The Sublime Sculpture Of Being Alive

Behind the clatter and clang of his band, behind the inexhaustible roll of melodies, behind the rhythms that seem to occupy three-dimensional space, Walter Benjamin lurks in the head of Media Jeweler’s Sam Farzin. In his classic 1935 essay “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” the German critic observed that our understanding of our lives and our experience of reality is moderated by the dominant technologies, politics, events, and advertising messages of our day; we cannot see our way around them. It’s a claustrophobic thought, suggesting as it does that we might not be as in control of who we are as we believe ourselves to be. But consider its inverse: If there’s no escaping this influence, we’re free to come to terms with it, and to locate ourselves within it. Or, as bassist Thom Lucero puts it, we can forge “an acceptance of self and an acceptance of all the fucked-up shit we’re around all the time.”

The Sublime Sculpture of Being Alive is the fullest realization yet of Media Jeweler’s unorthodox sound, the seeds they planted upon their founding in Orange County in 2013 come to fruit. Crucially, it’s also the first Media Jeweler record to make its point plainly; while previous albums were largely instrumental, Farzin’s lyrics articulate the intermixed confusion, frustration, and joy that comes with living a conscious life—ideas that have always been in the music, but largely went unsaid.