16:16

16:16 is a collaborative EP by area C X jh0st originally released in 1991. It is also a place in time. As a shared address it housed a cadre of self-proclaimed derelicts, radicals, intellectuals and/or fashionista/s forming a collective that was equal parts Addams Family and Partridge Family. Each member brought their literal and emotional baggage through the house’s crooked doors and left profoundly changed for better or for worse. Erik Carlson, aka area C and I were the resident noise makers: While I initially channeled the more ‘avant garde’ influences of Sonic Youth and my previous band Wept, Erik began from the more alt pop-side of the musical fence channeling the emotional charge of U2 and his previous band Figure Ground.

Like a camera obscura however, the electric projections that inspired 16:16 created an alchemic inverse. Half-asleep performance-practices tethered to the buzzing power grid of the flickering street lamps of the abandoned downtown created reflected shadows of the songs. In the end, Erik became the more avant garde influence while I continue to fly dangerously close to the boundaries of pop, the wax-wings of Icarus on the verge of melting. 16:16 therefore is a special bookmark where the respective trajectories of area c and jh0st exactly cross at the glorious intersection of early 90’s New Wave.

Trivia: 16:16 released on 6/16/1991 was recorded at 1616 Jefferson Park Avenue in Charlottesville, Virginia. Many of the songs were written at 516 Brandon Avenue. The 3rd ‘member’ of the band is drum machine Alesis HR-16.

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