indiemusik

Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads had this to say about drum machines:

In information theory, the theory that was developed by Claude Shannon, there is this idea that in any given message the amount of information in that message is reflected in by how expected the message is. And if its close to 100% that the message is going to say ‘yes’, then a message that says ‘yes’ is giving you far less information than a message that says ‘no’. And I feel that the mind, which is trained to see differences in our environment(because danger is usually a change in an environment), that when we listen to music with drum machines, that actually because it becomes totally expected when a snare drum beat is, or kick drum beat is particularly in disco music, your mind begins to tune out the drum machine itself and hear the music around it. And that it’s almost like the drums could be ultra loud and yet you would still hear everything around it. If those were real drums you would say ‘the drums are too loud, I can’t hear that,’ but because of your mind’s ability to say, ‘I know that’s there, what else is there?’ that it kind of changed the dynamic of music.

You can listen to his words in context online from a BBC Radio archive- the original interview with Roger Linn is available for streaming and download.

The complaint that I hear most frequently from people when I play them dance music is that it ‘all sounds the same’. A lot of 4/4 music does sound similar. But you could make the same complaint about lots of music when it comes to forms and shapes, so that remark doesn’t really hold up in my opinion. I often share lunchtime discussions with Yair about music and criticism and he had a few thoughts on how people approach art and music. Coming from any background, a person brings their own set of experiences and knowledge to bear on a subject, and dance music is ontologically different from rock or punk or rap, just as different as those styles are from each other….

…I’d really like to take Ishkar’s Guide to Electronic Music and expand it to include the last 5 or so years of electronic dance music. Ishkar’s guide is a wonderful guide to the history and many different styles of electronic dance music, thanks to Ponce de Leon for the tip.)

If not for the Internet, techno music might never have been affirmed by a large ”mainstream” audience in the United States- not that techno music is about gaining widespread acceptance so much as maintaining a fiercely underground and independent spirit. Alexander Omar Smith, aka Omar-S, is rumored to sign his FXHE records with the same marker he uses from his GM factory job, for example. The Internet has allowed me to play catch up a lot faster and more thoroughly with the underground than I ever thought possible. I’m just trying to spread the love on behalf of the producers, the DJs, the promoters. Because if you’re going to set out to make robot rock, then at some point the rest of us are going to have to step forward into that discotheque of the future…

Omar S – Lift Him Up (ft. Don Q) – Buy

Jinder – Youth Blood (Bok Bok Remix) – Buy

Fool – Real Thing (Various Production Remix) – Buy

Younger generations may not be able to appreciate the novelty of moving the radio dial left and right, catching a second or two of audio and moving on to the next station. As a high school student, I definitely wasn’t listening to dance music, but still, I never could find what I wanted, it seemed like nobody was playing the music I liked to hear. Akufen (a play on the word acouphène) aka Mark LeClair put together a project based primarily on tiny samples of music he had recorded off the radio. The complex layering of samples here are a clever play on the medium where, at least in America, the radio had largely dismissed electronic dance music. In 2009 with the destratification of radio, TV and media, it may not seem like a clarion call so much as an abstract sound collage, but putting it in a larger context it has a certain gravity to it, not unlike Kutiman’s ThruYOU project and his samples of home-made videos.

I posted a list of records that I enjoyed from 2009–mostly electronic dance music– for Redefine Magazine. I think I’ll take up a post in the future to examine some more records from this year, but for now, I hope you’ll skip over to Redefine Magazine and review some of the standouts in techno/house. After reviewing the other lists, I can’t believe I was in the dark about Nurses for so long. Thankfully, the other editors have bulletproof taste.

The end of autumn is nearly here- I wanted to put out this mix before I started assembling my end of 2009 year lists! I nicked the title from Untold’s “Gonna Work Out Fine“- one of the most disparate producers from the UK with releases out this year. I’ve collected some more indie, deep house, dubstep and techno tracks in a playlist that you can stream from the player.

I recommend listening to “Vacuum Boogie” by Floating Points, at the very least. It’s a shuffling deep house track with a rolling bass line that doesn’t quit.

This project between Calvin Johnson(Beat Happening) and Doug Martsch(Built to Spill) pops up every once in a while- I can’t help but revel in the energy here, Calvin’s deep baritone juxtaposed against Doug’s reedy voice. This video captures the Halo Bender’s Calvin Johnson busting out. Today is also Calvin Johnson’s 47th birthday(born November 1, 1962!) It’s been a long time since Beat Happening played out a show but K Records is still going strong.