on that note, modaji (one of w. london's rising sons) will be playing at the element art salon tonight @ motor. there's a DJ set in real audio on http://www.elementdetroit.com. this is a really rare treat around these parts, and it would be cool to get a nice crowd out to support. word is orin walters and ayro will be next month. delicious!
-----Original Message----- From: Matthew MacQueen [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, April 05, 2002 1:15 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [313] article: broken beats of the underground A pretty thorough backgrounder on the spread(ing) of the broken beat and electronic fusion (aka - West London) sounds was brought to my attention... sorry if this has been discussed already, it's from late last year -- Broken Beats of the Underground - Days of Future Past, by Denise Benson. There are 2 passages here that I find quite parallel to Detroit, from a collaboration perspecttive, especially the broad collaborations and rich "borrowing" of people for productions/labels sessions/remixes that really reminds of the formative early days of Detroit techno with the UR camps as centers of activity, plus all the happenings on Gratiot St. area w/ Metroplex, Transmat, Fragile, KMS, etc. etc. A lot of shared talent going on, people teaching and learning from each other. A really rich mixture of talent all helping each other out and just fostering some really concentrated areas of creativity and innovation: "It's also making challenging music within the context of community and collaboration: Attias, I.G. and Dego all work in studios in the same building. They also all work together at times, giving input into one another's individual projects, coming together as duos (I.G. and Dego as Da One Away, Dego and Alex as Plutonia), doing remixes, and frequently releasing each other's music. Two things you learn quickly about this broken beat scene: everybody works with everybody, leading to more pseudonyms and project names than fathomable, and it seems like every other producer or crew runs a label of their own." and here the writer ties some more direct connections to a central distribution hub like Submerge as I mentioned above: "One of the main sources of accurate release and project info is the web site of Goya Music (www.goyamusic.com), the key distributor for labels such as Archive and Neroli, Dego's 2000 Black, Attias's Visions, and Bugz in the Attic's Bitasweet... Goya acts like the scene's central nervous system, supporting and distributing music from 20-plus indie labels. It's a scene founded in friendships, trust, and a shared spirit of musical intrepidity. It's little wonder that many heads draw parallels to Detroit-based kindred spirit Mad Mike and his Underground Resistance label and distribution network. In both cases, underground scenes with a sense of urgency and purpose. Both have contributed to minor paradigm shifts in dance music." I know some on 313 are more into this sound than others but I think the reverberations are being felt in techno lately a lot more, with artists like Aardvarck 'find the cow' on Delsin turning in some stuff like this, and Tom C's Emoticon label even reaching there with the latest Future Beat Alliance 12" ('Head Ways ep' is absolutely brilliant techno I might add) leaning towards some broken beats and more experimental things, all with still a warm deep Detroit feel. The lowlanders have been keeping pace too, Rush Hour distribution and family of labels also contributing in great ways too to the expansion of this sound, even a Domu remix of Aardvarck, etc. Carl Craig seems to have picked it up (check out some of lineup from DEMF last year! P'Taah, Mark de Clive-Lowe, Degiorgio, & Orin Walters DJ set at Planet E after party was mad!!) and now Recloose is getting name checked with a lot of these W. London folks, as is the detroit-based Omoa label. Nubian Mindz always feels more Detroit/UR to me than anything else I would compare it to in London... and finally I for one would also like to see more collaborations with 4Hero and Mike Banks ! Good stuff spreading out globally and creativity is teeming again in techno when you smash out the "genre" dividers-- something I've always been a big fan of... the full article is here: http://www.exclaim.ca/common/display.php3?articleid=877 Cheers, Matt MacQueen --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
