Another Strange Attractor

June Podcast ‘09

I thought it was only fitting that, in the month of my birth, I should return to my house roots. This mix showcases some new tracks (I really dig Inland Knights and LoSoul, apparently), as well as some old, but still awesome, tunes. Although I have devoted less time/money/energy to pursuing this element of my DJ life lately, I am still a house-head at heart and always will be. I see myself at 40, dancing in the living room to Marshall Jefferson with the same abandon as I did five minutes ago - this music just doesn’t get old! My first records were Armand Van Helden and Eddie Amador tunes. The first party I went to was DJ Dan @ Tabu (Minneapolis, MN). Deep down, house is what moves me the greatest, the sound to which I can loose myself to best on the dance floor. And I don’t think I am alone…

Why do we love this simple, often cliche/repetitive music? Why does that heart-pounding, four-on-the-floor kick drum grip us so? Many have theorized that house speaks to the most primal, reptile brain memory - of our mother’s heart beat in the womb (about 70 bpm, though resting is slightly less (which, doubled = 130 bpm or thereabouts)). Others site similarities between the tribal drumming and trance-dance ceremonies of our cultural ancestors on the plains of Africa. Others still see house as a sort of post-post-post modern (at some point, cant we just call it all music?) blues, the natural outgrowth of a century of oppression/hope based music.

Why do I think house has survived the test of time? Well, in part I believe the truth lies in all of the previous theories - we crave this music because it speaks to something historical, triggers a sort of socialized genetics in each of us. It is also “cool” in the same sense that jazz was “cool”, that sensation of being pulled in, of having a musical ambiance greater than the track itself - a feeling that pervades the whole genre. This sensation is what gives certain music the power to survive, across time. Another, possibly more applicable, term for this feeling is “vibe”. Jazz has its vibe, of smokey cafes and complicated, rushing sadness intertwined with hard hitting grooves and intricate, layered soundscapes. Reggae has its vibe of laid-back, earthy wanderings, of hazy, smiling rastas and revolutionary aggression. And house has its vibe of inner-city energies, movement, of warm disco lights and glistening muscles - of that indescribable, low-frequency embrace, erasing insecurity and inequality in one fell swoop of its great mothering arms.

House was the original “rave” music, America’s furthest reaching and least publicized musical legacy. Sometimes I envision house becoming the jazz of the future, a genre that in 40 years will be historicized and glamorized, cataloged and researched in much the same was that musicologists pour over the last 80 years of jazz history. Maybe this is a little far-fetched, as it is hard to compare the musical complexity of Dizzy Gillespie’s ‘Salt Peanuts’ to the stoned simplicity of DJ Pierre’s ‘Acid Traxx’. And some argue that it is a little too early to tell whether or not house will last much longer (though 20 years in, I don’t see any sign of its offspring dying off…) Maybe the problem lies in trying to make a musical comparison between the two. The similarity between jazz and house does not lie in their musical theory, but in their social history. Both fueled change wherever they went (and will go!) - social, mental and spiritual changes that cannot be denied. To drive the point a little further outside the box, both function as massively new strange-attractors (see Lorenz, chaos theory) in society, seemingly unbounded, creating ripples wherever their sounds wander…

I have never been to a legit (100%) house party that was violent, unsafe, or disturbing. Maybe I have experienced only the beautiful side of this scene, but deep down I have a hard time believing that anyone with malicious intent could survive in a room full of people meditating through movement on words like “rise up”, “we are free” and “love is all that matters”. House is too pure for manipulation, too simple of a concept to ruin. Too innate to ignore.

And so, with that rather lengthy introduction I leave you this offering to the house godz. There is definitely some history here, and enough sampling and editing to give a seasoned musicologist a dedicated hard-on. I hope you enjoy - but don’t forget to dance a little. This ain’t no arm-chair music.

Long live the funky-ass beat.