Rekkids.

Wow. 2 or so million rekkids. More impressive than the collection itself is the relationship that he has with it. Take a good gander at the video:



Additionally, a small yet important piece of this man's relationship with music is his stance against "the way of things" in the progression of the music industry. Crazy to think that 83% of his record collection has since been available to digital consumers... Consider the other implications outside of mere aural quality loss... what about the struggle that comes with searching for a tune, holding it in your hand, actually have found treasure...

Arcadion.

London, among many things, has been a musical hot spot and profound incubator for underground genres of dance music; deep house, breakbeat, dubstep, jungle/dnb, and new wave. It hosts arguably the world’s best dance club, Fabric (also a record label), and provides avenue for some of the most magnificent music showcases of all time. Like Detroit, the inhabitants of inner London are able to dig deep into their dirty depths and produce music that both are indicative of their environment and transcend it. Recently emerging has been a very special brand of nu-disco/re-edits that seems not yet have been coined a title (let’s call it “Who La La” for now). Labels like DC (Arcadion), Firecracker (Linkwood) and Prime Numbers (Trus’me) all release tunes in this arena. Tip!

This all brings me really to the point of this entry -- to explore the wacky meanderings of one of these artists in particular: the elusive South London artist Arcadion. Real name Alan Dobson, this elusive figure only has two releases out, but shows incredible talent and foresight as a producer. While there are obvious influence to experimental, cosmic disco and grime in his sound, there is nothing else out there like it.

Arcadion - Ghost Feeder [DC Recordings]:


While not entirely apparent where he chose his moniker from, it is known that in the video game Ultima VII and Ultima VII/2, Arcadion is a mischievous, powerful Daemon Sorcerer. (There’s plenty more information on the game available if you click on to the hyperlinks). Take that as you will, but if you listen in to the style of his productions, drawing a connection there isn’t too far fetched.

In addition to really feeling attached to his tunes, I’m a big fan of the art direction of Aracadion’s albums (sleeve design by La Boca, who does much of the cover art for DC and other music platforms).


It really captures the flowy, acid experimentation that was evident in the 70s (much like what a lot of the labels works seems to rehash). So good… be sure to look into Firecracker and Prime Numbers as well.

Secret Garden 6/ 28 - Lush Greens

On an amazing drive up past Everett to an ever-so-unpopulated trail (name not to be mentioned here so that is stays that way), we encountered the lushest of greens. Even though it was late Spring, there was still a considerable amount of snow left, and subsequent moisture providing for the forest all around. The only set back to the entire experience was an annoyance of gnats and other such pesky insects -- nothing that a branch-fan couldn't brush away though...

Deep-set, lush ground cover.

A softer patch of the same (moss variety).

Triple-tree resting on a rock after a long day?

Lush browns.

Twirly samplings clenching their fists.

Up at the highest elevation we reached: salad.

2009 Preliminary Line Up Announced.

First word! The following artists will be contributing to Seattle's Decibel (electronic music and new media) Festival as of mid-June (more to be announced as things take greater shape):

Alex Under (ES)
Alter Ego (DE)
Benga (UK)
Boxcutter (UK)
Bruno Pronsato (DE)
Caspa (UK)
Daedelus (US)
Goldmund (US)
KiloWatts (US)
Lusine (US)
Mad Professor (UK)
Martyn (US)
Mary Anne Hobbs (UK)
Megasoid (CA)
Mikael Stavöstrand (SE)
Mountains (US)
Move D (DE)
N-Type (UK)
Nosaj Thing (US)
Pezzner (US)
Reagenz (UK / US)
Spacetime Continuum (US)
Sub Swara (US)
Tadeo (ES)
Tanner Ross (US)
Voodeux (US)
The Wighnomy Brothers (DE)

Made Like a Tree will also be contributing a proper dance showcase at Sole Repair coined "TREE & MOUNTAIN" so stay tuned for further details... Full lineup will be released towards the end of the summer. Until then, please feel free to digest our current summer lineup at the SEAC loft.

Terre Thaemlitz -- profile & interview

Terre Thaemlitz
ARTIST PROFILE

A graduate of New York's prestigious Cooper Union School of Art, a former "Underground Grammy Award" winning DJ from New York's Transexual clubs, and founder of Comatonse Recordings in 1993, Thaemlitz is widely considered one of America's leading producers and theorists of Ambient and Electro-acoustique musics. His primary interest is in the appropriation and recontextualization of cultural signifiers through the very different methodologies of Transgenderism and Electro-acoustique music production. He has released ten solo albums, appeared on over 20 compilatons, as well as numerous singles, collaborative albums (including with Haruomi Hosono and Bill Laswell), and remixes.

His audio compositions and activities have been the subject of cover stories, articles and reviews in such publications as Billboard (US), Computer Music Journal (CMJ) (US), Keyboard (US), MTV On-Line (US), NME (UK), Remix (Japan), Seconds (US), Sound & Recording (Japan), Spex (Germany), Spin (US), URB (US), The Wire (UK), and Zavtone (Japan). In addition to the publication of his theoretical and narrative writings in conjunction with his audio releases, he has also written for such publications as bOINGbOING Online (US), Kleine Zeitung Megascene (Austria), MIT Press' Leonardo Music Journal (LMJ) (US), and The Wire (UK).

His design work is featured in the book Discstyle: The Graphic Arts of Electronic Music and Club Culture (London: Collins & Brown, 1999), as well as the subject of magazine articles, including in Artbyte (US) and Zavtone (Japan).

His film work has been exhibited at various festivals and art events, including The Tokyo Modern Art Museum (Japan, 1997), The Kitchen (New York, 1998), and the 1998 Mix Video Festival (New York).

Some of our favorite post-rave comedown parties of the mid-1990s were infused with the ambient sounds of Terre Thaemlitz. We were grateful for this work, which was not the Disneyesque fluff that had unfortunately become synonymous with the ambient genre. Other than the two or three CDs in our collection, we only knew Thaemlitz from dribbles of reviews in the underground media--which generally portrayed Thaemlitz as the king (or queen, depending on which magazine you read) of the New York ambient scene. So we were thrilled when we found out that he had moved to the Bay Area and was still producing ambient works, now released under the Comatonse and Mille Plateaux labels. We meekly sent an e-mail begging an audience and were delighted when a "yes" came back. We had a long discussion with Terre at the Comatonse world headquarters in Oakland, California.

SD: So why did the king of the NYC ambient scene move to San Francisco?

TT: I'd been in NYC for 11 years and I was a little crusty on the scene. It was the typical thing where, if you're a local person, you never get to perform in your own city. I had to move out here to get invited back to do a decently budgeted show in New York. Promoters there were giving me lines like, "Dude, we only have $50 to pay you for a show."

SD: Some of the obvious questions...who did you grow up listening to?

TT: Gary Numan, Kraftwerk, YMO--all the people I overemphasize in my career. I grew up in Springfield, Missouri, where there is NO electronic music, even today. But in the 1980s, this old liquor warehouse was converted into a weird record store for about a year or two. They had this great 99-cent bin of all this stuff. In the '80s, all the groups used to list their gear on the back, so you could always tell who the synth bands were. And that's how I picked out my music.

SD: All your liner notes are academically intense. We were wondering about your educational background.

TT: I went to Cooper Union School of Art, which is why I moved to NYC. Originally I wanted to be a painter, but after the second year I was over it. I ended up getting into art criticism, but I was still upset by the limitations of the gallery and museum bureaucracy. So I headed toward cultural studies. I worked with visiting professors, like Rosalyn Deutsch and Douglas Crimp and people like that.
SD: In reading your liner notes, strands of people like Karl Marx and Guy DuBord come out. I was wondering if you have any pet social theories or favorite philosophers?

TT: Marx is my favorite writer. He's really funny and sarcastic and that is overlooked a lot. But he is also very insightful, especially in his analysis of history. Trinh Minh Ha's films and writing were also a big influence. As for pet social theories, I'm mostly interested in anti-essentialist identity politics--things about identity being a social construct, as opposed to something natural--because it's really hard to strategize for personal agency or communal agency when people claim that identity is based in nature. I'm much more inclined to believe that identity is something social that can be transformed and can be analyzed. It's not to deny the impact of biology on things, but when it comes to strategizing social change or personal change, or even just getting through my day, it's more empowering to think about it as something I can interact with.

SD: Is a goal of your music to highlight these theories, or is your music just an expression of your frustration with the current accepted social constructs?

TT: Music is like a discourse for me, just like visual art and literature. So in my work I try to use all these things to get people to think. The reason I like working with music is because it is totally commercial, yet at the same time it's one of the last industries where people will really allow themselves to buy this dream that music is an expression of the soul and music is universal and all that stuff. It's a beautiful contradiction. That's why I'm interested in music as a discourse-- because it contains so many of the problems that I try to address in other areas.

SD: I missed a bit here. You were in school doing visual art and cultural studies. How did you find yourself in music?

TT: Well, I was totally surprised by it. My parents put me through the Suzuki method of violin. I never practiced and faked my way through it. Then, to quit violin, I had to start playing trombone. I put no effort into it and don't remember anything. So my interest in computer composition and this idea of using digital music to emulate improvisational jazz is kind of a poke in the ribs at formal training. There's a thin line between total ineptness and vanguard expressionism.
SD: Were those your only choices--violin or trombone?

TT: I was always saying, "I like drums. I like the synthesizer." I was always playing with the little drum machine on my Mom's organ. But it was all just seen as goofball stuff, not serious music.

SD: And you started out by DJing, right? Where did you start?

TT: I started out by doing benefits, like for the Asian/Pacific Islander Caucus of ACT/UP New York. And then I started doing some queer clubs in the Midtown district. Then I got a regular gig at Sally's in Midtown Manhattan. But, I always ended up losing my job, because I would only play the underground stuff, which was strange to me because there was so much great underground stuff in New York at the time.

SD: Isn't it a claim to fame that you were a DJ at Sally's?

TT: I always really liked Sally's. I got an Underground Grammy there. That was really important to me, because the people who voted for that were the sex workers and the girls that frequented the club. Sally and the management fired me a month later for not playing major-label house.

SD: Can you remember specifically what you were playing at Sally's-- the "underground" stuff?

TT: At that time, techno and ambient really hadn't hit New York. There was this strange mix of conventional jazzy lower-East Side and North Jersey-style deep house that is more associated with R&B and soul, and there was this kind of electronica that wasn't really techno--a classic example is the original Moby "Go" EP. And then the next thing after that was clearly techno. So, there was a string of releases that had these floaty ambient tracks that would go on for five minutes without a beat, but they weren't really ambient, they were more funky. That was the stuff I was into.

SD: So, what was the first track you wrote?

TT: The first thing of mine that ultimately got released was "Hovering Glows," on Instinct's "Plug In and Turn On" compilation. No, Wait. That's a lie. My very first release was my first Comatonse 12" with "Raw Through a Straw" on one side and "Tranquilizer" on the other. That really reflected the first stuff I thought was ready for release.

SD: Is there a point where you actually decided to move from DJing to production? Was it a conscious decision, or did it just evolve?

TT: It wasn't a teleological thing. I mean, I kept on getting fired from my jobs. And when I got fired from Sally's, it really affected me. At the same time I was having fallout from the activist stuff I was involved in and in my personal life I was having some drama. I was investing so much of my life in outwards involvements and appearances that I didn't have room for myself. So I thought, well, the one thing that I always liked playing with and listening to was electronic music. And it was just for myself. There was no concept of audience. Not having to be accountable to anybody. A year later, I started to think about releasing something. That changed things, because then you are accountable to the concept of audience. And that is important to me. If I'm just going to do something for myself, I'll just keep it for myself. But if I'm trying to communicate with people then I put some thought into it. Otherwise, it's just like jerking off--and there are SO many musicians that do that.
SD: Well, that was one of the questions I wanted to ask you...

TT: ...Do I jerk off? (giggles all around)

SD: Do you differentiate between your personal work and your commercial work? Because some artists do have this view that the art is some innermost expression of the soul, a direct link to some higher power, and somehow you sully yourself and your work if you alter that expression for the sake of your audience.

TT: Of course, that is the classic response--the classic argument for preserving music and the arts as universal constructs, which are ultimately very limited Western constructs. But I don't see that stuff as malicious action on the part of artists who hold such views. It's just part of being conditioned and trained through rather conventional artistic studies. Some people get access to other ideas, some people don't. Some people get it and hate it. But it's pointless to rip on it because you're either preaching to the converted or you're arguing with people who don't get or aren't ready to get it or don't care to get it.

SD: When you're creating your music, do you hold an idea of a setting or a way that you intend it to be heard? Do you have an ideal context for your music?

TT: Well, I have different ideas for different labels. Different genres and styles and approaches are reflected in different design strategies. All that stuff is played with when I'm making something. But the main thing I've gotten into is thinking about my own relationship to music as a consumer. That's what motivates me in my own listening experiences and production. It's not so much about producing it as consuming it.
SD: Does Comatonse have an overriding ideology or mission statement?

TT: That's on the website. Basically, it's about cross-categorical or noncategorical electronica. The emphasis is on house, but very loosely --the kind of stuff that would get played at a loft party at 4 in the morning. It exists as a DJ's label. The Mille Plateaux stuff has evolved into digital processing and trying to bring academic discourse into the commercial marketplace through the liner notes. At the same time it makes academic folks see this stuff exist outside the realm of academia.

SD: What about G.R.R.L.?

TT: The G.R.R.L. project is part of Comatonse. I try to make each track a different genre of electronica. That idea, combined with the eclecticism of Comatonse, is about antiessentialist identity. Creating and producing all these styles that are usually associated with one person--like "Oh, he's a great pianist" or "House music is in his soul." I want to break down these stereotypes by producing in all these different genres. The idea is not to be a "genius" or something globalizing like that. The idea is to break down the idea of associating genres with a particular type of spiritual oeuvre.

SD: Good for you, because that's really important.

TT: I think so. And there are a lot of people doing this. I was very influenced by Haroumi Hasono from Yellow Magic Orchestra. He's released everything from progressive rock to ambient, electro-acoustique, country, and swing. He's all over the board and I really find that exciting.


Full credits -- Exit (blog)

Secret Garden 6/14 - Belltown P-Patch and Cottages

Making the dream reality...

We stumbled upon this marvelous little find in lower Belltown after romping along the pier and gracing past the Sculpture Park on the way back through downtown. It was pleasant to find the most stoic of dogs ("Horse") awaiting at the top of the staircase; a nice spiritual resemblance of the overall look and feel of the patch. It was explained to us that the patch was actually quite the hot spot, with a waitlist of over a 100 local residents (3 years out) yearning to be able to garden their own personal plot.

Apparently, the patch initially became an effort to clean up a derelict part of the city many years ago and the cottages on the site housed several poor writers and poets. The first of these writers ended up publishing a modestly successful book that he wrote while he lived there, and dedicated a large portion of his proceeds back into the maintenance of the patch that was his original inspiration. The practice then stuck and became and tradition. Today, the cottages are well kept and the garden neatly mended by all those he participate, continuing to house several promising writers who if excepted join on the contingency that they will dedicate 20% of any earning that they make from work published while living there.

Belltown P-Patch location and information.

Glorious rose adorned side entry

North entry stairway into main floral garden

Eastern gaze back upon the main patio

A friendly dog-resident named "Horse"

Soft, vibrant red roses and carnival garden toy

Shy away pink rose encapsulated in vibrant greens

Center split through pathway, partial view of cottages

Petite rock vegetation

Powdery rock walkway leading into nothing in particular

Warmer, Tuscan colored rock succulent vegetation

Celestial spiked explosions

Southbound garden view

Westward full garden view

East entry way

Landscapes.

When it comes, the Landscape listens

There's a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons -
That oppresses, like the Heft
of Cathedral Tunes -

Heavenly Hurt it gives us -
We can find no scar,
But internal difference,
Where the Meanings, are -

None may teach it - Any -
'Tis the Seal Despair -
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air -

When it comes, the Landscape listens-
Shadows - hold their breath -
When it goes, tis like the Distance
On the look of Death

Emily Dickinson