Songs for the Presto Issue (A Selection)
Half Mystic Journal’s Opus II, Issue I: Presto careens toward us sound-burdened & light-sharpened, quicker with every passing glimpse. She’ll be in your hands in just five days, featuring new poetry, prose, & collage art by Genevieve DeGuzman, [sarah] Cavar, Aurora Shimshak, Will Cordeiro, Harrison Hamm, Maggie Warren, E.B. Schnepp, xochi quetzali cartland, Grace Kwan, Suzannah Watchorn, Abigail Chang, Jesica Davis, Hannah Yerington, Ivi Hua, Annione Ryan Platten, & Morphic Rooms. Preorder your copy in paperback or PDF form for first access to the new opus of Half Mystic Journal. We can’t wait to share her with you.
Our eleventh issue & the underside of the allegro theme that began this project, Opus II, Issue I is Half Mystic’s most ambitious & evasive release yet. It lives swathed in smoke & teetering toward the real, spins ever more rapidly to the beat of becoming. The presto issue flirts with sun & darts to darkness, sings of man-made magick, blurred vision, glitter in the shadows, an aria half-lucid & bewitched by the myth of movement. The music is real, the body electric & imaginary. Issue XI lives on the currency of old dreams & new speed, & right at the moment when you think you’ve learned its dance, it dares you to circle back & look again.
While you wait, we’re thrilled to unveil our annual issue playlist—including the first sneak peek of the featured art for Opus II, Issue I—an ineffable, blink-quick mix of songs chosen by our team & contributors to evoke the flirtation of silk & song woven through the presto issue…
“Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen
I'm burning through the sky, yeah
Two hundred degrees, that's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit
I'm travelling at the speed of light
I wanna make a supersonic woman of you
“Too Slow” by Maude Latour
All the girls are getting in my car
Do their makeup on the highway
Rolling ‘til they candy flip
Reversing out the driveway
“Supercut” by Lorde
Slow motion, I'm watching our love
I'll be your quiet afternoon crush
Be your violent overnight rush
Make you crazy over my touch
“Femininomenon” by Chappell Roan
Hit it like rom-pom-pom-pom
Get it hot like Papa John’s
Make a bitch go on and on
It’s a femininomenon
“OFF MY FACE” by Måneskin
I’m off my face, your love is my addiction
“Casanova” by Soolking
J’ai bossé tout l’été, j’dois faire des lovas (s’lève tous les matins, eh)
Pour acheter bijoux à la mama lova (ice, ice, ice)
La go-là m’a pris pour son casanova (ouais, pour un pigeon, ouais)
Elle me dit “bébé, s’te plait, fais-moi rêver,” ah ouais
“Runner’s High” by MUNA
Hit me so I know I can feel something
You said I'd regret it when I was leaving
Funny how a fall can feel just like flying
“Closeness” by Tracy Manuel
If we can’t be friends
Let’s be emergency contacts
“Smoking Weed Alone” by Tegan and Sara
If it’s a choice (I don't really feel like it)
That’s my choice (I don’t really feel like it)
I just wanna be alone
“Gay Bar” by Rosie Tucker
Saint Peter clad in leather
She was looking quite salacious
But the fire never met her eyes
And the cowboys dipped in glitter
Brought us into their good graces
You were sorry that you’re not their type
“Queen of the World” by Ida Maria
I spin around in circles
And I’m singing
Why can’t I stay like this?
“Free” by Florence + The Machine
Sometimes I wonder if I should be medicated
If I would feel better just slightly sedated
A feeling comes so fast and I cannot control it
I’m on fire, but I’m trying not to show it
“Black Man in a White World” by Michael Kiwanuka
I feel like I’ve been here before
I feel that knocking on my door
And I’ve lost everything I had
And I'm not angry and I’m not mad
”Honey” by Samia
From under here, all you can fear
Is being saved and being wakeful
”Sick Joke” by Xana
I know what to say now when you ask me
If everything I feel is temporary
”Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats” by Los Campesinos!
I’m taking far too many chances
On these less than idealistic romances
Plunge your hand, rip out my spine
Replace it with a UV light
So I can be the beacon of hope that you’d always expected
”Foreign Object” by The Mountain Goats
Sink my teeth into your scalp, take a nice big bite
Save nothing for the cameras, play the angles all night
“L’AMOUR DE MA VIE” by Billie Eilish
You wanted to keep it, like something you found
‘Til you didn’t need it
But you should have seen it, the way it went down
Wouldn’t believe it
“HIND’S HALL” by Macklemore
You can’t twist the truth, the people out here united
Never be defeated when freedom’s on the horizon
Yet the music industry’s quiet, complicit in their platform of silence
“Shut Up Kiss Me” by Angel Olsen
I could make it all disappear
You could feed me all of your fears
We could end all this pain right here
We could rewind all of those tears
“Before the Words” by My Brightest Diamond
Before the words there was the voice
Before the verse there was the sound
Before the form there was the music
“Cherry” by Ratatat
[instrumental track]
“Resonance” by Home
[instrumental track]
“Stray Dog and the Chocolate Shake” by Grandaddy
The supervisor guy turns off the factory lights
So the robots have to work in the dark
And there's a carload of kids with beer and cigarettes
Burning out and doing lawn jobs in the park
“Original Nuttah 25” by Uk Apache & SHY FX
You know when I walk into a dance
The bouncers don’t frisk me
They salute me
You know why?
It’s out of respect
“Midnight Paradise” by Draag
[instrumental track]
“White Dress” by Lana Del Rey
Summer, summer’s almost gone
We were talking about life, we were sitting outside ‘til dawn
But I would still go back
If I could do it all again, I’d fly
Because it made me feel, made me feel like a god
“waterlily” by crushed
Can I get back to you without falling in?
Waterlily from the dream where life began
The waves came up to my feet, but I chose to walk away
So maybe someday we could meet
"Folkus” by Art Ensemble of Chicago
[instrumental track]
“All Night I Carpenter” by Félicia Atkinson and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma
[instrumental track]
“small planet” by Sawako and Daisuke Miyatani
[instrumental track]
“The Spangle Maker” by Cocteau Twins
Singing
Broke and winded
Broke and winded
Whistling
“Black Cat” by Broadcast
Awkwardness happening to someone you love
Awkwardness happening to someone you love
The black cat, the black cat
Curiouser and curiouser
“Just Fascination” by Cabaret Voltaire
glances back, slip in the way, swift
you've found another way of
slipping into your disguise
your eyes know, your body lies
this fascination, this fascination