keep on dancing
How many steps separate the club and the church?
Theo Parrish, Netherlands (Amsterdam), 2011
Cajmere, “Brighter Days”
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Wash up in the sound if you want to . . .
Theo inviting folks to the gig:
keep on dancing
Moodymann (AKA Moody), “Anotha Black Sunday” (2009)
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lagniappe
random thoughts
One benefit of getting older, I’ve found, is that you develop a keener appreciation for just how much you have to be humble about.
keep on dancing
Theo Parrish, “Dan Ryan” (1998)
Repetitive?
Yep.
That’s the idea.
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lagniappe
reading table
There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.
keep on dancing
Theo Parrish, Detroit-based DJ/producer
“Smile,” 1997
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Talking music (record digging, technology, DJing, etc.), 2012
keep on dancing
Sometimes I don’t want to listen.
What I want are sounds washing over me.
Theo Parrish, “Summertime Is Here” (originally released 1999; reissued 2006)
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
[W]hat we find in our mind and our thought is the same as what we find in our ear and in sound: an ocean in constant flux. Just as our ear turns out to be nothing but a construct, and likewise sound, neither can we isolate anything we might call our mind or thought, much less our self.
—The Heart Sutra, translation (from Sanskrit) and commentary (from which this is drawn) by Red Pine, AKA Bill Porter (2004)
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reading table
the whining mosquito
also thinks I’m old . . .
edge of my ear—Kobayashi Issa, 1819 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
keep on dancing
Moodymann, “The Day We Lost The Soul”/ “Tribute! (To The Soul We Lost),” 1995
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Theo Parrish, “The Love I Lost” (Re-edit of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes), 2003
More Theo? Here. And here. And here. And here.
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Dance music holds out the hope, as the beat goes on, and on, and on, that nothing will be lost. Ever. But then it, too, ends.
keep on dancing
Theo Parrish (Detroit-based DJ/producer), live, Spain (Madrid), 2010
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
[I]f you think about it, sound behaves a lot like sculpture except there’s a time limit. Look at that sculpture right there behind you. You look at it and there’s a front, a back, an up, a down, around and through. So you’re talking about volume. You’re talking about spatial relationships.
The thing about sound is that there is a beginning and there is usually an end, there’s a certain amount of space that it takes up, but the big difference is that all of that is merely alluded to. It’s not something that’s concretely in front of you. It’s fluid. You may hear a snare, but the way that it’s presented and the textures that it has, you can bring certain mental images to it. If you’re listening. If you’re listening.
A lot of times you’ll put something on and it’s just another track, but if you’re listening to it you can hear a lot of the nuances that are in there and really start to understand . . . start to really get your head around it . . .
Repetition kind of sets a certain mass in a song. That’s a constant, that’s something you can ‘see’ all the time. Then there’s little bits that come in and out and these changes that kinda shift on that pivot. If you think of it visually, sometimes you’re dealing with almost a mobile-like thing. This is where I go in my head sometimes. Mobile means shifting, spinning, all kinds of stuff.
If you look at it, it could almost be like sculpting air. It’s like you have all of these shapes . . . but you have to rely on a structure, but then again you really don’t have to. So your structure tends to be your time limit—how long your recording is from beginning to end. Anything that happens in that amount of time is on you. Totally up to your creativity.
three takes
Salif Keita (with Cesaria Evora, takes 1 & 2), “Yamore”
Luciano remix, 2006
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Original recording & video, 2002
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Live, London, 2002
More? Here.
passings
DJ Mehdi, DJ & producer, January 20, 1977-September 13, 2011
“I Am Somebody” (feat. Chromeo), 2007
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
Live (with Busy P), Ireland (Dublin), 2008
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Vodpod videos no longer available.
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#2
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
#3
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
Remix, Architecture in Helsinki, “In Case We Die,” 2006
Vodpod videos no longer available.
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