History lesson
From the most recent issue of the Economist. Click here for the full article, really interesting stuff.
Seven seconds of fire
How a short burst of drumming changed the face of music
IT IS 3am in a dank, sweaty studio in south London. Ear-splitting basslines pound from the sound system. Some of the young crowd gently bob along. Others are drinking, chatting or lurking in dark corners. Then, suddenly, the music changes. A throbbing pulse gives way to a clattering rhythm. Where there were 130 beats per minute, there are now 170. Where the mood was meditative, it is now maniacal. Within seconds the place is jumping.
This music is called “jungle”. Some of the people in the club were probably not alive when it was created. Certainly few would have been old enough to experience it in its heyday. These young revellers have an ear for the next big thing; they find trips down musical memory lane tiresome. Yet nothing seems to animate them like these tracks from almost 20 years ago.
To understand jungle’s roots, you must travel yet further back in time. On March 11th 1970 Richard L. Spencer, tenor saxophonist and lead singer for a short-lived Washington, DC, soul act called the Winstons, was awarded a Grammy for “Color Him Father”, a sentimental ode to a devoted stepfather released by the band the year before. The record sold well, but unlike some of his fellow winners that day, who included Aretha Franklin, Joni Mitchell and Johnny Cash, Mr Spencer was not destined for musical canonisation; the Winstons had already split up and later that year he quit the music business. The song, too, has largely been forgotten.
The same is not true for “Amen, Brother”, the B-side to “Color Him Father”. It is not immediately apparent why this should be. The two-and-a-half-minute instrumental, a funk update of an old gospel standard, is sprightly enough; the casual listener might be diverted by the energetic horn line. But there is little to distinguish it from hundreds of similar records released around the same time. The band recorded it quickly, says Mr Spencer; they needed a B-side and didn’t have any other songs.
Seven seconds of this track were enough to guarantee its immortality. One minute and 26 seconds in, the horns, organ and bass drop out, leaving the drummer, Gregory Coleman, to pound away alone for four bars. For two bars he maintains his previous beat; in the third he delays a snare hit, agitating the groove slightly; and in the fourth he leaves the first beat empty, following up with a brief syncopated pattern that culminates in an unexpectedly early cymbal crash, heralding the band’s re-entry.
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Here we are, fully into 2012 and I haven’t even said hello yet, who do I think I am. I’ve spent the past 2 weeks spending time doing not much else but looking at things like this -
but now I’m back and will spend as much time as possible looking at this
A couple pieces of exciting news – my talented, classy, and beautiful friend Valery Gore and I have been awarded a Toronto Arts Council grant to compose some music together, and we both super excited. We plan on holing up in my lab wearing long white coats, goggles, bolo ties, writing on clip boards and making sounds of all sorts. I’ll post clips as we go along.
News number 2 is the equally brilliant Laurie Brown has selected my most recent album as one of the CBC’s the Signal top albums of the year. I’m absolutely flattered to be part of an amazing list that includes artists I love and respect like St. Vincent, Bon Iver, and all the rest on there. Head over to the site for the list in full.
January is already a busy month, finishing up records with Kirsten Scholte and Royal Wood, then heading back out east for some long overdue playing/rehearsing with David Myles and co. This year is off to an amazing start, can’t wait to share it all with you.
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I’m behind
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Technology is blowing my fragile little mind right now. I feel like a bunch of things are happening/have happened and I missed them. Here’s a few clips of what I mean,
sneaking
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Stealing time between other people’s recordings to get some of my own stuff started again. The past month has been nuts in the best possible way, but I’m getting itchy to make/write again. Just beats for now but hopefully some “music” soon
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more video
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A couple more videos from the Doug Paisley CBC sessions I got to do with him.
Interview
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NB music journalist/music lover Ken Kelley was kind enough to do a web Q/A with me on his great site www.musicnerd.ca. He asked some really interesting questions about instrumental music, and one specifically about licensing it and whether it’s easier due to the fact that there’s no vocals. It’s a tough call and entirely dependant on the visuals, but here’s an example of a quick piece I made for a friend who is about to release a really interesting iPhone app. I’ll post the trailer when it’s done, but here’s the background music. There’s a female voice narration that goes on in the video, so it needed to be something that had some melodic interest, but not too over bearing as to distract from what she’s saying.
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Ended up doing another super fun CBC Drive session recently, this time with the sharply dressed David Myles. Have a look at the videos here –
video
I recently got to play with a real gentleman and amazing songwriter named Doug Paisley. He’s a favorite of mine and deserves all the accolades he gets, and more. Here’s a CBC 3 sessions we did with him. Beautiful tune. Quietest session ever, and the engineer Ron Skinner captured it beautifully.
update
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About 2 weeks ago I said I was going to try to keep a better eye on the blog here, and obviously that plan failed, fairly spectacularly. This is a really busy time, with lots of people around me making really amazing and inspiring music. Must be that fall/back to school thing that gets people moving. After Christmas though we’ll all shut it down and hibernate til touring season, like big musical dumb bears. Here’s a few clips of some really varied stuff I’ve been making for people over the past little while.
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Fall has been a super busy time for me so far and there’s lot’s of exciting stuff happening right now, so let me share a bit with you my friends.
- My good friend and notoriously gifted/prolific song writer David Myles released his latest record this month, and I’m proud to have played on it. It’s a disc that shows the love he has an influence he’s taken from all sorts of Brazilian and African music, but without sounding derivative and cheesy with the “world music” label attached to it. It’s a record of beautiful songs that sound distinctly like him which is such a good refreshing thing to hear. The drums and percussion were recorded for the most part in my living room which was a super fun challenge, and ended up working out great.
- I’m working feverishly away on a bunch of really interesting things for the upcoming new Royal Wood record. He and producer Dean Drouillard have a very cool perspective on how they want to make this one, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it. I get to go to work every day at the studio and see how weird I can get before it’s too weird. I’m a lucky man.
- I’m playing at the Glen Gould theatre next week with Doug Paisley. His latest record Constant Companion has been on permanent rotation in our house for the past year, and I’m really excited to get to play at a beautiful venue like the GG with him. October 29th if you’re around toronto.
- I’m producing a record for a really great artist named Kirsten Scholte. Look her and keep an eye on her. Amazing songs with a such a natural endearing voice. She’s awesome, and I’m really looking forward to starting work with her in a couple weeks.
KIRSTEN SCHOLTE & THE FANCYS – Blue-eyed Baby from Mitch Fillion (southernsouls.ca) on Vimeo.
- Joshua Cockerill and the band are headed back in to the studio to make a record with Chris Stringer. A whole bunch of my favorite humans all hanging out and playing great songs all day sounds good to me. We made Josh’s last record about 3 years ago now which is crazy, and after 5 cross Canada tours for it, it’s time. He written so many amazing songs, it’ll be really interesting to se which ones make the cut.
- I’m still making weird music. And a lot of it. trying to sneak in an hour a day for pure experiments and fun having in my little lab. Here’s the start of a beat from the other day.
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- last but not least, here’s a very in depth review of my record, over at the sound vat blog. Have a look see.
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