The following is part 2 of the liner notes from DJ Earl-e's album Wax Onomatopoeia.
As songs often do, these next two songs bring back memories of specific times and friends. "Fly Into the Son" was crafted around 1998 in the living room of my good friends, Sam and Mose. Some great reggae shows that came through Iowa City the previous summer, like Black Uhuru, Burning Spear, and Culture, and brought some positive vibrations and motivations to the mix. This song started as a reggae song, but as my songs often do, it sort of grew into something more. I was doing a couch tour then, living between Minneapolis, Iowa City, and Davenport with my wife traveling for work, so I had to make my studio on-the-go. The Akai S-20 is a cool, little, easily portable sampler that does just enough to be fun, make some tight loops, and record a 4-track sequence. Limited memory forces you to get creative with your samples, but it still lets you do some interesting chopping, and gives you a chance to let the song evolve organically, like playing an instrument. If you know my other albums, you will recognize the title from a (Roy Ayers) sample that I used in the song "great planes" on the Environ Mentalz album. This is part of a recurrent theme of using recurrent themes in my music.
The next song, "Reza-Nate," is a work that started as a collaboration with another friend into the realms of deep house/electronica (although my man Vince said it was almost dub step -but I'm still gonna call it hip-hop). Reza is the guy that you will always have fun with, you will probably do something you never tried along the way, guaranteed laughs, and is probably the friend that would have gotten you in the most trouble as a kid. He is always turning me on to new music, and inspiring me with his positivity, and love of life. So, Reza is a music lover and he wants to make some tracks. This is one of a couple that we started working on, and realizing the limitations of my GarageBand setup, left abandoned. I still think we'll make an album someday... I dusted this one off, added a few samples, mixed it down, and you get the name of our band, Reza-Nate.
