> I guess I kinda started all this mess in a way Exactly what Derrick must say to himself each morning...:) Scott, you say that you love techno & house with a vengeance, that it is your "life blood in many ways." But if you want to make Detroit music that speaks with soul to others & remains true to the spirit of the innovators, why not clear a wider space in your bloodstream for the city itself? Why not harness some of that amazing energy & ambience in the powerstation of your being? Take your sampler/recorder out on the streets, into the factories, everywhere you can think of. It worked for Neil Olivierra (Detroit Escalator Company: Soundtrack [313]), that's for sure.
Why sample other artists? The city is a machine with which you can sonically interface. Make it your instrument, your horn, your synth. Become your sounds through total immersion if you aspire to speak with the true voice of feeling. Perhaps C. Craig named that 69 track "My Machines" to celebrate just such a connection. It is the urban environment itself that will forge you into the truest man-machine; the nuances of its soul-center must emerge, alive & kicking, through your own voice. Immerse yourself in the inner city blues whenever you possibly can. > I feel that I have the respect and the knowledge, that will allow me to > sample certain music and not make it sound "silly, weak and tired" ... > Maybe I'm an exception, or maybe I'm just another crazy suburban white > kid stealing someone else's soul??? Who will tell me which is true??? Listen to your heart...Program yourself. Or ask yourself: What would Richie do? > Music can overcome all boundaries, and bring people together... Or > it can cause revolutions, or it can tear people apart... It has a > mysterious power.... By expressing that awareness you demonstrate that you are indeed an "exception." Listen to UR & The Martian. Take their example to heart. Make more music that uplifts us & enables us to resist the system's desolate designs upon our souls. Make music that honours the integrity of individuals & communities, both living & dead. Take inspiration from techno-warriors such as Technasia who infuse their machines with irrepressible funkiness...whose every drumbeat speaks of struggle, energy, optimism, joie de vivre. Like Juan, Kelli, Octave One, etc. they can make their machine-drums talk, tell a story, tell history. And take inspiration for your own soulpower from fighters like Joe Louis & Coltrane. Why do you think Louis' fist rests at the heart of the city core? Sure, there's no way one can become a sonic revolutionary of the calibre of a Sun Ra by sheer force of will, but we can each follow the path in our own way, right? Read Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. Read it again. There's a part where the protagonist listens to Louis Armstrong while he's eating his ice cream & sloe gin: "I pour the red liquid over the white mound, watching it glisten and the vapor rising as Louis bends that military instrument into a beam of lyrical sound." Think you can effect that kind of transformation with your sampler? Maybe so... Sincerely, Wes "My force is in my soul...My force is in my heart" (Technasia)
