Big City Dilemma – Jeremy Reed and Itchy Ear

Big City Dilemma Big City Dilemma is a collaboration between poet Jeremy Reed and music auteur known ubiquitously as Itchy Ear. The collaboration is called The Ginger Light. It is a mix of visuals, sound and sonic qualities, of the visual and aural qualities of Jeremy Reed’s poetry. 1 This is a cd of their very successful performances, sampling vox pops with studio sounds, reverb and performance-time readings, bringing in sung choral lines, stutter of electronics. Performances incorporate visuals, lights, film clips to create an all-round sensual experience. Jeremy Reed has a good voice for this; his preferred technique is intoning the poems, it is non-conversational, a-casual – but he can linger on words, savour the sounds of the language; he performs and you go with him. Itchy Ear has a wonderful repertoire of sonic effects, a deep sense of rhythm and rightness. I have always been a sucker for electronic music and he saves the wasted years, referencing our ennui and the insistent…