its purpose as it carves a twisting path to the stunning finale of “NTHNG FKS U HRDR THN TM,” a 12-minute descent into some of the headiest, most introspective dark ambient of the year. – Philip Sherburne"

DAX PIERSON "NERVE BUMPS" in Pitchfork - Feb 2021 

"NERVE BUMPS" Pitchfork Review :  7.7 

"There are referents: “Keflex,” named for an antibiotic, tangles what sound like guitars tangling around what sound like Linn drums, for a healthy reminder that Prince was a Cocteau Twins fan. It also grinds as heavy as anything unearthed by, say, Long Island Electrical Systems. The coldwave of “Catch” warms itself by the fire of blown-out snares that occasionally shoot off sparks of trap-ish hi-hats. “I Slay the Pain” is aptly named: Percussion at the top end pays tribute to that finger-snap sound that’s still the queen of gay house, with a deeper-than-deep bass and healing piano chords. “NOTHING FKS U HRDR THN TM” closes up with six minutes of interstellar travel into a clearing Angelo Badalamenti might recognize, and so might Lee “Scratch” Perry, and so might KMRU—a circle of Black techno and jazz and dub traditions made new." - Jesse Dorris, Pitchfork 

'NERVE BUMPS" Resident Advisor Review: 

"Pierson deals with the fallout of such events directly on Nerve Bumps (A Queer Divine Dissatisfaction). Previous versions of some of these tracks appeared on a live album, Live in Oakland, released back in 2019. The interlude "Snap" is taken from the poignant "A Snap Of The Neck," off the former record, where he murmurs in a gravelly voice, "Don't take your physical abilities for granted. For you can lose them—at the snap of the neck." "For The Angels," meanwhile, addresses the Bay Area scene's collective trauma, composed in remembrance of the late victims of the Ghost Ship fire. Elements of Pierson's road to recovery are written across the album's track titles, and transmuted into what he terms "mid-fi" epiphanies. The twittering, upbeat melodies of '90s Autechre show their face on the loopy beats of "Keflex," a cut named after an antibiotic he used throughout his treatment. On "For 2_24," written in honor of the anniversary of his injury, somber notes trundle through ambient drones, but there are wisps of optimism in the traveling chords that lead the track out. Pierson paints the landscape of emotions experienced in the near 20 years since his accident with apparent ease. The longest track on the album, "NTHING FKS U HRDR THN TM" (or "nothing fucks you harder than time"), is a sonic black hole that's easy to get lost in. It captures the vast and daunting nature of time that few are willing to confront—until it's too late." - Kiana Mickles,  Resident Advisor 

 DAX PIERSON in XTRA MAGAZINE "Dax Pierson's Experimental Techno Chases (A Queer Divine Dissatisfaction)" 

“Since I am not a lyricist or songwriter it’s a way for me to express that reality of my life,” he says. “I do find it therapeutic, especially the ‘Treading Water’ piece. I struggle to hold my neck up every day because of the pain, so it was a cathartic, creative way of getting out some of these issues. It’s also a way to let folks who are part of the disability community know that I’m one of them.”  

The album’s title is embedded with meaning for Pierson and his partner. Nanney originally used the name for a gallery exhibition in 2018 at the same time the musician was working on his own project. Becoming a creative mantra for both artists, it is based on a quote from the celebrated dance choreographer Martha Graham: “No artist is pleased,” Graham once told the choreographer Agnes de Mille. “There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”  

Pierson believes the hardships he has experienced throughout his life have made him better equipped for the road to physical and mental recovery. He shares empathy with queer, closeted artists in the world of hip hop who may never come out due to the pressures placed on them by the music industry. Thankfully, he learned to be himself long ago, and has even mended a relationship with his 80-year-old father."  - Jesse Locke, XTRA MAGAZINE  

"NERVE BUMPS" in "Seven Essential Releases This Week" on Bandcamp Daily  

"The title of the new album from acclaimed Oakland electronic artist Dax Pierson is taken from something Martha Graham once said: “No artist is pleased. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.” Pierson is well-versed in pressing on despite great odds: in 2005, while on tour with the Anticon act Subtle, he was involved in a van accident that damaged his spinal cord and rendered him a quadriplegic. He started his career over from scratch, learning to produce using a laptop and iPad apps. His riveting 2019 live album opens with the repeated phrase: “Don’t take your abilities for granted—you could lose them with the snap of a neck,” before plunging into a series of murky, enveloping tracks that have more in common with drone than dance music. Nerve Bumps exists at the opposite end of the spectrum: a bright, euphoric dance record that feels both jubilant and triumphant. Album opener “Adhesion” is a stunner: a giddy techno scrambler that pauses for a few minor-key chord stabs before re-entering the quarter-note fray. “Catch” is a moody, pulsing number with the eeriness of EBM, and on “Keflex,” synths blister and pop over a frenetic melody line. But Pierson saves the tour de force for the end: the suffocating, 12-minute “NTHNG FKS U HRDR THN TM.” A thick pool of groaning electronics, the song builds and swells ominously until it finally opens up to reveal a gentle, beautiful melody bubbling beneath the noise. In that way, it feels like a summary statement for the record as a whole: the moments of grace and possibility that emerge from the darkest of circumstances." - J. Edward Keyes, Bandcamp  

 "NERVE BUMPS" Review in Radical Art Review  

"That is what art should do after all. It should communicate an artist's view of the world, to their audience, in as universal a way as possible, so it can be understood by anyone who cares to listen. Pierson's ability to do this is testament to his abilities as a musician and composer. He creates atmospheres that absorb the listener and immerse them in the artist's reality. We're never going to be able to experience what another person experiences, but a good artist can at least explain it to us. Pierson does just that.  

With Nerve Bumps A Queer Divine Dissatisfaction, Dax Pierson has created a beautiful series of musical pieces that will inspire and enlighten. If you're brave enough to listen closely you might even learn something." - Richard Marcus, Radical Art Review  

"NERVE BUMPS" in THE VINYL FACTORY  "Pierson Draws On Hip Hop, Jazz, Musique Concrete In Debut Solo Studio Album"" 

"NERVE BUMPS"   Reviewed on KFJC 

"NERVE BUMPS" in "The P.A. Review"  Passive Aggressive 

DAX PIERSON in 48 HILLS  " BEST OF: Support These Artists Directly" 

DAX PIERSON in  NEW NOISE MAGAZINE : "Ratskin Double Feature"  

"Pierson’s Nerve Bumps combines hip-hop, funk, and jazz with futuristic synth to create his unique electronic sound. Despite the album being mostly instrumental, Pierson manages to convey a complicated, nuanced, and inspiring story. Vocals are used mainly as additional instruments, yet the narrative and timing is never lost, with the emotions of honesty, empathy, and humanity bleeding through the speakers throughout the record." - New Noise Magazine  

"NERVE BUMPS" Review in The Concrete Bunker   

"NERVE BUMPS" in XLR8R 

PREVIOUS PRESS

Dax Pierson "Live In Oakland" in  Bandcamp Daily  "Best Electronic Music On Bandcamp -  Jul 2019" 

"The history behind this record is dramatic. Among various other roles, Bay Area musician Dax Pierson is an affiliate of the Anticon collective—he was in Subtle with Adam “Doseone” Drucker and Jeffrey “Jel” Logan. In 2005, he was severely paralyzed following a road accident on tour with that group. His work since then has been an experimental process of finding out what he can do with his limited movement, using iPad apps and other tools, and this extraordinary document shows just how sonically ambitious he’s become in those intervening 14 years. He references this history directly on the record’s opener, which revolves around a layered voice intoning, “Don’t take your physical abilities for granted, for you can lose them with a snap of the neck,” before building up an orchestra of disjointed sounds. And through the following seven, mostly lengthy, tracks he creates a very personal vision through drones, distorted hip-hop beats and disembodied voices; clearly, this is a talent that can’t be contained." - Bandcamp  

Dax Pierson feature  in  KQED ARTS:  "Dax Pierson's New Album Confronts a Near-Death Experience and Turbulent Recovery"

"Visceral and stirring, Live in Oakland is Pierson's way of clearing his throat and letting people know that he's still here—and why he's been laying low. It doesn't paint a falsely inspirational portrait of surviving a near-death experience or living with disabilities. Instead, the album allows listeners to course through the messy, uncomfortable and sometimes ugly emotions that have been part of his recovery process. Pierson is already working on his next album—which he says could take a more poppy form, gesturing to an entire shelf of Prince vinyl he's been collecting since the age of 12." 

Dax Pierson Cover Story in East Bay Express :  East Bay Express Cover Story: "The Musical Reinvention Of Dax Pierson"  

"The song "Treading Water" samples a recording from a doctor's appointment in which Pierson is updated on the degenerating condition of his spine. He's developed a bone spur, and the third and fourth vertebrae of his lumbar spine are slowly being fused together — but the upside of a degenerating spine is that a loss of motion means the eventual arthritis will be pain-free. He's treading water both as a physical body and creative force, losing as much ground as he gains. It's an open question whether or not technology will someday enable him to swim upstream, even though he's already ahead of the curve.  

The eerie rhythms lurch erratically, not unlike the forward march of science against the suffering left waiting for its cure, before a closing number of throbbing, danceable techno swings and grooves to the wheelchair percussion. Elsewhere, there are sweeping, almost orchestral oceans of synth drones, painting abstract sound poems in the air." 

DAX PIERSON on The House List Podcast  

DAX PIERSON "Live In Oakland" Review in Pitchfork "Great Records You Might Have Missed Summer 2019" 

DAX PIERSON "Live In Oakland" Review at I Heart Noise  "Live In Oakland By Cristopher Michael Barnes" - August 2019  

DAX PIERSON "Soulpsang" + Micro Interview on Resonance FM / ATTN MAGAZINE Podcast #24 - July 2019 

DAX PIERSON "Live In Oakland" review in The Moderns Blog - August 2019  

DAX PERSON "Live In Oakland" review in  Cassette Gods - Feb 2020  

DAX PERSON "Live In Oakland" review in KFJC - Feb 2020