fugitive frequency, season 4 episode 1: footwork fever

A blurring image of an an extended leg, clothed in long trousers and sneakers, on a wooden dancefloor. The dancer is encircled by an audience that can only be gauged waist-down.

Image lifted from The House-O-Matics Reunion TV Special (2014), Watch N Witness.

If dub is a “mutant virus”, as Kevin Martin wrote back in the mid-1990s, then perhaps footwork is a fever—bringing some heat to a globalising club culture? Emerging from the South Side of Chicago, footwork and its sibling juke have certainly caught on since I first heard such productions via the blogosphere circa 2010. This was largely due to the late DJ Rashad (1979–2014) and DJ Spinn who had to began to tour beyond these scenes and into Europe. Here is an informative interview with these innovators and ambassadors of footwork at Redbull Music Academy from 2011.

Planet Mu’s Bangs & Works compilations (two volumes released 2010 & 2011) are often credited for bringing this genre of dance-battle music, gestating among the community centres and gyms accessible to the South Side’s youth, to the world. In this interview for Resident Advisor, 2011, Mike Paradinas, founder of Planet Mu, discusses the process of connecting with young producers in Chicago and sourcing the music for these compilations, such as ripping audio from YouTube! This was soon followed by compilations such as Juke Underground’s Juke World Order (2014–16), Teklife’s VIP (2016-ongoing) and On Life (2017–ongoing) series and Juke Bounce Werk’s JDUBZ (2014–ongoing) series among others, which attest to the global appeal of this urban dance music that evolved out of booty house and ghetto tek. I’ve been steadily accumulating a hard drive directory full of these compilations over several years, and while juke and footwork tracks have been part of my DJ playlists for some time, it was only recently that I found myself really digging working with these forms. So, over the Christmas break I decided to sift through my archives, organising GBs of music towards making this turning-of-the-year mix. An annotated tracklist follows.

Tracklist
01. “Hello (Footmerc edit)” – The Isley Brothers

From Juke World Order Vol. 1 (2014) [bandcamp] released by Juke Underground to showcase juke and footwork as a worldwide phenomenon. I must have stumbled across this compilation online in the years I stopped mixing, between 2010–20, and it has sat shelved on a hard drive. Although they seems they were quite active, I couldn’t find out much about Footmerc online, other than they are based in Austin. This video of a Teklife footwork battle at SXSW2013 is a curiousity. Their reworking of “Hello It’s Me” (1974) by the Isley Brothers is nostalgic, yet likeable, and serves as a friendly entry point.

02. “Get Down Lil Booty” – EQ Why feat. Traxman

I think I first came across Traxman [bandcamp] via a Dance Mania compilation. Active since the 1990s, Corky Strong AKA Cornelius Ferguson is a so-called legend of the Chicago scenes as part of the G.E.T.O DJZ INC and Teklife crews. His releases are prolific and varied across several labels, including Planet Mu [bandcamp]. I was led towards his Acid Lyf [bandcamp] releases while listening to some early techno in recent years for fugitive radio. I was for some time thrilled by this mix he made for Resident Advisor, impressed by his seemingly irreverent but precise technique.

With arguably the best name in the game EQ Why [bandcamp] AKA Tyrone Smith is another prolific stalwart of the Chicago scenes. I first came across him via Chitokyo Mixtape (2013) released on Orange Milk Records [bandcamp], which is an eccentric and high-speed montage of 60 tracks over 60 minutes. There is more to be said about Japanese footwork scenes, whom EQ Why and Traxman seem to connect with. None of it made it to this mix—perhaps another time! This track from EQ Why’s Juke Pack Vol. 2 (2021) [bandcamp] does a good job moving the mix rapidly from familiar pop/soul sounds into bass-heavy, repetitive dance floor workouts.

03. “Shawty You Lit 2” – DJ Taye

There was some hype about this Teklife prodigy coinciding with the release of their debut album, Still Trippin’ (2018) on Hyperdub [bandcamp]. This track comes from Taye’s more recent self-released “mixtape”, PYROT3K (2020). It was the sampling that got me hooked — tight and repetitive and that shifts emphasis for rhythmic effect.

04. “Haters Knock Em Out” – DJ Pierre

DJ Pierre is probably best known for his work with Phuture (alongside Spanky and Herb J) who brought Acid House into the world in the late 1980s. This track came to me circa 2008 via a Subterranean Playhouse Sampler I picked up on an e-music service and is probably one of the first juke tracks I heard, although it does not sound so much like the kinds of music I associate with the genre. I was very happy to find it while rummaging through my hard drives. Relatively slow, hypnotic and repetitive I can imagine it piquing the interest of dubstep and grime enthusiasts.

05. “Azzoutof Control” – RP Boo

Kavain Wayne Space, often referred to as the “Godfather” of footwork, is credited with making one of Juke’s foundational tracks, “Baby Come On” released on Dance Mania in 1997. Tracks such as this, with its repetitive rhythmic refrain and phasing, remind me of the early tape works of Steve Reich. Made for dancers, Boo’s productions are undoubtably funkier, but they suggest a kind of fascination with sonic phenomena (eg psychoacoustics) that seems to operate beyond the tropes of dance music genres. The much-loved “Buuuuu” eventually released his debut album, Legendary (2013), on Planet Mu [bandcamp] and label founder Mike Paradinas (who records as μ-Ziq) has been instrumental in promoting Boo and his legacy around the world. There are several insightful interviews with Boo online and I can recommend this conversation for Red Bull Music Academy 2016, where he discusses, among other things, the late DJ Rashad paving the way for his first gigs abroad. Via this video I came to the delightfully candid documentary of the House-O-Matics 29th reunion, 2014, embedded below. Made by Watch N Witness for television(!) it bears witness to the emergence of footwork out of juke and ghetto house, with cameos from notable dancers, DJs and producers such as the late DJ Deeon (1966–2023), who was affiliated with the Dance Mania label.

06. “Naked Rewerk” – DJ Innes feat. BE3K

Before making this mix, I’d not yet heard the way footwork has infected vogue ball, although I was not surprised. I was, however, surprised to learn that Jake William Innes resides in Sydney, where I also grew up. This says something about the globalisation of footwork which seemed resolutely localised in Chicago from when it emerged in the late 1990s until it was taken abroad by DJs Spinn and Rashad circa 2010. Innes’ Shout Outs (2019) [bandcamp] brings together previously released tracks and collaborations with the likes of Divoli S’vere—a stalwart of New York’s Ballroom scene and member of Qween Beat, founded by the legendary MikeQ, and with whom BE3K [bandcamp] is also affiliated. Innes is part of the TEKK DJz crew [bandcamp] alongside Traxman, and indeed the pair released a collaboration, The T & J Project (2015) [bandcamp].

07. “WFM” – Heavee feat. Gant-Man, DJ Paypal, DJ Phil, Sirr Tmo

Heavee [bandcamp] was another new discovery for me as I sifted through numerous Teklife compilations. Described on Hyperdub’s website as a queer producer, Heavee’s tracks segued perfectly between the unrelenting “work” tracks, shifting the mix into different gears that reference RnB, jungle and vogue ball. This track is from Heavee’s WFM (2018) album released on Teklife [bandcamp]. Later in the mix I was amused by how Heavee’s “Take Control” sparred quite nicely with the histrionic minimalism of RP Boo’s “Total Control” and into Jana Rush’s howler, “Disturbed”. To my mind, a reliable “connector” track is the mark of a great producer/DJ and Heavee’s tracks feature…um…heavily in this mix. I hear some influence of video game music (VGM) in “Floor Burn”, confirmed in this interview for DJ Mag. There is also an appreciation for space, tension and drama that plays out on the EP from which it was lifted, Audio Assault (2022) released on Hyperdub.

08. “Diamonds (Ventah Remix)” – Iyer

Iyer first came to my attention for his Tamil Footwork (2014) [bandcamp] released on Ground Mass Music. At the time based in Singapore, Iyer has since relocated to San Francisco and his productions also speak of the globalisation of footwork as a music genre, if not the culture that emerged around competitive dance-battles. Searching for a different footwork flavour, I was snagged by this remix by Ventah from the Tamil Footwork Remix EP (2015) [bandcamp], with its nebulous synths and boomy and muted kicks. By chance, it aligned perfectly with Statik’s refix of Goldie’s Timeless (1995) classic below…

09. “Inner City Life (Statik Footwork Refix)” – Goldie feat. Diane Charlemagne

I suppose one could say that this 2021 re-working of Goldie and Diane Charlemagne’s drum n bass crossover anthem by a Manchester-based DJ and producer—and made available as a free download from SoundCloud—tugs at the heart strings, as did the original. Which makes me think it adds a flourish of old-fashioned nostalgia to the mix! I thought of it as the mix’s “emotional core”, although it occurs about 17 minutes into an hour-long sequence. I’d say it brings another shade or mood to the mix following a series of pumelling “work” tracks. Statik’s remix is also indicative of the way footwork was embraced by UK DJs schooled on jungle, such as Paradinas mentioned above and Hyperdub founder Steve Goodman AKA Kode9. Under the moniker Addison Groove, Brighton-based producer Tony Williams, known for his dubstep productions as Headhunter, began bringing the genres (and speeds together)—and struck up a friendship with Rashad around 2008. DJ Rashad also concurs in a 2013 interview for The Quietus, noting the genres’ similar tempos, as does another notable and prolific British producer Mark Pritchard in this interview for Fact magazine from the same year.

10. “Our Love” – Surly

From a compilation JBDUBZ Vol. 4 (2016), released by the Juke Bounce Werk collective [bandcamp] which seems to have gone offline. Another label that emphasises the globalisation of juke and footwork, foregrounding an international network of artists. What I know of Surly, gleaned from their bandcamp page, is that they are based in Auckland, which had a reputation for nurturing a thriving drum n bass scene in the 1990s. This spare, shuffling track, with its skittering snare/rim patterns offsetting (synthetic) orgasmic moans, brings another kind of fidgety swing and affect to the mix. I often think that DJing is not simply about matching beats, but about tension and release and this track serves to wind things down in terms of its beat science, but raises the erotic quotient significantly. It’s certainly not a battle track, but then I find it a little over the top for love-making, which I suppose it what makes it effective as a “DJ tool”.

11. “Funky Groove (Bass Bag)” – Heavee

Another great track from my current favourite producer, that takes the energy of the mix up a notch with its forceful drums and brash bassline that serendipitously locks snuggly into Surly’s twitchy groove. There’s also some special talent in making the “funky groove” sample not sound totally kitsch. Taken from TRACKPAK V.5 (2020) [bandcamp], Heavee describes the track as being inspired by UK producer Addison Groove’s “Footcrab” and specifically this remix my DJs Spinn and Rashad.

12. “Barnacles (Kode9 Remix)” – Hyph11E

I was trying to avoid Kode9. The London-based DJ, producer,“label boss” and sound theorist AKA Steve Goodman has certainly shaped the kinds of bass and urban dance musics I listen to. However, as an early champion of footwork, I was wary of his influence overshadowing this mix. Also, I’m not sure if this remix would be considered footwork. To my mind, Kode9 takes Hyph11E’s sound design (AKA Tess Sun, who worked in film/television sound production before focusing on music), which has the atmospherics of a sci-fi alien horror movie/game crossover, and sutures them to a “banging” drum track (I think lifted from DJ Paypal’s “100%“) with dollops of ectoplasmic bass. It rattles alongs like a mousetrap rollercoaster and it even has a big dipper moment, when the snares and cymbals drop out and the kicks and bass take over, which makes me think its structural blueprint comes from playing first-person video games. To my ears, it sounds closer to breaks than anything else in this mix, which I find quite funny. I can’t seem to take breaks very seriously—which need not be a criticism. Why shouldn’t dance music be full of novelty and thrills? The textural quality of the sounds is also different to what has come before it. Letting it play all the way out, I also found it mixes quite nicely with the EQ Why track, that follows, their respective bass punctuations seem to goad each other along, adding some extra bounce in the bottom end.

13. “Whip, Shake, Werk, Bang” – EQ Why

Like most of EQ Why’s oeuvre, this track from 2020 [bandcamp] is well produced, charismatic and works reliably in a mix. Its frequencies resonate for me in all the right places and structurally the song punches, kicks and twitches just as I like.

14. “Mkwa” – DJ Hank

A slick sounding, robo-voiced, footwork-RnB-garage hybrid. The title, I’m supposing, is a reference to Midori Takada and her role in the Mkwaju Ensemble, who are cited as influences. From a much-hyped and well-received City Stars (2022) EP released on Hyperdub [bandcamp], which points footwork (retro) futures towards shiny new horizons. Pure ear candy!

15. “So High” – Jlin

Growing up in Gary, Indiana, Jlin AKA Jerrilyn Patton developed her music on the fringes of Chicago’s footwork scenes, and is often described as being “footwork-adjacent”. I find that in the experimental music scenes in which I circulate, Jlin has come to represent the more experimental, abstract or “fucked up” aspects of footwork and is increasingly being recognised as a contemporary composer—a piece she developed with Chicago’s Third Coast Percussion was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2023. This track, taken from Dark Energy (2015), Planet Mu [bandcamp], is to my mind playful and winsome, evidence of a lightness-of-touch.

In my experience of mixing footwork I’ve found that much of it conforms to a 160BPM/80BPM tempo. While the drum programming of producers such as Jlin are often described as “complex”, “abstract” or “asymmetrical”, footwork tracks tend to retain a 4/4 time signature (vestigial house?). So while it might not always be so easy to hear the “one” that emphasises the beginning of a new bar in polyrhythmic productions, there a different points in such tracks where it can be cued in or looped to emphasise a specific rhythm. In some footwork tracks, a looped vocal sample supplies the rhythmic backbone, eg DJ Taye’s “Shawty You Lit 2” prior. Samples in footwork are often short sound bites, that serve as a hook and are potentially instructional on the dance-battle ground: “work it”, “bang this joint” etc. When listening back to recordings of my mixes, I was struck by how these different voices seemed to speak to each other, coming in from different points in the stereo field and occupying different spaces of the frequency bandwidth…

16. “Ridin Hi” – DJ Earl

So, it’s obvious that DJ Hank’s refrain of “you make me feel so high” would speak to Jlin’s “so high” before encountering DJ Earl’s “you ridin’ hi”. From a compilation Dred Collective Vol. 2 (2014) [bandcamp], released by a London-based “multi-genre digital labal”.

17. “Propaganda” – A.Fruit

I’ve only just come across Anna Fruit while making this mix; a Russian producer who the internet indicates is now based in Barcelona. This track appears on Teklife’s On Life Vol. 3 (2022) [bandcamp] and sounds to my ears like it would suit a vogue ball.

18. “Workitbaby” – SubCode

I found this on Juke Bounce Werk’s JDUBZ Vol. 4 (2016) and there are ten in this series so far. The track is from SubCode’s self-released YoushouldbeDancin (2016) long-player. Not a lot of info— they seem to be glitchy productions comprising samples from rap and RnB. It segues out of the “high” segment of my mix, made up of what I’m calling “fragmented” tracks. The looping and cutting could be developed further as a particular mixing style.

19. “Bang This Joint” – DJ Manny

A tight production by Manuel Gaines, one of the co-founders of Teklife, lifted from his Control (2023) EP released on Planet Mu [bandcamp]. I like how all the sound sources are tweaked and EQ’d and sit in distinct zones of the frequency bandwidth. The repetitive sampling winds up the rhythmic tension, and this is another track that lends itself to be mixed according to the vocal line.

20. “Floor Burn” – Heavee

From Audio Assault (2022) released on Hyperdub, an EP that the producer says is designed to score specific scenes in a video game battle such as:“the calm before the storm, the showdown, the battle, and the aftermath”. To me this track builds up the drama of the mix and sounds like something I could imagine hearing at a vogue ball.

21. “Total Darkness” – RP Boo

From Planet Mu’s Bangs & Works Vol. 1 (2010) [bandcamp], the looping vocal sample in this track makes me a little anxious—it sounds an alarm—and after some repetitions it sounds to my ears like the singer is invoking: “Boo-ooh…RP Boo-ooh”! It has an epic build up—it’s almost two minutes into the track before the voice commanding listeners to “take the floor” kicks in. I can’t imagine what this would do to a dance floor.

22. “Take Control” – Heavee

Some fun mixing/wordplay as RP Boo responds to Heavee’s suggestion, “I think it’s time to make the floor burn” with “take the floor” which is then cut with Heavee’s “take control”. I suppose this would be the battle sequence of the mix. This track is from Heavee’s TRAKPAK V5 (2020) and is described as being influenced by dub and ragga.

23. “Disturbed” – Jana Rush

Arguably the emotional climax of this mix. I find Rush’s productions to be spare, almost skeletal. Nevertheless, the vocal sample is hilariously hysterical, bringing to mind diva driven house music. It’s taken from her Painful Enlightenment (2021) LP released on Planet Mu [bandcamp].

Jana Rush’s DJ style, which you can watch here at HÖR Berlin (2023) had some influence on this mix, notably the way she (jump) cuts tracks with the faders, alongside her use of effects. More so was Nick León’s bold use of echo during his DJ set at the closing party of Unsound 2023.

24. “Stolen Phone” – Fire Lord & Seven Six

From Juke Underground’s compilation Juke World Order Vol. 2 (2015) [bandcamp], I feel like I’ve been carrying this track around for a long time. Its production standards are not as slick as much of the music featured in this mix, nevertheless its humour, driving pulse and jarring noise that have kept it in my playlists. I also thought it cute to bookend this mix with two cuts from Juke Underground’s series; beginning with a track that extends a friendly “Hello” and ending with another that issues a curt “Goodbye” before hanging up!

Theory On The Radio / Theory in the Mixxx

Last night I was listening to music, the way I used to when I was a child: lights off, sitting in front of the speakers and emotionally available to go with the sound… but now with high quality headphones that detect the fine production details. It made a significant difference to the music I usually only hear when I mix and I found myself listening to certain tracks by the Two Lone Swordsman, Jlin and Kode 9 several times over, fascinated by their subtle productions techniques; arguably listening with respect for the time and experience that went into their making.

This is very different to when I mix, which is intuitive. I often playing with tracks I haven’t listened to all the way through, teasing out their possibilities as they unfold. I suppose this is why ‘tracks’ are called ‘DJ tools’. I tend towards eclectic mixes. I don’t stick to genres, nor the latest releases. I’m not part of any scene, so I lack insider knowledge and don’t get sent anything exclusive. Also, I don’t mix regularly. I tell people I stopped more than a decade ago and the entry level Vestax controller I bought around that time is proof of it. (The company went bankrupt in 2014, which I only learned when I recovered my barely used Spin last year from storage).

I digress. After last night’s listening session I decided I would push these tracks to front of my ‘crate’ in Mixxx (free and open source) and shape my collection around them. I’ve noticed there is a lot of footwork in this folder, old and new. Today, I read some interviews with Jlin. Living in Gary, Indiana her early points of reference were footwork from Chicago, and she describes her sound as ‘EDM: Electronic Dance Music.’

I’ve been thinking about a notion of ‘riddim discursivity’. With reference to ‘urban dance music’ (UDM?), there is an established discourse about how certain looped samples laid the foundation for specific genres. Think of the ‘Funky Drummer’ in hip hop, the ‘Sleng Teng’ riddim in ragga, the ‘Amen Break’ in jungle, the ‘Volt Beat’ for funk carioca, reggaeton’s ‘Dem Bows’. I could happily spend hours (days, months, years) traveling down these wormholes, exploring the genealogies of such genres, but that’s not what I want to do right now. Notably, all of these genres emerged out of specific locals, often lower socio-economic enclaves of big cities — hip hop from the Bronx, New York; ragga from downtown Kingston, Jamaica; jungle, garage and grime from the estates of London; funk from Rio’s comunidades. With their unique histories and handful of pioneers these genres have since globalised and mutated. They have been opened up by a range of artists and production techniques and new/sub genres have emerged as music travels across peer-to-peer networks, blogs and file-sharing platforms; cross-infecting genres of bass.

So, I wonder what exactly is EDM? Most recorded music these days goes through some form of electronic, or more precisely, digital production. How does EDM differ from say, Electronica? It reminds me of IDM — ‘Intelligent Dance Music’. I don’t know where this term popped up. I vaguely recall reading an interview with Richard Devine in Cyclic Defrost, a zine associated with the weekly ‘Frigid’ nights organised by Sub Bass Snarl (Luke Dearnley and Seb Chan) in Sydney in the 1990s and early 2000s, that discussed IDM as a genre emerging as access to software, equipment and time became easier. It inferred some class dimension to this music. It probably encompassed producers such as Squarepusher and Autechre, to which I would add DJ Spooky, Matmos, Amon Tobin — I don’t know, who isn’t intelligent? Jace Clayton AKA DJ/Rupture used to describe himself as ‘the world’s smartest DJ’, or words to that effect. Richard D. James AKA Aphex Twin and Grant Wilson-Claridge, perhaps mischievously, named their label ‘Braindance’, to describe an electronic music movement and ‘way of life’ that: ‘encompasses the best elements of all genres’. Perhaps IDM simply announced a shift away from ‘four-on-the-floor’ rhythms into more ‘abstract’ styles of production that were not perceived to be so dance-floor friendly and better suited for headphone listening? IDM might also have signalled a delinking of production from geographically-locatable scenes, as music dispersed via networks rather than, say, record stores?

Anyhow, back to EDM. In a 2017 interview, Jlin discusses connecting online with the late DJ Rashad, regarded as one of the founders of footwork (a genre of urban dance music), when she started out as a producer. In a 2016 interview Jlin divulges that she hates clubbing and I began to wonder about her scene; who does she make music for? Jlin says her main sounding boards are her mother and best friend. Next I read an ‘up-to-the-time’ guide to footwork by Chicago-based producers RP Boo, Jana Rush, and DJ Manny and was surprised by their inclusion of tracks from producers based in Poland and Berlin.

While I’ve been collecting footwork and juke since before I withdrew as a DJ, the genre currently comprises much of a folder on my desktop labelled ‘Next Level’. Not all of the music gathered here is new, indeed tracks by the Two Lone Swordsmen date back to 1998. I’m enjoying the process of working out what stays in the mix, what gets culled and then figuring out what is missing — ‘curating my crate’, you might say.

I find that the music that remains is not necessarily music I like or that I feel ‘represents’ me or that I would listen to in another way — say, if I was going about some chores. Rather, what stays is music that I am curious to mix. Furthermore, with DJ software, the speed of a track — BPMs — need not necessarily govern what is most readily beat-matched. Pushing tracks well beyond their speeds (+/-24 is enough for me, but this range can easily be widened), opens up what is possible and introduces some novelty. While I know producers who have long designed their tracks to switch between tempos (80/160 BPM seems to be the footwork standard), lately I‘ve developed new respect for tracks that ‘connect’ between different genres.

Although I’ve a life-long fascination with rhythm, I’ve noticed that I habitually drop my interest in dance music (or any other genre), returning to it some years later, enthused to find ‘something new’. This pattern of behaviour is arguably a rhythm in itself. Another habit is to reach out to theory and then stumble into ways of doing theory that are not strictly academic. Hence, ‘Theory on the Radio / Theory in the Mixxx’ as the headline for this post and a description/prediction of how this ‘urban artistic-research’ project might evolve over the coming year/cycle.

I often find music by reading rather than listening; reading about producers, scenes and genres. Recently chatting to a friend and philosopher Bruno Besana, who sometimes collaborates with experimental musicians, he observed that music — and all art — is accompanied by a context or discourse that frames it, and that indicates what to be attentive to. But I’m also interested in what Kodwo Eshun termed ‘sonic fiction’, the interplay between close listening (or dancing or reading or looking or in other ways sensing), thought and the construction of narratives and concepts. Indeed, Eshun described himself as a ‘concept-engineer’ in his bio for More Brilliant than the Sun (1998) and this book alone is proof of how discourse can fold back to influence the music or whatever material that was initially being addressed, or diverge altogether into different fields. So, while I take pleasure in listening to finely detailed productions, I wouldn’t describe myself as an audiophile. Rather, I enjoy thinking with music, as a embodied process, recalling Kodwo Eshun observing his body reacting to jungle ‘faster than the speed of thought’. Another digression.

I write this in an attempt to articulate what I mean by pursuing an ‘eclectic sound’; a sound that connects to a broader, lifelong project about how to be in an ever-evolving present, marked by crises and inequality. Currently, I’m thinking with Sylvia Wynters’ urgings for specifically Black, colonially-oppressed and gendered people, to break from historical scriptings, and embrace invention [PDF]. Simultaneously, I’m thinking about Eshun’s speculation that the kinetic rhythms and forward pressure of jungle were somehow re-training or upgrading our bodily organs for what was to come. This is something that Steve Goodman AKA Kode9 picks up on in his book Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect and the Ecology of Fear (2010) in which he discusses (amongst other things) the ‘(sub)politics of frequency’ — by which the affective manipulation of sound (notably bass) is used to modulate the tensions of urban life, ‘transforming deeply engrained ambiences of fear or dread into other collective dispositions’ (p. xx). In a 2013 interview he says:

… for me, if the sound is right, then the politics are secondary. That is one of the key powers of music, to overload and short circuit people’s value systems and produce an intense encounter in which all other issues temporarily subside. It’s great where the music resonates with what you might think politically, but it’s not necessary, because the burden of political correctness can also be the ultimate vibe killer.

How can an eclectic sound might contribute to an effort to inhabit the world differently? Can alternative rhythms alter brain patterns and behaviours? What about communities who gather around these practices; might pursuing an ‘eclectic sound’ become ‘a way of life.’ A decade ago, my first point-of-reference as an eclectic selector was DJ/Rupture, these days it is Zíur who springs to mind.

It seems, mixing for me is a somewhat improvised, but no less habitual approach to elaborating on emancipatory impulses that are also ‘faster than the speed of thought’. Drives. So in this spirit of experimentation, this post concludes with some notes cribbed from last night’s listening session:

‘If Deejay was your trade’
and your job was to modulate bodies and time through sound — ‘vibes’;
emotions and energy,
push-and-pull people through rhythmic abstractions.
(You might)
manipulate the tick-tock passing of time and textures that trigger memory, nostalgia, fantasy and curiosity
dread
with speed and volume
(with or without chatter).
At best, a subjective experience transferred to others.
Find your niche and push it.