more thoughts, 12/7

and still...even when it's easier to type things out bit by bit like this, I still struggle to get anything down and make time for it. I'm going to just start with a copy of the "areas to look at" from my previous post to get me thinking and to reference. Then take it where it goes.

There are many areas to look at:
-What I've learned specifically through this project and process.
-What I had in knowledge, collection, techniques, expectations, etc. coming into this (and the lens I brought, which was mostly that of an inquiring DJ who is in an intellectual pursuit, not the other way around...or some other iteration of it)
-What foci I want to use - existing music (recordings), production techniques, playing techniques, DJing and beat-making techniques (as instruments as well)

To follow up on my thoughts about Eshun's book, I have a few things to say that are informed by further research. I read an article review and criticism of Eshun's book, More Brilliant Than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction, and a book by Craig Watkins, titled Representing: Hip Hop Culture and the Production of Black Cinema, that gets at many points I couldn't initially reach on my own. One result of Eshun's creative use of language and exploration of content is that I find it hard to make my own criticisms. Thus, I'll begin with what Alexander Weheliye says in this article, "Keepin' It (Un) Real," and then add my own on to that.
Though he acknowledges the originality and value of Eshun's writing with its focus on getting deep into songs, sounds, technologies, there is also the fact that Eshun ignores or chooses to not address many social factors. I would say in exploring the space of these songs and artists, he leaves out the social spaces from which the artists and songs were created. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. It's in my selfish desire for more that it becomes a problem. I could make some of those connections, but I also value his focus and style of writing, which I can't begin to grasp...I don't really consider myself a writer.
But, Eshun wanted to do what he did, and that's what we have - this amazing piece exploring sound, writing about it with a language as complex and creative as itself. I guess my resolution is that even though his text is sometimes confusing in its complexity, I have to fight the temptation that goes along with that sensation of bewilderment to think the book is therefore beyond question. Like I said above, I haven't figured out how to do that. All I know is that sometimes things feel wrong...music holds many meanings and not all of them are futurist nor innovative. Soho's hot music

is founded on a "repetitive" one bar loop of the piano, upright bass, and drum work. This was, I would guess, the impetus for the song. Soho aka Pal Joey aka Joseph Longo probably either was listening to the song for enjoyment and hearing that part hit the "sample that" nerve, or he was searching for samples and happened to hear that part of "Skain's Domain" and it elicited a similar effect. That is the usual story of sampling, at least, when it isn't tied to a particular "purpose" (other than moving people's bodies).
And while Joey Longo maybe didn't have a political reason for his piece...like, say...Public enemy sampling Malcolm X "too black..too strong," there is value and maaaad talent in his ability to hear sample>recognize potential>tinker>add other instruments and affects>move people on the dancefloor. So...it's not so simple.
That's where one of my interests in DJing lies: the line between moving people and moving theory..or maybe not line, but the spectrum. People fall all along that in their processes of music making and philosophies on it, and there is the added consideration that the effects of their musics may not match up in the same way as their philosophies. There is all kinds of great stuff on either end, but there's also stuff in the middle and these are the kinds of things I'd like to be able to play personally, and move people with. There is a history of these kinds of songs as well - one being "Can you feel it (Martin Luther King Jr. Mix)" by Mr. Fingers aka Larry Heard.

Another thought is: could it be that we (academics/researching people) don't have a language or process with which to attempt to approach DJing and music making for all it can be? I would say that is most-likely a no. There is a mental aspect of this, but in the dancer's body (and mind) lie potentially different conclusions and feelings than the academic who accesses it through a sometimes very heady way. And then there's also Eshun who accesses the Afrofuturist musics through a different but still very heady discourse. And then there's all kinds of other approaches...but Eshun has the deepest look so far at the music that I (and Weheliye) have seen. It's difficult to say, also, because "the dancer" has different relationships and motives with music than "the Academic."
Music is both physical and representative of the body (at least pre-studio-only-musics where bodies were used in producing sound through instruments) and mental. Eshun touches on this - the move into the studio for the entirety of music production cut off the body: amputation.
As I explored earlier, I think DJ's fall into this in different ways through the forms and styles of their playing. DJ's involve their bodies in different ways. Some are dancers, and so come at playing from the perspective of "playing what they'd want to hear on a dancefloor" some are all about technique and acquiring skills with which to express themselves. This holds much significance for me, being a DJ who spends a lot of time listening to and playing what has been claimed as Afrofuturist music, someone who would like to be a dancer but feels restrained in many ways, and someone existing in and navigating (though sometimes resisting) an academic setting. Like Eshun lays out in his intro, I also don't believe that investigating songs and sound will "kill" the music, as he cites many UK music publications claim. I've heard similar sentiments, at least about house and later, more popular/exposed styles. It's just an excuse to leave it at the same old conversations, profiles, etc. "...[The] entire British dance press...constitutes a colossal machine for maintaining rhythm as an unwritable, ineffable mystery. And this is why Trad dance-music journalism is nothing more than lists and menus, bits and bytes: meagre, miserly, mediocre" (Eshun, -007). Eshun writes from a perspective unique to the UK and the music scene there, but I would argue that much of the same characteristic exists in US music journalism. The magazines I've read more often focus on artists, sometimes they tell a story about their personal musical progression, how their new album is different from the last, etc. I've never read anything even close to Eshun's writing. It's really fresh and inspiring. It makes sense to me that the language used to describe music that's futuristic, experimental, revolutionary, varying levels of each, can be quite effective and productive when it reflects that in its form/style as well. Theory and practice - praxis - where each informs the other and feeds back into a lifelong/neverending cycle that takes the whole - whether that be a person, a movement, a music - to a higher level.

...more later...getting sleepy and need to post something..