Second Pressing, Episode 1: With Nathaniel Durst

A transcript of the pilot episode of Second Pressing, the flagship podcast of The Pressing. Hosted by Junior Salinas. This episode runs 41 minutes and is released Friday.

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[COLD OPEN — approximately 15 seconds of an original instrumental cue, ambient pads building under a slow-tempo drum pattern. The cue fades under the host's voice.]

JUNIOR: Hey. This is Second Pressing. I'm Junior. It is — I'm looking at the clock — it is 11:40 on a Wednesday night and I have about four hours to turn this around before I owe it to the editors, which is going to be interesting, because my guest tonight is sitting across from me with what I can only describe as, like, three separate stacks of paper in front of him, and I don't know what's going on there, but I'm going to let it happen.

NATHANIEL: The stacks are notes.

JUNIOR: Obviously they're notes.

NATHANIEL: I want to be prepared.

JUNIOR: For the podcast.

NATHANIEL: For the podcast.

JUNIOR: [laughing] Okay. So — tonight we're talking about the Brainfeeder drop, which I already wrote about this week, so if you read the column you know where I land on it. But my guest has thoughts. My guest is Nathaniel Durst, who writes the Attention Lads column for The Feed, who I have known for — how long have we known each other?

NATHANIEL: Since the staff onboarding.

JUNIOR: Since the staff onboarding. Six weeks ago.

NATHANIEL: Approximately.

JUNIOR: So we're close.

NATHANIEL: [pause] I think we are.

JUNIOR: [laughing] Okay. So. I asked Nathaniel to come on the first episode because I had a theory, and the theory is that Nathaniel and I are going to disagree about basically every record made after 1982 but we are going to agree about one specific thing, and I want to find the specific thing on air. Are you prepared for this?

NATHANIEL: I have been prepared for this for six weeks.

JUNIOR: Okay. So here's what we're going to do. I'm going to play three tracks. You're going to tell me what you think. I'm going to tell you what I think. And at the end of the episode we're going to land on the specific thing that we agree on, which I believe exists, and which I believe we are going to find.

NATHANIEL: I have also brought a track.

JUNIOR: Of course you have.

NATHANIEL: I would like to play it at some point during the episode.

JUNIOR: We'll get to your track. Fourth track. We'll make room. Okay — here's track one. This is the opening cut from Alluvial, which dropped on Brainfeeder this week and which I have been, you know — look, I wrote a whole column about this record, I'm not going to pretend to be neutral. I love this record. Nathaniel, I want you to hear it cold. Here we go.

[Track plays — approximately 90 seconds of "Meridian Hour" is audible, fading under conversation.]

JUNIOR: So.

NATHANIEL: [long pause]

JUNIOR: Take your time.

NATHANIEL: I am going to be honest with you.

JUNIOR: Please.

NATHANIEL: I expected to dislike it.

JUNIOR: Okay.

NATHANIEL: I did not dislike it.

JUNIOR: Okay!

NATHANIEL: I do not know if I liked it, because I do not know if this is a genre in which I have the vocabulary to distinguish between liking and not disliking, but — I did not dislike it.

JUNIOR: [laughing] This is going to be a very long podcast if we keep at this pace.

NATHANIEL: What I would like to ask you — and this is a sincere question — is whether the patience of the track, which I take to be intentional, is functioning the way a long-form jazz arrangement functions, in which the patience is earning the release, or whether it is functioning as an end in itself, which is a thing I have less tolerance for.

JUNIOR: Okay, so — this is actually the thing I was trying to get at in the column. I think it's doing something different from both of those. It's not setting up a release. The track doesn't have a release.

NATHANIEL: The track does not have a release?

JUNIOR: The track does not have a release. It just — ends.

NATHANIEL: That is a design choice.

JUNIOR: It is a choice.

NATHANIEL: I do not know if I approve of that choice.

JUNIOR: [laughing] Okay. So what I want to do — and stay with me here — is play you track two, which is a piece of music from the same label, from 2014, which also doesn't have a release, and I want to see if the twelve-year gap changes how you hear the non-release.

NATHANIEL: A comparative approach.

JUNIOR: Yeah.

NATHANIEL: I am open to this.

JUNIOR: Here we go.

[Track two plays — approximately 75 seconds. Fades under.]

NATHANIEL: Okay.

JUNIOR: Thoughts.

NATHANIEL: I want to register something, which is that I recognize the arrangement of the second track, in its rhythmic architecture, as being in conversation with a specific approach to ensemble playing that I would associate with — and please do not laugh — with Weather Report.

JUNIOR: [laughing]

NATHANIEL: You are laughing.

JUNIOR: I am laughing because you called it.

NATHANIEL: I called it.

JUNIOR: You called it. The producer of this track — 2014 Brainfeeder — has talked in interviews about Weather Report specifically. Specifically. That is not me being generous. That is documented.

NATHANIEL: I feel vindicated.

JUNIOR: You should feel vindicated.

NATHANIEL: I am going to carry this vindication with me for the rest of the episode.

JUNIOR: Please do.

[Approximately six minutes of conversation is elided here. Nathaniel plays a Steely Dan track — "Deacon Blues," from the 1977 Japanese pressing of Aja — and the two of them talk through what Nathaniel describes as "the horn moment," which he has referenced in his column. Junior acknowledges the horn moment. Junior does not fully concede the broader point. Junior plays a third track, from a contemporary artist neither of them names in full because the artist is adjacent to someone they both know. Nathaniel surprises Junior by knowing the artist's work. Junior expresses something like professional respect.]

JUNIOR: Okay. We are forty minutes in. I want to — before we close — I want to land on the thing I said we were going to find.

NATHANIEL: The specific thing.

JUNIOR: The specific thing.

NATHANIEL: I have been thinking about this for the entire episode.

JUNIOR: Me too.

NATHANIEL: I think I have it.

JUNIOR: Go.

NATHANIEL: The thing we agree on is that music that is unafraid of its own duration is rare, and when it happens, we know it when we hear it, regardless of genre.

JUNIOR: [long pause]

NATHANIEL: Am I close.

JUNIOR: [quietly] That's exactly the thing.

NATHANIEL: I listened to your column before I came over.

JUNIOR: I know you did.

NATHANIEL: I take my work seriously.

JUNIOR: [laughing] I know you do. Okay. We're going to close out. I'm going to play us out with a track I've been saving for this — it's a napkin situation, which Pressing readers know what that means. I'm not going to name it. I'm going to let it play. Nathaniel, thank you for doing this.

NATHANIEL: Thank you for having me.

JUNIOR: Next week I've got — we're going to bring on someone from The Arsenal.

NATHANIEL: Oh god.

JUNIOR: [laughing] That's the cliffhanger. See you Friday.

[Closing track plays — an unidentified piece of music that fades over approximately 90 seconds, carrying the episode out.]

Second Pressing airs Fridays. Subscribe via the RSS feed at itsnotasimulation.com/podcasts/second-pressing or on your preferred platform.