Four Things #36
Welcome to Four Things #36. When I get really excited about something I’ve read, experienced, listened to or watched I just have to tell my friends about it. The original idea behind Four Things was in fact just that; Me copy-pasting small blurbs about records, books or movies to some of my friends in an email. Now that my ‘friends group’ for this newsletter has grown to almost 2k, it sometimes takes me a while to find subjects with the right scope; not too local or niche but also not too large and vague of a subject matter. ‘Stroomhuis’ (see below) is very much tied to locality, but it is indicative of a larger, worldwide dynamic. Subjects need to have some sort of practical quality, a spur to action, not just a cynical observation.
I call the newsletter ‘irregular’ because I want to write it when there’s something to write about, not because it’s dictated by a regular schedule. This means that sometimes I write three a month and other times there’s a 2-month gap. Say something when you have to say something, otherwise, let others take up that space.
Let’s get to the Things though! I wanted to welcome my new readers, hope you enjoy the ride. If you are into the Four Things vibe then please subscribe, pass the link on to your friends, and use it as your own conversation starter if you will. Feedback, topics or collaborative ideas are very much welcome, hit me up by email or in a DM on IG ! Wishing you love and health..
Martyn
Dec 1st, 2024
FIRST THING: rEfLECTIONS
Last week the amazing musician and sound artist Sarah Monibi invited writer, poet, sports podcaster Musa Okwonga and myself to her Low End Therapy show on Berlin’s Refuge Worldwide to talk about making art and mentoring in the age of authoritarianism. I’ve been thinking about this conversation a lot as it connected to the general feeling of dread I’ve encountered amongst many of my friends post-US elections. On the show Musa observed that this current age is signified by grand bold gestures, brutality, clear violation of norms and ripping apart connections and communities, disabling large groups of people to express themselves. The way to combat that is by focusing on the small, on building stronger interpersonal connections, showing vulnerability, resisting through art and focusing on grassroots efforts rather than being paralyzed by a feeling of constant dread about the future.
This dynamic can also be translated to work and workflow as an artist - as Musa pointed out on the Uber ride we took together after the show. We were discussing a larger project I’ve been working on but somehow never am able to find the time for (I’m sure you’ve had one of those), and his advice was to continuously send your ideas out into the world in smaller chunks, be it in the form of a podcast, a poem, a Substack blurb, a remix, collab or an edit - instead of waiting for that single grand idea to fully crystallize in your mind. All those smaller chunks of information will help synthesize the direction you’re going in with your art, and gather valuable feedback from peers along the way. This will hopefully make that larger project easier to get stuck into. Listen to the show on Refuge’s Soundcloud. Shouts to Sarah for having us!
SECOND THING: RACING FOR THUNDER
It was my birthday a little while ago and as a present to myself I got the new Ramm-ell-zee book “Racing for Thunder” by Maxwell Wolf and Jeff Mao (aka Chairman Mao), based on the RBMA exhibition of the same name from 2018. Ramm-ell-zee was an artist whose work mostly lived outside the mainstream but whose ideas about typography, language and society influenced many. Even though he often rejected it, it’s not difficult to see his work in the afrofuturist tradition, alongside Sun Ra, Parliament/Funkadelic, Lee Scratch Perry, Jeff Mills et al. in the sense that he viewed letters and language (and also music) as a technology to be deployed to resist oppressive forces.
Probably my favorite pieces are his ‘Letter Racers’, Transformer-like typographic objects each resembling a letter of the alphabet, being deployed from Ramm’s Battlestation (his NYC loft workspace) ready to battle each other. The book is filled with beautiful photography of his work, old graff ephemera, his studio and several illuminous collaborators, ranging from JM Basquiat, The Clash, Futura 2000 to Jim Jarmusch and Bill Lasswell.
THIRD THING: STROOMHUIS
On October 17th in my old hometown of Eindhoven, The Netherlands, the iconic Stroomhuis went up in flames. A former high voltage transformer building servicing a large part of Eindhoven’s newly built workers neighborhoods in the 1950s, Stroomhuis was squatted in 2001 and became a one-of-a-kind off the grid cultural and social hub for the city, providing rehearsal spaces for bands, a small concert hall, a restaurant, art studios and living quarters. It was one of the very few pre-war buildings left in the highly re-developed and gentrified city centre, next to Central Station where it quite literally stood rebelling against the grain, covered in graffiti and political slogans.
Losing Stroomhuis is a huge blow for the city and cultural life in the South of The Netherlands in general. Over the last two decades the city has lost a large amount of cultural sanctuaries to the forces of gentrification and the influence of tech giant ASML on the city’s urban development. This was one of the last bastions of counter culture. Jeroen Erosie did a mural in Stroomhuis’ basement back in 2011 (?) and I did the sound design for the video (see below). Jeroen also did a sleeve art illustration for a space rock album recorded at the venue and only recently, in May of this year, we organized a listening party for my album Through Lines on 3024 at the venue on the infamous Krackfree Soundsystem (see photos below).
FOURTH THING: ACID FOR TRANS HEALTH
It’s been a while since I compiled my last newsletter and so much great music has been released in the meantime. Before highlighting ‘Acid for Trans Health' Vol 2’ I want to also mention the excellent EPs by Sun People, Dr Mystery, a great Rawtrachs remix for WNCL, which I have been enjoying a lot, as well as new work by Mia Koden and by Joe Mill, who have both been appearing in my DJ sets a lot. So make sure to check those out..
Today’s mention however goes to the second volume of “Acid for Trans Health” - an independent techno and acid comp filled to the brim with 303 sounds by a bunch of great artists, of which the proceeds go to the UK-based mutual aid fund FiveForFive. The first compilation in the series had a track by Justin Cudmore that I played out quite a bit, and this new one does not disappoint either with excellent contributions by Acidulant, Hunter Starkings and Papa Jon amongst others. Special shout to 3024 Mentoring Program member Scotia delivering a brilliant track proving her longtime membership of the house called Acid.
🙂