For Poets and Dancers

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I’m definitely more of a traditionalist when it comes to making beats. As a drummer I feel a closer artistic connection to the Latin gangs of New York who would form dance bands to perform at block parties, than to the image of the producer as mad scientist in the lab. The main reason I got into electronic music production was to create new sonic experiences­ for myself, but—contrary to what you might think if you have heard any of my early “classical” electronic works—this goal has always been directed outward as well as inward.  While I have certainly been influenced by the “mad scientists” of electronic music such as Stockhausen, Lucier, Dr. Dre, or the RZA, my approach has ultimately been directed at the question, “How can I eventually perform this material live?” And as a further stipulation, without just standing alone in front of a laptop.

My previous attempts at recreating this “old school” break-centered hip-hop aesthetic focused on using live drums to supplement a DJ set which I had less control of than I would like. Working on this set of beat sketches, remixes, and rehashing of old material, I was able to focus simply on the raw sound that I wanted to project. The dirty, live breakbeat sound that I envision one hearing as they come closer and closer to the party until they are finally enveloped by it. It is the sound that I imagine coming from the early soundsystems of Coxsone Dodd in Kingston, or Kool Herc’s parties in the Bronx, or one of James Brown’s concerts. Overpowering bass and noisy, juxtaposed loops; everybody dancing and shouting and having a good time.

Unfortunately I feel like our societal values concerning music are drifting further away from the sensual aspect. In every sphere of music we seem to care more about the virtuosity of the performers than the immediate, pre-cerebral response that our bodies feel before our minds have a chance to think about it. It is happening in rock and pop music now just as much as it has been going on in classical concert music for years. The thing is, people tend to forget that a Mozart concert was a wild, spontaneous experience in the same way that Public Enemy’s Terminator X could rock an improvisational DJ set to a similar audience reaction/participation. Hearing J.S. Bach with that mindset allows one to experience his music with fresh and vibrant ears.

All I really long for in music is that musical environment in which the audience completely envelops the artist, so as to establish itself as one with him or her in the musical experience. There is no distance in perspective; nobody is better or worse than the other, and it is acknowledged that the artist hopes to dig as deeply into this music as the audience does. “A music made by everyone” as Cage would say.

Every beat in this set is named after some aspect of my childhood. This is in part a response to the legacy that Billy Martin (of Medeski, Martin, and Wood) set when he released his three volume set of breakbeats, with the third installment containing beats named after friends and streets from his home neighborhood. Yet I also did this because these simply instrumental beats remind of what music was to me before I got so deeply involved with it. Before I started writing essays about music, or practicing for hours a day, music was simple, easily accessible, and immune from various forms of judgment. While I am always striving to experience more from music in various ways, including writing about it or philosophizing for hours about its hidden meanings, I never forget those experiences that make me love the art so much.

I hope you can find some use for these beats, whether you want to rhyme over them, dance to them, or just listen to them while cruising. Music for use in a way Hindemith would never have imagined. GET DOWN!!

-Mike D. a.k.a. The Attic Bat, 2009

 

East 101 rehearsals, Garage band jams with my bro, hanging with Apeshit, pause tape Green Day mixes, bedroom jams at Melling Glen, Matt and I recording our voices and reversing them EMKCUFBOB!!!, The Green Boys with Andy Russell, Acoustic jams and singing with Burger, 48 hour albums, Broadway rocks!, playing with Mary G., first experiences with vinyl (Aerosmith “Dream On”), Attic Bat recording sessions with JKM, listening to Liquid Swords with Jon Briggs, Farspeeker recording sessions at Todd’s, Apeshit performing in CMs basement on St. Patty’s Day, recording with Perry and Amos, drumset jams and poking Matt’s eye out with a drumstick, John Herman and the Man Who Was Thursday, Martin Walker and the Meaning of Life, messing with Pat Boutwell’s Voyager, Soul Propaganda, guitar Fridays, parties in Fred’s basement, GIVE HIM YOUR COAT AS WELL, making dirty cymbals with Stake, RAW BEATS IN THE EPG