Four Things #3
Four things #3..
I've been having an excellent week with very minimal social media interaction, a lot of constructive work on my book about Goldie's Timeless, a promising beginning of hockey season and a thorough revisiting of this beautiful jazz record by British/Jamaican saxophonist Joe Harriott and guitarist Amancio D'Silva. A warm welcome to my new subscribers, as always I would love to hear your opinions or experiences, and please share the letter with whomever you think would be interested in it! Just send them this link to subscribe and check out the archive https://tinyletter.com/Martyn-Deykers.
Martyn,
Oct 4, 2019
FIRST THING: DEBUSSY RINGTONE
Got three issues of Chris Richards' Debussy Ringtone zine in the mail today and really looking forward to dive in! Chris is a pop music critic at the Washington Post and has been doing great work amplifying the electronic music and hip hop scenes here in DC, as well as penning some interesting observations on mainstream music and culture. He calls "Debussy Ringtone" a collection of "micro interviews and nano essays about music and metaphysics, I'm currently reading a mini interview with Maryland rapper Baby Boof, after checking a track-by-track Pantone number interpretation of Autechre's NTS Sessions (!). The zines are mailed anywhere in the US for $3 if you Venmo to @debussyringtone or Paypal to debussyringtone@gmail.com .. If you're overseas but interested email him first and get all four in one go!
SECOND THING: SPIDERS CAN FLY HUNDREDS OF MILES USING ELECTRICITY
I recently subscribed to The Atlantic so I've been going through some of their older articles and came across this excellent piece in the Science section about how spiders 'balloon' (flying) using electrical currents. It's been on my mind all week and I've mentioned it to everyone who was listening because the science behind it is just amazing to me. It helps that the piece is written compellingly as well, check it out!
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/07/the-electric-flight-of-spiders/564437/
THIRD THING: ARON'S RECORD STORE
Fellow European expat Laurent Fintoni, who works for Red Bull Music Academy, and has written extensively for Fact Magazine, Vice and The Fader, is working on a book about "Bedrooms, Beats and B-Side, and how we got from DJ Shadow to Flying Lotus", in other words it loosely covers the emergence of the LA Beat Scene and how its members developed their sound. Since the tragic passing of one of the scene's core members, Ras G, Fintoni decided to take some of his research and turn it into an amazing feature on Aron's Record Store. Aron's was a hub for the beat and sample scene up until its closure in 2006, frequented not only by Ras but also Kutmah, Eric Coleman, Daedelus and many others. Great piece highlighting a shop that should not be forgotten!
https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2019/10/arons-record-store-la-beat-scene
FOURTH THING: RAKIM
MSNBC's Ari Melber is besides a good journalist and attorney also a massive hiphop head. His monologues on his show The Beat often reference his favorite lyricists and rappers such as Method Man, Lauryn Hill, Fat Joe and recently Havoc from Mobb Deep have been guests on the show, sitting side by side with congressmen and other DC politicos. On Melber's Uncorked podcast he recently interviewed perhaps the greatest MC of them all, Rakim, about his new book "Sweat the Technique" which just came out in the US and will be released in Europe on October 17th. As he is possibly the greatest rhymer in hiphop, I actually can't wait to find out how his distinct lyrical style translates to an entire book's worth of knowledge, or in his words "know the ledge". The podcast goes through a range of topics including materialism in hiphop, respect, spirituality. About writer's block he says that it doesn't exist: "Once my pen slows down, I gotta go live" So inspiring it honestly gives me goosebumps listening to his ultra cool deep voice we know so well. Must-Listen.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rakim-sits-down-with-ari-melber-on-msnbcs-uncorked/id1364113251?i=1000451790542