As I mentioned above, this week is a bumper week for new (new, but not necessarily new new) music, and Iāve been thinking a lot about genres. As I finally get towards the end of the great Rickey Vincent book onĀ funkĀ (Iām enjoying it, but I’m reading more slowly than usual, and itāsĀ long), I keep coming back to the idea of what a genre is, and what it means. In the book, Vincent is pretty scathing about disco. His belief is that disco is just the appropriation and subsequent commercialisation of funk and soul. His argument is pretty convincing, but what I thought was most interesting was the idea that certain music could be classified and declassified as disco. According to Vincent, for example, certain Earth, Wind, and Fire tracks are undoubtedly funk, but on the songs where thereās any sense of repetition or a drum machine, then theyāre disco (and therefore sell-outs). I donāt think I agree, but I like that it started me thinking about what makes (and who classifies music in) genres.
This thought has helped picked a lot of music out this week thatās quite genre-bending, and took me back to that idea I discussed inĀ Letter 36Ā from the bookĀ Hit MakersĀ on the importance of familiarity and surprise;Ā weāre most susceptible to new ideas when they come in familiar packages. So Emma-Jean Thackrayās blindingly good new album (Ley Lines) fits the mould as it bridges the worlds of jazz and instrumental hip-hop – in fact Thackray’s inspiration forĀ Ley LinesĀ was growing up with Madlibās music playing alongside Fela, and Miles. Then thereās the new Joy Orbison collaboration with avant garde jazz artist Ben Vince (if you find a copy of this on record, please buy it for me!). The new DJ Koze album is (as youād expect) wonderful and almost impossible to pigeonhole into a single genre. Thereās a new track from Anderson .Paak that feels like techno. A Jonwayne track that unexpectedly samples a Radiohead classic, and techno producerĀ Szare borrows liberally from gabber and Hudson Mohawkeās TNGHT project. This level of genre-bleed isĀ so exciting. It keeps music moving, and interesting. And it’s obviously not new. Even when we goĀ way backĀ we see this happening – the best example probably being the Parliament / Funkadelic explosion of the 70s (I stupidly hadnāt realised that they were basically the same band, justĀ on different labels)
What unites the music Iāve mentioned above and most of what I’ve chosen to include this week is that along with a lot of genre-blurring, thereās a sense of being ‘locked inā to a groove. If you listen to the Motor City Drum Ensemble’s trackĀ āPrayerā, youāll notice it uses a simply drum pattern, a looped soul sample, but then plays with different brass instruments over the top. Listening to it, you getĀ locked in to the rhythm, and then 64 bars in over the top comes this rush of new (unexpected) sounds. I found it exhilarating. Itās been on repeat. The Szare track is similar, but flipped – the bass rumbles along, but the asymmetry of the rhythm section really played around with myĀ expectations.
This all became more pertinent this week, as I started to pull out recordsĀ for the impending visit of my dad. Itās a ritual pull out new things he might not have heard (a tough task), but my record collection has become a mess. About a year ago I tried to catalogue most of my records with a simple system of; genre, tempo, phase (Mancusoās bardos), and key instruments. This was fine a year ago, but as Iāve carried on learning more about music (and buying a lot, with a lot more variation), Iāve realised a lot for the genres are wrong. Iāve also realised that I was thinking about matching records based on pretty arbitrary principles – instead of reallyĀ listeningĀ to them, and understanding how they make meĀ feel. I canāt deny that I think thatās happened a bit withĀ Love Will Save the Daymixtapes too. I think (up until this week) Iād become increasingly focused on grouping tracks in the same genre together. Itās happened totally unconsciously, but when I look back at early letters itās a right old mess of genres. However, those early mixtapes have moreĀ feelingĀ and lessĀ structure.Ā I think it shows, too.
So, more listening, less notes.
Which bought me right back to Rickey Vincent, and a quote that felt really pertinent; “Once again the corporate mentality had overtaken racial consciousness to the point where music was product rather than culture.”
The second we become obsessed with categorising something, it becomes a ‘product’. It loses itās true value, and feels like a commodity. That’s not to say that products can’t have cultural value, but there’s a difference between someone trying to sell aĀ ‘product’ backĀ to a culture (EDM) and an organic product that’s part of a culture (grime). I think a lot of that comes down to intentions – and if you start by thinking about you can build / create something of value to culture,Ā that’s a great start.
As always, if youāve read to here,Ā thanks for indulging meĀ ā„ļø.
See you on the dance floor.
Love Will Save the Day