Deep Voices #23
No more techno from Europe allowed anymore
Deep Voices #23 on Apple Music
The day after Donald Trump was elected was devastating. It felt impossible to do anything other than mourn the future. I worked at Pitchfork then and nothing felt more trivial than album reviews. But we knew the publication had a big platform and we wanted to use it for good. After some discussion, it was decided the best way to do this was to speak directly to our audience, something the infamously detached publication never really did. Could music be a healer in the way we all hoped? We’d put the question to our audience. “What are you listening to?” we tweeted. One writer I love responded. “Shut the fuck up,” she said.
The mood was a little different four years later. On Saturday morning, I watched a guy play bagpipes while walking down the middle of Dekalb Avenue into a crowd that had taken over the street. There were hundreds of people literally doing the hustle in the middle of the intersection. But my elation was not as high as my devastation was low last election. I felt relief, but not the joy others did. That’s a mix of personal hard times with inborn skepticism, and, to be honest, it sucked. I wanted to want to do the hustle. Instead I wanted a sandwich, so we headed to the diner to get grilled cheese. On the way back to the park, one bar had set up a PA and I heard the iconic opening bass line of “Follow Me” by Aly-Us. It was a perfect choice, even if I didn’t feel like dancing. “Come with me over there,” the song goes. It’s a plea, not a celebration. “Let’s put an end to racial hatred/And let’s learn to share.”
Playlist notes:
On Saturday, my favorite musician DJ Python made three tweets: “House music,” “House music time,” and “No more techno from Europe allowed anymore.” Surely he’s goofing with that last one, but it gave me a chuckle. It also made me put on more house music, after listening to Aly-Us at home a few times. I ended up including here a track by Detroit legend Rick Wilhite, “Good Kiss,” remixed by Urban Tribe aka Sherard Ingram. I took my son on a walk in the park late this Sunday afternoon to listen to the mix and was anticipating the ecstasy of house as I moved down the tracklist. Instead, when it came on, I realized that while it has standard house chords and 4/4 time, the song is actually super dark, with the muted handclaps, the nervous keys, and the distressingly inaudible vocal sample. It didn’t explode with joy so much as simmer violently for six minutes. So what I’m saying is it’s perfect.
Speaking of European techno, I love Robin Stewart’s Time Travel EP on Trilogy Tapes from earlier this year. It’s dub techno-adjacent, fuzzy and a bit feral. I’ve included the EP’s closing track which is fairly cohesive, but I’d recommend taking a listen to the opener, “Time Travel,” which feels like barely a song, more of a loosely bandaged set of sounds, all equally fuzzed out with a random hit of a gong thrown in for good measure. The whole thing feels new and exciting if perhaps a bit self-serious, but I guess so am I.
I don’t think it would be unfair to call DJ Tools by rkss a concept album. Produced using sounds from a sample pack entitled “EDM Kicks Vol 1.” The song titles, strung together, are the promo text for the pack, inviting you to buy it if you love progressive house or the thoroughly unsubtle Dutch DJ Hardwell. The music she created, though, is lustful and pensive, buzzing with life, not the kind of thing you’d find banging in Ibiza. The concept of the record reminded me of a kerfuffle from some years back when the producer Polow Da Don was accused of using premade sounds from Garageband to create the beat for Usher’s smash hit, “Love In This Club.” People were mad, like somehow he cheated, using basic tools available to pretty much everyone. I thought it was cool. Not necessarily subversive, but an excellent example of creativity's lack of limits. Thinking of the rkss record through that lens, though, what does it lose or gain by naming its utilitarian source material? I’d like to see her produce another album with the same limitations, but not mention it.
Looking for more information on the British saxophonist John Surman I found his website, which is brilliantly disinterested in offering any assistance. His bio basically shames you for bothering to stop by. “There is plenty of historical detail about me on Wikipedia. In addition there are [sic] a huge selection of photos available, covering a pretty wide time span, elsewhere on the net, so I’m not sure that I can add much else to what appears to be a pretty comprehensive collection of information.” I used one for this week’s image. Thanks for the help John.