Life is short and moves swiftly. We’re lucky to have more than few ‘life-changing’ musical experiences. Here is one of mine.

I first heard EP* the spring after its release. Chris and I met behind an Italian restaurant for a cigarette before school. The moody, contemplative sounds of Mogwai's EP spilled from the blue Jetta and hung in the moist, sweet air, harmonizing with my shifting restlessness. Later that year, I moved away.

As I explored my life in my new home, I continued to listen to bouncy improvised rock. I fell for jazz, learning about the music while interviewing musicians and spinning records on a weekly radio show. I developed a deep affinity for North American acoustic music. Since that weekday morning, that shared cigarette, that first taste of EP and Mogwai, they have continued to serve as deep dissonant sonic truth that remains unchanged within (me) and connects to the dot to so many subsequent musical and artistic explorations.

*I’m biased towards EP+2, the version I first encountered. It is perfect. The Internet serves EP+6 for streaming, a longer,more ponderous and noisier extension of EP. I don’t care for it.