Tuesday April 19 2022
We saw Wu Tsang’s Moby Dick over the weekend. Though it will probably reach you as a traditional film, it was conceived as a silent film with live orchestra accompaniment. I was profoundly moved and pleased and haunted. This shit is in my head nonstop.
I recommend reading an interview in 032c with the Moved by the Motion collective, the larger group of people around Wu Tsang who made Moby Dick. I will go out on a limb and say this piece is ultimately about collaboration and friendship. Tsang’s Moby Dick piece is a bit at war with the book and a bit in love with it: bound. Near the opening, you hear Fred Moten intoning Sophia Al Maria’s text, saying that Ishmael and Queegqueg are “inexplicably bound together in a shared spirit of curiosity.” When I think of Tsang and her friends presenting this at The Shed, it lines up with another line: “Nantucket was an inscrutable place to them both.” The phrase that stuck, though, verbatim? “No more you, no more me, all we.”
Jérôme Pesnel’s editing is next-level: subtle and precise. The music fucked me up entirely, written by Caroline Shaw and Andrew Yee. Their score melts it all together, the real glitter blubber here.
Just found three good mixes adjacent to drum + bass. There’s a nice hour of tracks on London’s Deep Jungle Records mixed here by founder Harmony. It’s a blend of original ‘90s jump up vibe with this sort of modified revival Amens feel I dig. Om Unit has done what he calls an “extended mix, dub chasm,” two hours of fairly calm rhythms and space. And then there is this under-appreciated four hour mix from Tim Reaper, Basic Rhythm, and Jim from Source Direct. The video lists them in an entirely different order—beware! Phil gets into an especially hypnotic zone, because of course he does.
Here are Chantal Akerman’s 50 favorite movies, a list partly extracted from this amazing long 2011 interview with Akerman, where she is especially compelling on her identity as a Jew.
I keep playing this Bergsonist Moroccan music special.
One of my favorite people ever on the internet is Fette Sans, and this new interview with her in PW-Magazine is fantastic. The photos are killer—see her wear the shit out of a blazer.
I’m not sure why all these fabulous albums on Scatter are pay what you can, but this is an insanely good place to start with (or reload) free improvisation.
Did you see Douglas Mills do this impeccable version of “Strange Fruit” on American Idol? The spirit is everywhere.
The Roland50 Studio is so good I assume it will be taken down before long. For absolutely no money, you can goof about with web-based versions of the Roland 101, 303, 404, and 808. It’s all locked into a very simple sequencer. RIP your afternoon.
Are you not familiar with Charlie Bones and the Do!! You!!! show? Get ready to meet your new best friend.
As a way of saying “On my way!” here is the remarkable DOME track “To Speak,” from 1982. I’ve had a few conversations with Graham Lewis and Bruce Gilbert and hope to post the results here soon. There isn’t really an English language piece of any substance on DOME, which seemed nuts. Sink into that music while you’re waiting.
