rhythmism
Monday, Jan 10th 2005, 03:25 PM
How is house music relevant today? To most, "house" is a contemptuous expression used by a puerile few to specifically exclude themselves from the now retired "electronica" genre. To music historians, "house" is a type of music created in (or around) Chicago in the middle 1980's, championed by the likes of Frankie Knuckles, Marshall Jefferson, Robert Owens, Mr. Fingers and Trax Records.
Here and now, some 20 years later, having completely digested house, deep house, hip house, acid house, hard house, tech house, tribal house, trance, trance-tribal, rave, breakbeat, hardcore, jungle, drum'n'bass, big beat, hard step, tech-step, two-step, the ‘San Francisco sound’, the ‘West Coast sound’, Eurotrance, UK top 40 house, nu-soul, soul house, and nu-jazz, and ambient, we've pretty well managed to put all of this behind us.
So what's the point of San Francisco's mighty Dubtribe Sound System releasing a new album called Baggage?
Perhaps following in their long standing tradition of arriving early and staying so late at the party that they feel some form of ownership over the matter, San Francisco's pioneering live sound system first approached the idea of hooking up a few sequencers, and ousting the dj from the party in the spring of 1991. The idea was born from a love of dancing on the California beaches, by firelight until dawn to understated and modest dj's like Jeno, Doc Martin, and Markie. At a loss for their rent one month they decided to host a party of their own, stuffing what furniture they owned into one room, locking the door, and filling their house with strangers, drummers, and 8 wedge floor monitors where they connected a Korg M1, a DR660, and one turntable and had a 10 hour session. This session would be declared "dubtribe" as an adjective, and later the name of the traveling version of the rent party.
After a 6 month residency at San Francisco's Come Unity monthly party, Dubtribe had produced a full length album (released the following year as Sound System on Chicago's Organico Records) and an ambient/experimental album (Selene Songs released 3 years later, also on Organico) and began packing everything they owned into a devastated Dodge van and driving from San Francisco to New York City, and back again not less than a dozen times. For the next 5 years, Sunshine, Moonbeam, and a changeable collection of friends, drummers, would be technicians, sound engineers, and managers would drive highway 80 east to west and even fly to Europe on occasion. Never stopping, always working, performing, handing out flyers of dissent, subversion, and emotional and spiritual independence.
By 1995 Dubtribe decided to pack it in, following a lost album (Versions) an ambitious and troubled tour of growing pains, dead ravers, and indignant sound and lighting personnel, it was time to spend a while in the studio, and stop the non stop onslaught of driving, performing, and sacrifice.
Discouraged, but undefeated, Sunshine, Moonbeam, and college friend Corey Black (DJ Corster, Triangle Orchestra) opened the doors of Imperial DUB Recordings. Initially to produce vinyl for Sunshine and Corster to spin at their every-three-week party Vanilla Fudge in the basement of a French cafe in downtown san Francisco, and eventually because recording and producing became more and more interesting.
Soon after, Jonah Sharp of Space Time Continuum took Sunshine aside and advised him "Look mate, if you spent one third of the time in your studio that you do on the road, you might actually make some reasonably good records." This motivated an effort to produce 1999's Bryant Street LP (Jive) began. The album was released quietly, to no better than mediocre reviews by the mainstream and indie press. But by the summer of 1999 Dubtribe found themselves not only free from their commitment to Jive Records, but also enjoying 'Equitoreal' at number 4 on the UK dance charts, and the first international acclaim and exposure the band had ever really enjoyed.
This prompted a strange reaction from Sunshine and Moonbeam. Where they were offered $50,000 USD to perform with Daft Punk in Montreal for New Year's Eve 2000 and they passed up the offer in order to spend several thousand of their own money bringing 175 people from their online community to Maui for a week long camping trip to play records, swim, drum and to try and revitalize their flagging interest in house music, and social-scene conscious music. The summer of 2001's worldwide hit single 'Do It Now' was written as a sketch for this party.
Again in June of 2000 Dubtribe brought some 200 people to Mexico to get away from the exploding world of pop house, and retreat to a gathering point and revive some degree of faith within themselves and rediscover some of the "movement." Where Maui had been a refreshing and re energizing experience, Mexico was a fiasco. Not that many people didn't have a great time, but the environment was hardly that of a tribal camp out, rather one of beer, and bars, and resorting in a third world country. Sunshine went into an emotional tailspin following this event and declared that 'Do It Now' would be the final release for the band, and his days of dance as a means of political activism were over.
That winter, Simon Dunmore of Defected Records approached Dubtribe and asked about licensing 'Do It Now' and possibly producing an album to go with it. After long, heartfelt talks it was agreed. There would be at least one more Dubtribe album.
Wishing for change, and maybe even hoping to revive the past, Sunshine and Moonbeam went into the studio on a February day in 2002 and did not come out until May of 2003. 'Baggage' was born from the efforts of Dubtribe to repair their personal relationship, their faith in music, and some sense of loss at the end of the house movement that had moved them from 1989 until that moment. The tracks had been light, and so there was no way back.
The album is a conversation between Sunshine and Moonbeam. This marks the first time Dubtribe Sound System had not released an album with the house culture, and house people in mind. Each song is a reflection of some aspect of disappointment, struggle, argument, heartbreak, and very little hope for the future. Not that this was a new theme per se. Dubtribe have always undertaken more "difficult" subject matter, and long felt entirely misunderstood, or blown off as hippies. So Baggage was a decidedly different approach.
The outline of this record is best illustrated with a song like "Freeway" where the subject is an inner monolog about the give and take of a love, which takes place only in the mind of the speaker. Synthetic vocals speak of "the sweetest girl I’ve ever seen" and the prospect of heading off, away, into some direction until now denied. What's unspoken is how artificial this voice is, and exposes the lies of modern "deep house" and the promise of "sex" by indirectly accusing this meat rack mentality of running away from anything real, concrete, or more challenging in life. It is also forgiving in its tone, and accepts that the speaker knows no other way.
'LoDisco' is a brave effort to trace the steps of 30 years of dance music. At superficial glance the tune is a pop song, like something from your Panasonic pump (circa 1976) but explodes into modern loopism and effects that all but lose control. The vocalist says, "it seems like yesterday" that we were happy, and had some purpose. The lyrics continue along these lines in a heartfelt and somewhat embarrassing manner of a chorus where the song asks the subject to "take me to the disco, that's where I wanna go." And yet, the bitterness in the lyric, how clearly sad the intention is to express such fondness for the past without any resolution or doorway. No bridge to the present.
Similarly 'The Rhythm In Your Mind' is a tearjerker of a dance track. Driven, like much of baggage, by the stark vocals and simple rhythms, the vocal is a dialog between the singer and a silent companion. The message is essentially that "when I look into your eyes," although I see pain, and sadness, disappointment, and at times resentment, that the singer loves her companion, and by their side is where they belong.
'Nothing is Impossible' was anticipated as part two of 2000's 'Equitoreal.' Speaking directly to that, where ‘Equitoreal’ fell short in structure and its ability to step out of the traditional 12" single format, 'Nothing…' goes much further. A full afro-Braz vocal wails on an intimate level about the hell which has befallen Africa, and the world in general, crying out in the middle 8 that "One day, somehow, some way, someday..." and then with courage stops suddenly saying "Nothing is impossible." Unlike the detachment of 'Equitoreal,' 'Nothing is impossible' accept full responsibility for itself, and is a voice of the silent world, like arms reaching out further than arms are meant to, despite cynicism, adversity, and silence, they reach into the void.
And finally, 'Do It Now' is the closing song on the record. A summation of the entire album, the song smacks of hope and rising energy, while speaking of a deep and motionless resolve to stop, to stand still, and do nothing. And yet it pulses and crescendos in spite of itself.
Baggage is a complete work. Taken in parts, it may be confusing to the uninitiated. This is not a collection of 12" dance juggernauts, rather an album of works by recording artists who have long sought nothing more than meaning, and the temporary approval of indie magazines, and fleeting numbers on a dance chart. As a whole, the album is a mature, and sophisticated love letter to house music, and a conversation that has not yet ended.
So why have Dubtribe Sound System released 'Baggage' now, and not 3 years ago when house music needed a voice of intention, reason, and conscience? Because now more than ever, we need a voice for the last independent musical art form in America. House music is not the sound track for a European summer holiday, house music was born in the depths of Chicago, and rose to more than a dozen shining heights, pure wonder, passion and glory. Our movement has produced the music, the studios, the labels, the parties, and we have never asked anyone for anything. At the grass roots level, house music is more important to American independent artists and its future than any other music since the blues. We brought you the loop, we reinvented the keyboard, we were brave enough to mix our tense, our verse, and our sources. We were naive enough to do this in public, and stupid enough to imagine there would be no end to the train of thought. Well, perhaps there is no end in sight, however, a long road traveled by many people does not come without its damage, and certainly not without the need to stop, take stock, and unpack some of its baggage.
Dubtribe Soundsystem
Baggage
Imperial Dub Recordings (02IMP46)
Release Date: February 1, 2005
Tracklisting:
1. Shakertrance
2. Freeway
3. Autosoul
4. This Is The Time
5. Raggatronique
6. Rideline
7. Nothing Is Impossible
8. The Rhythm In Your Mind
9. Lo Disco
10. Goin Dancin
11. Make Me Stronger
12. Do It Now
www.dubtribe.com
Here and now, some 20 years later, having completely digested house, deep house, hip house, acid house, hard house, tech house, tribal house, trance, trance-tribal, rave, breakbeat, hardcore, jungle, drum'n'bass, big beat, hard step, tech-step, two-step, the ‘San Francisco sound’, the ‘West Coast sound’, Eurotrance, UK top 40 house, nu-soul, soul house, and nu-jazz, and ambient, we've pretty well managed to put all of this behind us.
So what's the point of San Francisco's mighty Dubtribe Sound System releasing a new album called Baggage?
Perhaps following in their long standing tradition of arriving early and staying so late at the party that they feel some form of ownership over the matter, San Francisco's pioneering live sound system first approached the idea of hooking up a few sequencers, and ousting the dj from the party in the spring of 1991. The idea was born from a love of dancing on the California beaches, by firelight until dawn to understated and modest dj's like Jeno, Doc Martin, and Markie. At a loss for their rent one month they decided to host a party of their own, stuffing what furniture they owned into one room, locking the door, and filling their house with strangers, drummers, and 8 wedge floor monitors where they connected a Korg M1, a DR660, and one turntable and had a 10 hour session. This session would be declared "dubtribe" as an adjective, and later the name of the traveling version of the rent party.
After a 6 month residency at San Francisco's Come Unity monthly party, Dubtribe had produced a full length album (released the following year as Sound System on Chicago's Organico Records) and an ambient/experimental album (Selene Songs released 3 years later, also on Organico) and began packing everything they owned into a devastated Dodge van and driving from San Francisco to New York City, and back again not less than a dozen times. For the next 5 years, Sunshine, Moonbeam, and a changeable collection of friends, drummers, would be technicians, sound engineers, and managers would drive highway 80 east to west and even fly to Europe on occasion. Never stopping, always working, performing, handing out flyers of dissent, subversion, and emotional and spiritual independence.
By 1995 Dubtribe decided to pack it in, following a lost album (Versions) an ambitious and troubled tour of growing pains, dead ravers, and indignant sound and lighting personnel, it was time to spend a while in the studio, and stop the non stop onslaught of driving, performing, and sacrifice.
Discouraged, but undefeated, Sunshine, Moonbeam, and college friend Corey Black (DJ Corster, Triangle Orchestra) opened the doors of Imperial DUB Recordings. Initially to produce vinyl for Sunshine and Corster to spin at their every-three-week party Vanilla Fudge in the basement of a French cafe in downtown san Francisco, and eventually because recording and producing became more and more interesting.
Soon after, Jonah Sharp of Space Time Continuum took Sunshine aside and advised him "Look mate, if you spent one third of the time in your studio that you do on the road, you might actually make some reasonably good records." This motivated an effort to produce 1999's Bryant Street LP (Jive) began. The album was released quietly, to no better than mediocre reviews by the mainstream and indie press. But by the summer of 1999 Dubtribe found themselves not only free from their commitment to Jive Records, but also enjoying 'Equitoreal' at number 4 on the UK dance charts, and the first international acclaim and exposure the band had ever really enjoyed.
This prompted a strange reaction from Sunshine and Moonbeam. Where they were offered $50,000 USD to perform with Daft Punk in Montreal for New Year's Eve 2000 and they passed up the offer in order to spend several thousand of their own money bringing 175 people from their online community to Maui for a week long camping trip to play records, swim, drum and to try and revitalize their flagging interest in house music, and social-scene conscious music. The summer of 2001's worldwide hit single 'Do It Now' was written as a sketch for this party.
Again in June of 2000 Dubtribe brought some 200 people to Mexico to get away from the exploding world of pop house, and retreat to a gathering point and revive some degree of faith within themselves and rediscover some of the "movement." Where Maui had been a refreshing and re energizing experience, Mexico was a fiasco. Not that many people didn't have a great time, but the environment was hardly that of a tribal camp out, rather one of beer, and bars, and resorting in a third world country. Sunshine went into an emotional tailspin following this event and declared that 'Do It Now' would be the final release for the band, and his days of dance as a means of political activism were over.
That winter, Simon Dunmore of Defected Records approached Dubtribe and asked about licensing 'Do It Now' and possibly producing an album to go with it. After long, heartfelt talks it was agreed. There would be at least one more Dubtribe album.
Wishing for change, and maybe even hoping to revive the past, Sunshine and Moonbeam went into the studio on a February day in 2002 and did not come out until May of 2003. 'Baggage' was born from the efforts of Dubtribe to repair their personal relationship, their faith in music, and some sense of loss at the end of the house movement that had moved them from 1989 until that moment. The tracks had been light, and so there was no way back.
The album is a conversation between Sunshine and Moonbeam. This marks the first time Dubtribe Sound System had not released an album with the house culture, and house people in mind. Each song is a reflection of some aspect of disappointment, struggle, argument, heartbreak, and very little hope for the future. Not that this was a new theme per se. Dubtribe have always undertaken more "difficult" subject matter, and long felt entirely misunderstood, or blown off as hippies. So Baggage was a decidedly different approach.
The outline of this record is best illustrated with a song like "Freeway" where the subject is an inner monolog about the give and take of a love, which takes place only in the mind of the speaker. Synthetic vocals speak of "the sweetest girl I’ve ever seen" and the prospect of heading off, away, into some direction until now denied. What's unspoken is how artificial this voice is, and exposes the lies of modern "deep house" and the promise of "sex" by indirectly accusing this meat rack mentality of running away from anything real, concrete, or more challenging in life. It is also forgiving in its tone, and accepts that the speaker knows no other way.
'LoDisco' is a brave effort to trace the steps of 30 years of dance music. At superficial glance the tune is a pop song, like something from your Panasonic pump (circa 1976) but explodes into modern loopism and effects that all but lose control. The vocalist says, "it seems like yesterday" that we were happy, and had some purpose. The lyrics continue along these lines in a heartfelt and somewhat embarrassing manner of a chorus where the song asks the subject to "take me to the disco, that's where I wanna go." And yet, the bitterness in the lyric, how clearly sad the intention is to express such fondness for the past without any resolution or doorway. No bridge to the present.
Similarly 'The Rhythm In Your Mind' is a tearjerker of a dance track. Driven, like much of baggage, by the stark vocals and simple rhythms, the vocal is a dialog between the singer and a silent companion. The message is essentially that "when I look into your eyes," although I see pain, and sadness, disappointment, and at times resentment, that the singer loves her companion, and by their side is where they belong.
'Nothing is Impossible' was anticipated as part two of 2000's 'Equitoreal.' Speaking directly to that, where ‘Equitoreal’ fell short in structure and its ability to step out of the traditional 12" single format, 'Nothing…' goes much further. A full afro-Braz vocal wails on an intimate level about the hell which has befallen Africa, and the world in general, crying out in the middle 8 that "One day, somehow, some way, someday..." and then with courage stops suddenly saying "Nothing is impossible." Unlike the detachment of 'Equitoreal,' 'Nothing is impossible' accept full responsibility for itself, and is a voice of the silent world, like arms reaching out further than arms are meant to, despite cynicism, adversity, and silence, they reach into the void.
And finally, 'Do It Now' is the closing song on the record. A summation of the entire album, the song smacks of hope and rising energy, while speaking of a deep and motionless resolve to stop, to stand still, and do nothing. And yet it pulses and crescendos in spite of itself.
Baggage is a complete work. Taken in parts, it may be confusing to the uninitiated. This is not a collection of 12" dance juggernauts, rather an album of works by recording artists who have long sought nothing more than meaning, and the temporary approval of indie magazines, and fleeting numbers on a dance chart. As a whole, the album is a mature, and sophisticated love letter to house music, and a conversation that has not yet ended.
So why have Dubtribe Sound System released 'Baggage' now, and not 3 years ago when house music needed a voice of intention, reason, and conscience? Because now more than ever, we need a voice for the last independent musical art form in America. House music is not the sound track for a European summer holiday, house music was born in the depths of Chicago, and rose to more than a dozen shining heights, pure wonder, passion and glory. Our movement has produced the music, the studios, the labels, the parties, and we have never asked anyone for anything. At the grass roots level, house music is more important to American independent artists and its future than any other music since the blues. We brought you the loop, we reinvented the keyboard, we were brave enough to mix our tense, our verse, and our sources. We were naive enough to do this in public, and stupid enough to imagine there would be no end to the train of thought. Well, perhaps there is no end in sight, however, a long road traveled by many people does not come without its damage, and certainly not without the need to stop, take stock, and unpack some of its baggage.
Dubtribe Soundsystem
Baggage
Imperial Dub Recordings (02IMP46)
Release Date: February 1, 2005
Tracklisting:
1. Shakertrance
2. Freeway
3. Autosoul
4. This Is The Time
5. Raggatronique
6. Rideline
7. Nothing Is Impossible
8. The Rhythm In Your Mind
9. Lo Disco
10. Goin Dancin
11. Make Me Stronger
12. Do It Now
www.dubtribe.com