Living Off This

Last week we got the news that Institubes, one of our favourite labels, was closing. Read the press release here. 

I had noticed that in the last few months most of the website content had been dedicated to their sub-label, Sound Pellegrino, so we all knew something was wrong. However, you would assume that an indie label this size, even if not making anyone millionaire, could at least stay afloat. Well, I guess not.

It's a scary and depressing thought isn't it?

Since about twelve or so years, any newly founded indie label already knows the deal: Even if you make it big, there's no money in this.

That means that, if you're going to run a label, then you're going to have to fund it off your pocket. But that's only possible if you have good source of income.

Para-One of Institubes

The obvious answer would be to use money from live performances to invest in a label. That means that you're going to have to do make money to survive and still have enough to fund releases and such, or spend most of time working on a day job. But it's kind of a vicious cycle: even nowadays the best kind of promotion it's still a physical release. The thing is, most labels nowadays are not looking for new talent (since releasing anything it's always a loss) and if you don't run your own business then it's going to be hard to break into a scene.

I have always been a defender of internet and file sharing. And I still am, since you can't really ask people to spend money on tunes or records if they're avaiable online for free, and besides, the money that would be spent on such things is being spent on the internet bill. This technology gave us access to free culture, and I still believe that is the future.

That said, I think that if you're selling for a DJ audience it still works, even if it's hard to make a profit. If you're selling for a listener audience then your money must come from somewhere else. Maybe you could take a slice of the ISP money to fund artists?

Times are strange. Nothing really works.

Lots of artists dedicate their entire teen years to their passion only to realize that even your favourite artist does this as a hobby nowadays. Even if you studied music on college.

But hey, that seems to be the main problem of this generation. College education is not meant to transmit knowledge anymore. That would mean that the so-called elites wouldn't be elites anymore. So today college it's only a formality, or a job candidate selection process. Even in Portugal, most public higher education institutions are partially privatly funded, and the first thing they tell you to do when you are accepted is to create a bank account in bank X and to buy a laptop on company Y. Conciliating work and studying is harder, since most colleges no longer offer night classes and they usually require you to do dedicate 100% of your time to that shit. And in the end you still didn't learn enough to get a job.

Protests in Portugal against precarity in the job market

So even if you have a sound engineering or production major, or even a instrument major, the results are the same: since the recording industry doesn't work, you have to rely on public performance. For that to be sucessful you need a promotion mechanism behind you, and that requires financial investment. The problem is all of that used to be centered around the label, and those are no longer a profitable business.

The press-release on which Institubes announced it's end says it all. It ends on a positive note tought, which is: most of the artists of their roster now have sucessful careers. But I bet most of them also do other things for a living.

These are troubled times.

Infestus

Crisis, Warehouses and Raves

Have you noticed?

Right now DJ-Sets, club culture and rave music is very much in fashion.

Thom Yorke performing his DJ-Set at Low End Theory with Flying Lotus by his side

In the United States, club culture is getting bigger than ever, and it's actually becoming a profitable industry there for the first time. Also a lot of bands and solo artists are now performing DJ-Sets, trying to fit into the electronic music scheme of things. A lot of fans that were buying (or downloading) and listening to music in their homes are now only interested in consuming it the club context (even if at home listening to dj mixes, podcasts or radio shows), because of that, a lot of these artists (especially those on the fringe between pop and electronica) are now forced to have an alternative to their traditional concert.

I mean, don't get me wrong, rock artists making dance music is not new (shit, think of New York and DFA), however, right now it seems that a lot of these acts are trying too hard to look like dance music artists.

Hey, that's not necessarily bad. Recently Thom Yorke played a DJ-Set at Low End Theory and it seems to be have been a success. They launched a promo video of it, but it's not clear how technical he got on the mix. But fuck that, the audience seems to be enjoying it - unlike, for example, Peter Hook of New Order, that went around the world performing a fake DJ-Set that was simply shit.

Those examples aside, there's another reason why DJ-Sets are popular right now. As we all know, the recording artist funding system (a.k.a. music industry) is in crisis (dead?) and the only money left is in gigs. Performing a cheaper version of your live act or concert, such as a DJ-Set (that has the added factor of being an easy way of entertaining a crowd) is a great way of having a lot more gigs, since it allows small promoters to book bigger artists. It's a win win situation.

Also, don't forget that apart from that musical crisis, that seems to have been around for the last ten years, we also have now a global financial and economical crisis, that has a impact in every artist, big or small. So no one minds doing those extra DJ jobs for money.

That same economical crisis is also the main responsable for the whole rave thing being popular right now. First of all, people all over the world are doing crazy/amazing shit (crazy stuff such as overthrowing dictators and joining together for amazingly huge political rallies). They're saying: we've had enough, we won't take any of this shit anymore, we don't give a fuck. All of that revolutionary feeling is usually a powerful incentive por the production of culture, and the communal experience. So it's only expected that more people would vent those feelings by attending raves with their mates and letting go of shit. I don't know, the connection makes sense to me. Maybe because even today raves (even if legal) are still seen as a mild form of rebellion.

The Sun headline in 1989 after a huge illegall rave near Berkshire

In the UK, kid's are taking over abandoned warehouses in the middle of city and throwing smashing raves, similar to what happened in the early 90's. And that's not just a form of rebellion. They're doing that because, well, simply those abandoned warehouses exist.

Simple math right? If there's an economical crisis, then more probably companies will abandon warehouses.

As a last tought, if you read about rave history, the word crisis always comes along. And not just rave I guess. Most key youth movements over the last few decades were triggered by some type of crisis, be it political, economical or social.


Infestus

Please define Bass Music

Last year I was a participant on Red Bull Music Academy in London.

We had the pleasure of having Kode 9 lecturing us. Amazing lecture. Mind blowing for myself, as Hyperdub is one of my favourite labels, and there I had Kode 9 in front of me.

Below is the video of the lecture on the archives of Red Bull Music Academy.


Link: http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/video-archive/lectures/kode_9_hypersonics

In the end, as usual, the participants had the oportunity to ask questions to the man. I am the first participant that nervously asked him a couple of questions with my strange south european accent.

I enquired him about the foundation of Hyperdub, the label, and then I asked him something that had been on my mind for a few months already. I asked him about his stance on the UK Funky's relationship to the Hardcore Continuum. I was basically trying to have Kode 9 comment on Simon Reynolds' opinion, that UK Funky signifies a departure from the classic definition of the nuum. In my opinion (and Reynold's) UK Funky is a more burgoise iteration of the hardcore continuum history. A great portion of it seems to be have lost its rude boy feel, its chessiness.

Kode 9 disagrees. And rightfully so. By this time last year, Hyperdub had already stepped out of the classic Dubstep territory, and was now exploring the UK Funky influence. Their approach to UK Funky was, therefore, basically the same they had to Dubstep 6 years ago. From his point of view, there really was no such break between the two eras. They basically lowered the BPMs a bit, the structure became less about the half step and more about the 4/4. Things didn't change that much for them.

But, like dubstep, not every type of UK Funky sounds the same.

I remember my shock when one day I put on Rinse FM, must have been 2008 or so, and heard Marcus Nasty's show. It was house.

Despite the initial shock, I got used to it, and soon, I loved it. But still, I couldn't help notice a few things. There was no big, deep, dirty basslines. It was House music.

It was clearly UK (I still remember that he was pushing for the term UK House, instead of UK Funky). Yes, it did have a soca feeling that is not common on traditional house music. It did have a strong rude boy attitude. I could see the garage and grime influences. But you know what? It didn't feel like bass music.

A bit like some forms of 4x4 garage of the Locked On imprint. All of It was part of the UK Pirate and Soundsystem culture. But it wasn't bass music. But then again, during that time you already had grime, that had come out of the speed garage/2-step universe. That side, however, was bass music. The more 4x4 side of UK Garage ended up fusing with the global house scene for a while. This other side of it continued to carry the torch of the original UK Rave into Grime and Dubstep.

Returing to the questions I presented to Kode 9. Maybe I confused my concepts. To be Bass Music is probably not a required element of being part of the Nuum. The thing is, up until now, it had always been like that. Bass came with the Rave. So when people were talking about UK Bass Music, they were refering to the Hardcore Continuum Universe. Maybe now it's not like that anymore.

I guess it doesn't matter.

What defines bass music anyway? Is it the presence of bass?
I don't think so. Bass music is defined by an association with a certain type of ghetto culture that worships bass. You can see that in Jamaican soundsystem culture. You can see that in car sub-woofers. You can see that in miami bass, ghettotech, dancehall, hyphy, crunk, jungle, speed garage, 2-step garage, grime, dubstep (probably excluding the bro step side of it) and I guess Uk Funky aswell (even tought i'm still skeptical about some of it's forms).

Traditionally, House and Techno tracks have powerful sub-bass. But is it bass music? No. Existence of sub-bass cannot be the sole requisit for qualifying as Bass music. It requires a certain rude boyness/ghetto association, and a certain chessiness.

I'll give you an example.

Actress. A name that is usually associated with Bass Music culture. It's a leftfield producer doing wonky, dubstep, house and techno inspired grooves.

But, is everything he does bass music?

Does this specific track remind you of the traditional image of bass worship?

Infestus

My kind of rave

The smiley face. It was first used in the UK as symbol of the Acid House movement, and later was also adopted by the first Hardcore Ravers. What does it mean? It's simply a representation of what people should feel (and even look like) in a party. A smile. It's simple and universal. Not a revolutionary idea by itself, but it's still a powerful image when used in the context of Rave music. The essence of Rave should always be about happiness!

But let's not be entirely naive about this concept. Let's not forget that, associated with this Rave culture and symbology we have a long tradition of drug usage. Even before House music, Disco culture was already associated with the usage of MDMA. Later on, just like in LSD influenced Psychadelic age of the 60's, MDMA was responsible for a Second Summer of Love.

Other than drug usage, and free love, the 60's psych culture has a lot of similarities with acid-house/rave thing. I will focus on a very specific one: The music in both ages was the result of a contrast between hard and soft, butch and femme, ying and yang.

There was a balance.

I think that's the reason why even after all these decades, music from both periods is still relevant for most of the contemporary youth sub-cultures. Both ages represent an ideal moment, musically and culturally, that was highly influential for subsequent movements, and whose creations are still regarded as Classic.

Neither of the two ages lasted very long. Both cultures would soon ramify. The ramifications, as it would be expected, didn't have the same balanced attitude towards music. As always happens, the ramifications would only focus on a specific side of the original idea, and thus, losing the original balance. Some of the new music would be too heavy, some of it too soft. Some of it too sophisticated, some of it too simple.

In the UK, Acid-House from Chicago grew to become a incredibly influential musical form, and would later on form the basis of the UK Rave culture. Unlike Acid-House, this new music was no longer based on a Four-to-the-floor template, it was based on funk breaks. Thus it was called Breakbeat, the bastard child of House. The harder, most extreme forms of this music were to be called Hardcore Breakbeat, and it represented the beginning of a new age for UK music.

Just like in the US, where there is a continuum that stretches from Blues to Hip Hop (and beyond), in the UK they now had their own musical tradition, rooted in both the US electronic music, and the already existing UK Soundsystem Culture (that derived from the music brought to Europe by Caribbean immigrants).

Like in the 60's, this music was the result of a cultural crossroad. As such, it contained a lot of different elements, often in the same track. The production style was always sample based (unlike what happened in US House and Techno scenes). In that aspect, UK Rave was closer to Hip Hop.




Some of the seminal tracks of this genre, like this one by The House Crew, featured a cut-up style, as if the track was a DJ Mix by itself. The same elements would go back and fourth. The energy of these tracks came from the fact that this music was both hard/heavy and mellow/soft. On these tracks that dichotomy was extremly clear. Some parts were based on Piano samples, and featured mellow soulful vocals. Other parts rescued the darkness of the Acid-house, but taken to psychadelic extremes. These music was effective on the dancefloor because it would provide the Ravers with emotial extremes. Sometimes it felt like a kick and a punch. Other times it felt like kisses and hugs.

Balance.

The UK Rave culture, from 1993 on, would be essentially divided in two sides: The darker side would develop into Jungle music. The other side would develop into Happy Hardcore. The balance had been lost.

That said, however, don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to state that music from 1992 was better than music made afterwards. But when it comes to pure Rave and party, I still believe that in many ways, and in it's essential values, original Rave music is superior.

Then again, I believe this is unavoidable. Times must change.

That kind of balance is always hard to mantain. I believe that, while times may change, they are also cyclic. And I believe that after that moment in 1992, we stilll had ocasional, short lived, periods that were in many aspects similar to the Second Summer of Love. I believe that the genetic code of Rave music still contains all the necessary elements to revive that moment.

The proof, I believe, it's visible in the suceeding rave forms that appeared from 1992 onward.

I personally cannot speak for the Jungle and Drum & Bass times, since I did not experience those in first hand. Nor can I speak for UK Garage/2-Step times either. Even dubstep, since I caught it in a age where it was almost passing. I can probably speak for UK Funky one day, but it's still too soon.

The only thing that always lasts it's the music. The records. I can speak for those that I have heard from past times.

I still think that the best music of those genres is the one that, just like the original Hardcore, has a balance between the lightness and darkness. The best Drum & Bass it's the one that it's both sophisticated and primal (see Goldie and the Metalheadz). The best UK Garage in the one that oscilates beween the rainy darkness and almost kitchy R&B samples (see Wookie). The best Dubstep is, undoubetly the one that carries a mighty punch (even if a wobble synth) and then carries you into soul land (see Mala and the DMZ). A more current example would be what the guys at Night Slugs are releasing (see Jam City).













From a empirical point of view, I think it's fair to conclude that this might be a sucessful formula. The best rave music should always have this very same tension.

The essence of Rave is somewhere between the agressive punch and the loveable kiss.

Infestus

Naming things

The most important thing is the name. Back in the days if it came from Chicago it was House, from Detroit it was Techno, from New York it was Garage. I don't want to be a Portuguese guy doing foreign music. We need our own names. Don't just call it "something foreign" made in Portugal.

We should be able to sucessufly apropriate outside influence (like any sophisticated country) and make it our own, or else, I will always need an Adufe to make Portuguese music and I don't want that.

The Portuguese musical continuum has been broken for more than a century now. Even now, thirty years after the end of half a century of dictatorship, we haven't been able to restablish it yet.

This musical instrument pictured below is the perfect example of our inability to name things, to create things. We invented it but we weren't able to find a name for it, we had to simply call it "Portuguese Guitar".


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_guitar

Infestus