In Allan Moore's classic 'graphic novel' Watchmen, the hyperintellectual superhero Ozymandias described 'dub' music as sort of music of the future, a "a sort of hybrid between electronic music and reggae. It’s a fascinating study in the new musical forms generated when a largely pre-technological culture is given access to modern recording techniques without the technological preconceptions that we’ve allowed to accumulate, limiting our vision." Using the fictional character Ozymandias' description one can imagine that he views dub as a sort of music of the future, a result of technological advances transcending the cultural barriers they set up, allowing progression in musical forms into styles unlike anything heard before. Dub, a genre which is practically responsible for the existence of the hip-hop DJ, continues to evolve into new forms to this day, it's most recent incarnation being in the form of 'dubstep'.
Dubstep is best known for it's obsessive focus on the bass and it's use of a whacked out 'wobbly' sound. Very popular in British clubs, it seems that the music is catching on in popularity in the States, where it's unconventional beats grace many remixes of popular artists. While dubstep is far from conventional dance music, it's beats seem to fuel the motions of many clubbers in a -frenzied and chaotic way that is even more removed from typical dancing than the freeform body shakes of ravers.
Dubstep is just as much about atmospherics as it is about beats however. Listening to records from dubstep artists such a Burial creates a feeling of urban degradation and suspense. There is little of the feel-good vibe of most dance music. In fact the sounds created in dubstep seem to best fit the vibe of cyberpunk writers like William Gibson.
The best way to experience dubstep at it's purest is to check out the recently released compilation '5:5 years of Hyperdub'. The compilation covers highlights of artists on the Hyperdub label in a way that exposes what dubstep is all about while sounding diverse at the same time. While this is far from a complete compilation of all essential dubstep releases, it certainly will leave a newcomer to the genre entranced. The more underground side of the genre is explored rather than the more club friendly side (called 'brostep' by some).
While dubsteps roots in trip-hop, dub, and other forms of dance music is apparent, it mutates these styles into something that at it's best sounds like nothing else. Because of this one could say the music points to the future, being unafraid to let go of the conventional and break rules. Dubstep is a fairly new form of music too, only existing as a style since the early 2000's. The future of the style is unclear, but one can only imagine it's impact on other forms of music and observe it's rise to prominence in modern music.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
i had too much to dream last night
So it's me and my good buddies, and we decide to break into a house. Same kids who blew their minds with me on New Years actually, another aspect of this dream that fit well into my own life. The house is pretty damn big, one of those ritzy river houses where the wealthier side preside. I don't even remember why we broke into it, maybe it was just the spirit of the group to do something ridiculous.
We enjoy the house for a while, smoke some grass on the dock, go through the place and explore, but we don't steal anything. We don't find anything worth stealing. There really is no reason for us to be here, and in the world of dreams this is ok with me.
Finally the peeps who own the place show up. They see us and are furious, screaming yelling and all that jazz at us. I get that fear, the fear that comes with all the thoughts rushing through my head like "will they call the cops?" or "will they just shoot us and claim self defense because Florida law says that's the way to be?". I handle the situation well, making up some story to make it seem like we were here on accident and assured them we weren't stealing anything. I think I explained that we did this because of the book I was writing, which is funny because I had been up all night working on it, another synchronicity with my own life.
They're all still angry, but one of the guys takes me aside. He asks for my facebook, but I tell him i'll give him my email instead. Then he takes me into this room full of oriental like staircases of mindbending intricacy and we keep on walking until he takes me outside. There's a beach, but it's surrounded by water on both sides so it's an island. The waves surrounding us are intense and the guy, who seems to know connect with me in a way of companionship rather than anger simply lets the waves sweep him away. I'm afraid to let it happen to me, but I go with it and then I wake up...
...but not into a waking state, but yet another dream where I'm reading a Rick Griffin comic of my dream. I've been fairly obsessed with Rick Griffin recently in my life, so this is yet another synchronicity with my own life that makes this dream more interesting. The waves and Rick Griffin go together perfectly because of his obsession with surfing.
We enjoy the house for a while, smoke some grass on the dock, go through the place and explore, but we don't steal anything. We don't find anything worth stealing. There really is no reason for us to be here, and in the world of dreams this is ok with me.
Finally the peeps who own the place show up. They see us and are furious, screaming yelling and all that jazz at us. I get that fear, the fear that comes with all the thoughts rushing through my head like "will they call the cops?" or "will they just shoot us and claim self defense because Florida law says that's the way to be?". I handle the situation well, making up some story to make it seem like we were here on accident and assured them we weren't stealing anything. I think I explained that we did this because of the book I was writing, which is funny because I had been up all night working on it, another synchronicity with my own life.
They're all still angry, but one of the guys takes me aside. He asks for my facebook, but I tell him i'll give him my email instead. Then he takes me into this room full of oriental like staircases of mindbending intricacy and we keep on walking until he takes me outside. There's a beach, but it's surrounded by water on both sides so it's an island. The waves surrounding us are intense and the guy, who seems to know connect with me in a way of companionship rather than anger simply lets the waves sweep him away. I'm afraid to let it happen to me, but I go with it and then I wake up...
...but not into a waking state, but yet another dream where I'm reading a Rick Griffin comic of my dream. I've been fairly obsessed with Rick Griffin recently in my life, so this is yet another synchronicity with my own life that makes this dream more interesting. The waves and Rick Griffin go together perfectly because of his obsession with surfing.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
artists that need to come out with new albums:
1. The Black Angels. 'Directions To See A Ghost' was a modern psychedelic masterpiece, an indicator that the groups potential existed beyond their debut 'Passover'. It's about time that they're due to release a new album, and while I remember reading somewhere that they're working on one I've yet to see any further evidence of this. Hopefully I'm not just fantasizing.
2. Boards of Canada. If these two ghostly figures of modern electronic wizardry release a new album I'll probably explode in excitement. While some thought their last effort 'The Campfire Headphase' was disappointing, I saw it as a sign of further sonic exploration to come. However because of their elusive nature I doubt we'll hear very little about their next effort until it finally springs into existence. Until then I'll sit tranced out in my room worshiping Egyptian death gods to Geogaddi.
3. Dead Meadow. I know these guys have been playing shows (nowhere near my own state however, motherfuckers) and blowing minds like always, but it's been quite some time since they graced the world with a new release. Pretty much every album they've released has been noteworthy and unique in it's own way, while still maintaining the sound that seperates from the typical stoner rock herd.
Well, I guess you can say I'm pretty greedy when it comes to music. At least it's something I can get excited about something that's not self destructive.
2. Boards of Canada. If these two ghostly figures of modern electronic wizardry release a new album I'll probably explode in excitement. While some thought their last effort 'The Campfire Headphase' was disappointing, I saw it as a sign of further sonic exploration to come. However because of their elusive nature I doubt we'll hear very little about their next effort until it finally springs into existence. Until then I'll sit tranced out in my room worshiping Egyptian death gods to Geogaddi.
3. Dead Meadow. I know these guys have been playing shows (nowhere near my own state however, motherfuckers) and blowing minds like always, but it's been quite some time since they graced the world with a new release. Pretty much every album they've released has been noteworthy and unique in it's own way, while still maintaining the sound that seperates from the typical stoner rock herd.
Well, I guess you can say I'm pretty greedy when it comes to music. At least it's something I can get excited about something that's not self destructive.
Monday, December 28, 2009
"why are we sleeping?"
This song, by 1960's psychedelic rock pioneers The Soft Machine, has been a favorite of mine for quite some time. It was written and sung in a narrated style by the ever-so enigmatic Kevin Ayers, a musical personality that I have been often fascinated by. The lyrics are informed by the philosopher Gurdjieff, a Russian philosophy that Ayers credited as an influence.
The lyrics to 'Why Are We Sleeping' are far from typical rock'n'roll subject matter. They carry a heavily esoteric and mysterious mood, existing in a sort of atypical reality (which is common for Ayers' work).
It begins with a blessing, it ends with a curse
Making life easy by making it worse
"My mask is my master", the trumpeter weeps
But his voice is so weak, as he speaks from his sleep
Saying: "Why, why, why... Why are we sleeping?"
People are watching, people who stare
Waiting for something that's already there
"Tomorrow I'll find it", the trumpeter screams
And remembers he's hungry, and drowns in his dreams
Saying: "Why, why, why... Why are we sleeping?"
My head is a nightclub with glasses and wine
The customers dancing or just making time
While Daevid is cursing, the customers scream
Now everyone's shouting, "Get out of my dream!"
Saying: "Why, why, why... Why are we sleeping?"
Gurdjieff's philosophy is one that urges one to take a path of self-enlightenment, which involves the metaphorical removal from the state of 'sleep'. According to Gurdjieff, "Man lives his life in sleep, and in sleep he dies." In this state of sleep we are not conscious, we exist as drones unthinkingly going throughout life, trapped by our own subjective perceptions. If we are able to 'wake up' and escape this state of mind, then we can better understand ourselves and reality.
The path to awakening was described by Gurdjieff as the Fouth Way. It was titled this because other teaches either stressed the importance of the mind, the body or emotions, where Gurdjieff beleived that enlightenment could only be achieved by simultaneously working with the three. Music was an important part of the 'awakening', because it combines the three. Gurdjieff wrote ballets accompanied by sacred dances that were designed to bring participants into a state of transcendence, exiting the realm of sleep and awakening them into a state of self enlightenment.
Gurjieff's philosophy of self enlightenment through the search for higher consciousness speaks to me. To 'awaken' (in my own possibly naive interpretation) is to escape the mundane and passive and reach a state of being that is less ignorant of it's surroundings, thus better understanding one's self through it's relation to the environment.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
cold to the touch
the moon is an instrument,
the sun a conductor,
my senses a disheveled street musician -
making noise and fighting off poverty
and all the patrons and animals who crawl on by are quickly growing old and impatient,
leaving the bars and clubs with a glimmering suspicion
gravity taking them to arid plains of boredom and disease
where god and the internet leave them content
and when this ragtag symphony dissipates i join them,
anonymous and tragic
like the voices in our dreams we effortlessly forget
the sun a conductor,
my senses a disheveled street musician -
making noise and fighting off poverty
and all the patrons and animals who crawl on by are quickly growing old and impatient,
leaving the bars and clubs with a glimmering suspicion
gravity taking them to arid plains of boredom and disease
where god and the internet leave them content
and when this ragtag symphony dissipates i join them,
anonymous and tragic
like the voices in our dreams we effortlessly forget
Monday, August 10, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
medicate this madness
...it took a long hour of nothingness to focus on what exactly it was that made me such a motherfucker - why so uptight? why so unnerved by all the pathetic things in life and unmoved by the vast circles of love that often sat right before my eyes.....
...a lot of wandering through aimless trails in a desert where nothing wanted to end, when would the palace come? did I even care if it was a mirage or not? if happiness is all I pursue then why should truth even matter anymore? if I could lie to myself and feel compfort and warmth then why wasn't I just driving myself mad with lies and mental forgery? fuck it,
just move on and close your eyes when it's too hard to drift into sleep, just imagine that everything is ok, trainqulize yourself with your imagination, it could be the difference between misery and ecstasy, just run after the trailing lights and waving thoughts of your desires and think that you've caught them when your gasping for your last breath .
"i'm confused"
"consider yourself enlightened"
maybe it's the confusion that sits around in the bowels of my psyche and waits to reveal itself in it's full glory...cycles of confusion and understanding...understanding coming in disguised as enlightenment, maybe enlightenment was the ultimate scam
i pity the fucker that thinks he's got the world figured out
and you know the type.....wears you down and makes you feel confused if you can't follow - what's should you follow? yourself? your 'self' is the enemy, to rebel against the self is to rebel against a society of finks who think they've got it all in the bag
go chase titans of 'wisdom' in those fields of desolation and think you might eventually catch up - when you do you'll just find yourself diluted (but don't stop the chase - chase as many as you can, and never stop running)
Sartre, Camus, Kierkegarrd - a bunch of old shitheads, they're no better than you and you're no better than them
forget all the books and papers, read them once and move on
forget your 'intellect' and live for sake of living, not impressing the boring neighbors and redundant drones that surround you, take some vice into your life and let it shine, kill god and ressurect him just to confuse yourself, write a new bible and burn and write a new one filled with pornography and give it to the baptist youthgroup
they'll love you for it
...a lot of wandering through aimless trails in a desert where nothing wanted to end, when would the palace come? did I even care if it was a mirage or not? if happiness is all I pursue then why should truth even matter anymore? if I could lie to myself and feel compfort and warmth then why wasn't I just driving myself mad with lies and mental forgery? fuck it,
just move on and close your eyes when it's too hard to drift into sleep, just imagine that everything is ok, trainqulize yourself with your imagination, it could be the difference between misery and ecstasy, just run after the trailing lights and waving thoughts of your desires and think that you've caught them when your gasping for your last breath .
"i'm confused"
"consider yourself enlightened"
maybe it's the confusion that sits around in the bowels of my psyche and waits to reveal itself in it's full glory...cycles of confusion and understanding...understanding coming in disguised as enlightenment, maybe enlightenment was the ultimate scam
i pity the fucker that thinks he's got the world figured out
and you know the type.....wears you down and makes you feel confused if you can't follow - what's should you follow? yourself? your 'self' is the enemy, to rebel against the self is to rebel against a society of finks who think they've got it all in the bag
go chase titans of 'wisdom' in those fields of desolation and think you might eventually catch up - when you do you'll just find yourself diluted (but don't stop the chase - chase as many as you can, and never stop running)
Sartre, Camus, Kierkegarrd - a bunch of old shitheads, they're no better than you and you're no better than them
forget all the books and papers, read them once and move on
forget your 'intellect' and live for sake of living, not impressing the boring neighbors and redundant drones that surround you, take some vice into your life and let it shine, kill god and ressurect him just to confuse yourself, write a new bible and burn and write a new one filled with pornography and give it to the baptist youthgroup
they'll love you for it
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
