For a Good Cause: a Compilation for Andreas Gehm

I have three records by Andreas Gehm that I’ll never part with – U Don’t Love Me Anymore, What’s On Ur Mind and My So Called Robot Life, all from Jamal Moss’ Chicago-based Mathematics Recordings. I’d like to think I’m not out on a ledge here. Gehm makes music you can dream to – all with a charming sense of humor, of not taking oneself as seriously as other people might be tempted to.

With the kind of whimsey you see in titles like “Voodoo Wolf” and aliases like “Pukemaster Gehm,” I was surprised – shocked is maybe a better word – to learn that Gehm has been lain low from an undisclosed ailment causing him chronic pain. According to a release I received from Andrew Duke yesterday, Andreas Gehm has been “piecing together a living by working a day job and doing live performances on the weekend,” but “for the past month or so he’s been suffering from severe chronic pain, and been unable to work.”

Duke and a cast of practically a hundred have rallied around Gehm by producing a compilation called simply Comp for Andreas Gehm. The 129 track (let’s do this in the legal form: this is not a misprint, that’s one hundred and twenty nine tracks!) record is now available via bandcamp.

Just a few of the artists that appear here include Aaron-Carl, Mr. Duke, Andy Vaz, Mark Ryal, Orlando Voorn, Legowelt, Paul Mac, Sean Dixon, Zach Lubin and Christ knows how many more.

That’s thirteen hours of music for 14 euros (about sixteen bucks American). In fact, I actually just bought a copy of this myself, and will probably have something more to say about the records over time. Even if you don’t know Andreas Gehm from anyone, this is one hell of a fundraiser.