Four Things #8..
Four things #8..
After a rundown of my favorite Red Bull Music Academy videos, and a little Twitter skirmish, things have returned to normal here at Four Things. I am very glad to welcome a bunch of new readers, hope you enjoy the ride! This news letter started as a very modest, friends and relatives type thing, but I must say I'm very happy people are still interested in nice "Things" to read, listen, watch etc. Your feedback is always much appreciated, so don't hesitate..
I had originally planned to do separate entries for the excellent books that have come out recently (see below) but opted instead for a quick rundown so you can get to ordering/reading. I am back on the road tomorrow, off to Detroit for record digging and a gig at Texture with Patrick Russell, Aurora Halal and Randomer. Will probably be back next week with more things. Tell your friends to subscribe and check out the archive here https://tinyletter.com/Martyn-Deykers.
Martyn,
Nov 14, 2019
FIRST THING: NEW BOOKS
The five year time period between 1991 and 1996 saw a massive outburst of creativity in UK music, specifically in the realm of (what we now call) "bass music" (electronic music with a strong bass heritage/component). A quarter of a century seems like a good time to chronicle, archive and reflect on those developments, as some of its stories of origin are slowly disappearing, or have never been properly told in the first place. Several quality books on the subject have been released this year (with more planned for 2020). First up is Joe Muggs & Brian David Stevens' "Bass, Mids, Tops", a collection of essential interviews with originators such as Tony Thorpe, Dennis Bovell all the way via Skream and Noodles to Shy One. Pre-order here. Next up Matt Anniss' "Join The Future - Bleep Techno and the birth of British Bass Music", an excellent account of the sweet northern marriage of Detroit techno and sub bass that is Bleep. Think LFO, Unique3, Warp Records etc. Order here from Velocity Press. Third, a more scientific approach by University of London's Dr. Caspar Melville "It's a London Thing - How Rare Groove, Acid House and Jungle remapped the city." Especially good cos it tackles cultural and race issues and takes bass music out of the old 'Hardcore Continuum' realm. Grab here. Lastly, a new edition to the 33 1/3 series by Ian Bourland about Massive Attack's Blue Lines is coming soon. There's a good interview with him by Todd Burns here. Order here.
SECOND THING: BLACK AND GRAY TATTOOS
Most of my friends know how my love for NPR's race and culture podcast Code Switch is reaching "OK now you're just plain annoying" levels, but since I haven't mentioned it in the news letter, here goes.. A tweet by co-presenter Gene Demby from a couple weeks sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole and I found this episode from April 2018 about the phenomenon of "Black and Gray" tattooing (those extremely detailed thin lined tattoos of people's faces, cursive lettering, all in black and shades of gray). It turned into a fascinating must-listen pod about unsung heroes, revolutionizing tattoo art, chicano prison life, stationary (!), and Ed Hardy (!!).
https://www.npr.org/2018/05/16/611306395/whats-black-and-gray-and-inked-all-over (pic from LA Weekly)
THIRD THING: ANNA, THE WHITEST TOWN IN AMERICA
Europeans that live or travel in the States are almost automatically drawn to the East and the West Coast. The East because life is comparable to living in a large European city like Paris, London or Frankfurt. The West because of, well, watching TV when we grew up! Hollywood, hip hop, skateboarding, San Francisco and Silicon Valley. But what goes on in between those two coasts, in flyover country, we learn very little about. Now, in the age of Trump, the media reports much more from this part of America. This sometimes leads to excellent journalism and shocking realities. Great piece in The Atlantic (collab'ing with ProPublica) about the town of Anna, Illinois, one of the original sundown towns.
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/11/anna-illinois-sundown-towns/601111/
FOURTH THING: NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN
A while back I played a gig in Cambridge/Boston Mass. and I took an Uber from the airport to the hotel. The driver was from India he said but the amazingly beautiful music he was literally blasting at very loud volume was Pakistani. It was the legendary Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, a Qawwali singer who has been called one of the greatest human voices ever recorded. (Qawwali is a form of Islamic religious music in the Sufi tradition, a small and very old, more mystic subdivision of Islam) The driver and I chatted a bit about Indian music, the tabla, and the human voice. He sang a few of the phrases of the tune for me to demonstrate what his favorite bits were. And then all of a sudden when we crossed the Harvard Bridge into Cambridge, he switched to a different song and said: "you know what I also really love? check this! DAVE MATTHEWS!!"
This was the song: "Ibn E Haider Tu Khuda Ka Raaz Hai" YOUTUBE // SPOTIFY