there’s no way to describe this ep without first acknowledging a fact: i cant really make great dance music…and have no authentic ties to rave culture or the kind of parties that have given birth to techno, house & a million other styles
my musical diet has gradually been dominated by artists who embody these styles and i feel drawn to the spirit and substance of their approach to production
the works of two artists helped me “admit” that i truly love electronic music and synthesis: portable sunsets + gabriel reyes-whittaker [gifted & blessed / abstract eye / the reflektor / poly / the steoples]
other notable peers and predecessors i’ve enjoyed learning from include… steve spacek terrence dixon actress drexciya rucyl mike boo [gunkhole / secret sidewalk] afrikan sciences funkineven kyle hall suzi analogue jay daniel [audire] ahnnu dâm funk
during the past year i’ve spent quite a bit of time absorbing and appreciating “lessons” from 3 NY producers in particular: the nativist, acemo, moma ready
ace befriended me on soundcloud yrs ago and i’ve always loved his genuine style and enthusiasm for music [seriously, check black pop if you havent already]
imagine my surprise when he and moma ready lined up a show in my hometown this past week!
i knew i’d miss it but chose to commemorate the occasion with an ep release anyway
they rep NY and their music heroes on every track so i thought it would be fitting to shift focus to my own production roots and the inspiring artists who led me deep into making music the way i do
PS
this is what i hinted at with the last track on cctrx 4
my excitement was just building and building and building as I read the album description and I must say (as a huge fan of suzi, acemo, actress, YOU et al) that this DELIVERS.
Wonderful guy, my wife and I got to meet him and stay at his house in a historic district in Detroit a few years ago when I played at a show during Movement. His two hour live set at that show was my favorite (other artists included Octave One, Doc Martin, and Speedy J …), covering the range from tribal ambient through banging techno. It was quite an education watching him work dual Roland 707s.
wow…would be amazing to see live
i got into his work after learning that actress looked up to him
listening to him gave me confidence to dwell on more subtle moments and shifts in a loop or sequenced rhythm
also…detroit is such an underrated treasure
you can meet the most talented/influential artists in the most mundane places (will never forget when i shared a meal with the electrifying mojo and at the time didn’t know who he was)
wool is legendary already, j. how it moves through phases, rhythm and swing coalescing in and out of what you assume would happen next. it creates a sense of immediate memory, which is overwritten with each bar. i’m blown away.
any depth of background you can give to this one would be
the fruit of my longstanding friendship with nik bugaev…
looped an excerpted part (the meandering synth w/ long fading envelope) from one of his freestyle sessions and arranged around it
the other two layers (drums, keyboard bass) were fun to make
drums were pulled from a long recording with now-defunct web tool html909 and i had tons of fun creating the rhythm from scratch
i hate keyboard synths but this is one of the few times when i took a partially completed song and sat with a traditional synth (crumar performer) to finish the song
the melodic line is a mess but i tried to mimic the the emotion in niks melody and shift focal points and accents in the beat by how i played
when i first made it i was disappointed with the results
since then it has grown on me
i’m most proud of the cymbals and drum programming which were all done live in my browser (except the pitch shift) including the parameter changes and muting . drums were dubbed to cassette for extra texture before mixing with the other elements of the song
Sorry to necrobump but…I think the context from the first trilogy of releases is relevant…
If mods prefer I can make a new thread and link to this (or quote specific passages)
A few weeks ago I finished up another entry in the “nometro” fictional sonic world. It’s a pretty direct sequel to zurenim in alot of ways
Like all the rest I made artwork to represent the sounds within: simple overlapping juxtaposed lines which hint at an object (in this case “landscape”) from a specific viewpoint (overhead)
the title is a linguistic corruption (dopoglaf ~ topograph)
giving a playful knod to the mapwave/mapcore cultural phenomenon as well
some other key influences were leaving records diy mastering workshop (esp the ethos behind sharing knowledge with other artists in that way, openly) and yuk’s bahay ep (we had many conversations about music while finishing tracks, i applied some of what i gathered to dopo)
i’ll add a track by track breakdown below and answer questions if people want to discuss
otherwise…enjoy!
Thanks! The progressions are all done with trial and error to fit a sequence or purely following intuition during improv
tenfunc and rysurp were partly made with push so i think the scales were based on major pentatonic and/or one of the japanese scales
i did not know the scales of the other tracks (dopoglaf was done with opz default tuning, batisq was whatever korg gadget defaults to so probably c major?)
I can’t hide my joy because i’m usually happier with the artwork than my music : ) and there are definite/deliberate connections between the two
first of all i often represent themes or methods without type or words incorporated in the design
this cover was adapted from a scientific diagram and doesn’t hide the way i use repetition to mold things into form…i like using simple tools to recontextualize elements within the frame (in visuals…clone stamping is the most common way) and make certain parts focal point of the eyes
the misalignment of adjacent lines inside and outside the circular element are meant to create some tension & there’s also specific attention paid to amount of white space at each border
the contrast on each side is supposed to be secondary and tertiary focal points of the image
more than some of my other work…this functions almost like two images and (to me) feels quite different when the cover is viewed from afar
something similar might be experienced if a listener pays particular attention to the album (zooming in) or if they use dopo as background noise during another activity
