Dj Sprinkles - Midtown 120 Blues

Terre Thaemlitz (Dj Sprinkles) is a very well known figure in house and ambient circles, as well as being a producer, record label owner and a public speaker. He is especially known for his work that combines social critique and tackles the themes of gender politics, sexuality, class linguistics, race within the dynamic of his work. His album 'Midtown 120 Blues' stands as a firm and perfect statement to his art and his aesthetic.

"House isn't so much a sound as a situation.

There must be a hundred records with voice-overs asking, "What is house?" The answer is always some greeting card bullshit about "life, love, happiiness...." The House Nation likes to pretend clubs are an oasis from suffering, but suffering is in here with us.

Let's keep sight of the things you're trying to momentarily escape from. After all, it's that larger context that created the house movement and brought you here. House is not universal. House is hyper-specific: East Jersey, Loisaida, West Village, Brooklyn - places that conjure specific beats and sounds. As for the sounds of New York dance floors themselves, today's house classics might have gotten worked into a set once in a while, but the majority of music at every club was major label vocal shit. I don't care what anybody tells you. Besides, New York Deep House may have started out as minimal, mid-tempo instrumentals, but when distributors began demanding easy selling vocal tracks, even the label "Strictly Rhythm" betrayed the promise of it's own name by churning out strictly vocal after strictly vocal. Most Europeans still think "Deep House" means shitty, high energy vocal house.

So what was the New York house sound? House wasn't so much a sound as a situation. The majority of DJ's - DJ's like myself - were nobody's in nowhere clubs: unheard and unpaid. In the words of Sylvester: reality was less "everybody is a star," and more "I who have nothing."

Twenty years later, major distribution gives us Classic House, the same way soundtracks in Vietnam war films gave us Classic Rock. The contexts from which the Deep House sound emerged are forgotten: sexual and gender crises, transgendered sex work, black market hormones, drug and alcohol addiction, loneliness, racism, HIV, ACT-UP, Thompkins Sq. Park, police brutality, queer-bashing, underpayment, unemployment and censorship - all at 120 beats per minute."

--x--

" In 1986, at age 18, I left Missouri by train, pulling into Midtown Manhattan's Grand Central Station some 72 hours later. Until that point life had, quite frankly, been miserable, each and every day facing verbal and physical harassment as a queer-fag-pussy-AIDS bait. The climate in New York wasn't really so different. But from within my isolation I saw others isolated like myself. One of the places we met, in our self-containment, was on the dance floor. The nastiest and seediest clubs were located in Midtown. That's mostly where I DJ'ed, at tragic places like Sally's II and Club 59. In the early 1990's, Disney bought 42nd Street, closing the places around which transgendered life revolved for many of us. That "community of isolation" was scattered to other cities, other states, other countries. Isolated, still...."

--x--

This is the sound of house music staring at its own reflection in the water, breathing a heavy sigh, and taking the final plunge in, memories rushing while the body drowns. These are the Midtown 120 Blues.

sisters, i don't know what this world is coming to

Big Blood & the Bleeding Hearts - s/t

in solitary darkness, in the companionship of drunken revelry, to cut through the delirium of last night's dreams, to lull oneself to sleep, to be sung as loudly as statutorily possible. these are songs for any occasion**

bleeding hearts

Marcel Dettman - Berghain 02

Marcel Dettman is a demigod of sorts in Berghain, in Berlin. For those not in the know, Berghain is probably the mecca for electronic music fans, a legendary club that hosts the best Djs and considered immensely important to developments in the modern techno scene. Here's a mix Dettman put together in 2008, you're definitely gonna thank me for this later. A review from Resident Advisor:

With the rise of minimal, techno's centre of gravity shifted. The harder sounds which had long reigned supreme—The Advent, Surgeon, Speedy J, and Chris Liebling are just a few of the biggest names—fell out of favour, as most techno DJs started slowing down the BPMs and refilling their record crates. This shift was most clearly symbolized with the closure of the mighty Tresor club – for so long home to the hardest techno about. The general consensus was that techno had gotten into a locked groove—too loopy, too banging, too stuck in the same sounds—and its charms were tiring.

Yet recently we’ve been seeing the emergence of a new take on techno. And while Tresor may be up and running again at a new location, it is at another Berlin club, Berghain, where this renaissance is taking place. This new sound clearly shares some characteristics with minimal—most notably a Hardwax/Basic Channel influence and much slower BPMs—but it is clearly distinct, and undeniably techno. If you want a snapshot of the sound (and you can’t afford a ticket to Berlin), thenBerghain 02 is for you: this is one of the best, and most timely, mix CDs to have appeared in the last year or two.

In providing a clear manifesto for this new sound, it’s fitting that Berghain 02incorporates a number of specially commissioned tracks, including the records from veteran producer Tobias and newcomer Norman Nodge which open the mix. Their tone sets the scene for what to come: much like the architecture of Berghain itself, the sounds are stripped back, spacious, and hard-edged. Nodge’s ‘Native Rhythm Electric’ is dark, dynamic and captivating, and later in the mix, the thunderous ‘Vangal’ by Samuli Kempi proves to be a real highlight.

It’s a forward-looking variety of techno, but it’s also rooted in what’s come before. In the clubs, Dettmann likes mixes in the classics, and Berghain 02 finds space for three older records. Closing with Strand’s ‘Zephyr’ (1996) works perfectly, but the placement of the other two feels a bit forced. 'The Jacking Zone' (1986) is an amazing track no doubt, but its inclusion here disrupts the flow, while the abrupt crossfade that announces Kevin Saunderson’s ‘Just Want Another Chance’ (1988) is also rather awkward. These are minor complaints, though.

Elsewhere the mix is something of a definitive statement of where techno is at now, and where it is going. It’s a purist vision to be sure, but it is by no means limited: T++’s excellent ‘Mo 1’ is dubsteppish, ‘Warped Mind’ by Shed is standout neo-Detroit, while the piano riffs and gradual undulations of Radio Slave’s ‘Tantakatan’ underscores the link between Berghain and Rekids’ crossover hypnotism (Radio Slave fans new to Dettmann are advised to give this mix a try.) In short, it’s something of a guided tour of the most innovative and forward-thinking techno around.

Simply put, this CD is a winner. The track selection is near flawless and the mixing is of a standard you’d expect from a veteran like Dettmman. André Galluzzi’s first volume in the Berghain series was somewhat underappreciated, but that fate won’t befall Dettmann’s volume. Chances are we’ll look back at Berghain 02 as a defining movement when techno got out of that locked groove, and started moving forward again.


berghain 02 

Theredsunband - The Shiralee

Theredsunband was a band I stumbled upon quite randomly. I was wandering through Australia at a very hazy, melancholic phase in my life, and happened to see them perform at the Oxford in Sydney, only word of mouth leading me into them ( I'd previously heard that they resembled Mazzy Star, so I was sold fairly easily, I should say). They were touring at the time in support of their new record - The Shiralee. Well, suffice it to say it was an enchanting evening, I've been enamored with them ever since.

Their brand of dream pop/garage rock, lazy, breezy and introspective seems perfect for what I look for here. It's a pretty personal record, they've stepped up the songwriting since their debut; and the mid-end section of the album is flawless. Also contains an amazing cover of Bill Callahan's 'Bathysphere'. Hope y'all dig it as much as I do.

you were already gone, i just heard the echo