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Interview: Eric Archer

Posted in Art, Blogroll, Media, Music with tags Bodytronix, circuit bending, Eric Archer, modding, Resident Advisor on August 6, 2011 by Jack

Back in April of this year, I wrote an article for Resident Advisor on the growing sub-culture of producers who are learning to circuit bend and modify their own analog gear. During the course of my research on the subject, I was introduced to sound, visual and analog artist, Eric Archer. My interview with Eric was really quite essential to my article as a whole. In fact, the interview itself was interesting enough on its own that I wanted to share it here on my blog along with pictures of his analog experiments. The following is the Q&A session I had with Eric in its entirety.

From what I’ve read, you’ve been into electronics from an early age. When did you get into synths/drum machines/etc.? Did you get into them from a musician’s perspective or from an engineer’s perspective?

I love the sound of the 808 and its x0x relatives and I wanted to understand the physical reality of whats inside it, to have the knowledge the original designers had. I wanted access to the same palette of analog circuitry they used, because its ultra-minimal stuff and within that is a special kind of truth, it has a purity that I admire. Imagine the challenge to take the sound of an arbitrary percussion instrument and translate it into transistors and opamps. It’s not going to be a perfect sonic clone, but instead you get something unique and potentially magic.

Studying this stuff is really rewarding, I’ve gained insight on how technological progress has guided the evolution of electronic music. At every stage of progress from tubes to chips, someone has been there pushing the envelope with creative circuitry in service of aesthetics, to please the ear, to give musicians a new expressive tool. Yet, looking under the hood at synths of different eras, you can see sort of a struggle between the consumer and the manufacturer. And in the fray, a lot of good circuits have been forgotten. I’m fascinated as an engineer by the challenge of recreating these circuits and understanding exactly how they work. Then, the fun part is making creative changes to arrive at something new, something that potentially could have existed back in the day, but perhaps it was just a bit too complicated or bizarre to be mass produced.

When did you get into circuit bending? What were some of the first bends you did to studio gear (as opposed to toys)? Why did you choose these specific pieces of hardware? What results were you going for?

As a kid I built lots of Forrest Mims projects and had some fun with contact points in Casios but didn’t think much of it until my late 20′s. Thats when I quit a chemistry career and started messing with electronics again. Saturn Return I suppose? Suddenly I had a lot of time on my hands and an apartment full of electronics.

I picked stuff to bend that I hadn’t seen done before, forbidden stuff with AC power connections like FX processors. Digital answering machines make glitchy lo-fi samplers. I integrated one inside a cruddy bass amp and presto, an amp with record and playback features! I tried things with visual output rather than audio, like an electronic typewriter and video projector. The Indian company Radel makes funky electronic tabla boxes, I found these sound quite awesome with bends.

I’ve modded a lot of gear recently. Erich Ragsdale’s TX-606 (based on TR-606) is certainly the most elaborate, its a luxury device. Then there’s more utilitarian mods like adding 36 mute switches to my Studiomaster Diamond mixer. Why don’t mixers ever have mutes on the aux sends? I don’t get it.

From what I’ve heard (and watched) with Bodytronix, you’re doing pretty straight-forward dance music with not-so-straight-forward (to put it mildly) gear. Most of your work is experimental but with Bodytronix, you’re doing something more aesthetically accessible. Why?

I enjoy Bodytronix because at the heart it’s truly experimental, but we’re playing sounds that make me want to get up, stuff that pivots on rhythm and melody. My previous experimental projects seemed to gravitate toward a melancholic, alienating vibe, and that sort of limited emotional spectrum became tiresome. But, start up a good bassline over an 808 beat and that always makes me smile.

Anyway, I’ve always loved electro, techno, acid, so its fun to tackle these genres with handmade instruments. It may not be obvious when hearing Bodytronix, but some of the rhythm and melodic sequences are generated by algorithms. I like designing hardware that composes music automatically. Its a thrill to put these untested ideas into practice for the first time and crank the result thru a nice PA. Then we have a beat, we have bass, and everybody’s having fun.

You used to work fixing high-end studio gear and hardware. What insights did that give you about modifying/bending gear?

Doing repairs exposes you to schematics for all kinds of audio circuitry, and with the pressure to get it working so you can earn a buck, stuff starts to make sense pretty fast. Studio gear is quite educational to look inside because you’re seeing stuff that was designed for performance, rather than simply being cheap and easy to mass produce.

In a nutshell? Hot glue sucks.

Could you elaborate on the continuum from bending through modding to design?

In all three scenarios, you’ve got a soldering iron, some wire and components. The first case, bending, its an entry level approach in that there’s little or no theory, its just trying random stuff until either you like the result, get tired, or fail by destroying the device you were messing with. Next, learn to read schematics and understand a little about how electrons move, now you’ve got a measure of insight and you can start to plan specific mods on your gear. You know in advance more or less what effect you want to produce, and you understand which components to focus on to get results. Finally, once you start digging in the books, you see things from an electron’s perspective, you’ve digested stacks of schematics from classic gear you respect, and the oscilloscope is no longer a mystery. Then you can sit down with a pencil and paper and sketch something new on a creative impulse – and the real experiment is to build it and see if it sounds anywhere close to what you imagined.

Could you go into detail about your live setup for Bodytronix (perhaps focusing more on your favorite instruments)? I’d be very interested in knowing more about the drum machine you built.

Erich and I have duplicate set-ups in essence, because we each use an analog drum machine, a sequenced bassline monosynth, and a vintage keyboard synthesizer. So the layers can get thick. Erich’s got a TR-606 that is really boss, it has pretty much every mod he asked for. That, plus an external handclap machine we call the Clap-raca. Its a hybrid of the 808 and 909 CP with filter and decay controls. Analog handclap is a very crucial sound. Just as crucial as his x0xb0x. This is essential acid: 606 + 303 + clap, such a classic combo.

For keyboards, Erich’s currently using a Multivox synthesizer, and I like my Yamaha SY-1 and Alesis QS6.1. Gotta have a polysynth for pads, and the Alesis is effective with some help from FX.

: BBoT

Most of my setup is handmade circuits built on perfboard. There are about 30 individual boards split up into 3 boxes. Ten of the boards are drum sounds, another ten are sequencers, and the rest are synths. The drums are based on TR-808 schematics. I built the BD, SD, CH/OH as straight-up clones, but the MT, LT, CP/MA, and CB/RS are experimental. They have additional sequencers onboard, their purpose is to make components materialize in and out of the circuit, sort of like automatically modifying itself in sequenced patterns. That way the sound morphs continuously within a set of discrete possibilities. It can sound really fresh, and alien at the same time. These are special circuits, but fairly complex because they are all analog with discrete logic. I really need to make the 808 cymbal next.

My sequencers are experiments. This is rewarding territory to explore, I enjoy designing algorithms for composition. The drums are triggered by two sequencer algorithms – symmetric and asymmetric. By switching them on and off independently, I can have a four on the floor beat transform into something like a funky solo. The asymmetric sequencer was inspired by a 1972 machine called the Triadex Muse. It contained a really beautiful compositional algorithm. My sequencers are controlled by selecting numbers, and what comes out isn’t always what I expected. Its good that way, the machine always has a new idea for the next rhythm, even if I don’t.

The handmade synths in my setup are pretty strange and amusing. There’s the original Drone Commander prototype, also a modulated grid of LEDs that’s played with a photodiode stylus. These are the little synths, one board each. Then there’s a big synth that spans seven boards. It has a crazy algorithm to generate diatonic melody, and this is sequencing a 3-oscillator monosynth. There’s a second sequencer for synchronized LFO on the filter. It gets sounds from dubby wobble bass to acid leads, and since its controlled by numbers, I pretty much just pick some numbers and let it take care of the details… 4-bar loop of melodic 16th notes in G minor? With acid filter and glide and sub-octave? No problem.

The rest of my stuff is not handmade, like the mixer and FX racks etc. Actually I’m doing some unusual things with the FX. I use a Digitech RDS7.6 delay as the master clock for everything – the delay time knob sets Bodytronix’s BPM. That way I can use the delay as a 2-bar looper, and its always synchronized. The looper is crucial.

Did you know what drum sounds you wanted and then built it, or was there an uncertainty about the tone and texture quality of the final result?

Early on, I tried some stuff that looked cool on paper but just sounds like analog farts. Since then the more drum circuits I build, I get a little better at predicting the results. Its sort of a science or craft maybe, I think just as much as building acoustic drums.

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David Baker and the Art of Community

Posted in Art, Blogroll, philosophy with tags Affordable Housing, architecture, David Baker, san francisco on November 3, 2010 by Jack

This article originally appeared in the June 2010 issue of inGen Magazine.

Architecture is more than simply the design and building of structures for habitation and commerce. In dense urban environments, architecture becomes the environment. From the corner store to the new apartment building, the urban dweller cannot escape from the reality of the surrounding city. For the working poor, the architecture of their surroundings is often a burden, and sometimes, even a threat. For those whose only means of survival are the housing projects, their lives are often defined by the stark nature of their apartments and the crime outside their door.

The infamous Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago

This has been the reality for many people in the last half-century since the beginning of the “projects” under the Housing Act of 1937. This law established the first Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) in large cities around the United States. These PHAs built housing projects to house the working poor and the unemployed. But these massive apartment units became centralized locations for gangs and the drug trade. Over time, the “PJ’s” became synonymous with crime and gang warfare.

With the Housing Acts of 1965 and 1968, the move towards privatization of low-income housing began with the subsidization of developers and the guarantee of rent to property managers on behalf of low-income residents. The Section 8 Rental Assistance Program of 1974 further progressed privatization by giving vouchers to low-income families who could then use them in acquiring a residence of their choice. It also gave greater control to local governments in the development and administration of affordable housing. One of the goals in privatizing affordable housing was to allow the private sector the opportunity to solve local housing issues.

San Francisco has the second most dense population in the United States behind New York City. With just over 800,000 people in just under 49 square miles, housing is at a premium. Even the barest of accommodations can be out of reach for many working-class families. In response to the need for affordable housing, the City has created agencies like the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and the SF Mayor’s Office of Housing (MOH). These agencies are working in conjunction with private architecture firms and developers to tackle the issue of creating low-income housing at a reasonable cost.

SOMA Studios and Family Apartments

San Francisco architect David Baker has been at the forefront of this affordable housing movement in the Bay Area. Baker’s firm, David Baker and Partners, has the unique ability of creating low-cost structures that combine sustainable building techniques with a high aesthetic value. Baker’s approach to urban architecture is based on the principle of “better living through density.” Data has shown the carbon footprint of an urban area is inversely proportional to its population: the higher the population per square mile, the lower the amount of energy used. One reason is people can walk or take public transportation to their destination instead of using a car; another reason is more people share the same resources, such as water and sewage systems.

With this principle in mind, Baker seeks to create better urban environments for everyone, not just those who can afford it. Working closely with the MOH, Bakers’ firm has created some of the most innovative and cost-conscious affordable housing projects in San Francisco. One such project is SOMA Studios and Family Apartments at the corner of 8th and Howard streets. The colorful geometry of this five-story building houses an eclectic mix of the young and old, from artists to immigrants. The bottom floor houses an organic food market. This combination of commercial and residential space is the key to building neighborhoods with lower carbon footprints by minimizing the distance between sale and consumption. SOMA Studios, built in 2003, was chosen as part of the SF Chronicle’s Top 10 list for architecture of the past decade.

Another project is the Folsom + Dore Supportive Apartments located on Folsom Street and Dore Alley. This innovative multi-family building serves those with special needs, people living with HIV/AIDS, and the chronically homeless. It was the first new building in Northern California to receive a LEED Silver Certification for its use of green principles in its design. The use of plants and open space in this structure create a distinctive sense of place, and this, in turn, creates a sense of pride and ownership in those who live there. When people care about where they live, they become involved with the maintenance and upkeep of their residence.

Folsom & Dore apartments

Baker achieves sustainability in his projects, he says, by “minimizing energy expended in the manufacturing process.” This includes choosing materials that combine low-cost functionality with high-impact aesthetics – integral color concrete, for instance. The use of local artisans and designers allows for the variety and individuality necessary to create the personality of a vibrant community. This in turn puts money back into the local economy as well as minimizes the energy consumed to get materials from where they are fabricated to the actual project site.

Across San Francisco, Baker’s designs have brought color and playfulness to areas once smothered by decrepit tenements and crack hotels. Instead of gentrifying the neighborhood into high-market condominiums for the wealthy, though, these projects are serving the people who call these neighborhoods home. Compare SOMA Studios with the Soviet Bloc-style architecture of traditional housing projects and it’s clear to see why David Baker is part of a revolution in transforming our urban landscape.

Interview: Sam Van Olffen

Posted in Art, Blogroll with tags graphic sampling, Sam Van Olffen on October 8, 2010 by Jack

The art of the sample is perhaps the most interesting development in the evolution of music production. When done properly, a sound, a rhythm, can be reborn into a new form, a new context, a new energy. But, the use of the sample isn’t limited to the medium of sound. Sam Van Olffen, an artist who lives and works in Montpellier, France, constructs worlds through the use of what he terms “graphic sampling.”

Courtisane

I came across Van Olffen’s work while I was researching conceptual, Dieselpunk and Steampunk-related art online. What struck me first about Van Olffen’s work was the masterful way he invokes the future by referencing the past, and I was intrigued by his use of late-19th-to-early-20th Century war paraphernalia such as gas masks and trench coats. Van Olffen’s work goes beyond pastiche, instead his works are cohesive visions of netherworlds: neither past nor future, and yet, paradoxically, beholden to both. One of the most interesting aspects of Van Olffen’s work, though, is his ability to give the future a sense of nostalgia. His romantic dystopias seem to long for a past that never really existed.

Van Olffen was kind enough to answer a few questions for me about the motivations and machinations behind his work.

Your art combines imagery from many different time periods – some that haven’t even happened yet. Which interests you more – the past or the future? Why?

Chapelier

I’m certainly not interested in the future, I don’t see anything bright in that direction. The only light I see is not the daylight, rather the one of a locomotive that human race is about to catch at full throttle and that will smash this once living entity before this latter one had even the time to follow the recommendations of Stephen Hawking, namely colonize space. Since the death of science-fiction, I’m not expecting anything from the future excepting maybe an encounter of the third kind, which would make me withdraw immediately what I’ve just said!

I’m more interested in the past as a way to understand the present and how in less than one century we all became “citizens of the age of the ephemera” as Alvin Toffler said pertinently. The lost civilizations, the great conflicts, men, discoveries, etc., whole those new quantic waves that were shaping the face of humanity. Needless to say it was more impressive than… Facebook!

When you say, “the death of science fiction,” what do you mean? Why do you feel it is dead?

Zyklon B Baby

One century ago, in other words yesterday, the XXIst century was imagined as a prosperous era where everyone would have been happy in his work, the disparities would have disappeared and we would be travelling in flying cars… Thirty years, that’s not so long ago… And what do we got? Planes in the face (9/11), children taken as hostages and killed on a large scale (Beslan) and so on.

From Homo Sapiens we are now Homo Numericus. If George Orwell was still alive, he would be amazed by all the things our time can offer on a silver plate at the startup of his computer. As for Emil Cioran, he would already have blown his brains out since a while!

More seriously, the Science Fiction doesn’t mean anything anymore for me except an aesthetic value…

When do you think this happened?

Science Fiction as a genre has disappeared from the radar since, let’s say, the 1930s and the Turing machine that indirectly contributed to the birth of the Internet. That’s is the less to say not a small revolution.

The intrusion of the Net in our time is not science fiction, it is very real and nobody saw it coming except a few prophets. If you had said at the end of the World War II that in half a century the kids of your kids would be sending photos through waves, listening to music on dematerialized supports and chatting in real time with people on the other side of the planet, I think you would have been considered as a lunatic or at least for a serious crank, because in the Science Fiction facts it had only a meaning when it was not existing.

Nowadays everything written, thought, realized, imagined by the so called Science Fiction artists has far more chances to happen and in a shorter time limit than the Science Fiction has ever been able to imagine since his origins, that is to say from Jules Verne.

The balance of forces has changed: everything, absolutely everything, including the cybernetic man or the cloned dog, has become more likely than unlikely and that’s all the difference.It’s in that way that for me the Science Fiction is dead and while its body is still warm Anticipation has already replaced it.

Oxygen

You satarize both historical figures (Winston Churchill) and pop icons (Disney) with a combination of humor and anger. How do you feel about pop culture?

I don’t feel anything, I’m not interested anymore by pop culture. For me it is like advertisement: it tends to eat oneself as “renewal” which is ultimately never new, as it would like us to believe; it is more like a frozen meal badly warmed.

Some of my favorite work of yours are the post-apocalyptic Victorian pieces. What was your inspiration for this work?

Mecatron

First of all, I’d like to put right one thing: my pieces are not Victorian but rather Second Empire. This might seem to be a quite trivial precision but this is an important one. Steampunk is ordinarily represented in a Victorian environment and, according to me, that’s what confers to the different representations a similar look, whatever the production horizon is. The Crystal Palace will always be the Crystal Palace, and London, London dispite the presence of a little mechanical dog or a turbo fiacre flying here and there. My pieces being not positioned in London but in Paris, the Paris of the baron Hausmann, Napeleon III and Victor Hugo, I strongly believe that my images doesn’t have that similar look. It was a period of confusion, riot in the very heart of the city when the face of the capital was changing to become what we know today. It could not have happened without a certain idea of chaos which is quite seductive for me, as you can easily understand. So I think that the part of my work related to that period are more Retro-chaotic Second Empire than post-apocalyptical Victorian. More than a precision it is the answer to your question.

What is the process for your work? What medium do you use? Is everything done on a computer?

As powerful as a computer is with its quadcore, tera octets of storage and gigas of RAM or even a Colossus type computer like in the movie of Joseph Sargent, it will never give you an original idea even if you connect firewire or hdmi plugs to your ears. It’s only a tool I use to finalize some steps like I could use a hammer to drive a nail into a wall. To go further with that metaphor: before driving the nail into the wall, the wall had to be built and before that, plans had to be done and so on.

Same process for an image: first the idea, then the sketches and a more elaborated drawing, usually a wash drawing. A lot of photographic takes are following and the computer comes into the process, to work at the same time on preparatory steps and the final ones, as a centralization tool.

Bon Boulet Bobbies

What do the terms “steampunk” and “dieselpunk” mean to you? How have these movements influenced you, or do you feel it is the other way around?

Steampunk and Dieselpunk mean nothing, they are only generic words to name things. Personally I refuse the idea to belong to one or other of those categories. You may notice that I’m not only doing “Steampunk” images but that I’m also exploring other universes, trying to keep, of course, a stylistic consistency in the use of duotone or colors.

For the rest I wouldn’t say that I’m influenced by other artists in that field. If I need to refer to something I’d say classical images, like North American pictures from the beginning of the XXth century or paintings of Edward Hopper, for example, whom was said to “paint the silence”, or Michelangelo whose artworks are always worth contemplating.

To conclude, I’m not making Steampunk, I’m making Graphic Sampling.

Babel Central Station

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Dubstep in SF: the rise of bass culture

Posted in Blogroll, Music with tags Dubstep, Full Melt, Narco Hz, Sam Supa, san francisco, Surefire on April 29, 2010 by Jack

This article originally appeared in the March 2010 issue of inGen Magazine.

In the ever-shifting sonics of electronic dance music, a new sound emerges every so often that separates itself from its predecessors and becomes more than the sum of its influences. As the second decade of the century begins the new sound is called dubstep. Over the past ten years dubstep has evolved and matured; now it is poised to break through the boundaries of its scene and cross-over into mass appeal. Although dubstep has its roots in London, San Francisco’s vital dubstep scene is at the vanguard in the propagation of this cutting-edge sound.

Dubstep is the endpoint of a mutation of sounds that began in London back in the 90′s. First there was hardcore and then drum’n'bass, a combination of hyperactive drum breaks and thick, rolling bass lines. As that scene settled into a dark niche in the late 90′s, 2-step garage emerged with a slower tempo and the swing of its sparser beats. Then came grime which, as the name implies, took a darker approach to the 2-step sound by incorporating elements of hip-hop and dancehall into the equation. Then, a subtle shift occurred when the bass got bigger, more complex and moodier: dubstep was born.

Dubstep’s history in San Francisco’s clubs began with a monthly called Grime City, started by Ben Enzyme and Emcee Child. Already hooked on the 2-step and grime sound, the infiltration of dubstep records onto the decks was a natural progression. Juju, a well-established drum’n'bass DJ, also began to push the sound at his Narco.Hz events. Then in 2005, DJ and promoter Ripple threw the now-legendary party, Superheroes and Supervillians, which was the first party to fly in top UK dubstep DJs.

Promoters soon took notice of this new sound and began to push forward with monthlies and one-offs. The Full Melt parties along with events thrown by promoters such as Surefire Sound and An-ten-nae put down the foundation upon which the current scene thrives. The sound spread outside the city as well to Northern California’s vibrant festival circuit including Symbiosis, Raindance and Lightning in a Bottle. Spearheaded by Lorin and his Bassnectar project, dubstep along with its mutant cousin – a sound called glitch – has become an integral part of main stage music at outdoor events.

As these events began to create a stir in the club scene, behind the scenes, local producers began making tracks that were finding their way onto the UK’s airwaves such as DJ Mary Ann Hobbs highly-respected BBC Radio1 show. San Francisco now boasts a bevy of established producers: Antiserum, Djunya, Babylon Systems and Eskmo are a few of the artists who have been making waves both in the US and internationally with their productions.

As the scene continues to grow a new wave of artists and fans are being drawn to dubstep’s massive low-end frequency manipulations. In addition, San Francisco now boasts the largest vinyl dubstep record shop on the West Coast. Red Sky Records (224 7th St.) was opened in September 2009 by co-owners Jon Holliday and Beau Bales aka General Nao. The store has also become a nexus for the scene, hosting local up-and-coming acts like the Spit Brothers as well as international stars such as Boxcutter and Ramadanman.

One of the main factors in the rise of San Francisco as a major player in dubstep culture is Surefire Agency. Started by Miro and Sam Supa, Surefire has become the number one booking agency in the world of dubstep. One look at its roster reveals a who’s who of dubstep producers and DJs, including UK artists Shackleton and Peverelist who both released critically-acclaimed full-length albums in 2009. With this accessibility to so many top dubstep acts, Surefire Sound, the production side of the company, is able to bring to the Bay Area the most current and important artists from around the world.

What makes the San Francisco’s dubstep scene the most interesting though is the rate at which it is growing. As Sam Supa explained to me, the dubstep scene today has changed from what it was six months ago to a year ago and beyond. With a whole new generation of kids getting turned on to electronic music, for many of them dubstep is becoming the first underground sound they are listening to.

Most recently, some of hip-hop’s top artists, such as the Wu-Tang Clan and Lil’ Jon, have begun to collaborate with dubstep producers. This cross-pollination of scenes only heightens dubstep’s visibility within the US and abroad and raises the chances for cross-over appeal. As dubstep continues to expand beyond the boundaries of its underground sub-culture roots, San Francisco is already leading the way into the future of electronic music.

Decibels of the Decade

Posted in Blogroll with tags Best of Decade, Bjork, Burial, Ladytron, M.I.A., Radiohead, Tim Hecker, Ulrich Schnauss on December 14, 2009 by Jack

Some of my freelance writing is for the music website Resident Advisor. I recently was asked to pick some of my favorite albums of the past decade. In some ways, it was pretty obvious, but then some were not so. Sometimes there are those albums that are forgotten, the record sleeve gathering dust on the shelf. But every once in a while, the mind seeks the familiarity of sound and begins to process of rediscovery.

I find it very difficult to label the past decade as was the case with previous decades. There was no defining sound that “broke through.” Instead, new sounds evolved from old sounds and a new plateau has blossomed, an endless range of fresh arrangements and designs. Retro was reborn and restructured, new steps were reformed and stretched. The awakening was that anyone can do music with a computer, some sweat and, most importantly, some talent, and the entire spectrum of sound was utilized.

So I decided to share some samples from some of my picks for my own personal favorites from the 2000 – 2009. These are in no particular order.

Interpol – Stella Was a Diver and She was Always Down from Turn on the Bright Lights

Tim Hecker – Chimeras from Harmony in Ultraviolet

Radiohead – Everything in its Right Place from Kid A

Ladytron – International Dateline from Witching Hour

The Bug – Skeng from London Zoo

Burial – Archangel from Untrue

Ulrich Schnauss – Gone Forever from A Strangely Isolated Place

Bjork – It’s Not Up to You from Vespertine

Robot by KRS-ONE and Buckshot: Calling your sorry ass out, Hip Hop

Posted in Blogroll with tags auto-tune, Buckshot, Diplo, hip-hop, Kanye West, KRS-one, Lil Jon, Robot, Timbaland on September 2, 2009 by Jack

As you all know, hip hop is dead. Well, the diamond age of hip hop is dead. The Krystal and bling bling has been reduced to a piece of cubic zirconia and a bottle of Korbel. All the people who meant anything during the period know this. Kanye West said he’s done doing hip hop. Timbaland is doing dance music. I saw Lil Jon with Diplo at the WMC in Miami this past year rapping about Dubstep.

It’s a natural cycle in some regards. There are a few innovators and a lot of haters, playaz and imitators. But in regards to hip hop, the cultural phenomena that was and the monetary mountains reached only magnified the monotony of production and reproduction. Someone breaks new ground and twenty others bite their style, their swagger and their synth lines. The Cure had it right when they said “Someone’s always jumping someone else’s train.” It doesn’t just apply to pasty white boys with tears of black eye-liner staining their mopey faces. It’s different players, but the game remains the same.

So that’s why I was so refreshed to see this video for “Robot” by KRS-One and Buckshot. The call out the entertainment industry manufacturing the mass-produced, boardroom-designed, artless, auto-tuned, talentless hacks who decide they can sing and perform. Not because they are compelled to or have anything to say but in some neurotic obsession to be famous. It’s the disease of fame that compels people to begin to believe the mythology of the media.

But this song is spot on: hot beat, catchy chorus, and dropping knowledge. Talking about Africa Bambaataa and Kraftwerk, and then laying out how people keep following each other around like pathetic dogs, trying to lick the ass that feeds them. Boogie Down Productions was one of my favorites – “My Philosophy” is one of my top five hip hop songs of all time. I’m glad to see KRS-One still being relevant and keeping it real. Now if only listens.

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The End of the SF Underground Party Scene?

Posted in Blogroll, Music with tags busted, Music, police, san francisco, underground party, warehouse party on July 22, 2009 by Jack

Summertime in San Francisco means it’s time for Burning Man fundraisers. This past weekend was no different with two separate parties raising money for Burning Man camps and art projects. But, unfortunately, one of those parties was an underground, and, following a recent trend in San Francisco, it was busted by the cops before it even got started.

Anesthesia III was a fundraiser for a Burning man art project. It was being held in a space on 5th St. and Folsom in the SOMA district. A friend of mine who was an eyewitness to the unfolding of events told me that apparently an undercover police officer bought a ticket and then went inside the venue. Once inside, he called backup and five undercover officers rushed the space. Once inside, they arrested the door girl, the sound guy, and a couple of other people and, worse, they confiscated the sound system! I’ve been involved in throwing underground parties here in SF for the past 8 years and I have never heard of the police confiscating the sound system.

But, there recently has been a trend of underground parties being busted. One of those promoters actually contacted me after a piece I wrote for Resident Advisor and we talked a bit about how the police have been cracking down on the underground scene. Back in April, a Bang the Box party was busted in Chinatown. A blog I was referred to (and can’t seem to locate and link to) said the issue is that the police chief is retiring so there is currently a lot of posturing among various department heads to be the next pick for chief. Illegal warehouse parties are an easy target: it’s fairly easy to find out about one and there is little chance for any violence or resistance from the party-goers. In essence, it’s an easy score on a soft target for the police.

The trend seems to have gotten out of hand though. I was told that in one weekend recently, five parties were busted by the police. Usually, the promoters are given tickets and the party shut down. But with people being led away in handcuffs and equipment confiscated it seems that the war on the warehouse party has escalated to a level I’ve never seen before. It’s unfortunate though since these parties don’t pose any real threat to the welfare of the city. These are events that provide after-hours entertainment in a city that essentially closes at 2 am. It also allows many promoters the ability to bring in artists from around the world and provide them with a space to play extended sets in a safe atmosphere. Much of what gives San Francisco such a dynamic music scene are the various underground events that run after the legal venues have closed down for the night.

But, like all things, this trend will eventually pass. A new police chief will be chosen and slowly but surely, the underground scene will start up again, one party at a time. When that will happen, though, is anyone’s guess. But for now it seems that the underground party scene is officially dead.

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