Looks like Deyv from Eighty-Eight D.C. followed through on the promise he made in the comments section of our Q&A with DJ/producer Martyn last month: Tonight’s showcase for Eighty-Eight’s weekly Loda series will feature a set from the Dutch-born, Virginia-based bass superstar himself, along with a whole host of local talent.

Martyn’s debut album, Great Lengths, is out now on his own 3024 label, and it’s pushing all the right buttons with its masterful synthesis of dub, techno, house, and, of course, bass. But tonight is your chance to hear Martyn’s chest-caving compositions in their natural habitat — the dancefloor.

Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center has had a busy week. With three shows curated by the Sonic Circuits crew in four days, the cozy Silver Spring gallery has given experimental music fans in the District plenty of opportunities to get their fill. Thursday’s performances by Fast Forty, Area C, and Mem1 provided a pleasant bookend to the week, exemplifying how the ongoing Sonic Circuits series continues to highlight the breadth and diversity that the “experimental” umbrella encompasses.

Sunday’s showcase kicked things off for the week, nipping at the heels of the free Flaming Lips show on the National Mall. Luckily, the Lips finished with just enough time for me to truck up to Silver Spring. My reward: sets by locals Corpus Callosum and Pilesar, alongside Philadelphia noise chanteuse U.S. Girls, and sample-happy Tzadik improv trio Brown Wing Overdrive. Compare that to the performance on Wednesday evening: Seminal NC folk weirdo Eugene Chadbourne delivered an intimate set of zany country tunes on an odd array of homemade instruments, including a five-string banjo and an electrified rake.

Thursday night’s bill was especially exciting for me, given how endeared I’ve been to Providence’s Erik Carlson and his Area C project over the last few years. His performance was equally as blissful and meditative as his recordings, so it was satisfying to see his music develop in real time. Encircled by a variety of effects pedals, samplers, and mystery machines, Carlson deftly navigated his guitar tones through glistening layers — a piecemeal composition of crescendo and restraint. More often than not, artists practicing a similar approach to Carlson’s craft can send audiences straight to a snooze, but Area C has always proved remarkably engaging despite its gentility. His new CD, Charmed Birds vs. Sorcery, is out now on Students of Decay.

“Intense ambient” might sound like an oxymoron, but it does seem fitting for D.C.-based Keith Sinzinger’s Fast Forty. Armed with a hanging rack of galvanized pipe, Sinzinger processed their reverberations through a circuit of delay pedals as he struck them with a rotating cast of mallets. A small ensemble of circuit-bent toys and triggered samples inserted an eerie playfulness to the mix: A woman’s instructional countdown of “1, 2, 3″ was immediately answered by a triplet of corresponding clangs.

L.A. duo MEM1 headlined the showcase — an exercise in coaxing a diverse sound palette from limited source material. The subject in this case was Laura Cetilia’s cello, which was painstakingly manipulated by husband Mark Cetilia and his mix of laptop effects. Laura’s minimal introduction was soon joined by a mutating chorus of electronic interpretations taken from her own instrument. From a crackling, static-laden background, to groaning mechanical pulse, Mark mixed Laura’s plucks and scrapes — some more appealing than others — though the depth of their sound was certainly applause-worthy.

As Brandon Wu wrote yesterday, the Sonic Circuits crew will take part in the marathon of out-sounds that is the Avant Fairfax Festival this evening, with music starting at 6pm. And be sure to mark your calendar for the next SC-curated event at Pyramid Atlantic, scheduled for May 3rd. Check the Sonic Circuits site for more info.

*Photo courtesy of Cristina Bejarano

Tracing the global proliferation of dubstep’s subsonic frequencies over the past few years, it makes some sense that Dutch DJ Martijn Deykers (aka Martyn) was lumped in with the genre as it spilled from South London’s FWD>> dancefloor. The chest-caving bass and shuffling riddims exhibited on Martyn’s string of 12″s and remixes in 2007 and 2008 did share common ground with the London crowd, and catapulted him to international acclaim.

But billing Martyn simply as a dubstep DJ doesn’t do justice to the depth and agility of his music, either. His debut album, Great Lengths, highlights the diversity and innovation of his sound, synthesizing a rich history of electronic music from house, techno, reggae, and drum and bass. The record has finally been given a proper release this week on his own 3024 records — a label that he runs with artist and graphic designer Erosie. Though the label’s name is a tribute to his home area code in Rotterdam, Martyn relocated to the D.C. area last August, living among the Virginia “suburbia” he alluded to on a 12″ single last year.

I caught up with the man himself last month to chat about moving to the U.S., the new record, and the inaccuracies of being caught up in the dubstep craze. Follow the jump for the interview, and be sure to check out Great Lengths, out now in CD, vinyl, and digital format, along with a brand new split 12″ with fellow Dutch producer 2562 on Tectonic records.

Washington City Paper: What’s been the biggest difference so far adjusting to life in the States versus life in Holland?

Martijn Deykers: Oh, wow. Everything’s different [laughs]. The size, I guess. That was what appealed to me a lot when I first came to the U.S. — everything is just so big here. It sounds a bit dull, but when you’re used to living in a far smaller country — I think Holland is about the same size as Maryland — you can imagine how things are far more stretched out here.

I guess also the people. There are a quite a lot of differences culturally, and the way that music is perceived here as well. It’s totally different from any European country I know. So far it’s been really interesting to see what the differences are, you know?

WCP: Given that musical discrepancy, what are some of the main differences you’ve noticed about how audiences in general receive electronic music here as opposed to Europe?

MD: Well electronic music here is just not as present as it is in Europe. Like, if you go to a clothing store in Europe — any clothing store — they will always play house or techno on the speakers. And over here, everything is more or less either hip-hop based, or rock-based. Electronic sounds are, I wouldn’t say “alien” to people here, but maybe they’re just less used to it? And when you look at certain club scenes or anything, it’s just a lot smaller than it is back in Europe.

Then again, I must say that the people here are very, very loyal. Once you play in a certain city and you’ve done a good job, then people will come back the next time, you know? They’re very faithful to you. That’s what I like. It’s the same for bands I guess. Back in Holland, they always say if you’re an aspiring rock band and you’re playing the US for the first time, you always have to go back three, four times and play all these little clubs to really make a name for yourself. And I guess it’s the same for electronic music — you really have to put in the hard work here.

WCP: Have you been to any electronic/dance nights in D.C. since you’ve moved to the area?

MD: I used to go Club Five back in the day when there was a drum and bass night there. And I went to Nation. Recently, I’ve been to Gallery in Silver Spring [for Loda], and really enjoyed that — it was a really nice vibe, a nice club and nice people. I’m just picking and choosing a little bit because I do try to stay away from clubs as much as I can, since I play so many gigs. Once I have a weekend off, I really want to have a weekend off and not be in a club, you know?

WCP: You often get cited for incorporating styles from dubstep, house, techno, drum and bass, and reggae, but you like to transcend that by saying that you make “Martyn music.” But what would you denote as the common elements that construct your sound?

MD: I guess it’s all about the history. I was always influenced by a lot of house and techno music from back in the day, when I first started out going to clubs and stuff. And then later I got involved in drum and bass and started DJing, doing events, and all that, and I guess the sounds that interested me from those eras, I try to bring them in to a new perspective — I try to make it sound new again. So I guess it’s a translation of all my influences over the years. I don’t know … it’s also physical. I’ve always been interested in bass and bass lines, probably from my drum and bass days. So a common factor in a lot of my tracks is that they have a lot of bass, and are carried by bass. And from Detroit techno, which is all about strings, atmosphere and futurism. I guess those two things combined with what’s actually of the moment, like dubstep, and instrumental hip hop — that’s what makes up the Martyn sound.

WCP: Well you often get categorized as a dubstep artist, even though you incorporate all these different styles. What does the word dubstep mean to you?

MD: Well that’s a tough one, because I don’t really consider myself dubstep at all [laughs]. I mean, I use a lot of influences out of dubstep, but to me, dubstep is more a sound from South London — a really dubby sort of approach to music that’s all around, that comes from bass science and just trying to get as much bass into your music as you can. And the rhythms are quite slow and reggae influenced. But it’s difficult, because if I would say “reggae-influenced,” and “bass-heavy,” that wouldn’t necessarily be a good definition of dubstep. There are a lot of other things that come into play, like old garage or two-step, so it’s just a weird combination of a lot of the music from 2000 to now.

WCP: You mentioned how dubstep is rooted in South London, but especially in the last couple years, artists such as yourself that live outside of London and the UK are being heralded as dubstep. How do you feel about the whole dubstep movement, and do you think it’s become a positive dialogue between international artists?

MD: I think all these people have listened to whatever came from South London and have given their own interpretation to it. Even an American artist like Flying Lotus, who has really not much to do with dubstep at all, he listens to the music, and takes ideas from the music, and puts it in his own. I think that’s a pretty interesting dialogue, because you can see people giving their own take on that music.

Then on the other hand, you also have people try to copy whatever is going on in London, and they’re classified as dubstep artists as well. Which could be a good thing, but if they’re not bringing anything new to the table, then it’s not interesting anymore. So it’s a bit of both. There are a couple artists, especially in the US, that I know listen to dubstep and are influenced by dubstep, and you just know that they’ve gotten the hunch of it, so to say. And I think that’s really interesting, as long as people bring their own vibe to the table.

WCP: On your new record, you feature two different vocal guest spots — aside from the samples — with Spaceape and dBridge. Have you worked with vocalists before, or was it a new experience to add original vocals to your tracks?

MD: I have done remixes with full vocals, so I knew a little bit about how to work with them, the whole songwriting thing was a new experience for me. Obviously, they did a lot of that work for me, because I didn’t want to just write the lyrics and melody and just have them sing it, so they did give me a lot of input on what the music should sound like, and what the vocals would be like, what the themes were.

I also did a lot of songwriting myself that didn’t make it to the album, just because I wanted to see what the whole process was, so I had to teach myself in those couple months I had to write the whole album. So I had to experiment with how to write choruses and verses and how to arrange things like that. Because electronic music is not really based around a song structure, so I had to try and make that work for me. It was a good experience, and I’ll be using a lot more vocals in the future, just because it’s nice to have some songwriting ability as well. Apart from just making a really cool loop that goes for five minutes and heats up the dancefloor. That’s cool too, but it’s nice to be able to do both.

WCP: So you were experimenting with songwriting? Did you write any original lyrics for your tracks?

MD: Yes. I mean, I’m a terrible singer. But I did write full lyrics for a track, and recorded all the vocals and stuff. And it didn’t really make the album, not because it wasn’t very good, but more because it didn’t really fit into the story of the album. So it’s something that’s been shelved for now. But it’s also something that even if the original track doesn’t come out in one form or another, at least I still have that experience and learned a lot from it. And on the album there are a couple tracks without beats and basslines — just sound structures. And that was something that I had played with before, but never really took very seriously, because if you make singles, then there isn’t much space for soundscapes or anything like that, because people won’t buy it, because they can’t play it. So for this album, I thought now was a good opportunity to make some sort of composition, and it took me a long time to get that right, but at least it taught me a lot — it’s also something you can take as a “musical luggage,” because every time you make something new, it makes you a better musician.

WCP: Great Lengths does seem to follow a clear progression. Is there a message, story, or anything in particular that you’re trying to convey throughout the album?

MD: It’s no so much a message, but I think it touches on all sorts of themes and emotions that I’ve experienced over the last year: the whole process of moving from one continent to the other, traveling, a lot of the other stuff that has to do with musical ideas as well. The whole songwriting process: putting music that’s not necessarily dancefloor-oriented. All these things are coming back in the album. It’s not like the album is a real story, apart from the fact that the order from the tracks is kind of how I’d build up my DJ set. For instance I had a lot of tracks at the end, right before I finished the album, and I made a DJ set at my house with all the tracks, and tried to be really intuitive on which tracks should be where. So in that sense it does have a little bit of a story.

WCP: With the recent hype that you’ve been getting with your music lately, did that put any kind of pressure on you while making the new album?

MD: No, not really. I’ve always been doing my own thing anyway, regardless of how many people were taking notice. I’ve always been quite stubborn when it comes to that. Even making this album there wasn’t really any pressure from people saying “you really gotta make an album, it’s a good career move.” I just came and said, “OK, I’m ready to make this album,” and as soon as I was ready, I started making it.

And I could even say, now that the album’s done and it will be released, that it’s time for another turn around, you know? To see if I can take it in a new direction again, just to keep it interesting for myself, and keep it interesting for other people as well.

WCP: Any idea what that direction will be?

MD: No. [laughs] It’s just stuff that presents itself. As my DJ sets progress over time, incorporating other music, they go in different directions, and so does my own stuff. So I don’t know, we’ll see. I’ll just have to play it by ear and see what comes out.

In a late-January installment of Leakproof, Black Plastic Bag linked to a new track by Queens-based duo Blues Control, taken from the their forthcoming full-length on Siltbreeze (which, according to their Twitter feed, was finished and mixed on March 11th). With a splintered drum machine splayed against lazy keyboards, intermittent cowbell, and spaghetti guitar lines, a listen to “Tenku You” might make one wonder how such a performance would translate live — especially with only two people running the operation. Wonder no longer, because Russ Waterhouse and Lea Cho will bring their sluggish psychedelia to Comet Ping Pong tonight for a free show in the pizza joint/bar/ping pong wonderland/venue’s ongoing concert series.

Supporting for Blues Control will be The Cheniers, a D.C.-based trio who deliver slacker rock in a style recalling veteran lo-fi champions Wingtip Sloat (also from northern-VA), crossed with today’s buzz-heavy new wave in the vein of Times New Viking and Australia’s Eddy Current Suppression Ring. Also on the bill is D.C. duo Protect-U, consisting of Mike Petillo and City Paper’s own Aaron Leitko. I have no idea what they sound like, but judging from their Myspace, I’m pretty sure there’s a Roland TR-707 involved. Details for the show below.

Blues Control w/ Protect-U, The Cheniers
@ Comet Ping Pong
Tonight: Friday, April 3rd
9pm, FREE
5037 Connecticut Ave NW

*Photo by Cassie Lewis

If your scaled-back, ramen noodle budget allows for such luxuries as rock and roll shows on a week night, then the Velvet Lounge is offering up a doozy this evening: Not only are Baltimore hip-hop knob twiddlers Food For Animals and cacophonous a capella goddesses Lexie Mountain Boys on the bill, but San Francisco dub-punkers Mi Ami will also revisit the District (two of the band’s members, guitarist/vocalist Daniel Martin-McCormick and bassist Jacob Long, were both in the raucous DC Dischord band Black Eyes).

Mi Ami is in the midst of a massive tour to support their new album, Watersports, which has been absolutely killing our stereos since it dropped in mid-February. Equal parts urgent and hypnotic, chaotic and funky, Watersports is a truly compelling, relevant rock record that goes well beyond the wealth of genres it references. You can preview a cut from the new album on Quarterstick’s Web site via a download of the awesome track “New Guitar,” which is discussed further in the following interview.

The band dropped off Baltimore tour-mates Thank You last night after a show at Floristree, ending the co-tour and beginning the circuit back west on their own, stopping off at SXSW along way.

Washington City Paper recently caught up with Daniel while the group was on the road from the Northwest down into California, which didn’t bode well for a cell-phone conversation throughout their mountainous trek. Despite a steady stream of dropped connections and static-laden reception, Daniel was kind enough to chat about the tour and the new Mi Ami record. Full text after the jump, details for the show at Velvet Lounge below.

Mi Ami
Food For Animals
Lexi Mountain Boys
@ Velvet Lounge
915 U Street, DC
9pm
$8
18+

WCP: So you all started this tour with Thank You in early February?

DMM: Yeah, we played our first show in Denver on the 5th — last night [February 23rd] was our first night off. And we’ve got one more night off in March, but we pretty much have shows every night.

WCP: Well it’s a pretty grueling schedule. Are you used to such an intense itinerary? How do you cope with so much time on the road?

DMM: It’s hard work, but it’s good to play. Up until when we started getting the tour set up, I was getting nervous at home just wanting to go out and play live. In a way it’s depleting, but it’s also refreshing, because I think it’s a really good thing to do. I dunno — it’s fun. It’s fun and hard and a lot of things. Day to day, it’s been monotonous, but it’s also really deeply satisfying in other ways.

WCP: What’s been the best show so far?

DMM: We’ve had a couple really good ones — two really good ones in Chicago. We also had a good one in Denver, at this warehouse called Rhinoceropolis. And there was a really great show in Ann Arbor, and Iowa City — I feel like those shows really stood out. Both the Chicago shows were at legitimate venues, but the ones in Iowa City, Ann Arbor and Denver were all in weird spaces, which I think gives us something. Sometimes clubs are really nice, but a lot of clubs are really shitty, or will be nice but have shitty sound men, or will have good sound men, but won’t promote the show very well, so I dunno. We have better shows that have something a bit more personal going on. But the Chicago shows were really good, even though they were in clubs, but I guess that’s just an exception to the rule.

WCP: So on your new album, Watersports, you pretty much set up and played most everything live in the studio, right?

DMM: Yep.

WCP: Is that an accurate representation of how you sound live? Are there any major differences between your record and your live show?

DMM: Yeah, we didn’t really do anything different than we do live on the recording. We did overdub the vocals, but the only thing that’s gonna be different live is that the rendition of the songs will be particular to that night. We do improvise a bit, and the songs and riffs grow and change over time. But I think the one thing that we’re happy with about the record is that there’s the sound of us actually playing together, and going into all the changes together. We don’t have a lot of set changes — the changes in the song are set in that they go in a certain order, but they’re not set as a certain number of repetitions per part, so we have to feel that out every time we play it and coordinate with each other. Part of that is eye contact, and part of that is just really listening to how the others build, and letting yourself be flexible when you’re playing. Always knowing where you are and where the other people are, to some degree. Every performance of the song is just one performance of the song, and the song is sort of this loose structural concept with room for variation. And then there’s an essence that you try to tap into through these constructs.

WCP: So the songs are constantly evolving?

DMM: Well, we don’t really talk about it a whole lot — they kind of change on their own accord. A lot of it is about finding certain things that work or don’t work, and exploring those to see how long they work for. Our songs aren’t very complicated; there’s not a lot of little bridges or anything, it’s more down to the specifics of the performance, and the specifics are like what makes it come alive for us, the way we can really throw ourselves into trying to focus and play. It’s a weird thing: you might might have a little movement in the song that really makes it that much more vibrant for you, and by being able to tap into that vibrancy, you discover more things you can do that change the song subtly, but also help you reconnect with what the whole point of the song is. I don’t feel like we’re the kind of band to write perfect little songs. For us, we’re a live band, and we need to be able to have room to be present in the music every night, and it is gonna be different from night to night.

WCP: What’s the significance behind the title Watersports?

DMM: We had a couple different reasons for the name: First, we wanted something that would be strong, like a political statement. I liked the term Watersports a lot; it was already loaded with reading as a term for the sexual act. As a sexual practice, it seems really interesting to me as this way of deriving pleasure from this extremely humiliating thing — something that a lot of people consider deviant — but in a way, relates to a very powerful way with these forces that are running through your body. I was thinking a lot about how in some ways, everybody has these different forces moving through their bodies, informing their own actions — not any sort of really mysterious sense, but everybody has experiences of love, violent desire, and happiness, sadness, hunger, and all these different forces that you experience. There are ways of relating to them that can be — you could say positive or negative, creative or destructive — all sorts of different ways of engaging with or trying to deflect these experiences and these energies. It seemed to me that something like the sexual practice of Watersports was one way of relating to power, relating to violence, relating in a way that actually transforms these destructive forces into joy. But you know, only for a specific set of people. Not everybody is gonna want to use those those strategies; although deviant in one sense, it’s almost beautiful in a way — you know, relating to what’s often seen as the darker side of human experience.

At the same time in 2008, you also heard a lot about waterboarding as a torture practice, and you head a lot about water rations, like the depletion of the world’s water supply — crisis stuff. And I felt like “watersports” then took on this new meaning in a way. It’s not like a term in the same way as it is in the sexual practice, when you think about waterboarding and this torture dialog that was happening, “is it torture? is it not torture?” It most definitely is torture. And it felt like the dialog that surrounded it, the sort of general approach to the war in Iraq, or like world conquest, we felt like this weird, fucked-up game that these guys were just sporting, essentially. It felt like they were sporting with people as a game, like toying around, trying to decide the rules. It’s like the same power that you’re relating to in a way when you’re engaging in watersports as a sexual practice, but its being enacted upon other people violently, rather than created reciprocally or something like that. And it became clearer and clearer, at least in some respects, that the war in Iraq was motivated and used as a way to make money by the people that engineered it all, and we felt like, you know … fuck that, basically. Just like for a little bit of money — they don’t need the money — it’s just about winning, about being powerful, and playing this fucking game, so it’s really disgusting and upsetting.

So there was that, and we wanted to reflect that. But at that the same time, we wanted the title to be flexible too, because the music is not a manifesto. It’s a conversation, or a commentary, or a plea — it’s many things. The lyrics are one part, and the music is another part. And it’s material, so we didn’t want to bludgeon you, but we wanted to stake our claim. I don’t know if anybody’s gonna pick up on that, but we put it there for ourselves at least. And the third part is that it sort of feels like there’s an aquatic aspect to the record’s sound from the way we produced it, so maybe that would be the more … not “lighter,” like a joke, but maybe make it a little less heavy, in terms of an interpretation of watersports as this aquatic activity.

WCP: One of the things that you employ throughout the record is echo — it’s something that you use in the lyrics, the effects, and the production. Especially with the lyrics, is there an underlying theme that you’re trying to get at with the association of echo?

DMM: I can count two uses of it on the record off the top of my head, and they’re very different. The first is in “Echononecho” which is sort of about a raw music experience, like alienation or something like that. It started with this article I read about parenting, and how it’s a really formative experience for children to have an emotional reaction and seeing that echoed in their parents. It treats the experience as an acceptable and normal thing, if the parent is blasé or removed, then it can be an emotionally hampering experience. I read that one day in the New Yorker or something — it was mentioned in passing. But it struck me as really interesting, because it’s something that I see paralleled in the adult, while it’s not like everybody is just having these isolated experiences — people are really searching all the time for confirmation that whatever they’re experiencing is ok, and real. And at the time, I was really struggling in a personal relationship with somebody who I wanted very deeply to connect with, and in a sense it was the same, wanting to have your experience echoed and not just in a narcissistic way, but just to feel that you’re understood and accepted by people.

The other reference is in “New Guitar”: (sings) “Everybody’s talking to me, but I can’t hear the words they’re saying. Only the echo of my mind.” Yeah … that song, to me, is really touching. It’s just one of the ones that throughout it, or every time I hear it, I just think it’s a great song. I really like that feeling of isolation that mostly got expressed there …

–cellphone reception cuts out–

… But yea, it’s just like trying to understand one’s personal experience in the world, where you feel like a lot of other people are probably having like parallel experiences, but at the same time not always being able to connect … I don’t know, I’m not trying to write a Morrissey song. But it’s like, there’s a lot of stuff about life that’s pretty scary and a lot of stuff that’s pretty exciting, and how do you understand your place within this whole chaotic thing, I dunno …

WCP: Well I wanted to clarify one thing in particular about your lyrics in New Guitar; in the breakdown, do you say: “It’s 2008, we’re moving under the wall”?

DMM: Oh no, it’s “We’re moving up in the world.” That was kind of a riff on the anxiety about the coming election, because there was a lot of hope and excitement in the air, and I definitely could feel it too. But it’s also a certain wariness … I mean, it’s hard to get too excited about a politician, even though we wanted to so badly, because we needed change so badly, about the way we exist in the world. And really hoping that all the promises weren’t just a bunch of hype, I guess.

WCP: When was “New Guitar” written?

DMM: We wrote the bulk of it in late 2007, but that part came about last Spring — late Spring, I think.

WCP: Throughout Watersports, you seem to cultivate a feeling of paranoia and anxiety … is this a personal sentiment that you were trying to convey on the record, or were you trying to reflect the instability and unrest in today’s broader social/economic climate?

DMM: I think it just came naturally. We wrote most of the album in kind of a weird stretch for me. It’s very natural and acceptable to be worried about the state of global and political affairs, and also personally it was a pretty dark time for me, so it just came out very naturally. At the same time, I also didn’t want to just make some party record. Like a lot of bands just write some whatever lyrics and blow it off, and just write fun music, and that’s cool. But I felt like I just wanted to be real … I take art pretty seriously, and growing up in DC, it was definitely expected that you were gonna be intense about music. You know, if there’s one thing about the “DC sound,” it’s that I feel like you’re supposed to be intense, and not, you know … what’s the word I’m looking for? Uncompromising, or something like that. And although I don’t necessarily want to sound like that, it’s kind of a lesson in a way from living there … like don’t just make some light shit or something, you know?

WCP: Like you need to have a message?

DMM: Yeah, or just be real, I guess. Make as much as you can, and be real about it.

While gathering info for my piece “Beats Working” (featured in this week’s 2008 Music and Arts in Review issue), I spoke with several DJs and promoters who had very interesting things to say, though space constraints prevented their quotes from making the print. Good thing we’ve got this spacious Internet to stretch out in.

Over the the next week or so, I’ll be posting a series of Q&As, quotes, and other additional insight from D.C. folks who are hard at work in the city’s dance culture.  The series will serve as a supplement to the article—which on its own is by no means an exhaustive survey of all the many great dance nights that are currently happening around the District.  Principally, I intended to spotlight the most successful stuff from ‘08, and promising stuff from ‘09 in the no-dress-code, no-holds-barred side of the D.C. dance scene. Hopefully, these posts will add to that scope.

First up is a full Q&A from Sean Peoples: In addition to running the Sockets CD-R label, Peoples is co-creator of the monthly funk and soul dance night Fatback (mentioned at the beginning of “Beats Working”), which celebrated its one-year anniversary last Friday. He already tipped us off to his some of his favorite things from ‘08, but here’s a more in-depth look at the progress that led Fatback from its origins at Local 16 and Dahlak to a packed house every second Friday of the month at Red Lounge, seven DJs strong. Follow the jump for the full text.

Fatback took place at Dahlak for a while before moving up to the Red Lounge. How did that space work out for you?

Dahlak’s great—it’s a restaurant, first and foremost. I think one of the things about Fatback was that we didn’t really want it to be a pretentious dance night at all, and having it be in a restaurant for the first 6 months is definitely one way to go about that, because you get up, you show up early, you’ve got to pull all the tables out, you’ve got to set everything up—there’s really no set up already there, besides a couple speakers. So you really have to change the space into something that’s different from what you walk into. But the owner, Daniel is really great. I think he’s found out that his space is really well located, and he’s trying to get more people to come through, and he’s found that DJ nights and bands are one good way to do that.

Well the Red Lounge seems to fit you more in terms of size, but do you think you’ll have to expand to larger venues in ‘09?

I think we’re gonna try to do some more special events outside of the regular Fatback night. But I think right now we’re pretty comfortable at Red Lounge—we don’t really want to grow it more. I mean, I think if you start to grow it too large, the only way to go from there is to peter out, so we’re trying to keep the same energy at Red Lounge as long as we can. But it’s definitely a topic of conversation each time, because we don’t want to alienate people in one way by saying, “hey we’re gonna stay at this venue,” but then the people that want to come have to stand outside—that’s something we’re trying to prevent. But just in terms of trying to do bigger events, we’re gonna be doing a big inauguration party, and we’re also doing a huge Valentine’s Day thing with Brightest Young Things. So we’re trying to do these things that are taking the name and join forces with some other people to have parties that are located in bigger venues so we can draw on different crowds. But now we’re trying to cultivate and keep the people we have, and match Red Lounge’s space a little better.

It’s weird though, because we’ve all been smacked in the face by this. So now we have to get organized, and it’s funny to hang out with your friends, but then have to do a business meeting. It’s something that all our DJs are trying to get used to.

One of the things you mentioned was that you didn’t want Fatback to be pretentious. Is there a large amount of pretension at other dance parties in D.C. that you’ve seen firsthand? Is that one of the reasons you started Fatback? How does pretension get in the way of a good dance party?

It’s not necessarily something that we’ve seen firsthand. One of the things that all our DJs love to do is dance at a house party. House parties are so much fun because—at least in the terms of the ones we’ve throw in the past three years—you know there’s gonna be great music, and people that you want to see. And that atmosphere is sometimes hard to translate over to a club. So it’s less about reacting to what we’ve seen, and more about trying to replicate what we know we like. We just love dancing. There is a lot of pretension in terms of having the DJ up off the floor, and there being a limited contact between the DJ and the people who are consuming the music. But for us, it’s less about the DJs and more about what we’re all creating. That sounds really dorky, but I think that’s what we honestly try to do. We have the DJs and turntables set up really close to the dancers—it’s like we’re on the same level. It’s just the stuff like, us being able to feed off the energy of the people, because they give off a lot. That’s the whole idea: We want to make them dance, and we want to flip them out.

In terms of other dance nights around town, does Fatback fill a particular niche? How does it fit into the overall scene?

Hopefully it fits the house party niche, the one that’s not staid, or too buttoned-up. It’s tough to find a space, but we’ve lucked out in terms of the spaces that we’ve gotten. Some of the nights I’ve been to, one month’s it’s OK, and the other month it’s off the hook. And I feel like that can happen to any night, but it’s been really good each night at Fatback. I mean, even if 50 less people showed up at ours, it would still be fun.

Where do you see Fatback going in 2009? Is there a threshold you want to reach? How do you see it growing?

“We want to keep going. We want to keep the momentum that we’ve had behind our backs. Early in 2009, we’re trying to do two big things: The inauguration party, which is gonna be off the hook, and this Valentine’s Day thing. We’ve got all these ideas that we don’t know what to do them—we definitely have a lot of stuff that we want to do. But you don’t want to over-saturate, you know? I think it’s a testament to us wanting to be cautious, but grow at a good pace. We don’t want to burn out the star too quickly. But yea, going into 2009 we’re really excited, because I think we’ve got a lot of good opportunities to do stuff that’ll hit a lot more people, because we’re gonna try to get some sponsorships and hook up with groups like BYT, to really grow our niche. But yeah—with cautious optimism, we’re really happy to go into next year.

Another year, another “Best Of” list topped by another band of noise-punks from San Francisco. I gave the #1 slot to Thee Ohsees’ Sucks Blood last year — an incredibly charming, yet off-kilter record of hazy garage pop. I was floored by The Hospitals early in 2008, a group that Ohsees guitarist John Dwyer used to play in, oddly enough (that’s him in the video above, smashing his guitar over that poor man’s head). Maybe it exposes my obsession with the current sound of West Coast psychedelia filtered through four-tracks and trash rock a bit too gratuitously, but hey — you like what you like, right? Regardless, the obliterated genius of Hairdryer Peace cannot be denied, even if its components are a bit too jagged for mass consumption.

I listened to other things too, though: A lot of electronic music — dubstep, techno, and their various offshoots; loads of world-music compilations from stellar labels like Mississippi, Soundway, Vampisoul, Stern’s and Analog Africa; gritty cassettes and CD-Rs from labels like Fuck It Tapes, Hanson, and Digitalis; more psychedelic slow jams a la Earth and Brightblack (see below); and a whole heap of Top 40 hip hop. C’mon, that Young Jeezy record is downright enjoyable, admit it. And it’s named The Recession, for chrissakes; it doesn’t get much more relevant than that.

Enough rambling: Below the jump are my ten favorite albums of 2008, each with MP3 samples for reference. Stay tuned here on Black Plastic Bag in the coming days — there’s plenty more geekin’ out to do about 2008. And be on the lookout for our Music (& Arts) Year-in-Review issue, which hits the streets next Thursday.

1. Hairdryer Peace, Hospitals (self-released)

It may sound like an utter trainwreck, but Adam Stonehouse and the Hospitals created one of the most bizarre, liberating releases in quite some time. Hairdryer Peace is a glorious mess, one that redefines San Francisco garage in abrasive, imaginative ways ­— the new benchmark for psychedelic dementia.

The Hospitals – “Animals Act Natural”

2. Margins Music, Dusk & Blackdown (Keysound)

Reanchoring dubstep to its London roots, Margins Music caputred the city’s modern, multicultural sound, transmitted through subsonic bass and Bollywood breaks. By far dubstep’s most structurally-solid long-player—a landmark for the genre that has mutated far past the city that spawned it.

Dusk + Blackdown – “Kuri Pataka (The Firecracker Girl)”

3. The Recession, Young Jeezy (Def Jam)

Hear me out. No, Jeezy doesn’t particularly push hip-hop’s boundaries on this one—he even reinforces some of its more tiresome cliches. What he does provide is an intense, twisted perspective of 2008’s recession-era America, flaunting one of Nov. 4th’s more ridiculous anthems, “My President,” and tackling economic crisis from the ground up. “The realest shit you’ll ever quote,” indeed.

Young Jeezy – “My President”

4. “All I Have Is Memories / Suburbia,” Martyn (Apple Pips)

If Dusk & Blackdown’s output highlighted dubstep’s London ties, then the strength of Holland-born Martyn’s buoyant garage/2-step/techno/dub/house amalgam best exemplified how the genre has mutated internationally. Martyn’s recent move to the D.C. area is an exciting addition for the city’s already bubbling electronic dance music scene, and his debut full-length is sure to explode in ‘09.

Martyn – “Suburbia”

5. Imaginational Anthem Vols. 1-3 (Tompkins Square)

With a title inspired from the track recorded by Annapolis native Max Ochs in the late ‘60s, the Imaginational Anthem series is an incredible document of American Primitive acoustics past and present, drawing links from Takoma’s John Fahey to the new crop of pickers far and wide.

The MP3 below features Greg Davis’ track off of Volume 3, which was released individually in April. FYI: Davis will also be performing in the duo Sun Circle tomorrow night, Dec. 18th, at the Lighthouse.

Greg Davis – “Sleep Architecture”

6. The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull, Earth (Southern Lord)

Earth – “Rise To Glory”

7. The Set Up, Fat Ray & Black Milk (Fat Beats)

Fat Ray & Black Milk – “Lookout”

8. Guitar Boy Superstar: 1970-1976, Sir Victor Uwaifo (Soundway)

Sir Victor Uwaifo – “Agho”

9. Solar Bridge, Emeralds (Hanson)

Emeralds – “The Quaking Mess”

10. Motion to Rejoin, Brightblack Morning Light (Matador)

Brightblack Morning Light – “Gathered Years”

Hopes that 2008 would see the release of Clipse’s long-awaited full-length follow-up to their 2006 classic, Hell Hath No Fury, have been assuaged, as the Virginia-based duo instead offered up a new mixtape to temporarily satiate fans’ anticipation—especially after the glaring mediocrity of the Re-Up Gang album in August. The release is as much a promo for their recently-launched clothing line, Play Cloths, as it is for the new record, though, featuring recent chart-topping beats such as Jim Jones’ “Pop Champagne” and T.I.’s M.I.A.-pilfered “Swagger Like Us.” Download it via the Play Cloths site here.

Don’t expect a reinvented Clipse, though; Road to ’til the Casket Drops exhibits another articulate serving of the “coke flow” that Malice and Pusha T have “prototyped” (as Pusha proclaims on “S.L.U.”) over the past decade. As the album title alludes, it appears that duo’s subject matter won’t deviate from cocaine hustle anytime soon either. According to a recent interview with SOHH.com, Pusha T even explains that fear of alienating their fan base is one reason why the duo sticks to the “crack rap”:

“When Jay-Z got real rich and went real Kingdom Come, everybody sh*tted on him. That’s just what it is,” said Pusha. “I’m not trying to cater to the guy reading the Wall Street Journal every morning.”

I know, I know, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” but Clipse are seriously two of hip-hop’s most talented lyricists, and limiting their music’s content to such a narrow, morally-objectionable scope also restricts their potential as artists. But then again—as a white, middle-class music nerd who knows nothing of V.I.P sections and moving mountains of powder—I’m not exactly Clipse’s target market, along with “the guy reading the Wall Street Journal every morning.”

What makes me love Clipse so much, then? Well, even though I can’t necessarily relate to the message they’re sending, I can still appreciate the lyrical, rhythmic genius involved in penning gems like:

“To all the mothers cryin’ at the sentencin’
Finger to the judge, echoin’ our sentiments
It’s in the blood, we play the streets diligent,
Prepare for the flood as written in Genesis.”

and:

“We ain’t in the same boat,
Throw ‘em a life jacket.
Voted for Barack
McCain was my tax bracket, though”

Merely quoting doesn’t do Malice’s delivery full justice though — check the MP3 below for an excerpt from his verse on “S.L.U.,” containing the brilliance directly above:
Clipse – “S.L.U.” (excerpt)

Along with the essential Neptunes, the forthcoming record is also rumored to feature production from Kanye, Rick Rubin, Timbaland, and Scott Storch. Quite a lineup, eh? As of now, expect ‘Til the Casket Drops to be released sometime during the first quarter of ‘09.

Whoa, just got word on some exciting performances in the works by the folks at the Lighthouse, a cozy row house-turned-venue for innovative out-sounds. They’ve been hosting some really fantastic stuff lately (did you go see Paul Metzger the other week?), and these new additions are no exception: An attractive coagulation of locals and out-of-towners sure to appeal to a variety of musical tastes and mind-states.

I’m especially excited about the show next Thursday, an all-out psych-drone spaceship featuring some musicians that are personal favorites of mine: Greg Davis (playing as Sun Circle, a duo with Zach Wallace), and Ben Vida (Bird Show). Details for the 18th, along with an MP3 excerpt from a track off Bird Show’s newest record, are below, and a full night-by-night breakdown can be found after the jump. Mark your calendars.

For All Events:
1421 Buchanan St NW
Doors @ 8pm, Music @ 9pm
BYOB
$5 suggested donation

Thursday December 18:
Sun Circle
Bird Show
Kokomo
Echolalia

Bird Show – “Two Organs and Dumbek (excerpt)”
From Untitled, out on Kranky records:

Saturday, December 20th:
Lizz King
Hume
In Heaven and You
others?

Friday, January 9th:
Audrey Chen
Thomas Helton
Layne Garrett

Electronic music fans have plenty cause to motivate tonight: One of techno music’s founding fathers, Kevin Saunderson, will be DJ’ing at Gallery in Silver Spring as part of the weekly electronic dance music night, Loda. Along with Derrick May and Juan Atkins, Saunderson is a true pioneer who helped surface techno’s sound from the underground clubs of Detroit to international acclaim in the mid-late ’80s.

Loda is a relatively new event hosted by the 88 folks at Gallery in Silver Spring, which focuses on bringing national and international electronic music acts to the area, and “broaden our musical palette and understanding of the larger EDM landscape.” They’ve been featuring some quality acts in past months: from Carl Craig to the UK’s Headhunter, juxtaposed with hot local outfits like Nouveau Riche and Measax + Docindo.Dorsey.

Don’t be deterred by the fact that it’s in Silver Spring … it’s literally right off the Red Line, so no excuses. Details below:

Kevin Saunderson
Drugmules
Plus more TBA
Friday, December 5th
9pm – 3am
Gallery
115 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD
$10
21+