Culture Drought

If you are looking for a DVD with evocative art and a killer, urban dance soundtrack, look no further than Culture Drought. What sets this presentation apart from others like it is that Culture Drought can transcend barriers and make you think outside the box, much like the artists and visuals featured on this disc.
 Culture Drought, released in worldwide distribution by Liberation Systems head Colorform aka James Allen, is a journey into the depths of the New York sonic underground through his eyes, in the form of an audio-collage. Allen came up with the idea after managing the DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid tour in 2002. From this venture, he was given the opportunity to run Spooky’s label, Synchronic, and release his introduction LP.  Through his continued work at Synchronic and connections, Allen started his own label, Liberation Systems.
Culture Drought is not just mundane images of Manhattan or Lady Liberty clipped together - it is more moving than that. The pictures are everyday underground shots of NYC, simplistic yet telling a tale through montages of cut and paste videos. The shots are fast paced, typical to life in New York City and also colorful, recognizing that life is not just black, white and grey. The movie has a strong element of wanting more, never ceasing from the endless rush. The series of videos plays similar to an art installation piece, perfect for putting on as a background for a party or club night.

The other important element to the DVD is the music paired with the videos. Culture Drought features tracks from AK1200, Meat Beat Manifesto, Constant Flux, Colorform and many others. The music is placed well with the content, intensifying the feelings of wantonness. The beats are forceful, strong, and grimy -giving essence to what really goes on in the underground. The fact that the mix of music ranges from jungle to hip-hop to electronic depicts feelings inherent to the streets where conditions can change at any moment.  One minute there is frenzy, the next calm, and the next sheer confusion. This is the heart of New York City.
   Culture Drought is a journey. Where viewing this may take you to the unknown now, where you end up is up to you. Just open you eyes, ears, and mind and take the ride. 
  

By; Megan Silvera

For his next act, techno legend Richie Hawtin's life takes to the celluloid screen.
Pioneers of Electronic Music
Vol. 1 : Richie Hawtin

Ironically, few people mean as much to the Detroit electronic music scene as English-born, Canadian-raised Richie Hawtin. From his early days of producing techno with friend and fellow DJ John Acquaviva, Hawtin takes dance scene after dance scene by storm. It all began in Detroit and has since become international, arguably culminating with his commission to compose music for the 2006 Winter Olympic Games Opening Ceremony this past February. But if the Olympics signals the end – and by the looks of it that’s a BIG no – there are plenty of people out there looking to keep Hawtin in the spotlight, this time by preserving his career on film.

Hawtin’s success is being recognized by the electronic music magazine Slices, which has chosen to use him as the first subject for their documentary film series, Pioneers of Electronic Music. The Detroit premiere was held at Clutch Cargo in Pontiac, Michigan this past Thanksgiving Eve. The showing was followed by performances by Richie Hawtin, Loco Dice, Gaiser, John Tejada, and Clark Warner. I was fortunate enough to attend the event, which drew 200+ to the screening and several hundred more to the party.

The film runs just over an hour and plays out much like an episode of VH1’s Behind the Music. A humble narrator tells the story of Hawtin’s life with plenty of footage from a variety of people: Hawtin, his parents, Sven Vath, Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May, and John Acquaviva, amongst others. Hawtin proves to be very articulate and the others provide valuable insight into his life and the scene in general. For example, Derrick May informs us that, for a time, Hawtin was actually “hated” by other Detroit DJs because “he was white and he was good.” Perhaps we should ask Eminem if Detroit has changed over the years…

While the excellent live footage scenes of Hawtin in the mix are sparse, a generous amount of original home movies and pictures supplant the action and help submerge the viewer in the proper time in history. Some of the better ones feature live footage from Hawtin’s early days spinning at The Shelter and from his legendary Plastikman parties in Detroit. On a lighter note, the documentary also includes many childhood photographs of Hawtin and his brother, Matthew (all of which were greeted with a collective “awww” from the audience).

Overall, the documentary did a respectable job of capturing the essence and history of Richie Hawtin. There won’t be any Oscars on the horizon, but dedicated fans should do themselves a favor and pick up a copy of this worthy DVD.

Review by Garrett Ian Shatzer

Please visit www.paxahau.com www.eb-slices.net for more info.

November 2006

When someone decides to sit down and write a complete history of the music we all love, Jack Dangers will be noted as one of its legendary innovators. As Meat Beat Manifesto, Jack jumped head first into the great pool of electronic music, experimenting with the limits of multiple genres, creating classics along the way while always maintaining creative credibility. The list of artists he has influenced is endless.

Travelogue Live ‘05 highlights Manifesto’s 2005 tour, tracing steps from their San Francisco recording space to tour stops in Austin, Berlin and Osaka. The meat of the DVD is the group’s June 22, 2005 show at the famous Metro in Chicago. Their performance served as a multi media extravaganza complete with samplers, drums, Ablelon Live, a video sampler and on-stage projections screens. Multi-camera action provides all angles of the audio and visual, as well as crowd shots and lighting.

Many of MBM classics are here, like “Edge of No Control,” “She’s Unreal” and the seminal “Radio Babylon.” The DVD’s highlight is the powerful performance of 1990’s “Helter Skelter”: Filthy beats collide with cut-n-paste visuals featuring scenes from A Clockwork Orange; a session of Congress; and Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake’s pithy wardrobe malfunction. The live audio is crystal clear and very full, putting you right on the Metro floor in Chicago. Much of this is thanks to Dangers’ hands-on approach to the post production audio mix.

One of the compelling elements demonstrated on the DVD (and MBM live show) is that improvisation is possible in the live, multi media arena. For “No Purpose No Design,” Dangers works seamlessly with members of his ensemble to create a free flowing, spontaneous A/V jam session. Using a variety of video clips (politicians, classic kung fu films, various post war imagery) helps to give a face to a variety of vocal samples MBM have used over the years.

Travelogue Live ’05 does complete justice to the most recent Meat Beat live experience. As a fan, I would like to have seen more quality features. While the ones included are well shot and sometimes humorous, they lack substance. A live show of this magnitude must have taken an immense amount of preparation; I would like to have been exposed to the though process behind it. But seeing and hearing some new interpretations of timeless anthems make it a worth while purchase.

By: Thomas Cesa

Your hot ticket techno-pedia shot in Miami.

This iconic new film about the influential beginnings and crescendo of techno music is told from the performers that made and continue to make it happen. Set to the sultry backdrop of the 18th Annual Winter Music Conference in Miami, virgin director Jason Rem pops his cherry with insightful interviews from 45 of electronica’s top contemporary DJs to provide an audio and visual synopsis of electronic music that both expert and novice electronica fans will find entertaining.

Viewers follow DJs around the globe as they chronicle how techno transcends geographical, linguistic and cultural boundaries to be celebrated in a singular climactic response upon the dancefloor. While there’s nothing new here, vet performers such as Paul Oakenfold, Dirty Vegas, Diesel Boy and The Crystal Method reminisce back to the roots of electronic music seeded by the first DJ mixes heard at disco clubs in 1976. They explain how early musical influences such as disco, jazz, Latin and rock flavor their works. Through the DJs own words, we travel back to house music’s first rise in Chicago, to its spread across the globe, where it eventually became a music form more revered outside of the United States, rather than within. Rem covers the many offshoots of electronica as well, from trance to techno to jungle to downtempo while the artists explain the nuances that make their forms unique.

The interviews are a great infusion of history, personal memoirs and commentary on the style of DJ culture. DJs talk about the perks and pitfalls of modern technology, which allows them to produce on software such as Pro Tools and Logic Audio, also addressing how these technologies can sometimes take the soul out of the mix. Nigel Richards aptly puts it, “You are nothing without your box,” as he touts a giant record crate around the airport. Featured interviewees express their remorse over dance music’s invisibility in conventional media forms such as radio airplay and MTV, while celebrating the uniqueness that the form retains, as it is still largely considered underground.

Intermingled with commentaries are hot event scenes from Miami Beach and South Beach, following around hot-ticket DJs David Coleman and Sen-Sei as they embark on a ‘grueling’ night’s work of club-dashing, atypical to the throng of DJs performing and competing in the Magic City for the week. Rem does a good job of visualizing the heat, sex and celebrity that engulfs Miami during the conference with plenty shots of beautiful clubbers filling up the floors, and losing their tops on sunny beaches. Rem also offers us glimpses of the Dancestar Awards, with some unlikely celebrity appearances from the likes of KC of KC and The Sunshine Band.

Since its debut, the documentary has won a number of film awards both nationally and internationally, from the Newport Beach Film Festival to the Sao Paulo film festival. It serves as a techno-pedia, narrated by the “Rock Stars of the New Millenium.” My feelings are mixed as far as the bonus features go. I found most of it to be quite boring, technical, and slow-moving. The original opening had no steam as compared to the sultriness of the Miami scenes chosen for the final cut. But overall, this DVD is a must check-out for beginning and seasoned Electronica fans alike, particularly those who are looking for a few new spins after wearing out their Modulations, Intellect and Better Living Through Circuitry DVDs.

Review by Amelia Stoll

Before leaving for Paris to study with the European American Musical Alliance, Garrett Ian Shatzer evaluates Jeff Mills’ latest project.

May 2006

Have I lost you yet? Every now and then an artist comes along whose work defies everything that has come before it, such as composer Claude Debussy and impressionism or painter Pablo Picasso and cubism. After the initial shock reverberates throughout our culture, the community embraces it, and the once groundbreaking work becomes a standard of the time. 

But where does this leave our beloved artist? Aside from devoted fans, his reputation as an innovative spirit sometimes becomes lost among imitators. To preserve his standing—or perhaps, to even regain it—he must spark genesis and break new ground…again. 

Easy as pie. Right?

Well, it certainly seems to be that easy for legendary Detroit techno DJ/ producer Jeff Mills; and the proof can be found among the tracks of his upcoming CD/DVD set, Blue Potential.

Never limiting himself to convention, Mills found the inspiration for Blue Potential in a musical entity that reached prominence more than 200 years ago: the orchestra. That’s right. Blue Potential features Jeff Mills and the Montpellier National Orchestra with Alain Altinoglu, a young conductor who has done several classical recordings for the French record label Naive. The CD/DVD is a live recording of a July 2, 2005 concert at Pont du Gard, a World Heritage-classified site in Montpellier, France. 

Mills was eagerto pursue his vision of bringing his works to the orchestral stage. A meeting with the French label Uncivilized World (who is releasing Blue Potential in collaboration with Axis Records) cemented the concept into reality. With the help of René Koering, Director of the Montpellier National Orchestra, the initial groundwork was laid. 
The first challenge was to find an arranger who was both talented and bold enough to take on such an audacious task. The musician they chose, Thomas Roussel, has received great acclaim throughout France for his compositions and arrangements and has earned the right to work alongside many influential musicians, most notably Lalo Schifrin (best known for the "Mission Impossible” theme). Born in 1979, Roussel is part of the new generation of composers which includes Jonathan Pieslak, Lansing McLoskey, and Mason Bates, that is striving to bring classical music back to the foreground of popular culture as it once was many years ago. In fact, Director Koering stated, “One of the main aims of our orchestra is to attract new audiences to classical music,” so someone from Roussel’s generation seemed an obvious choice. After the CD/DVD is released, I will be curious to see how successfully they reached their goal.

To the casual techno fan, Blue Potential might seem to be a rather illogical album for any
electronic music DJ to produce, but a closer look at Mills’ career greatly suggests otherwise. In 2001, Mills composed a new soundtrack for Fritz Lang’s 1921 classic “Metropolis,” perhaps the most famous and influential of all silent films.

The film is set in a futuristic urban environment, so it is fitting that he was drawn to this film. For one, the city’s landscape is very similar to that of the urban ruin of Detroit, his hometown. Secondly, the futuristic society has evolved to become reliant on machines, a perfect match for the style of techno he embraced with such tracks as “The Hacker,” “Workers” and “Life Cycle”.   

Mills has been known for having “orchestral” undertones in his techno music, and he truly intensified them for this soundtrack. His synth lines, samples and beats are intricately orchestrated in a way that adds a rare dimension to his music. For example, “Condor to Mallorca”, from his album Waveform Transmission, Vol. 3, utilizes several synths in the same rhythm. The individual timbres of these synths are combined to create a multifaceted aural texture, thus adding a compelling layer to a simple rhythmic gesture. Similar ideas are found throughout orchestral music, most often when two or more instruments share the same melody, a technique called doubling.  Director Koering and Roussel heard these characteristics in Mills’ music as well, so it was only natural for the three to expand his compositions into the realm of the orchestra. 

The CD features performances of fifteen of Mills’ favorite tracks ranging from the techno classic “The Bells” (originally written in 1994) to “Entrance to Metropolis,” a highlight from his aforementioned soundtrack. Several of the tracks are introduced by Mills, such as “The March”:  “The track is about injustice, it's about one part of society prohibiting and keeping down another part of society, and sometimes the only way to change things is to come together and create one voice. And sometimes that one voice has to go the street, and protest, and stand up for what they believe in." These short, insightful talks enhance the listening experience and heighten the listeners’ understanding of just how emotional techno music can be.

While there are quite a few gems on this record, the true diamond is “Medium C: The Urge to Swirl Alone in a Pool of Ridicule.” This 9-minute track has the qualities of a true orchestral masterpiece:  melodic development; varying phrases of tension and release; shifting tonal colorations; dynamic juxtapositions; sense of aural space. When the beat finally drops in at the half-way point against a syncopated bass line, the lines between orchestral music and electronic music have officially been blurred. And with that, Mills and his team of musicians can call Blue Potential a success.

The DVD features footage of the full 85-minute concert, a 28-minute documentary, an interview with Jeff Mills, and an absolutely stellar “studio tutorial” with Mills and arranger Thomas Roussel. In the latter, the two take us through two of the tracks, “Medium C” and “Gamma Player.” Mills talks about the initial concepts behind the pieces, and Roussel explains how he transformed those ideas into coherent pieces of orchestral music, complete with audio examples. This insider’s view adds a new sense of appreciation for what these two artists have accomplished combining their deceptively compatible musical talents. 

When all is said and through, Mills’ latest endeavor once again puts him at the forefront of thought for the techno think tank. And, once again, we find ourselves asking, “Where will he break ground next?”

Review by: Garrett Ian Shatzer

Blue Potential is scheduled to hit stores June 26 on Uncivilized World / Axis Records.

Please visit www.axisrecords.com  www.uncivilizedworld.com for more info.