He immersed himself in classical military and political texts, taking Machiavelli and Marcus Aurelius as his models. The time Smith spent abroad taught him that if he wanted to become a gentleman soldier he needed to improve his mind and his military skills. He spent time in France to help keep Henry IV on the throne and fought for the Dutch in their war of independence from Spain. After his father died in 1596, he terminated his apprenticeship and struck out for the Continent, joining a company of English mercenaries that bounced from conflict to conflict. Smith, however, had something a little less conventional in mind. After Smith made a number of attempts to run away, his father apprenticed him to a wealthy merchant, hoping to settle him down. Smith's father, a prosperous farmer in Lincolnshire, did not appreciate his son's wanderlust. "What more would be needed than the cry that the incomparable Drake was off again, to stir the adventurous spirit of thirteen-year old John Smith to action?" asks Barbour. It is an amazing story.Īs a young boy, Smith idolized the British explorers such as Sir Francis Drake, who sailed around the world and plundered gold from Spain. But by comparing Smith's own account with letters and documents of the time, scholars such as biographer Philip Barbour have confirmed his story and clarified it. He provides such a daredevil account of his life that critics have sometimes accused him of exaggerating his exploits. These two tracks will matter as much today as they did at release.Most of what we know about Smith's life before Jamestown comes from his The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captaine John Smith (1630). These songs are a continuation of those ideas, and though it seems Ken is either slightly ahead or out of step with his contemporaries, his recordings are never without merit. As well it should please those familiar with Ken?s Direction 12", Echoes, on the Lissy's label from the mid-90?s.
Soldier of fortune pro#
No Pro Tools, multitracking or other funny business were used in the construction of these songs, which lean towards a 70?s Herbie Hancock-fusion vibe as seen through the eyes of DJ Shadow. The songs were constructed in the old school style of sampling (MPC) and feature a collection of sounds old and new. The two tracks "We Live in the Future" and "Soldier of Fortune" were recorded at Ken's home studio and mixed at Soma Studios, both located in Chicago. Gray Market Goods builds off this remix work and is more pastiche in sounds reminiscent of more recent work by acts like Too Many DJs and RJD2. When not recording or engineering, Ken has taken on a number of remix projects for such diverse acts as Tortoise, Coldcut and DJ Food, as well as the more traditionally indie-rock acts of Yo La Tengo, Aerial M and Calexico. Gray Market Goods is a completely different beast altogether, one which falls more in line with Ken's remix work of the last few years than it does his recent music endeavors. More recently he, along with Chris Brokaw, Curtis Harvey and Douglas McCombs, has helped elevate acoustic instrumental music (taking its cues from Cooder, Kottke and Fahey) back into fashion with Pullman. Shortly after leaving Tortoise he recorded as Directions in Music with Doug Sharin and James Warden. Ken has played a pivotal roll in the formation and development of many of the bands that helped define a generation of sound. Beginning with the controlled chaos of Bastro and then onto a brief stint in sleepy-time rockers Seam before becoming a founding member of Tortoise. Brown", Ken has been involved in a number of projects that have sewn the patchwork of American independent/undergro und music over the last decade.
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Credited on many recordings through the years as "Bundy K. Gray Market Goods was musician and engineer Ken Brown.