groovology
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On The Ergonomics Of Music: Reflections On Flow In Steve Reich’s “Drumming”
“But how the paths sounded to me was deeply linked to how I was making them. There wasn’t one me listening, and another one playing along paths. I listened-in-order-to-make-my-way.” -David Sudnow, Ways of the Hand (MIT Press 2001, p. 40) Every once in a while warming up before a show I noodle around by playing Continue reading
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Outsider Music II: Notes On Moondog’s “A New Sound For An Old Instrument”
“I’m into swing. I get that from the American Indians like the Sioux, the Arapahoe and the Apache. They have this drum-beat, heart-beat. Bom, Bom, Bom…I got that influence when I was six years old in Wyoming. My father took us to an Arapahoe Indian reservation. The chief let me sit on his lap and Continue reading
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Notes On Tiger C. Roholt’s “Groove: a phenomenology of rhythmic nuance”
Tiger C. Roholt’s Groove: a phenomenology of rhythmic nuance is a splendid, rigorous, and brief (140 pp) book that makes a compelling case for something many musicians already know something about: groove. Groove is the feel of a rhythm–that quality of musical time that can make it seem as though the music is pushing ahead Continue reading
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On Less Is More: Lorenzo Senni’s Music
Lorenzo Senni has an interesting musical thing going on. On his recent recordings Superimpositions (2014) and Quantum Jelly (2012) he makes a kind of electronic trance music that does away with the beats, leaving only pulsing, echoing, and arpeggiating synthesizer chord sequences. Without the metrical context of the relentless 4/4 thump, the synth chords are Continue reading
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On Music For Thought: Dub (Re)Mixing As A Metaphor For Mindfulness
After reading Paul Sullivan’s excellent Remixology (Reaktion Books, 2014), a history of dub music and dub aesthetics from Jamaica to their infection of electronic musics in cities and scenes around the world, it struck me that remixing is an interesting metaphor for cultivating mindfulness. Dub pioneers such as Lee “Scratch” Perry, King Tubby, The Scientist, and Continue reading
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On Endless Vibrations: Locating Soca Music
Lots of people recently returned from Trinidad and Tobago Carnival thoroughly energized from the parties, dancing, and most of all, the powerfully loud and beat-driven soca music. If you’ve never hear this music up close, blasting from the slow-moving soundsystem trucks that crawl their way through the streets of Port Of Spain, it’s quite an Continue reading
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On Earworms: Remembering Billy Cobham’s “Red Baron”
Walking home from the local grocery store, I found myself at a steady but slower than normal stride, moving my head up and down, and yes, beat boxing a beat and a bassline. I may have even spun a move over the curb, skipping along as the plastic bag with the peanut butter bounced off Continue reading
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On Andreas Tilliander’s TM404 Project
“I would have a sequence running for two hours, seriously, and I was afraid to ruin it all by touching a single knob.” – Andreas Tilliander One of the more compelling soundworlds I’ve been listening to recently is a project by Andreas Tilliander called TM404. The music is made entirely with old Roland drum machines Continue reading
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Music Distillation: On Ital Tek’s “Challenger Deep”
Arpeggiating beats into pieces so small, fast pulse becomes slow. Continue reading
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On Sinister And Dynamic Rhythmic Energy: Laurel Halo’s “Oneiroi”
“I guess I just wanted to record what I was doing live. Basically when I got into the studio to record those tracks I found myself playing around with the patterns more, playing around with the samples more, trying to find what was particularly gripping, or dynamic. I wanted the tracks to have this sinister Continue reading
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