Blackdown & Dusk interview

[bribkin]

Yo

I have posted up a big Dusk & Blackdown interview on my blog

http://www.melissabradshaw.net

I like saying it in different orders, okay?

I have nearly worked out how to make the comments work, I just need a friend and a little more... time. So please have any discussions on here, at home with your mates/gran/cat, or at your desk with a pad of post-it notes (you could make different points on each and then stick them all around yourself and see how you feel).

Safe xx M

[nitrous_mcbread]

Thanks for this - v. interesting reading. It's a cracking album - always keen to find out more. That goes for my mate's gran's cat too. Good luck with eradicating the blogremlins.

[dubluke]

cheers for this, a very interesting read!

[ajantis_art]

great to read about the ideas behind the album, particularly the story behind "darker than east" and thoughts from farrah. looking fwd to part two

[jahtao]

thank you. bring on pt2!

[bribkin]

YO

safe guys thanks. I have put up pt 2 with a totally hot picture of Fadge.

I would be really interested to hear some more reactions to the thinking going on here/what ppl think of the LP etc?

HOw does it compare to sinogrime etc?

(For me one of the most fascinating things is Farrah talking about whether out emotional responses to music are physiological or cultural, and the thought of her basing her singing on melodies she's vaguely remembered from childhood... though that may be to do with my obsession with psychoanalysis....)

[autonomic]

this is a great interview. my favourites are these ones that read like a group of friends chatting. very cool to hear from farrah.

i can't write much at the moment but biggups.

[blackdown]

both of you have (very kindly) interviewed me and dusk and both of you have got RSI... are we some kind of curse?!

[joe muggs]

It's a fucking great piece, no time to digest it now, will come back to you with comments

[narcossist]

Really good read. Nice interview and great to see so much thought and consideration going into music.

Martin, have you written anywhere about keysounds and their signifigance? Tried searching the blog and wiki but can't find anything though I'm sure I remember reading about them before somewhere.

[glacial]

big read, thanx

[killer b]

[seckle]

bribkin once again.....

[blackdown]

Martin, have you written anywhere about keysounds and their signifigance? Tried searching the blog and wiki but can't find anything though I'm sure I remember reading about them before somewhere.

keysound thinking

the name keysound comes from the music itself, music which in turn reflects our London surroundings. a kick, a snare, a hat, a sub-bassline: in isolation, marked out on a clean sonic background, they’re sterile, contextless, adrift, culture free. “it’s just music”.

this is not just music. many dusk + blackdown tracks instead contain keysounds, a looped sonic keystone that underpins the whole track. tracks with keysounds are therefore build in a context: a constant sound that suggests an environment, a space, a culture, a city.

keysounds reflect our environment, not wistfully dwelling on the way things were, nor escaping towards imagined never-to-arrive future, but facing the pressures of today’s reality. they reflect the diverse multicultural micro-communities that surround us, and the spaces those communities live in.

keysounds are condensed shards of overheard conversations in heavy accents, hints of understanding of other cultures or keys to understanding different ways of living. keysounds are the echoes of decaying buildings, clanking trains, dirty streets and hidden urban communities.

reacting to that which changes, not that which is constant, the brain soon filters the keysound out as the track rolls on… but like the surroundings in which we live, its influence remains a defining one. this is keysound thinking.

dusk + blackdown
keysound recordings
LDN 2005

from this...

[narcossist]

nice one

[bribkin]

both of you have (very kindly) interviewed me and dusk and both of you have got RSI... are we some kind of curse?!

lol for real?!?!

it's cuz you talk so fast.

[tempest]

good read, seem like some decent chaps.. will cop this album asap

[braiden]

(For me one of the most fascinating things is Farrah talking about whether out emotional responses to music are physiological or cultural, and the thought of her basing her singing on melodies she's vaguely remembered from childhood... though that may be to do with my obsession with psychoanalysis....)

i think about this all the time, both with music and visuals (photography mostly of course). i think our responses are both physiological as you put it, such as wired responses to certain harmonies, or visually, colours and shade. they are also cultural, such as associating certain sounds with subcultures or even personal experiences and people youve met. oftentimes people arent so concious about this but it always plays a part in how you hear a piece of music.

the physiological side of it interests me right now, like even if they were devoid of any cultural reference, certain sounds will inspire very certain reactions in people across the world. like minor or major very simply, but theres a lot more of course.

also visually, certain colours inspire moods on a primal level without any cultural reference. might write my dissertation on this. if anyone has any books or writings on this let me know..

[bribkin]

. if anyone has any books or writings on this let me know..

lol I was about to ask you that.
I'm gonna have a root around in the BL catalogues.

what's your degree?

[slim]

I would be really interested to hear some more reactions to the thinking going on here/what ppl think of the LP etc?

Amazing interview, i could have sat reading what those guys had to say for hours, really insightful stuff.

I haven't managed to listen to the album the whole way through yet, it just arrived today, but one of the things that struck me about the overall sound was that it was kind of a mirror image of a lot of modern asian music.

I live in whitechapel, and every day i walk past the station with the market stalls blaring this weird fusion of traditional bollywood - style sounds, but with a fairly stereotypical 909 house beat underneath, or in some cases it's got a hip hop feel. Like they've taken stuff from New York and Chicago and chucked it underneath.

This album feels like the opposite, with dubstep (and early dubstep at that really) as the foundation, but on top of that you get the Lata samples, or Farrah singing, or the Cheng from The Bits scattered over the top.

Hope that made any kind of sense.