Four Things #22
Four Things #22..
I can't believe we already struggled through one month of 2022 (or the 25th month of 2020, however you wanna frame it). Took me a little while to get some 'Things' together for you, I usually stumble upon them a lot quicker. but with a longer December break and a few weeks of COVID I wasn't up to that much. Hoping this finds you well however and you get some inspiration from this one. Just before the December break I made a little mix for London based festival Junction 2 which you can listen to here - was quite happy with it so the more plays the better. There's also a remix of mine in there of Talik's "Cold Silver" that was released at the end of last year - I called it the "Time Freeze" remix as it does still feel like time is frozen.. Anyway you can BC right here. Also was invited by Aidan of Bandcloud for a short interview on Mentoring, find that here.
Your thoughts, observations and feedback are always appreciated! Feel free to pass on the link to your friends, or check out the archive right here https://tinyletter.com/Martyn-Deykers. Stay safe & healthy - Keep the Faith..
Martyn
February 1st, 2022
FIRST THING: JUNIE MORRISON
After being in a Discogs wormhole for several months I recorded a show for NTS focusing on the amazingly talented but criminally underrated funk composer / singer / producer Walter Morrison a.k.a Junie. The more I listen to his music the clearer it becomes how his work links and inspires lots of musicians, styles, genres, even across continents and decades. Junie wrote several of Ohio Players' biggest hits in the early 70s before joining Parliament-Funkadelic and heavily contributing to the songwriting powerhouse alongside George Clinton, Bootsy, Bernie Worrell and others on "One Nation Under a Groove" and "(Not Just) Knee Deep" as well as countless side projects. He also wrote, produced and performed all instruments on his first couple solo albums, only a few years before Prince did the same in nearby Minneapolis. There are many more interesting musical similarities between Junie and Prince if you listen closely. In the 90s his interest in synths grew larger and he tried his hands on some electro/proto techno. Junie moved to the UK and started writing for several artists including Micah Paris and Soul II Soul (!), and he even has some credits on early rave records. At the end of his life he released music on Bandcamp under various pseudonyms but interest in his music had waned until most notably Kanye sampled him and Solange dedicated a song to him. A true musical innovator! I couldn't fit the enormous amount of bangers in a single show so I'm currently working on a sequel, but click here to check out pt 1.
SECOND THING: SIR PETER COOK
If you would ask me as a kid what I wanted to be when I grow up I would surely have answered "architect". (although I've been obsessed with music for as long as I can remember, the idea of it actually becoming a profession didn't occur to me til much, much later) Designing buildings, creating spaces for people seemed like such an awesome thing, but as soon as I told my teachers of this dream, I was told you needed to be very meticulous, and good at math. Since those were probably my two worst qualities that dream went out the window quick. Today I stumbled on this fascinating interview with Sir Peter Cook, who judging from his stunning hand drawings, is very meticulous and good at math. When designing buildings he often imagines people interacting inside them, sometimes drawing little cartoons of actual scenes happening inside his buildings. For these scenes he often draws from personal anecdotes, and in this way his building is almost like a collection of memories. In quite the same way a musician / sound artist uses audio with a personal story attached to it - I always find it better to use found sound I actually recorded myself, use samples that sound a particular way cos they were processed in my studio, or movie samples but only from movies I really love etc. Anyway, fascinating interview!
THIRD THING: RECORD EXCHANGE
A couple years ago I was digging in Munich at a shop called Optimal with a friend of mine. While going through various stacks of records and recommending stuff to each other, he suggested we should buy each other one single record - something you would otherwise not listen to but that could set you on a new musical path. He got me a weird electronic dub record and I bought him a hard bop record (by Joe Chambers). I loved this idea, in fact it really is kind of intimate and personal, as the present says something about the person who gives it as well as his/her ideas of how you experience music. With COVID it's harder to get together and have these exchanges but I did one recently another friend, Simon Thomas who's on my Mentoring Program and makes music as Mosaic Tapes. He mailed me a record that absolutely blew my mind called "He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts Of Light Sometimes Grace The Corner Of Our Rooms" (!) by a band called A Silver Mt. Zion, which is so out of my league I don't even know on what shelf I can put it in my collection! I got him a record by Count Ossie called "Songs from Mozambique" and I asked him to write some thoughts about our exchange:
"In an age where music is so easily and quickly acquired, taking part in a record exchange feels like such an exciting thing, almost like waiting for a letter from a pen pal. When I was growing up I used to go to a record store and buy stuff based on recommendation or on artwork. With Spotify etc it feels like I've lost that and therefore hearing something new, with no links to something I already know is rare. I enjoyed listening to the record with no agenda, preconceptions or point of reference." Very keen to do more of these exchanges with Simon and others (financial situation permitting obviously) but would also love to hear any experiences you have with such a thing!
FOURTH THING: MORE COWBELL
Music tip comes straight out of London this time.. The excellent DJ / producer / label owner / radio maker Eich runs More Cowbell, a label at the forefront of the bass continuum. She recently put out this record by Caski called "Crooked". Available here on Bandcamp or as ltd 10" vinyl! Check it!