BLOWY SHIRTS

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YEAR OF WHAT HAPPENS ON EARTH STAYS ON EARTH

Sun, 24 Dec 2017 11:13:56 -0500

[longer version of what I contributed to the new yorker’s year-end package. you can read that here, and listen to the accompanying megamix the video team made! links to previous year’s lists at bottom.]

I did not grow up going to church, and I am not a particularly religious person. A few days after the inauguration, I wandered into a nearby church and took a seat in the back pews.

I’d gone there right after the election. There was some time for anyone with anything on their mind to stand up and speak. If you need others to pray for you, just let us know. A middle-aged black man in a leather jacket got up and began telling us about an argument he was having with a friend on Facebook. It was about the election, but it was actually about the intractability of racism. He was getting frustrated while describing it to us, in part because he seemed to value being the cool and level-headed one. Plus he was describing the kind of argument millions of people were having on the Internet. “I just hope he finds peace,” the guy said. He paused, then put his hands on his chest. “On a lighter note, today would have been Jimi Hendrix’s seventy-fourth birthday.” He opened up his leather jacket to show everyone his Hendrix t-shirt. “I just wanted to say that, because he was just awesome.”

So I returned here, the day after marching through Manhattan with a poster that said “HOLD ON, BE STRONG.” I needed to be in a room that was powered by something other than hate–to be reminded of vision and purpose, even if they weren’t mine to claim. To listen to wisdom gleaned from a book I’ve never read, and pick and choose what I wanted. To hear others pour themselves into songs I never, ever sing along to. I wanted to steal their vibes.

Instead of a hymn, they passed out small pieces of paper with the lyrics of John Lennon’s “Imagine.” This is not the type of church people come to for the music. The pianist started playing, and I remember thinking about how it felt like magic when I learned how to play those chords as a kid. I couldn’t believe we were doing this. We sang, tentatively at first, as though we could not believe these words in this space. Picture it: singing of “no heaven” and “no religion, too,” with humility and hope, inside a house of worship. It was like an admission that faith was inadequate. All we had was one another. “Imagine” is a song I’ve heard millions of times, the type of song that is so ubiquitous that we rarely bother scrutinizing its words, its vantage point, the possibility that someone wrote these words because he actually believed them. I sang along with a room of strangers, and we looked at one another, and, for the first time in months, I began to cry.

TWO LYRICS THAT REMINDED ME OF POLITICS EVEN IF THEY HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH POLITICS
“Wrote this shit January 21″
“Take me back to November / Take me back to November”

“I’M AN ANGRY TEENAGER”
Novelist, “Street Politician”

ONCE THEY START, I HAVE TO LISTEN TO THE END
Jim O’Rourke’s recently unearthed cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car”
Kanye’s sitcom-length remix of “Bed”

THURSDAY NIGHTS ON NBC
Ross from Friends’ very Madchester guitar-y Boiler Room set
DJ Seinfeld, Time Spent Away from U
Nino Man, Jadakiss and Styles P, “Friends”

IN ANOTHER YEAR FULL OF NIRVANA/KURT COBAIN REFERENCES (DID YOU SEE JAY:Z’S JACKET?) MY FAVORITE SONG, PROBABLY:
this Trippie Redd snippet

SOME VERSIONS OF THE NINETIES THAT WILL NEVER COME BACK THE WAY GRUNGE ENNUI HAS, BUT WERE SO POSSIBILITY-RICH TO ME BACK THEN
Kicking Giant, This Being the Ballad of Kicking Giant, Halo: NYC/Olympia 1989-1993
Helium, The Dirt of Luck/The Magic City

LIKE MANY WHO LOVED “A STORM IN HEAVEN,” I OVERLOOKED THEM AT THE TIME
Acetone, 1992-2001

A REALLY GOOD BOOK ABOUT ACETONE, LOS ANGELES, DREAMS OF GREATNESS
Sam Sweet, Hadley Lee Lightcap

WOULD HAVE LOVED THIS IN 1994, 2002 OR 2017
Big Thief, Capacity

CREDIBLE AND DOPE EARLY NINETIES R&B HOMAGE, SAX AND ALL
Joyce Wrice, “Good Morning”

SPEAKING OF THE NINETIES, LEECH MADE A MIXTAPE OF JUST THE FLOATY/DREAMY PARTS TAKEN FROM CLASSIC GOOD LOOKING/MOVING SHADOW SINGLES
Leech, “Just the Liquid”

FOR THE COMEDOWN, DARK-ASS STUFF ASSEMBLED EXCLUSIVELY FROM SLIPKNOT SAMPLES
Croww, Prosthetics

NOSTALGIA, ULTRA (UK GARAGE/BASSLINE EDITION)
tqd, ukg

SUMMERTIME ‘SECOND SUMMER OF LOVE’ VIBE
Opus III, “It’s a Fine Day (Burt Fox remix)”

UNEXPECTED BURIAL SUMMERTIME VIBES
Monic, “Deep Summer (Burial remix)”

NO REISSUE OR tk ANNIVERSARY TIE-IN, JUST SOME OLD SONGS I RE/DISCOVERED THIS YEAR
Active Minds, “Hobson’s Choice”
El-B, “El-Brand”
Kamal Abdul Alim, “Brotherhood”
Spiritualized in Reykjavik
U2, “Numb (Soul Assassins remix)”
U2, “Mysterious Ways (Massive Attack remix)”

SAME, BUT TAIWANESE INDIE ROCK EDITION
Chocolate Tiger, “Piecing Together”

REISSUES, OR: PEOPLE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN WEIRD AND SPACY#, OBSESSED WITH NATURAL BEAUTY##
# Planetary Peace, Synthesis
# Pauline Anna Strom, Trans-Millennia Music
## Pep Llopis, Poiemusia La Nau Dels Argonaut

REISSUES, OR: WHEN I WAS A CHILD THERE WERE NO BETTER SONGS THAN THE ONES THAT PLAYED THROUGH TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE AND FOR SOME REASON THIS JOYOUS EP REMIND ME OF THAT SHEEN, THOSE HOOKS, THE PERFECT, THEATER-SIZED ECHO
Om Alec Khaoli, Say You Love Me

BEST ALBUM-LENGTH METAPHOR FOR THE CITY, ITS LIMITATIONS AND POSSIBILITIES
Wiki, No Mountains In Manhattan

SOUNDS EXACTLY LIKE IT WAS DESCRIBED, JAMAICA VIA OUTER SPACE
Equiknoxx, Colon Man

I NEED TO GO OUT MORE
Jex Opolis, “Mt. Belzoni”
KH, “Question”

I LISTENED TO THIS ABOUT TEN TIMES, MY SENSE OF ENCHANTMENT GROWING AND GROWING EACH TIME, BEFORE REALIZING THERE WERE BARELY ANY DRUMS ON IT
Mr. Mitch, Devout

SERIOUSLY THE MR. MITCH ALBUM WAS REALLY MOVING AND FANTASTIC
Mr. Mitch f/ Denai Moore, “Fate”

CRAZY WISDOM MASTER
Vince Staples, Big Fish Theory

C’MON AND RAISE UP
Rapsody f/ Kendrick, Lance Skiiwalker, “Power”

SO ICEY
Zomby, Mercury’s Rainbow

ECHO PARTY
Demen, Nektyr
Evy Jane, “Give Me Love”

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
Vic Mensa, The Autobiography

DUNGEON FAMILY, EVEN IN DARKNESS
Earthgang f/ J.I.D., “Meditate”

FUNNY HOW TIME SLIPS AWAY
Lee Gamble, Mnestic Pressure
Pessimist, s/t

NOT SURE HOW THIS BECAME THE DIWALI OF 2017 BUT OKAY
French Montana f/ Mariah, Rae Sremmurd, PNB Rock, Belly, Elephant Man, Vybz Kartel, J Balvin, NORE, Wizkid, “Unforgettable”

HOW ARE THIS MANY PEOPLE ON A FOUR MINUTE SONG? GOOD VIDEO THOUGH
A$AP Mob f/ A$AP Rocky, Playboi Carti, Quavo, Lil Uzi Vert and Frank Ocean, “RAF”

I LIKE IT WHEN FERG’S VOICE GETS ALL NAGGY
Ferg, “Plain Jane”

METRO BOOMIN MADE A BEAT THAT REMINDED ME OF RADIOHEAD
Post Malone f/ Quavo, “Congratulations”

THE MARIACHI VERSION IS PRETTY SWEET
Brian Imanuel, “How I surprised Post Malone with a mariachi band”

”IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR LYRICS, IF YOU’RE LOOKING TO CRY, IF YOU’RE LOOKING TO THINK ABOUT LIFE…”
JonWayne, Rap Album Two

CORNBALL PIANOS AND THEN THAT SYNTH DRAGS, AND THEN THE DRUMS KICK
Tee Grizzley, “First Day Out”

“BUT WILD/WITH MY MONOTONE STYLE”
21 Savage, “Bankroll”
Kodak Black, “Candy Paint”
Rich Chigga, “Glow Like Dat”

ANNUAL SPOT RESERVED FOR LA MUSICA DE HARRY FRAUD
French Montana f/ Pharrell, “Bring Dem Things”

WHEN LAETITIA SAYS HER OWN NAME ON “EMBERS”
Vagabon, Infinite Worlds

WHEN JESSIE LEANS INTO THE WORD “FUCK”
Jessie Reyez, “Figures”

THAT LIGHT MISTING, THAT CASUAL SPRITZ OF SYNTHS
Lanark Artefax, “Touch Absence”

A GOOD ANTI-DJT THING THAT CAME OUT EARLY THIS YEAR, WHICH FEELS LIKE EONS AGO
Lushlife + friends, My Idols are Dead + My Enemies are in Power

THE BABY, THE FLUTES, PIERRE’S OBNOXIOUSLY LONG TAG, THE JESSE LINGARD DANCE
Playboi Carti, “Magnolia”

ILLEST SHIT I SAW THIS YEAR, BABY-RELATED
A child at a restaurant watching an iPad and an iPhone at the same damn time

“[FREE] PLAYBOI CARTI TYPE BEAT”
YBN Nahmir, “Rubbin off the Paint”

GUNS N ROSES, BEFORE ONE OF THE WEIRDEST BEEFS OF THE YEAR
Trippie Redd f/ 6IX9INE, “POLES1469″

SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO BELIEVE YOU CAN SING, AND DO IT WITH CONVICTION, AND I WILL LISTEN
Trippie Redd, “Rack City/Love Scars 2″

ALL THE BACKGROUND NOISE/ECHOED-OUT ADLIBS MAKE THIS
BlocBoy JB, “No Chorus Pt 10″

SMERZ HAS FUN DESPITE THE AWKWARD OF IT ALL
Smerz on NTS

IT SEEMS REALLY EASY TO MAKE A GOOD-SOUNDING SONG THESE DAYS
Global Dan, “Off White”

OF ALL THE DOPE SHIT THAT FUTURE APPEARED ON THIS YEAR, THE MOMENT I WILL REMEMBER IS
That tiny pause before he sings “I need fresh air,” when he seems happy and content

IS THAT A GEORGE MICHAEL SAMPLE?
Mozzy, “Prayed for This”

THE FIX
C Struggs, “Go to Jesus”

"IT’S COOL, BUT IT’S NOT…END ZONE”
Lil Uzi Vert, “XO TOUR Llif3″

AN ALBUM BOOKENDED BY TOTALLY DIFFERENT KINDS OF COLIN KAEPERNICK/TAKE A KNEE REFERENCES
Miguel, War and Leisure

IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR
Brockhampton, Saturation I-III
SZA, Ctrl

SPEAKING OF SZA: WHAT A GREAT TITLE, BESIDES IT BEING ONE OF MY FAVORITE ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
Kingdom, Tears in the Club

THE KELELA ALBUM WAS LOVELY, AS ARE THESE
Kelela x Bok Bok, Dub Me Apart

A RANDOM YOUTUBE COVER THAT I ALSO LIKED, BECAUSE IT CAPTURED HOW MELODIC THE ORIGINAL ACTUALLY IS
Kathleen Nguyen covering Kendrick and Zacari’s “Love.”

DAMN. WAS GOOD
Almost as good as “The Heart Part 4″

LIKE A DE LA SOUL ALBUM, SOMETHING THAT I KNOW I WILL CONTINUE ENJOYING/UNDERSTANDING ANEW FOR YEARS TO COME
Tyler, the Creator, Flower Boy

”BLONDED RADIO” MADE ME JOIN APPLE MUSIC
Frank Ocean, “Chanel”
Frank Ocean, “Biking (solo)”
Tyler and Frank, “Where This Flower Blooms”

MACH HOMMY MAKES GOOD MUSIC THAT’S HARD TO ACCESS
“x Earl Sweatshirt” EP
ty Soundcloud

IT’S A WEIRD TIME B/W THIS BEAT IS SO DEMENTED
Tay-K, “The Race”

PROBABLY MY FAVORITE PHARRELL BEAT
Kap G f/ Pharrell, “Icha Gicha”

MAYBE THE GREATEST MUSIC EVER MADE, REISSUED
Pharoah Sanders

REMINDED ME OF PHAROAH, WHEN IT WASN’T REMINDING ME OF BON IVER
Joseph Shabason, Aytche

AND I ENJOYED AYTCHE FOR SIMILAR REASONS I LIKED ZONING OUT TO
Tom Rogerson and Brian Eno, Finding Shore

ANNUAL SLOT RESERVED FOR MUSIC I LOVED THAT FEATURED HARP
Alice Coltrane, World Spirituality Classics Vol 1

SAME, BUT FOR HARP STUFF THAT ALSO SHOUTS OUT WAWA
Mary Lattimore, Collected Pieces

ANNUAL SLOT RESERVED FOR TASTEFUL VIBRAPHONE
Jenifa Mayanja, “Warrior Strutt”

YOU TRYING TO GET THE PIPE, TO PLAY IT, OF COURSE, AS PART OF AN EXPERIMENTAL COMPOSITION?
Mary Jane Leach, Pipe Dreams

THERE’S A MOMENT DURING THAT BAD BOY DOCUMENTARY CAN’T STOP WON’T STOP WHERE IT BECOMES CLEAR THAT EVERYONE WHO WORKS CLOSELY WITH DIDDY EVENTUALLY TURNS TO GOD, AND IT WAS LIKE THE STRANGE OBVERSE OF
Jay Z et al, 4:44 footnotes

2016, BUT I SAT IN THE MET BREUER AND WATCHED THIS OVER AND OVER FOR ABOUT AN HOUR
Arthur Jafa, “Love is the Message, The Message is Death”

I WANT TO WATCH THE FULL FOUR HOURS OF THIS
Dev Hynes talking to Philip Glass

TRICKSTERY BUT KINDA MESMERIZING!
Klein, Tommy
Lolina, Lolita EP
Hype Williams, Rainbow Edition

“NOT ANOTHER GOT MORE SEOUL, UNLESS YOU KOREAN” (CHILLWAVE REMIX)
Mogwaa, Deja Vu

“THE TING GOES SKRRRAHH, PAP, PAP, KA-KA-KA/SKIDIKI-PAP-PAP, AND A PU-PU-PUDRRRR-BOOM/SKYA, DU-DU-KU-KU-DUN-DUN/POOM, POOM, YOU DON’ KNOW”
Big Shaq, “Mans Not Hot”

IBID., BUT “PERKY”
Drake, More Life

I WANTED TO LIKE THE WIZKID ALBUM MORE, BUT THIS WAS AWESOME
Tiwa Savage f/ Wizkid and Spellz, “Ma Lo”

LISTENED TO THIS QUITE A FEW TIMES SIMPLY BECAUSE ”BREAKING NEWS: WILD GOAT ON THE LOOSE” IS A WEIRD LINE
Lancey Foux f/ AJ Tracey, Kojey Radical and Jevon, “Wild Goat”

UNITED TIL I DIE BUT AJ TRACEY’S TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR KIT LAUNCH FREESTYLE HAD ME BUZZZZZZIN
AJ Tracey, “False 9″

DIFFERENT TIME OF DAY, KINDA LEFT ME SPEECHLESS
Grouper, “Children”
Colleen, A Flame my love, a frequency
Kara Lis Coverdale, Grafts
Ryuichi Sakamoto, async

LEFT RYUICHI SAKAMOTO ENVIOUS
Metaphors: Selected Soundworks from the Cinema of Apichatpong Weerasethakul

FROM OMNI TRIO TO THIS, A PRETTY VISIONARY CAREER
Robert Haigh, Creatures of the Deep

A SONG THAT FEATURED TWO PEOPLE WHO SHOULD BE PRETTY BIG IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF YEARS
DJDS f/ Amber Mark and Marco McKinnis, “Trees on Fire”

LIKE, THIS IS GREAT
Amber Mark, “Lose My Cool”

AWESOME YEAR FOR POTIONS
Social Lovers, “Drop Me a Line”
Boss, “Song for Gods”

WHISKED ME BACK TO MEMORIES OF the enormous room
Joakim, “Samurai”
Calvin Harris f/ Frank Ocean and Migos, “Slide”
Amp Fiddler, “I’m Feeling You”
Chaos in the CBD, Accidental Meetings

LIKE FALLING ASLEEP ON THE SUBWAY, OR A TRUCK HITTING A POTHOLE AND SPITTING OUT A RECORD COLLECTION, OR HEARING A NANOSECOND OF BRAND NUBIAN THROUGH SOMEONE’S HEADPHONES AS YOU PASS THEM ON THE STREET, IT’S A VIBE
Standing on the Corner, Red Burns

MIKE’S A SAVIOR
Mike

1. I SPENT A LOT OF TIME THIS YEAR THINKING ABOUT THE STRENGTH, ELASTICITY, FRAGILITY, GRAIN OF THE HUMAN VOICE AND SOME OF THIS WAS TOTALLY NECESSARY AND SUBLIME
Deep Throat Choir, Be Ok
Diamanda Galas, All the Way
Moses Sumney, Aromanticism

2. SO ACHINGLY GOOD AND INTIMATE, ESPECIALLY THAT FAINT CROAK IN THE FIRST CHORUS
Rostam f/ Kelly Zutrau, “Half-Light”

3. OF COURSE THESE WORLD-MAKERS TOO
Bjork, Utopia
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, The Kid
Valerie June, “Astral Plane”

3a. A STRANGE PROPOSITION THAT I ENDED UP ADORING
KAS covering Sade’s "By Your Side”

THE BAY AREA IS JUST DIFFERENT
Droop-E, Trillionaire Thoughts
Lil B, Black Ken

THE “BUILD YOU UP” VIDEO WAS FUN AND ALL BUT I’M REALLY GLAD THIS WASN’T THAT
Kamiayah, Before I Wake

THE BAY TO L.A. AND BACK AGAIN
Mozzy f/ G Perico, “Blammatory”
G Perico f/ Mozzy, “What’s Real”

GYEAH
MC Eiht, Which Way Iz West

OUTRUN THE BEAT
SOB x RBE, “Lane Changing 2″

BANDS THAT ALWAYS SOUND LIKE THEMSELVES, IN WAYS THAT I FIND COMFORTING
the xx, I See You
King Krule, The Ooz

SAME AS ABOVE, MIDDLE-AGED DIVISION
The Feelies, In Between
Slowdive, “Star Roving”

SOMEONE WHO SOUNDS LIKE NO ONE ELSE
Jlin, Black Origami

THE NEW NATIONAL ANTHEM
Dreezy f/ 6LACK and Kodak Black, “Spar”

I LOOKED UP EACH TIME THIS CAME ON THE SHUFFLE
Shanti Celeste, “Loop One/Selector”

PROBABLY MY FAVORITE SONG
GoldLink f/ Brent Faiyaz and Shy Glizzy, “Crew”

OR MAYBE
Jorja Smith x Preditah, “On My Mind”

THIS WAS SICK TOO
GoldLink & Co. covering Outkast’s “Roses”

MAYBE THE BEST SONG
J Hus, “Did You See”

ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER YEAR WHERE MY FAVORITE RELEASE WAS PROBABLY FROM YAEJI, THE “GLASSES FOGGING UP” LINE WAS VERY RELATABLE
Yaeji, EP2

THE SONG OF THE SPRING, SUMMER, WINTER

I MEAN, IT’S WAYNE’S WORLD, WE JUST LIVE IN IT

###

SIKH DEVOTIONAL MUSIC :: 2016
SPOOKY BLACK :: 2015

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God’s Country 003

Mon, 23 Jan 2017 10:34:21 -0500

princeklassen:

What’s up everybody? I hope the new year is treating you well thus far and Orange Julius isn’t bringing you down too much. Things have been busy for me over the last couple of months. I left New York at the beginning of December, was in Japan for the better part of a month shortly after that, and finally getting settled into our new place back in Texas. As some of you know I’ve made a ‘career’ change and have been literally seeking greener pastures… Last May I started volunteering at a farm in Rockaway and it changed my life. My goal now is to start my own farm that feeds and nourishes the mind, body, and spirit (more details soon). With that said I will be traveling across the country and staying at different farms learning different techniques and practices. If you have any friends doing similar work, please let me know. I would love to meet other like minded homies.

As far as everything else goes, I am still DJing a bit but my focus has shifted. I obviously can’t completely turn my back on my first love and will continue to make mixes that fall in line with nourishing the spirit. That said, God’s Country 003 (not religious, I promise) is now available for streaming. The series, as most of my recent mixes have been, is a break from the club. Something much more subtle & delicate.

PS: I’ve quit Facebook for the time being and will be limiting my social media use to IG, Tumblr, Twitter, and Line. Please feel free to share the mix and let’s celebrate life together!

Listen to God’s Country 003 here: https://www.mixcloud.com/princeklassen/gods-country-003/

this morning I went into manhattan to sell some old records and...

Thu, 19 Jan 2017 15:30:09 -0500

this morning I went into manhattan to sell some old records and acquire some new ones. a not-insignificant portion of my collection consists of records bought to mark moments, good and bad, and the last full day of obama’s presidency felt a worthwhile occasion. plus the forecast said it would be nice out today.

I decided to listen to janet jackson’s ‘rhythm nation’ on my way there. at the time – middle school? high school? – its singles were ubiquitous, each one an event, and, at the time, I had no sense that they were part of a coherent whole, especially one that was all dreamy and utopian.

today it sounded so distant yet so vital. and I was reminded of an interview I once did with michael k williams (best known for playing ‘omar’ on ‘the wire’) where he talked about his early aspirations to be a dancer. seeing the ‘rhythm nation’ video changed his life. he said:

“Rhythm Nation” spoke to my brokenness. The imagery. I looked at what the lyrics were saying in the beginning—she’s talking about how we are a nation, bound together by our beliefs, we are like-minded individuals working toward a world with no color lines, I believe she says. You have Tyrin Turner, little young brother, you know, dark skinned, you know, big lips, big nose, nappy headed, much like myself. He was stuck in this damp dreary warehouse trying to find his way out. And Janet came in there to let him know, You are not alone. She pulled him out of that dark, damp warehouse. And at that time, when I saw that video, that’s what my life felt like. My life felt like a dark, damp warehouse that I felt alone in. I was trapped in my own head. When I saw that video, the type of dancers she used—it wasn’t like everybody was showing their body, it wasn’t about being the sexiest. Everybody was in black, it was militant, she had tall, she had short, it just said to me, If you are sick and tired of being sick and tired, if you tired of being a victim, if you want to stand up for what you believe in: come join me. If you want to be strong: come join me. The whole thing of wearing black. It just looked so strong. It was the first time I saw myself where I could be myself and still be strong. I gravitated to it.

at the time, all I could muster in response was something to the effect of “dope beat, too.”

but today, I want to find a nation.

I have always found Isaac Hayes’ twelve-minute version of “Walk...

Mon, 16 Jan 2017 11:28:33 -0500

I have always found Isaac Hayes’ twelve-minute version of “Walk on By” entrancing. It carries a sense of tragedy that the lyrics don’t warrant–and it’s irrationally long. At some point I learned that Hayes had recorded it after taking a year-long hiatus early in his career. Martin Luther King, Jr’s assassination–which he almost witnessed first-hand–had drained him of any desires to create.

It’s not that I began hearing Hot Buttered Soul as an elegy but it made sense to me that this album full of unusually long, meandering, beautifully redemptive songs had been produced under such awful circumstances. And then I remembered that a sample of “Walk on By” (and Hayes himself) provided the spine for “I Can’t Go To Sleep,” one of the Wu-Tang Clan’s most paranoid songs. Ghostface sobs; the record gets spun back, violently, as though trying to return to sometime else; Hayes is spectral, a guiding star. And there was King, too, in RZA’s half-lunatic, half-prophet verse:

I can’t go to sleep, I can’t shut my eyes
They shot the father at his mom’s building seven times
They shot Malcolm in the chest, front of his little seeds
Jesse watched as they shot King on the balcony
Exported Marcus Garvey cause he tried to spark us
With the knowledge of ourselves and our forefathers

Anyhow, both are songs I listen to on MLK Day (now that it’s way too creepy to listen to Bill Cosby’s “Martin’s Funeral”). Here are a few pages of a talk I gave like ten years ago where I tried to enunciate that sense of history and aspiration that I heard in “Walk on By”:

***

“Walk on By” is the lead track off Isaac Hayes’ 1969 album Hot buttered soul. There is something unnerving about how long it is, by how it manages to be so deeply anguished and pained, yet how it manages to avoid feeling overwrought. There are no wasted gestures over the course of these twelve minutes, nothing that doesn’t sound completely and utterly essential to the full logic of the song. Perhaps this is why “Walk on by” has been sampled so frequently by hip-hop artists big and small, for it expresses so much in its shuddering organ riffs, swan-like glide of strings and shrapnel blast of guitar.

In the late 1960s, Hayes was a highly successful songwriter for Stax, the famed Memphis soul label which was the only real challenger to Berry Gordon’s Motown empire. While the label was never, like Motown, black-owned, Stax was a beacon of multiracial cohabitation, at a time when such a thing was still unusual, from its staff to its integrated backing bands, and they all toiled away in a tough, tough town.

On the afternoon of April 4, Hayes, who was primarily a songwriter, was on his way to the Stax studios to work on a Sam and Dave recording session. He had initially planned on fetching Sam and Dave’s sax player, who was staying at the Lorraine Motel, on the way to Stax. But at the last minute, his wife needed to use their car, so he called a cab instead and instructed the sax player to do the same and just meet him at the studio. Hayes heard about King’s assassination in the cab on this way to the studio. When he arrived, he heard the news. Devastation. That night, a curfew was imposed in Memphis, but those who were already at Stax were allowed to work through the night.

For his part, Hayes lost his ability to work at all. “It affected me for a whole year,” he later explained to the historian Rob Bowman in Bowmans’ remarkable Soulsville USA. “I could not create properly. I was so bitter and so angry. I thought, What can I do?”

Hayes took an indefinite hiatus, toying with the idea of retiring altogether. In 1969, after thinking about how becoming a successful artist would empower him to make a difference, he returned. But he did not pick up where he had left off, with the tepid jazz-inflected soul of Presenting Isaac Hayes, his 1968 solo debut. Rather, Hayes’ comeback album reimagined the process and craft of soul music, as well as the possibilities of the soul economy. Stax, as with all soul labels of the time, relied upon the seven-inch vinyl single. Soul albums were generally cobbled-together collections of previously released singles.

Hayes shuddered at the idea of constraining his craft to the two to three minute song form and he created an album which flaunted the convention of the single. Released in the summer of 1969, Hot buttered Soul featured Hayes and the Bar-Kays on only four tracks: an eighteen minute version of Glen Campbell’s 1967 hit “By the Time I get to Phoenix,” a twelve-minute version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “Walk on By,” a nine minute track "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic” and a five minute track by his musicians called “One Woman.”

Hayes explains: “When I did Hot Buttered Soul, it was a selfish thing on my part. It was something I wanted to do. I didn’t give a damn if it didn’t sell because I was going for the true artistic side, rather than looking at it for monetary value. I had an opportunity to express myself no holds barred, no restrictions, and that’s why I did it. I took artistic and creative liberties. I felt what I had to say couldn’t be said in two minutes and thirty seconds. So I just stretched (the songs) out and milked them for everything they were worth.”

In a very basic way, “By the Time” and “Walk on By” were characteristic of the trends of the time—most soul records at the time featured cover versions of songs one might today consider schmaltzy or safe—anyone who has browsed sixties albums knows of the ubiquitous funky cover of “Wichita Lineman.” But Hayes’ choice to make half of the songs on his comeback album these covers was bizarre, as was their expansive sitcom-length. What Hayes and the Bar-Kays did to these songs was an act of creative destruction. The songs were torn apart, note-by-note, limb-by-limb, and in place of the quotidian pop heartbreak of “Walk on By,” we are left with a nine minute exorcism that smolders and writhes, an epic mourning of a lost love supreme.

Hayes explains: “What it was, was the real me. I mean, okay, the real me had written those other songs but they were being written for other people. As for me wanting to express myself as an artist, that’s what Hot buttered Soul was. Although I was a songwriter, there were some songs that I loved, that really touched me. I wanted to do them the way that I wanted to do them. I took them apart, dissected them, and put them back together and made them my personal tunes. I took creative license to do that. By doing them my way, it almost made them like totally different songs all over again.”

Again, Hayes describes the songs as attempts to communicate something about form. These songs were a radical departure from mainstream R&B at the time, and Hayes essentially created the idea of the modern soul album, the hourlong statement of purpose-slash-dream world, with Hot Buttered Soul. These liberally defined “covers” swabbed these safe recognizable tunes in a historical moment of depression and longing, of a profound kind of heartbreak far grander than what most young lovers might recognize.

Drawing back, Hayes’ statements nest within a larger context of black and white ownership, for mere days before King’s assassination, Stax had been finalizing a deal to sell its assets to a Los Angeles corporation called Gulf and Western, which already had diverse holdings in the film and music industries. In the aftermath of King’s assassination, Hayes observes that he became more “rebellious. I was militant. When Dr. King was killed I flipped and I just did a lot of reevaluating…” Hayes spearheaded an effort to hire more local African Americans and to improve the working conditions of longtime Stax employees.

And implicit in all of this, I think, is a rejection of the trajectory of pop music as it then existed. The final instrumental breakdown takes five minutes—as long as two sturdy pop singles—and Hayes’ own vocals are probably the least memorable ingredient of the song. Instead, one is stung by Michael Toles’ savage guitar in the first ninety seconds, and haunted by the way Marvell Thomas’ triumphant, almost rapturous organ solo over the song’s last five minutes tries unsuccessfully to vanquish the song’s darkness. The song ends with a whimper, Thomas seemingly collapsing at the keys and Willie Hall banging out a stiffly efficient drum break that rattles to a weary close.

The history of culture is made solid through objects, records, books, speeches, but the image of a band in a recording session, that vision of democracy, of a struggle triumphant, is where the recovery of King began for Hayes–when depression was not a force that crippled but rather one of possibility, a pause for patient yet forceful deliberation.

Over the previous twelve minutes, Hayes and the Bar-Kays had poured themselves into the moment, and “Walk on By,” was an act of formal resistance smuggled within a safe pop title, changed everything. It imagines the possibility of resolution, partly because the song is allowed the space to meander and veer off path, to deal with both the beauty and hostility of the moment. There is the logic of the music itself—the interlocking of notes, the tightness of the rhythm section, the texture of the melody. And then there is the sense one gets, as a listener or as someone who has played in a band, that everything just feels right.

Photo

Thu, 12 Jan 2017 16:42:00 -0500

Photo

Mon, 02 Jan 2017 20:06:36 -0500

orientallyyours: Happy New Year! Photograph of Mar Suey Fong...

Sun, 01 Jan 2017 17:17:39 -0500

orientallyyours:

Happy New Year!

Photograph of Mar Suey Fong (resident of Wichita, Kansas) printed on a greeting card, c. 1939. The message “Happy New Year” appears in Chinese and in English. Chinese characters also represent his name in the handwritten note at bottom.

Source: Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum

YEAR OF THE COWS, CHICKENS, DOGS

Wed, 28 Dec 2016 12:00:05 -0500

A guy playing Spooky Black helped ring in 2015. Last night, after two great but exhausting weeks in Taiwan, punctuated by a child (ours) screaming hysterically for the last twenty minutes of our flight, we landed at JFK and packed all our things (mostly the child’s) into a small cab. The driver was wearing baggy jeans, a baggy striped oxford and a New York Giants beanie. We hadn’t even gotten out of the airport before he started asking us questions about where we’d been (”Taiwan? Is that Thailand?”). He was a 22-year-old guy from Richmond Hill, a part of Queens that’s largely populated by immigrants from India and Guyana (”a lot of similarities, a lot of the same last names”). His family had moved here from India when he was two. And while his folks went back every year, he hadn’t been back until recently, when he started making a little money. He wasn’t sure why it had never occurred to him to go with them. I saw a plastic khanda hanging from his rear-view mirror. This trip back to India had been for a cousin’s wedding, and it was okay. People respected him but he didn’t really experience anything too different while he was there, because the place where his cousin’s family lived had the same modern conveniences as here. Except for the traffic. “Animals everywhere,” he laughed. I noticed the sharp, angular trim of his goatee. “Cows, chickens, dogs.”

He said it must have been a rough trip for a child so young and then looked into the rear-view mirror at Carol and Zeke and smiled. The kind of passing observation from a stranger that feels strangely and intimately kind. I asked him if he felt any connection to India, having only consciously been there once. He was listening to Sikh devotional music which, mingling with the blare of Taxi TV, sounded like mid-nineties trip-hop. Being here or there didn’t matter all that much. He said his family and friends kept him in touch with his roots. We crossed the Kosciuszko Bridge, all bumps and pot-holes as the new one bridge constructed a few hundred feet away. I asked if he knew when they were supposed to finish. “January 1. But it’s not going to happen. You know contractors. It’s all politics and corruption.” He waited a moment before the inevitable next question. “So, what do you think about Trump?” I laughed. “What do you think I think? It’s going to be bad.” He said he had gone to Times Square the night of the election, thinking it would be a party. When he saw Trump’s electoral votes surge, he decided to go home. They were both bad candidates he said. “But one was a lot worse,” I replied. He was a little worried–it’s going to be hard for Muslims, he said, and I wondered if he frequently got mistaken for one himself. “He don’t pay no taxes, he shows no respect to girls,” he said, before correcting himself. “I mean, women.” But living in New York meant some measure of protection because he’d never picked up a fare from anyone who didn’t hate the guy. “Hope he does some good things, man. Hope he does some good things.” We were both quiet for a second. “Because otherwise,” he continued, “he’s just evil.”

I DID NOT DO A VERY SYSTEMATIC JOB OF JOTTING DOWN EVERYTHING I LIKED THIS YEAR. REALLY, IT WAS JUST A GMAIL DRAFT. SO THERE IS PROBABLY A LOT OF STUFF MISSING HERE.

EVERY YEAR HE PUTS OUT SOMETHING THAT BRINGS ME A LOT OF JOY
Nef the Pharoah, Neffy Got Wings

SO GOOD THAT IN THE NEAR FUTURE THEY WILL REFER TO JOHN, PAUL, GEORGE, AND RINGO AS “THE WHITE BEATLES”
Rae Sremmurd featuring Gucci Mane, “Black Beatles”

I HAD TO, LIKE, OPEN THE BRUISE UP, AND LET SOME OF THE BRUISE BLOOD COME OUT TO SHOW THEM
Yves Tumor, Serpent Music

“TRIED BY 12″ VIBES
Young M.A., “OOOUUU”

NAG NAG NAG
Danny Brown, Atrocity Exhibition

ANORAK CITY
Frankie Cosmos, Next Thing

I CAN
D.R.A.M. feat. Lil Yachty, “Broccoli”

808s AND HEARTBREAK
Bon Iver, 22, A Million

A SONG THAT MADE ME WANT TO GET SOUP DUMPLINGS
Pearson Sound, “XLB”

AND A FEW THAT STAYED ON MY SHUFFLE
TOKiMONSTA, “I’m Waiting”
21 Savage and Metro Boomin, “No Heart”
Kodak Black feat. Gucci Mane, “Vibin in this Bih”
Eric Copeland, “Fuck it Up”
Future, “Perkys Calling”
Africaine 808, “Tummy Tumma (Esa’s Afro Synth Bubblegum remix)”
Young Thug, “With Them”
Migos feat. Lil Uzi Vert, “Bad and Boujee”
Hidden Spheres, “Well Well”

THROUGHOUT HISTORY THERE HAVE BEEN A LOT OF POP SONGS ABOUT A BAD BREAK-UP BUT FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY ARE AS GOOD AS
Parquet Courts, “Human Performance”

DARK TWISTED FANTASY
Zeroh, Tinnitus

BEST COLLABORATION WITH AN ETHIOPIAN VEGAN RESTAURANT
Ras G X Azla Vegan, Azla Sounds Vol. 1

EVERY COUPLE YEARS THERE’S A DVA SONG I REALLY LIKE; IN THIS CASE I LIKE THE FACT THAT IT FEELS AS THOUGH 35% OF THIS SONG IS MISSING
DVA, “Take it All”

STUFF I LIKED FROM ONE OF MY FAVORITE LABELS, 1080p
Elka, Chants
Sasha Jan Rezzie, “All My Dreams”

BLACKEST EVER BLACK PUT OUT A LOT OF GOOD RECORDS THIS YEAR TOO
Raime, Tooth
Carla Dal Forno, You Know What It’s Like

THIS YEAR’S “RIYL: KAMASI WASHINGTON”S
Yussef Kamaal, Black Focus
Shabaka and the Ancestors, Wisdom of Elders

I’LL GIVE ANY ATTEMPT TO MAKE BUSTED 80S GROOVES (AND AALIYAH’S OEUVRE) NEW AGAIN A LISTEN
Jessy Lanza, “Going Somewhere”
Nite Jewel, “I Mean It”

SAME BUT WITH THE MID-2000s
VanJess x Darehouse, “Favor”

BEST NAME EVER, HANDS DOWN, AND ONE OF MY FAVORITE SONGS OF THE YEAR, TOO
Ross From Friends, “Talk to Me You’ll Understand”

HALL OF FAME-LEVEL SONG TITLE
Mall Grab, “I’ve Always Liked Grime”

A NICE PAY-AS-YOU-LIKE COMPILATION OF LOW-KEY DANCE MUSIC FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON
North Pole Boogie Vol 16

BEST OTHER TLOPs (WHICH ONE?)
The Life of Peder
Toyomu - Imagining “The Life of Pablo”
The live bootleg from Madison Square Garden which I still like a lot because of how cavernous it sounds

IF YOU HAD A TWIN I MIGHT CHOOSE THE OTHER
“Work” dancehall refix featuring Mavado
“Work” freestyle by Burna Boy
“Work” cover by salute and RobLaw
”Work (Jersey Club remix)” by DJ Taj

I ALMOST FEEL LIKE THE GUITARS ON HERE WERE MEANT IRONICALLY
Rihanna, “Kiss it Better”

THE NINETIES ARE BACK!
The Game, 1992
Nap Eyes, “Mixer”
Teenage Fanclub, Here
Psychic Ills feat. Hope Sandoval, “I Don’t Mind”
Beach Slang, Here I Made This For You

IT’S COOL WHEN THINGS CHANGE, TOO
DJ Shadow and Nils Frahm, “Bergschrund”

PREDICTABLY, I WILL GLADLY LISTEN TO ANYTHING FEATURING THESE PEOPLE
French Montana featuring Puff Daddy and Jadakiss, “Old Man Wildin’”
French Montana featuring Jadakiss, Beanie Sigel and Styles P, “Have Mercy”

I LISTEN TO A LOT OF OLD MUSIC AND HERE ARE A FEW OF THE COMPILATIONS I REMEMBER, THOUGH I’M SURE THERE WERE DOZENS MORE I SHOULD HAVE KEPT BETTER TRACK OF
Sitting in the Park (RIP Bob Abrahamian)
Greg Belson’s Divine Disco (American Gospel Disco 1974-1984)
Boogie Breakdown: South African Synth Disco 1980-1984

AND SOME REISSUES (AGAIN VERY RANDOM)
Syrinx, Tumblers From the Vault
(is this? just rarities, really) Chris Knox, KnoxTraxFine
SunPath, Dream Music
all these Wong Kar-wai soundtracks

I LISTENED TO THESE A LOT AND LOVED THEM BUT I HAVE MORE OR LESS NOTHING INTELLIGENT TO SAY ABOUT THEM
Leon Vynehall, Rojus
21 Savage and Metro Boomin, Savage Mode
MJ Guider, Precious Systems
Tokyo Black Star, Fantasy Live 1999

I LIKED THIS ENOUGH TO BOTHER BUYING IT ON CD, OR: ANNUAL SPOT RESERVED FOR ANYTHING SELA.-RELATED
SELA., DJ A-Flow and Foodman, S.A.F.E.

SO GOOD, TOO SHORT
VHVL, evn

WOULD HAVE BOUGHT AND MAYBE NOT LIKED AT AGE 17, WOULD HAVE APPRECIATED AT AGE 27, WOULD HAVE LOVED AT AGE 37
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, EARS
Ian William Craig, Centres

WOULD HAVE LIKED AT AGE 17, 27, 37
Yohuna, Patientness

SAM RAY-RELATED
Teen Suicide, It’s the Big Joyous Celebration, Let’s Stir the Honeypot
Julia Brown, An Abundance of Strawberries (reissue)

TWIN PEAKS-RELATED
Julee Cruise and King Dude “Sing Each Others Songs For You”

[**]THESE WERE GREAT. BUT ALSO! THEY WERE THE PERFECT LENGTH, WHICH COUNTS FOR A LOT IN MY BOOK
Angel Olsen, My Woman
clipping., Splendor and Misery
Ezale and DJ Fresh, The Tonite Show
Weyes Blood, Front Row Seat to Earth

AN ALBUM THAT WAS WAAAAAAY TOO LONG BUT, AS EXPECTED, I STILL ENDED UP LISTENING TO 5-7 OF THESE SONGS OVER AND OVER
Drake, Views

COOL PART OF “ONE DANCE” WAS THE MINI-REVIVAL OF
Kyla, “Do You Mind?”

…I HAD TOTALLY FORGOTTEN THAT THE XX COVERED IT, TOO
The xx, “Do You Mind?”

A BIT ROTE BUT TEXXAS FOREVER
The xx, “On Hold”

A PROMO I STREAMED BECAUSE I WAS PROCRASTINATING, AND BY MISTAKE, AND I THOUGHT IT SOUNDED SURPRISINGLY GOOD, THOUGH NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME TO EVER WANT TO REVISIT IT AND VERIFY THAT JUDGMENT
The Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Getaway

I PLAYED CELLO FROM 1989-1995 AND I WILL RIDE FOR ANY CELLIST MAKING COOL MUSIC
Oliver Coates, Upstepping
Oliver Coates and Mica Levi, Remain Calm
Kelsey Lu, Church

ESPECIALLY THIS ON THE KELSEY LU EP
Kelsey Lu, “Liar”

STAYING ON THE SUBJECT OF THE NINETIES: AM SLIGHTLY REGRETTING HALF-REMEMBERED RHCP LOVE. THEN AGAIN, THIS WAS A YEAR WHERE I ENDED UP DOWN MANY A LATE NIGHT YOUTUBE NOSTALGIA K-HOLE, ESPECIALLY THESE, I HAVE NO IDEA WHY:
Drop Nineteens, “Winona”
Drop Nineteens, “My Aquarium (acoustic)”
Swervedriver, “Duel”
Ride, “In a Different Place”
Lee Ranaldo, “Notebook”
The Roy Davis Project, “I’m Here to Spread Love”
Jayo Felony, “Sherm Stick”
WC and Maad Circle, “Dress Code”
Company Flow, “8 Steps to Perfection”
Mos Def, “Umi Says”

BEST INTERLUDES
Every second of Master P on the Solange album
“Tina Taught Me” on the Solange album

MY FAVORITE SONG ON THE SOLANGE ALBUM
“F.U.B.U.”

WORST INTERLUDE, POSSIBLY OF ALL TIME
”Facebook Story”

A DAY IN THE LIFE, DONE IN THE STYLE OF ONE LONG INTERLUDE, WHICH I MEAN IN A REALLY GOOD WAY
Kilo Kish, Reflections in Real Time

I LISTENED TO THESE PURELY BASED ON THE BAND NAMES AND I AM GLAD I DID THAT
Japanese Breakfast, Psychopomp
Let’s Eat Grandma, I, Gemini

I LOVED THOSE MORNINGS, WHEN THE SUN’S UP
Sampha, “Plastic (live)”

A GREAT ALBUM THAT STILL FELT OVERLOOKED BUT MAYBE IT’S JUST ME
Schoolboy Q, Blank Face

UNFINISHED SYMPHONY
Desiigner, “Timmy Turner (freestyle)”

ALBUMS I’M POSITIVE WILL GROW ON ME IN 2017
Gucci Mane, The Return of East Atlanta Santa
Kaytranada, 99.9%
Katie Dey, Flood Network

WAY TOO MANY MORNING-BECOMING-DAYS-BECOMING-WEEKS THIS YEAR WHERE I LISTENED TO NOTHING BUT
David Bowie
Prince
A Tribe Called Quest
George Michael
Earth Wind and Fire
Leonard Cohen
Sharon Jones
too many more to name

RIP DAVID MANCUSO
“It’s amazing what one tambourine can do.”

RELATED: A COVER THAT I FOUND REALLY MOVING
Los Cenzontles, “Young Americans”

AND THIS WAS GOOD, AND IT SEEMED EVEN BETTER/MORE VITAL BECAUSE OF “CIRCUMSTANCES”
A Tribe Called Quest, We got it from Here… Thank You 4 Your service

(FALSE PROPHECY, OR: BEST 2016 WARRIORS FREESTYLE
Mistah F.A.B.)

PROPHECY AND MAGIC, OR: AN AMERICA I WANT TO MOVE TO
Blood Orange, Freetown Sound
Frankie Reyes, Boleros, Valses y Mas
Helado Negro, Private Energy
Mitski, Puberty 2
Frank Ocean, Blonde
KING, We are KING
Car Seat Headrest, Teens of Denial
Noname, Telefone
Amber Mark, “S P A C E”
DJ Taye, “Burnin Ya Boa”
Valerie June, “Astral Plane”
Chance the Rapper, Coloring Book
Beyonce, “Formation”
Hamilton Leithauser and Rostam, I Had a Dream That You Were Mine
Kanye West, "Ultralight Beam” [especially this]
Terrace Martin, Velvet Portraits

AN ALBUM THAT REMINDED ME THAT WE DESERVE BETTER
Anohni, Hopelessness

ADMITTEDLY I HAVE A SOFT SPOT FOR SONGS THAT DO THIS. BUT NEVER NOT SMITTEN WITH THE WAY IT SWITCHES UP @ 3:30
Frank Ocean, “Nights”

I HEARD THIS ON MY STUDENT ZACK’S SHOW ON 11/10 AND IT WAS A REVELATION
Mal Devisa, “Sea of Limbs”

ANOTHER ONE!
Guerrilla Toss, “Grass Shack (Giant Claw remix)”

IT WAS A SHITTY SUMMER AND I THINK I LISTENED TO THIS MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE OTHER THAN TLOP, ESPECIALLY JULY-SEPT (ICYMI I WROTE ABOUT IT HERE)
Julius Eastman, Femenine

IF I REALLY HAD TO CHOOSE, MY FAVORITE SONG THIS YEAR, BECAUSE IT SEEMED TO CONTAIN EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER LIKED ALL AT ONCE IN ONE SONG:
Yaeji, "New York 93″

THIS MADE ME REALLY HAPPY TO BE ALIVE
Kamaiyah, A Good Night in the Ghetto

AN ALBUM THAT I LIKED AND FORGOT ABOUT UNTIL IT SOMEHOW ENDED UP IN AN EPISODE OF HBOS’S ‘BALLERS’ AND IF THAT ISN’T PROOF THAT THE ALGORITHM IS POINTLESS I’M NOT SURE WHAT IS, HAPPY 2017
LUH, Spiritual Songs for Lovers to Sing

IF YOU REMOTELY ENJOYED READING THIS, THEN DO I HAVE A QUASI-ACADEMIC BOOK ABOUT REVENGE, FBI SURVEILLANCE, “CULTURAL APPROPRIATION,” FAILURE, AND CHINA/AMERICA FOR YOU
Hua Hsu, A Floating Chinaman

Audio

Fri, 11 Nov 2016 21:37:33 -0500

theshivareelady: David Bowie - Boys Keep Swinging (Lodger,...

Thu, 13 Oct 2016 20:11:44 -0400

theshivareelady:

David Bowie - Boys Keep Swinging (Lodger, 1979)

Punched Chads

Mon, 10 Oct 2016 17:12:17 -0400

I have this memory of Outkast playing Letterman a few days after the 2000 election. Stankonia had just come out and Florida was in the midst of their ballot recount. I remember “Bombs Over Baghdad” seeming even more magical and weird in that context, and I remember Big Boi yelling “Al Gore for President y’all” over and over as the song ended. Anyhow—neither YouTube nor Google confirmed that this actually happened, and I was looking around my hard drive for any notes or old emails about this, and I found this old piece for eMusic about the year 2000.

***
2000: Another World Was Possible
hhh

It started with a note of relief. Our computers had survived; we had made it. The clocks had passed midnight into the year 2000, not 1900, and all those tanks of propane and fresh water cached in the garage became souvenirs of an instantly embarrassing paranoia.

Perhaps the year 2000 was the last time many would regard a computer with suspicion. Fears of the machine-chaos that would ensue as computer clocks the world over tried in vain to rollover from 1999 to 2000 had been exaggerated. With Y2K—the very name musty and primitive-sounding to modern ears—out of the way: the future, our sturdiest muse, was here. After all, few new years arrive with such readymade heft, the overlapping infinities of that haunting ribbon of zeroes suggestive of the brave new worlds to come.

Though the world’s digital infrastructure had not succumbed to the haunting possibility of software code that lacked the proper foresight, it was still possible at the time to question technology’s promise. Crashing hard drives, the static dirge of a dial-up connection, the impertinent whirr of a disk drive: these were the raw materials of the late 1990s glitch scene, a noisy and inward turn for electronic dance music. The mood was perfectly captured by Uwe Schmidt (using his Geeez’n’Gosh moniker) and his 2000 masterpiece My Life With Jesus, a gospel house record translated into the language of nervous, distorted bass-lines, bubbly rhythms and shards of twitchy synths. Whatever communion Schmidt was imagining was one forged within the casing of a computer. On “Gotta Pray,” the playfully heretical Schmidt diced up the cries of true believers and buried them under a gurgle of tones and pulses. Where then to deposit one’s faith?

The sound of an eternally hiccupping CD could become its own kind of pop music; texture became its own kind of narrative. In the Bay Area, a bratty, showman producer named Kid606 and his Tigerbeat6 collective began issuing bruised, spastic and abrasive electronic records that made a mockery of previous standards of punk aggression. There was a texture to his howls, a bi-polar energy unimaginable without the aid of hacked electronics. Where Kid606, Cex and Matmos came across as surgical machine-pranksters, others seemed more anxious. A millennial tension shaded the works of Schmidt and fellow visionaries like Wolfgang Voigt (the pop ambient mastermind behind Gas’ Pop) and Sasu Ripatti (as Luomo, his 2000 microhouse masterwork Vocalcity remains one of the decade’s masterpieces), each of whom seemed to celebrate the possibilities of a laptop or software, all while drawing attention to the devices’ potential for malfunction.

All of these artists, separated by style and geography, shared something else in common: that year, they all released records on Mille Plateaux, a Frankfurt-based label that had borrowed its name from a 1980 book of the same name about “capitalism and schizophrenia” by French theorists Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. Snobbish affectations aside, the rise of Mille Plateaux-the-label was itself a strange, digital echo of something else: Mille Plateaux-the-book was making a comeback of sorts as well, having inspired Michael Hardt and Antonio Negiri’s Empire, one of the year’s truly unexpected literary successes.

Empire offered a grim view of world forces that were reordering themselves without our consent. Hardt and Negiri tamped down post-cold war optimism about the possibilities of globalization, a term less fraught then than it is today. They placed their faith in the multitude, a new vision of the collective that could become the true embodiment of democratic possibility. Where would this multitude come from? How would it be activated? Hardt and Negiri didn’t have that part figured out—it was up to their sundry readers to collect themselves.

New communities were emerging out of new global circuits made possible by quantum leaps in Internet connectivity. By the end of 2000, digital technology, which once threatened to self-destruct at the incomputable prospect of “11:59:59,” was outpacing our ability to think about it. Napster—a different expression of the multitude—had emerged the year before and, without benefit of traditional advertising strategies, become the kind of effortless and ubiquitous success story that makes business school seem like a joke. It was started for want of free music and it threatened to erode the very foundations of the entertainment industry. Soon, fans were getting sued by heroes. Metallica would never seem transgressive again.

In place of the old heroes, new ones emerged. Sigur Ros and godspeed you! black emperor released captivating albums, as though the tides of history could be frozen in these magnificently heavy, heaving bursts of slow motion sound. In October, two of the decade’s most important and paradigm-shifting records were released: Radiohead’s Kid A and Outkast’s Stankonia. From the post-guitar arena electronica of “Idioteque” to the free-associative jungle riot of “Bombs Over Baghdad,” each album represented a break from their own histories as well as the histories of their preferred genres. These albums felt futuristic; they attested to the possibilities of more data, more information, more technology and more inputs, even as they lusted after moments of intimate reprieve.

The following year, something terrible would happen. Now, reflecting on the year 2000, it is difficult not to read our memories as an anticipation of 9/11 and the world that would follow. Eventually, the glitches and bugs would be vanquished: technology would soon become a seemingly neutral world of faces and spaces, pods and diaries. The multitude started blog and shopped online. I mis-remember Outkast’s “Gasoline Dreams” as a post-9/11 screed against George Bush, even if it was recorded in a blissful state of spring 2000 ignorance, back when Al Gore seemed like a Presidential shoo-in. It was the stroke before a decade-long midnight, when the future seemed to hang on a chad, hole-punched debris dangling from a slip of paper. A reason to distrust old technology, too.