Four Things #28
Welcome to Four Things #28.. A lot of the trials and tribulations of being an artist have less to do with the specific scene or even art form you work in and more with a set of general truths that can easily be translated from other disciplines. Even outside of traditional art forms such as music, painting, writing etc. there’s so many useful things to learn that can help your creative practice. I had an amazing conversation the other week with a friend who works with communities in sports, and talking about some of his ideas and views in his particular field, provided a lot of answers to questions I have been running into the past few months. By talking to people or studying an artist’s work outside your own realm you discover that it’s almost never about the details you get hung up on, but about following more universal ways to maximize your creative voice.
Before we get to the things I’m bombarding you with some things I’ve been working on: First of all shouts to everyone I ran into at last month’s big FWD» party at Printworks / The Cause in London. I also did a fun show here in DC with pal Om Unit, which was recorded here for 3024’s Tapes series and we also released our second EP together! (find here). I also did a 140ish mix on EMA’s Woozy show on RinseFM here. On the writing flex I was honored to do an episode of Book Club for Chanel Kadir’s Untitled909 substack which you should definitely give a follow, and you may have also heard Shawn Reynaldo at First Floor is doing a book for which I wrote the foreword. Very exciting stuff!
Here are the Things.. I always appreciate your thoughts, comments and observations. Feel free to pass on the link to your friends, and check out my newsletter archive if you haven’t done so before. Wishing you love and health..
Martyn
May 8th, 2023
FIRST THING: THE SOUND OF CLOUDS
One of the most inspiring things I’ve worked on in the past few years is the ‘Clouds EP’ on 3024 by the Italian-Ivorian (but London-based) music maker and DJ Ehua. (pronounce Eh-Wah) Inspired by the mood shifting, paradoxical aspects of clouds, suspended in the air, light - dark, uplifting - menacing, Ehua delivered four awesome songs alongside a series of photos of cloud formations she took while traveling. These photos became part of a sort of ‘visual conversation’ with Jeroen Erosie, who turned that interaction into the beautiful EP cover below. If you look closely you see the artist name blended into the cloud shape. As we are constantly exploring more sustainable ways to present music, we released this EP digi only via Bandcamp and streaming services and turned the artwork into a limited, signed and numbered series of 12x12” Riso prints on extra heavy paper. To keep shipping costs down we ship from the US as well as from The Netherlands. We did the same with the recent EP by myself and Om Unit, so you can have them both on your wall. Photos below, or see all of it on our Bandcamp!
SECOND THING: DANCE YOUR WAY HOME
In the late 90s, me and some friends used to go on drum ‘n bass pilgrimages to London. In the daytime, we’d shop for records at Blackmarket in Soho and on our way out we’d raid the flyer rack to find out what events were on that weekend. On one of these trips in 1998 I ended up at Metalheadz at Complex (Angel/Islington area), where I had a sort of ‘dance epiphany’. In the main room Loxy & Ink were dj’ing, the sound of that era was hard and quite dark, the crowd was into it, punters had their hoods up, puffa jackets on, eyes down at the floor, and the occasional lighter for a big tune. On that night I wandered around the venue a bit and ended up in room two which was hosted by a big UKG promoter. I knew very little about the music at that time but what struck me was how different the dancing was. Girls and boys were dancing with each other, there was such a ‘hot’ energy, and everyone was smiling, it felt so inviting and ‘open’. I have thought a lot about the contrast I witnessed that night and how much I loved both these vibes. It led me to the question of how in my DJing and (later) my own music I could seamlessly blend those dark, sci-fi inspired sounds of room one, and the way people respond to it, with the exuberance, and hotness of room two. My friend Emma Warren wrote a highly anticipated and truly beautiful book about the physicality of music called “Dance Your Way Home”. You should just buy it! There are a few copies on her own Bandcamp or you can order here or here. Also a fun interview with her here! I’ll be interviewing Emma on the Mentoring Program very soon as well, hit me up if you want more information about that.
THIRD THING: THE LOVERS
After a career in New York fashion modeling was abruptly ended (because of an unauthorized appearance of one of her photos in an ad for Kotex), the multi-disciplinary artist Lee Miller pivoted to photography and traveled to Paris in 1929. She showed up at the door of fellow American artist Man Ray announcing she was ‘his new student’. Initially hesitant, Ray accepted the apprentice and in the following couple of years Miller and Ray became collaborators, close friends and lovers. Together they were part of the vibrant Surrealist movement in Paris at the time, with people such as Picasso and Jean Concteau as their contemporaries. They rediscovered and further developed the photographic technique of solarization (reversal of dark and light tones from a negative) in their work with many amazing photos as a result. The couple broke up and Lee decided to go back to New York in 1932, Ray was so distraught he created several of his most important works in the aftermath of their relationship. The most famous is also one of my favorite paintings called ‘A l’heure de l’observatoire - les amoureux’ (the lovers), a cathartic project Ray apparently worked on every single day for two years, trying to paint the perfect image of Lee’s lips floating in the sky. The story ends well for the two, Lee eventually reconnected with Ray and they remained friends until she passed away in the well into the 1970s.
FOURTH THING: BAALTI
The Indian born, San Francisco based Jaiveer Singh and Mihir Chauhan have been making and releasing music as Baalti for a couple years. Initially on Mumbay based Krunk Kulture (which has put out a whole host of great Indian talent in the past) and more recently on All My Thoughts out of LA. The guys have also recently joined the Mentoring Program, hence how they got on my radar. Their brand new EP is called Better Together and the track ‘Buttons” slices through genres like a hot knife without ever feeling like it’s trying to do too much. The photo collage art that comes with every release is also ace. Definitely check out!