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iloveyouphillipmorris · 2 years

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what's your favorite era of music?

ok so . this is a really hard question to narrow down and give one singular answer to bcoz like. Music. there’s so much of it. and what do we do with it … i don’t know … i’m making a list instead . i made up names for time periods i couldn’t find proper names for or are sorta broad so i have to do my best with categorising by my own systems

jamaican jams, 1965-1978 || this pertains to the era of music comprised of ska, dub, rocksteady, dancehall & reggae that was expanding from the heart of jamaica. the five genres are very different from one another but all connect in some way & are grouped together most of the time but for me i really love reggae & dancehall. i started this all w/ my love of the clash who introduced me to bands like culture, then later on bands like the beastie boys would introduce me to my favourite band of this era, big youth. big youth are interesting as a development on specifically u-roy’s style of toasting, which is basically a DJ speaking (one might even say rapping) over a pre-existing instrumental track or song mixed with the beat and rhythm of roots reggae. for me, my love of this started w/ the UK second wave of it all like y’know the specials & madness & the selector, all of which i adore as well ! particularly the specials. but this period is special.

recommended tracks: pumpkin belly by tenor saw, love is gonna let me down by toots & the maytals, bam bam by sister nancy, solomon on a gunday by big youth, two sevens clash by culture

american first wave punk, 1967-1977 || this refers specifically to american punk precursors aka bands who were called punk or whatever before it became a subculture in the uk courtesy of seditiaries/s e x shop. mostly this is the ork & electra records scene which came outtuv new york in the lower east side. artful bands mixed with the simplest of bands all played together in the manhattan boroughs in clubs like max’s kansas & CBGB’s. the first inklings of this type of musicial revolution were shed as early as 1972 with tracks by bands like patti smith & television. earlier than that, the fugs and the velvet underground ruled this scene. most of this doesn’t sound like punk as you may know it, but it started it, just ask the clash (hugely influenced by the ramones to the point of outright mimicry) or malcom mclaren (who stole richard hell/johnny thunders’ look & made it the sex pistols’).

recommended tracks: foxhole by television, blank generation by richard hell & the voidoids, ask the angels by patti smith, not anymore by the dead boys, sister ray by the velvet underground, rambling rose by the mc5, gimmie danger by the stooges

dunedin sound/nz indie || new zealand did this really awesome thing where they made amazing indie music for like. ten years straight, spearheaded by legendary music label flying nun and kinduv living on via captured tracks in the modern day. this movement was created by unrest and boredom in the youth culture, just like all things which are good. the gigantic two minuter ‘tally ho!’ by the clean is one of the most influential indie singles of all time, hands down, don’t argue with me, and it was rumoured to have been made on ~$50. this area + region bred top shelf indie pop that is still some of the best pop music ever made. their compilations such as ‘the dunedin double’ & ‘tuatara’ were exceptional samplers in the best pop music ever made and many bands of this era are cited by modern indie giants like mac demarco as major influences. this is some of the most important music to me as a person/human being and plays a large part in who i am.

recommended tracks: death & the maiden by the verlaines, anything could happen by the clean, not given lightly by chris knox, made up in blue by the bats, there is no depression in new zealand by blam blam blam

zamrock /& kalindula, 1970s || after the departure from british colonialism in about 1964, zambia made efforts to cultivate its own culture and style. with this and a mixture of exposure to western bands such as the jimi hendrix experience, zambia began its own movement in rock n roll. a specific type of music called kalindula was made here, it’s bass heavy and fuzzy and pop and you find it best in zambia, malawi, & zimbabwe but rn we are talking about zambia. some of the best music iv ever heard came from here. it varies from vibrating, laceration psychedelia to simple, almost folk rock pop anthems. the genre abruptly ended w/ the foreclosure of many record manufacturing companies in the area + the aids epidemic of the 1980’s which killed many of it’s artists. nevertheless, it is jaw dropping in its diversity and passion. right now the record label ‘now again’ releases alottuv this, so if you’re interested — dig it. one of my all time favourite musicians, paul ngozi, comes from this movement.

recommended tracks: bamayo by paul ngozi, starving child by musi-o-tunya, you better know by witch (this sounds like it could have been a song by the seeds), day of judgement by the ngozi family, i need her by cosmos zani

what the fuck?, 1976-1979 || i think the mid-70’s signalled a disillusionment within many western artists where they realised their post-pop art irony was no longer meaningful but instead shallowly cynical and that the free love movement failed them and everyone else and they all just now had coke addictions and a stunted sense of self. but this refers specifically to this weird period with eno/bowie/pop/visconti/fripp/cale. i think most of them were freaked out by 12” mega tracks like donna summer’s “i feel love” (bowie/eno factually were) and felt compelled to do something about it. but many people released puzzlingly influential and ahead of their time music inspired by tracks like that donna summer one (produced by giorgio moroder) and like, german krautrock and new york punk. it’s rly hard for me to explain this bcoz it’s an incestuous sound which is cultivated from many areas, some rly obvious and most blatantly stated such as bowie’s love of the walker brothers/scott walker. i still think tho that it’s distinct enough to call it it’s own thing and i just … i don’t know how these people came up with this shit, dude. it feels too good to be true. again, this isn’t rly a movement moreso a group of people who were all doing a kinda similar thing but it needs to be mentioned cuz i think about it so much and am blown away by it so much

recommended tracks: blackout by david bowie, mass production by iggy pop, the electrician by the walker brothers, kurt’s rejoinder by brian eno, chickenshit by john cale, african nite flights by bowie (wtf is this.)

afro-funk/pop, 1970’s || many if not all of the artists from the last entry got their shit from this and like, you know, maybe fela kuti was not real and was too good to be true. this period is mostly centralised in nigeria and is highly political and socially motivated, i don’t know the most about this genre but i do listen to it a lot. fela was eno’s favourite musician for a long time and he introduced the talking heads to him and that’s why ‘remain in light’ exists. bands of this era are directly responsible for what we now consider to be new wave and the former entry wouldn’t exist without it. fela is the best known but there’s a fuckton more. honestly, it just makes my brain go brrrr.

recommended tracks: expensive shit by fela kuti, give the beggar a chance by monomono, slipping into darkness by the funkees, life’s gone down low by the lijadu sisters, go slow by ebo taylor, no condition is permanent by marijata

and i have to stop somewhere !!!! i’d go on forever. other scenes i’d mention: scottish twee pop, what iv heard of the houston rap scene (like screw), & the 1980’s/90’s neo psych, etc etc etc i’m sure there’s so much more

if you read all of this and check it out i will marry you

#replies #music talk #mwah !

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dustedmagazine · 3 years

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The Bug ft. Dis Fig — In Blue (Hyperdub)

Photo: Caroline Lessire, Sylvie Weber

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The cover image on In Blue is a black and white shot of a fluorescent-lit subway tunnel receding into darkness. Stare long enough and you feel the pull to follow it into the depths. Is it an invitation to escape or the lure to a claustrophobic trap? The music created by Kevin Martin AKA The Bug and Felicia Chen AKA Dis Fig creates the atmosphere of both in a seductive weave of echoing bass and ethereal vocals. Martin’s work in the interstices of dub, industrial, dancehall and hip-hop as part of King Midas Sound and in collaborations with Mark Stewart and Keith Levene dovetails well with Chen’s style of disruptive electronica. On In Blue, Martin foregoes the open attack of his 2008 set London Zoo for a different kind of heavy, a claustrophobic soundscape for Chen’s voice to float in. The duo works the margins of genre to produce a beguilingly dark set of dystopian torch songs that they aptly name “tunnel sound.”

What we hear is the rattling of dubwise percussion, swathes of narcoleptic synths, backdrops of industrial noise and cavernous bass. Close, often so close it’s in your head, Chen incants promises of lust, betrayal and violence. The words are less important than the tone, now urgent, now languid to the point of apathetic acceptance. It sounds dangerous, decadent and desperately down. Always the background buzz that keeps coherence at bay and interferes with intuition. Yet the production is clean, Martin and Chen make every element count, they immerse you in a visceral fug of urban bleakness, the whispers from the alleys and doorways, the faded neon glamor of a red lit port district and always the drizzle of receding hope. On the instrumental “Forever” barely heard piano notes emerge from beneath train track beats and the huge echoing void of a 3 a.m. underground platform, your ride is approaching but seems to be taking an eternity to arrive. That queasy, post-binge feeling, alone, exhausted, ready to slump if there were a bench upon which to collapse, the promise of a threadbare mattress never so compelling and yet a fraught journey awaits to reach it.

Martin and Chen create a world of liminal spaces on In Blue, the invitation to share them is persuasive and rewards are many. The Bug is a mercurial but known entity, his work always impressive, his choice of collaborators telling and Dis Fig shines in this setting. Hers is a voice and a vision you’ll want to hear more from.

Andrew Forell

#the bug #dis fig #in blue #hyperdub #andrew forell #albumreview #dusted magazine #kevin martin #felicia chen #dubstep #electronica

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