This track by Kamaal Williams and Lauren Faith makes my day better everytime it comes on.
This conversation between John Morrison and King Britt has so many gems in it about teaching, teaching music, teaching Black electronic music, and more. But I love this last part the most and not just because they mention Dilla.
JM: Can you give me a final word about what you’ve learned about how Black folks engage with electronic music from teaching this course?
KB: For us, these are just tools to enhance what we already have in our existence, in our DNA, as far as rhythm. So if you want to talk about Dilla – the drum machine and samplers enhanced what he already had in him, right? The way he beat programs, not using quantification on everything, he’s putting his humanness in. All Black folks put their humanness into the electronic instrument. The tools propel what our sound is to a whole other level.
Awe man, this uptempo Little Dragon cover by Conclave just made my day. And the video is just charming.
Ian Fink playing his piano at home. That’s it. That’s the album. And I love it.
Carl Craig on why “Poppa Was a Rolling Stone” is a techno record:
Techno is about attitude. It’s like how rap music is about attitude and lifestyle. Punk was about attitude and lifestyle. Techno is really about an attitude because we don’t lock ourselves into only listening to techno all fucking day long. The attitude of techno is that kind of brashness, but that you’re doing something that can sound like it’s timeless, and also that it’s not from this earth. That’s what “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” is to me; at any point I can hear it, and it’s just the amount of space that’s being used, the grooves. It’s got a groove without playing a lot of notes. It actually probably has more of a Miles aesthetic: it’s not about the notes you play but the notes you don’t play. The amount of space that’s in between bass riffs, or that there’s a little bit of Rhodes, and there’s some horns with an effect on them. The thing that’s carrying it is the hi-hat and the low bass. So, that is really techno to me.
Afternoon listening to get me over the hump: some deep and acid house.
Enjoying this slow and global jazz mix for the afternoon work session 🎶
https://www.mixcloud.com/rob-gebhard/jazzabation-funky-global-eclectic/
Made this mix today. Hard techno records up front. Grooves on the backside.