Love (Pt. 4), or, Goodbye Big Sleep, Hello Little Death

Toilet Guppies' endeavour to show you where to look among the garbage and the flowers of the love song continues, this time bringing us to the nu-hippie end of the spectrum, care of a mystic ode to cumming. That's right:

Akron/Family: «River» (live) [mp3]

Kurt Weill sang that «Love is a spark / Lost in the dark,» Devendra Banhart that «Within the dark, there is a shine / One tiny spark, that's yours and mine.» Toilet Guppies isn't one to disagree, but as far as Akron/Family is concerned that spark doesn't go gently into the night, but ignites raging flames—from the fire down below to the firing synapses in a blissed-out brain, purifying your jaded, corrupt and suffering self in the blazing immolation of self-absorption that is love.

Wow. OK, so that was a bit much, even for a Toilet Guppies rave, but you get the picture. This is the tide of bubbling joy that cannot be stemmed, by mountains or by self-composure, by drought or by tradition, by dams or by VD. Fitting, then, that the title of Akron/Family's love song is «River».

Two years before coming out (pun intended) with «River», the Family had backed Michael Gira as the Angels Of Light on «Black River Song», with Gira intoning,

Black River runs, beneath this ground
Black River flows forever, but he makes no sound
He runs through me here and now
And he runs through your children too
He runs through every man, woman, living thing
…
Black River's born in the mouths of old and dying men
Black River flows through the belly of everyone
Fading, growing, fading, flowing
Breathing, leaving, growing, receiving

The Family's river, however, is altogether less black, bleak and inevitable:

And you are no longer a river to me
And you are no longer a river to me
Though your coursing remain eager to acquaint me
And you are no longer a docile stream
And you are no longer a docile stream
Though your patience proves you've been to ease

And once this spark met kindling
Forgets its gentle ambling
Becoming heat, becoming steam
Becoming luminescent glee
Atoms splinter, sparkling
Alive and nimble symmetry
And all along, this glistening
Blankets, wee, and everything
Shadows dance triumphantly
A wordless whisper sighs and pleas
Little deaths envelop thee
You and I and a flame make three
You and I and a flame make three
You and I and a flame make three

And you are not a glassy bay to me
And you are not a glassy bay to me
Though my tired fleet abides in your gentle breeze
And you are now a vast and open sea
And my mind travels you endlessly
And you beckon, toss and toss and swallow me

And once this spark met kindling
Forgets its gentle ambling
Becoming heat, becoming steam
Becoming luminescent glee
Atoms splinter, sparkling
Alive and nimble symmetry
And all along, this glistening
Blankets, we, and everything
Shadows dance triumphantly
A wordless whisper sighs and pleas
Little deaths envelop thee
You and I and a flame makes three
You and I and a flame make three
You and I and a flame make three

Is this fire an eternal flame, or just a spark in the dark? Who cares—as any mystic worth his mettle knows, the present is without extension, and so infinite. And love is love is love is love. Which, some would have it, is the opposite of (or the cure for) the fear of death. So to hell with the big sleep; for now la petite mort is where it's at, baby, let it envelop thee! There's no present moment, no now like that quavering or quaking little death. This is the way the world ends: Not with a bang but a wordless whisper—only to begin anew, life after death. Reserection!

Let love in, then let it out, in torrents of pleasure juice—much like a river. You know it makes sense. Just remember to do it with a partner; you and a flame only make two, and it's three that is the magic number.

[The above mp3 is extracted from Akron/Family's performance at All Tomorrow's Parties New York in 2009, as recorded by WFMU. For the definitive version, less rushed and meandering, you can buy the group's 2009 studio album Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free here.]