released September 22, 2005

Jak Locke - Broken Crescent
Copyright © (P) 2005 Jak Locke

Avant Gardner appears on found drums on "Cyanide Sunbeam" and "Scripted Failure"

Total Sonic Chaos
Released 9/22/05
Produced by Jak Locke

all songs, music, lyrics Copyright © ® 2005 Jak Locke
but feel free to distribute freely as is

that day is a day of wrath
a day of trouble and distress
a day of wasteness and desolation
a day of darkness and gloominess
a day of clouds and thick darkness

i don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees
louisiana is a city that is largely under water
underprivileged anyway, so this — this is working very well for them
i might likely have to punch him
it looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed
for god’s sake shut up and send us somebody
are you, or anybody who reports to you, considering resignation?
where's the beef?

THOUGHTS FROM JAK LOCKE:
"The sky is falling!"

Some of them almost sound as though they can't contain their joy. Not all of them of course; the tone of Christmas glee in those that do, though, more than make up for those that don't.

"The sky is falling!"

If you're one of the lucky, you get very familiar with the local news media and the rocks in the highway gravel. If you're one of the lucky, you'll have plenty of time to count rocks. And then fourteen hours later you can count cracks in the ceiling painted in shimmering television blue at the motel with the same news repeating every six hours with different voices while you try desperately, futilely, to convince yourself this isn't as bad as it feels, that it can be like a...like a vacation! A vacation. Yes. A vacation that you may be on for a very long time. A vacation where half of it's spent wondering who's still alive and the rest spent wondering if there's enough left to even think about heading back east. A vacation where an up to date satellite image of your neighborhood might be worth selling your soul to see after a few days.

Sounds like a fun vacation.

Or you might just stay home. Where you'll at least know exactly what's happening and what's happened. Where the gridlock is everyone else's problem. Where the wind screams like a butchered girl for hours and hours on end and the walls breathe harder than you do and you realize after the third day with no power precisely how tenuous and slick the grasp of society is on modern civilization. Where there is no "good area" anymore because the crashing you hear is your neighbor's door being kicked in by the people you moved here to get away from.

This is your melting pot. Where's your disconnected concern for the disadvantaged now? Where's your political correctness now?

From the furthest hotel to the Convention Center, people whisper, wail, scream, "I can't believe this!"

I can't believe that. After all, it should have been expected. Nothing at all that happened really should have come as a surprise. Well, not for any of us anyway--we not only acknowledged our city's danger, corruption and ineptitude, we bathed and exalted and took pride in it. The only surprise was that it got us this time.

"The sky is falling!" they shout. I know that it's only the roof.

--Jak Locke
September 2005
New Orleans, LA


THOUGHTS FROM POET DERRIK LE VRON:
What we have here is 5 categories of the same man. Jak Locke has described, not only the violent nature inside us all, but the actual nature that can cause such angst and despair.

There's no 'eye' in the storm which is 'Flutter;' only clear signs of heavy sweat and explicit growls that make up this song's passionate rain. I truly feel it's positioned perfectly on the list; intentionally demanding you to stay even if you weren't interested in what he's had to say so far.

In 'The Lake Could Turn Against Us,' it's clearly evident that it already has on a man (Jak Locke), who's desperately searching for some form of shelter in a storm way beyond the powers that be. The lyrics drive his vocals to a state of absolute insanity, and warns us all, that his screams will still be heard beneath mother's water.

It's very interesting to see the transition from beginning, to middle, to end in this work. An example of difference comes with 'Lazy Avenue,' which, trust me, is just that--a simplistic, yet creepy at times effort given to us through a sincere but careless melody. Meanwhile, I really feel (with "Scripted Failure") as though, at any given moment, the hand of the lead guitar may come to fall completely off after each stroke, however, Locke's vocals eventually loan a definate reminder that he has more to say no matter the circumstance, which you can't but feel the passion that has to really exist for such a will. Provoked? Most likely. I don't think the seed would ever be this rebellious.

I love how 'All Too Mid-January' really carries a sound of redemption and understanding, as though everything prior to it was but a nightmare. It's a sweet, yet complicated delivery which presents an insight of not only Jak Locke, but his entire persona that is embedded in every instrument heard throughout each song.

The album closes on a soft, relaxed note, which I must say is well-deserved. It sort of sounds like an instrumental which would be played in a recap of this man's entire musical story. Over-all, It's a collection of material that will forever be remembered as more of a 'line on a page,' rather than a 'chapter in a life.' Excellent work.

--Derrik Le Vron
September 2005
Nashville, TN