Found In Sound: 12.9.09

It's been a while since I put anything up on this blog - sometimes life takes over and makes it difficult to reflect on the things you enjoy the most, or at least have the time to actually write about them. Between work, Oktave, writing and exploring new tracks, going to shows and films, prepping for gigs and attempting to have a semblance of a social life, there isn't a whole lot of time left in the day.

That said, I've been enjoying a lot of artists, authors, and filmmakers recently and wanted to share some brief notes about what I've been up to on this front.

Musically, I'm getting deeper and deeper into pure techno and growing more intolerant of the recent house renaissance. This has a lot to do with the type of material I'm writing, my roots in drums and percussive sounds, and all the classes and time I've been devoting to Ableton Live. Of particular interest to me is 'Headfuck Techno,' which seems to be right where I'm living and breathing from a creative standpoint. I've really been enjoying a lot of artists who seem to fall into this category for the last 6 months or so, and although some may argue whether all these producers and/or DJs actually qualify for the HF Techno category, I wanted to throw some names around of people I think are doing stellar work here at the end of our insane decade.

Highest praise needs to go out to Function, Silent Servant, and the whole Sandwell District crew. This dynamic, throbbing, tape-delayed collective is producing some of the finest techno on the planet. I seriously devour everything they do. I was able to catch a good bit of Function's set at The Bunker last weekend and was, of course, blown away. Really heady stuff - so dark, so groovy, so textured. Congrats to the Sandwell District label for putting together such a cohesive and distinct take on the genre.

Also, I've been really taken with Cio D'or, a German producer on Prologue who just put out an excellent, ethereal album on Prologue. She collaborates often with Donato Dozzy (another HF Techno stalwart), and is carving out a nice place for herself on the international scene. We are trying to put a show together with her for Oktave in the spring - more to come on that.

Other artists I've been really into lately include Traversable Wormhole, Frozen Border (another anonymous collective, based out of the UK), Pattern Repeat and Peter Van Hoesen.

On the literary front, I've been immersed in a lot of great fiction lately. I've been on several tangents over the last few months, including reading more female authors, as well as catching up on a few classics that I missed through my school days.

As far as the latter category goes, my favorites were 'Animal Farm,' by George Orwell, 'Night' by Elie Wiesel, and 'Lord of the Flies' by William Golding. Don't ask me how I didn't read these books in high school. Let's just blame it on the lackluster American school system and leave it at that. All three books are frightening, fraught with posed questions that have very dark answers, and exquisitely rendered.

As for more modern fare, I really enjoyed 'Suite Francaise' by Irene Nemirovsky, 'Look At Me' by Jennifer Egan, and 'City of Thieves' by David Benioff. Also a quick shout out to a great non-fiction book called 'Columbine,' by Dave Cullen - a deep, intense look at what really happened on April 19th, 1999 outside of Denver. The general perception of the event and the media's depiction of it are both way, way off. An excellent, incisive, sympathetic read.

Lastly, I turn to film. I would have to say I cannot remember a year as poor as this one for film releases. The fact that I didn't step foot in a theater between August 20th and November 30th should say everything - I usually go to the movies at least 3 times a month. There's just been nothing to see.

However, now that Decmeber is here, at least we're getting some decent films to talk about. I saw 'The Road,' and it's just what you'd expect. A very faithful adaptation of the excellent Cormac McCarthy book, intensely dark and brooding, with great cinematography. Viggo Mortensen's acting is of his normally high caliber - and the man does like to show his bare ass, I can say that. The ending of the movie, like the ending of the book, feels a bit too convenient to me, but otherwise I recommend both the film and the novel.

More complex and challenging (believe it or not) is 'Up In the Air,' directed by Jason Reitman (Juno). This movie has some of the same quirky humor as its predecessor, but the jokes and smart alec-y back talk lead us down a different road here. George Clooney is excellent as a shallow, vacant American archetype re-tooled for the 21st Century. He's a traveling salesman, only he's selling layoffs and pat bullshit about re-tooling your life and cutting off your commitments to all things human and material. This movie easily could have wrapped up with a redemptive love and a revise of this dangerously detached man's life, but instead it opts for a more complex and troubling path. I won't spoil it, but I walked out of the theater feeling the way I might after a heavy drama.

Until next time, be careful out there...

Found In Sound: 10.1.09

People throw around the word 'masterpiece' when describing literature all too often. Every time a major author puts out a book, someone is saying it's a 'tour de force,' or a 'masterpiece,' or some other hyperbolic descriptor that should inspire the book patron to plunk down her money. It's rare, however, to come across a book that actually earns (or even approaches) these accolades.

Roberto Bolaño's '2666' is one of the only exceptions to this trend that I've come across over the course of the last decade. It is also not a reading project to be taken lightly. Coming in at 900 pages, '2666' is a complicated, non-linear story that spans approximately 75 years, multiple continents, and about 10 different principle characters whose paths rarely, if ever, actually cross. Despite these complications and tangential narratives, I found this book incredibly satisfying, cerebral and compulsively readable - one of the truly rare reads where even 900 pages were not enough.

'2666' is said to have a 'physical center,' more than a moral center, and if this is the case then that center is certainly the fictional city of Santa Teresa in Mexico, just off the Arizona border. While the book is divided into 5 separate sections (and 5 separate story lines), all roads lead to Santa Teresa, a city in the Sonora desert where a vicious series of unsolved serial killings are unfolding. The full description of these killings and the investigation surrounding them does not take place until nearly 1/3 of the novel has gone by, but they are referred to in significant and tantalizing ways throughout. When we get to the heart of this story line, '2666' really takes off.

Everything I've read about '2666' states that Santa Teresa is a fictional representation of Ciudad Juarez, the Mexican city directly across the border from El Paso, Texas, where a similar series of murders are still unsolved - brutal, unexplained killings of mostly young, lower class women, many of them whores or children. The book does not offer to solve these crimes or definitively explain them (the narrative alludes to the drug trade, the snuff film trade, the Mexican underworld and sex trade as the primary ports of interest here), but rather we get an examination of the environment surrounding the murders, the ineptitude of the police and government investigators, brutal passages of description in which paths diverge, cross, and go their separate ways. We meet a clairvoyant woman who claims to see the murders in her mind's eye, a German suspect who is wrongly accused of the crimes and imprisoned indefinitely, the American sheriff who crosses the border investigating the disappearance of one of his own, etcetera and so forth. At the end we are left with a haunting narrative that suggests that not only will these murders go on and on, but that they have effectively served to define the landscape of the city and the country in which they are happening.

As I said, however, there are many other narratives weaving their way throughout this book, which take us all over the world and back. We have four European academics in search of a reclusive German writer under consideration for the Nobel prize (they travel to Santa Teresa to find him), a widowed professor in Santa Teresa slowly losing his mind with worry over his young daughter's safety, an American writer on his first trip to Mexico to cover a boxing match (he winds up fascinated with the murders in Santa Teresa and looking to stay on to cover them), and finally a long chapter explaining the biography of the aforementioned German writer himself.

These stories take us to the Third Reich in Germany, the Eastern Front in WWII, Madrid, Venice, London, and New York, not to mention quite a bit of time spent in Santa Teresa and the surrounding Mexican desert.

If this sounds complicated, I won't lie - it is. But it's a pleasure to read, and I was engrossed from the very first page. Bolaño, who died before this book was published at the age of 50, is a monster talent (his book 'The Savage Detectives' is also excellent), with reserves of style rarely seen in writers of this century. I would compare him to Gabriel Garcia Marquez but with more brutality, and probably more compassion.

Reading '2666' won't leave you with a lot of closure, but it does answer all but the major questions it poses, and in it Bolaño creates a visceral, complex, and absorbing world that, if you're anything like me, you will be very hesitant to leave...

jD

Found In Sound: 09.16.09

On Saturday night, I went to see Lawrence, aka Sten, aka Peter Karsten, play at House N Home in Brooklyn. House N Home was celebrating its first anniversary as one of the city's premiere House music events, led by the excruciatingly popular underground DJs Jus-Ed and Anthony Parasole.

Let me just say that the guys throwing House N Home are doing a great job. A very hospitable, low stress environment made the excellent music and vibe that much more enjoyable. The sound system was tweaked to perfection (the venue is a second-floor walk-up space called 12 Turn 13 in Clinton Hill), with lots of sub and bass tones to fill up your chest cavities and make your ass wiggle. Both Jus-Ed and Anthony Parasole put on nice, seamless sets, and then Lawrence took to the decks around 1am (earlier than I expected).

I was surprised to see him spinning sans laptop, using two CDJs and two turntables, with a big book of CDs at his disposal and a crate full of records. I guess it all depends on how you learned to do it - records, cds, laptops, Abelton, Traktor, Serator...whatever. Anyway, Lawrence continued the vibe started by Jus-Ed and Anthony Parasole - low impact, dubby house, lots of nice breaks and peaks, just the kind of thing to get the uber-hip DIY House crowd moving. I noticed very few people standing around - even the brave, solo party-goers were up and moving, bouncing along contentedly to the beats being served by Mr. Karsten. A really nice event, all around.

The next day I went to Other Music and picked up his latest disc on Mule Electronic, called 'Until Then Goodbye.' While I was expecting (and hoping for) some of the same vibe to which I'd been treated the previous night at House N Home, instead the new record is more of an experimental, ambient, slow-moving affair. Not that it's not good - I'm enjoying it quite a bit. It's just that coming off the buzz of Saturday's show, I was hoping to have a bit more of the dubby, deep house flavor that made me so happy. I actually would say I prefer Karsten's last album as Sten, called 'The Essence,' which is more of a minimal techno affair.

But whatever - I'm not bitching. House N Home, Lawrence, Mule Electronic: good stuff.

jD

Found In Sound: 09.04.09

I am in love with Ellen Allien. The queen of all things Berlin techno, this is a multi-tasking woman if there ever was one. Not only is she an accomplished producer and DJ, but she also runs one of the best electronic/techno labels in the world (BPitch Control) and has her own clothing line. She defines über cool. And yes, I think she's hot - in that 'only comes out at night, German DJ producer impresario' kind of way.

Last year, Ellen released her 4th full-length album, 'Sool,' to mixed, if not negative reviews. The knock on 'Sool' was that it was too minimal, too abstract, too weird. Without any real floor bangers for the DJ crowd to latch onto, and with lukewarm reactions to the remixes that the few singles off the record generated, 'Sool' pretty much came and went. Never mind that it was an idea record, or an artistic statement, or that it didn't conform to most ideas about what a techno record is supposed to sound like - nobody's too interested in any of that right now, I guess.

This week, a new single from Ellen came out on Beatport called 'Lover.' Now this is something the DJs can get into. Both sides of the record are upbeat, heavy kick, four on the floor tracks that leave little doubt as to their purpose - to get asses on the floor. While Allien still has her head firmly in a minimal mindset, both 'Lover' and its B-side 'You Are' are more dynamic, more intense, and well, more conventional than anything we've heard from her in a couple years now. Even her excellent collaboration with Apparat, 'Orchestra of Bubbles,' didn't have anything this out front ('Jet' is a great track, but the production is not entirely dance-floor friendly).

So - which Ellen is better? Experimental, under-produced, atmospheric Ellen, or bumping, grinding, stomping Ellen? I personally vote for both. While I am thoroughly enjoying both sides of this single, I hope it doesn't mean that the moderate beating she took on 'Sool' is going to drive her permanently into the middle. The best artists allow themselves room to explore, and more accurately, room to make mistakes. Some of those mistakes end up being classics. Some of them end up being 'album cuts.' But all of them help define the greater body of work and make sense of the artist's overall style. The irony here, of course, is that 'Lover' isn't getting the best reviews, either. So maybe Ellen is getting some backlash, or maybe she just shouldn't pay attention to what critics say across the board.

Personally, I hope she'll keep chasing her creative expression and expanding upon what is already an impressive career. As for the critical white noise, who gives a shit...?

jD

Found In Sound: 08.28.09

The first time I read a Martin Amis book, I was in graduate school, and I hated it. The Information, to me, seemed too, well...British. I envisioned the writer of this book to be a snobby, overly-refined, overly-intelligent prick I would want to punch in the face after five minutes in his company. I finished the book, couldn't revise my opinion of the man, and forgot about him.

Since that time (more than a decade has passed), I have enjoyed the work of several different British authors whose tone and manner are somewhat similar to Amis (Ian McEwan and JG Ballard come to mind), so last summer I decided to give Amis another chance. After devouring London Fields over the course of a couple days, I was certainly glad I'd made amends. Age, patience...who knows what made me more tolerant of Amis's style, but I found London Fields to be funny, challenging, and basically brilliant.

Since that time I've gone on to read quite a few of his books, including, in my mind, the penultimate Amis novel Money, as well as Dead Babies, House of Meetings, The Second Plane (essays about 9/11 and the Islamic Fundamentalists), and the brilliant novel Time's Arrow. After reading that book (and being sincerely blown away), I decided to pick up his memoir, Experience.

Most people who are into these kinds of things already know that Martin Amis's father was Kingsley Amis (SIR Kingsley Amis, thank you very much), the great comic novelist and author of Lucky Jim. Much of Amis's memoir deals with his relationship with his father, how he grew up under the literary tutelage of a great and acclaimed novelist and poet, how it affected his tastes and morals, as well as his development as an artist. Martin's relationship with his father sounds to me to be typically, um...English (there we are again); fairly loving but repressed, sometimes contentious, often revolving around alcohol, subject to the successes of both father and son.

Speaking of alcohol, there's a lot of it in this story. Add to that a healthy dose of adultery, divorce, children born in and out of wedlock, literary references, lovers and friends both lost and found, descriptions of authors and their idiosyncratic behavior, Israel, nuclear weapons, critics, and oral surgery - and you pretty much have it. Most interestingly here, however, is a narrative that runs through the book about Lucy Partington, Amis's cousin who was the victim of notorious British serial killer Fred West. There is quite a bit of detail about Lucy and her family here - for almost 20 years Lucy was considered missing and no one could really say what happened to her. It was only after the discovery of West as a serial killer did all the information come out about his victims. Amis writes compellingly and emotionally about his feelings surrounding this event, as well as the following memorial service, the fallout of the revelations, the press coverage et al.

I am sure I am not doing the complexity of this memoir justice here. Suffice it to say that a very talented writer wrote a book about a very talented family - if you like that sort of thing, this book might be for you.

[Beware, casual reader, however - the text is riddled with footnotes and asides, as well as references to a fair amount of obscure English literature that certainly was beyond me. While there are profiles and more modest mentions of some pretty heavy hitters in Experience (Christopher Hitchens, Julian Barnes, Salman Rushdie, Cecil Day Lewis, Saul Bellow, Robert Graves, etc...), there are quite a few more writers, poets, actors, et al to whom the passing Amis fan will have no real connection.]

jD

Found In Sound: 08.26.09

Currently getting major play in my audio world is a collection of EPs from Aus Music entitled 'All Night Long.' Aus is a subsidiary of Simple Records, and both are run by London-based producer and DJ Will Saul. In 2008, Simple put out one of my favorite releases of the year, Motorcitysoul's 'Technique,' and Aus put out the excellent 'Electronic Frank' by Lee Jones (another one of last year's best full-length releases).

There are 3 'All Night Long' EPs, including tracks from Saul with collaborators Tam Cooper and Lee Jones. Jones has a couple tracks here on his own (including the excellent 'Lab'), as does Sian, who is the subject of Aus's latest release (the 'Tonight' EP). EP 2 is interesting in that it features work from producers primarily associated with dubstep - both Applebim and Martyn have work included here.

On the 'All Night Long' EPs, the tracks throughout can be characterized, I think, in the tech house micro genre (although I'm sure many a techno-phile would argue that with me in any number of directions, genre distinctions in techno music being as ghettoized as they are). Regardless of genre labels, what you get here is driving, idiosyncratic, melodic, dynamic music that works nicely in a DJ application (I've currently got 'Squeeze' by Will Saul and Lee Jones in my upcoming Oktave set), but can also be cross-purposed for general iPod or home listening.

For me, it's not necessarily the bangers and the peak time techno tracks that make for the most enjoyable and utilitarian experiences - I prefer music like what's on the 'All Night Long' EPs - you can dance to it, sure, but it also challenges the aural receptors and pleases the longing for melody, harmony, and dynamic impact.

Highly recommended stuff...

jD

Found In Sound: 08.22.09

Inglourious Basterds was one of the more pleasant movie-going surprises I've had in quite a while. I was not expecting much from this other than a lot of darkly gratifying Nazi murder fantasy sequences. Boy was I wrong.

What I got instead was a very smart, very subversive pseudo-European film (about 2/3 of the movie is told in subtitles - which is much preferable to English spoken with bad German and/or French accents). Tarantino's script audaciously re-imagines the conclusion of World War 2, with movies and movie theaters playing a large and not totally metaphoric role in these proceedings.

The performances here are excellent. Brad Pitt is always solid when he has a character with a flake (warning: his role is quite a bit smaller than you would glean from the onslaught of promotion surrounding the movie), but the real stars are Christopher Waltz as the duplicitous Nazi investigator Colonel Hans Landa, and Mélanie Laurent as the vengeful Jewish survivor Shosanna Dreyfus. Both performances are nuanced and intense. Waltz in particular is fantastic, combining comedy and terror in an exhilarating and not altogether unsympathetic way. I'm sure it helps that his director here is Tarantino, who has always had a knack for marrying the two extremes, as well as building and drawing out tension.

Speaking of tension, there is a fantastic, protracted conflict in a French basement bar that ranks up there with any of the director's former set pieces (think of the overdose scene in Pulp Fiction, the ear severing in Reservoir Dogs, the penultimate theft in Jackie Brown), as well as a terrific climax inside an ornate French movie theater, where nothing turns out the way you think it will.

Nothing turns out the way you think it will - you can say that again. Tarantino takes extreme liberties with history, but this suits the nature of the film, which is that of a highly stylized, highly challenging comic book about the fall of the Third Reich. Certainly not your typical summer movie, I can imagine the same audiences who went to see the 2nd Transformers film being highly vexed by the amount of dialogue in the film, and the amount of time they will have to wait between murders (there's a couple gratifyingly brutal ones in there, but overall I would say the movie is far less violent than you would imagine).

While I was disappointed with the last few Tarantino offerings, Inglourious Basterds delivers the goods. Weighing in at 2 hours 30 minutes, for me the movie flew by and I was sad to see it end.

jD