Four Things #14
Four things #14..
It's been a little while but here's another Four Things for your enjoyment. All music related "Things" this time around, perhaps because I've been playing gigs and working in the studio quite a bit, so that's where my mind is. I just returned from a super fun techno gig at Berghain for the Ilian Tape night, and for RinseFM France's 6th birthday party in Paris. Another exciting thing is the announcement of a collab I did with Nymfo for Metalheadz (!), dropping soon! If you're looking for music to listen while reading check out Anunaku's mix for Bleep.com celebrating his Stargate EP release on 3024, or my latest Darkest Light show on NTS.
Before I leave you to it, I politely ask you for a pause in your step today to think of the legendary Andrew Weatherall who passed away recently. Rest in Peace Andrew we will never forget you!
Let's get to these Four Things. If you enjoy reading this news letter, feel free to pass on the link to your friends, or check out the archive right here https://tinyletter.com/Martyn-Deykers.
Martyn
Feb 19, 2020
FIRST THING: LETTING GO OF MUSIC
Do you ever come across articles or opinion pieces that from the outset you don't want to agree with, but also find difficult to dismiss? For me, this is one of those pieces, excellently written by Meghan Daum. She explains how over the years she increasingly associates the music of her past with sorrowful memories and has slowly replaced listening to music with listening to podcasts. Immediately I would interject and say there is a certain comfort in listening to the music of your past, even if those songs harbor sad or awful memories. To name just one of many, 13yr-old Martyn listened to All's "Bubblegum" over and over to make the pain of that first breakup go away. (Awww "chew me up, and spit me out like bubblegum") But when I think about it a bit more, reaching your mid-30s / early-40s is generally the time to come to terms with the traumas of your youth, and to find a 'mental space' to deal with those memories. And who's to say you shouldn't also store its soundtrack? Food for thought, also some interesting online discourse about this.
SECOND THING: ESSENTIAL TREMORS
WYPR (88.1fm Baltimore, part of NPR) runs a really great podcast series called Essential Tremors where (local) musicians are asked to bring in songs that influenced their personal careers in some way and discuss them at length. Two very interesting pods feature legends of the DC hardcore scene Ian Mackaye and Guy Picciotto (both Fugazi, Ian also Minor Threat and Embrace, Guy from Rites of Spring). Their views on music and how music is perceived now has really got me thinking about certain things. Guy discusses how he feels that nowadays the boundless availability of obscure music online makes the experience of listening and absorbing this music so fleeting. Ian's interview is about how to keep the recording process of his music as "human" and unpolished as possible, not as an aesthetic choice (such as lo-fi) but to keep the essence of punk alive. Good stuff! (pic Fugazi)
THIRD THING: WABI SABI
"The Art of DJing" is without doubt one of the better regular features on Resident Advisor. It's a deeper dive into the techniques and background of some of the more interesting DJs around, such as this episode with the German selector Lena Willikens. She mentions the Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi which is, in short, the acceptance and appreciation of things that are imperfect or incomplete. She describes how DJ sets that are too planned, too perfect, are also quite boring, while sets that have "imperfections" (within reason) have a more human feel to it. I really relate to that idea, and it can be applied to music production as well, where you keep little mistakes, random accidents, found sound etc in the music to make it more organic and less perfect. I used to watch this Youtube series called "History of Ideas" while on tour, and this one about Wabi-Sabi explains the concept very well.
FOURTH THING: PRINCE'S HALF TIME SHOW
This has been shared quite a bit after J-Lo and Shakira's performance at the Super Bowl recently, but the back story of Prince's legendary half time show in 2007 is solid music history gold. Full of amazing anecdotes such as this nugget from when the NFL big wigs visited Prince in his Vegas hotel suite to hear about the concept for the show:
"He looked like he was kind of this angel or this alien or something. He smiled at us and he invited us in and we were walking and he was gliding, and the reason why he was gliding is because he was wearing these kids sneakers with the wheels on them. He was wheeling down the floor and the lights of his sneakers were lighting up in the back, the same color as his canary yellow suit."
Here's the excellent article from The Ringer's Alan Siegel, then watch the Prince "press conference" on Youtube, and then of course the amazing show itself.