Jam session: 2022-01-17

MVG, MPC Live II
Tia Harvey, Vibraphone
Chelsea Koziatek, Flue
Emery Marc, turntables & Koala Sampler

Photo by Paul Blenkhorn on Unsplash

Session Live

Mostly Detroit Shit.

Photo by Casey Horner.

1\|3WJ3I4$3Y

STEBEWSO

Performing with the tx-6 and borderlands granular.

tx6_01

Performing with the tx-6. Locked in at 140 BPMs. Buckle up.

tx6_02

121 BPMs on the tx-6 with assists from Borderlands Granular and Bloom 10.

tx6_03

Photo by Dan Cristian Păduret on Unsplash.

dust

tx6_04

tx6_05

Late night live from the longest running community hip-hop night in Philly. "The most raw. The most ill. The most authentic." FAME ONE on the mic. Me on decks. Everybody else on the dance floor. RIP Krazy K.

After Midnight Live From The Philly Gathering

What happens when you go digging Tuesday morning at Peoples? Listen and find out.

Peoples' 45s

Digging is a competitive, archival practice through which hip-hop DJs and producers discover source material for making music. They search basements, flea markets, record stores, and other locations for vinyl records they can play or sample to make hip-hop music. This practice extends back to Jamaican soundclash traditions where rarity, scarcity, and secrecy translate to cultural capital. It encapsulates a crucial ethos of hip-hop culture: search and discovery.

Our class practiced this longstanding hip-hop tradition by going digging one day in a local record store. We sought to hone the skills that make up this larger practice: listening with the eyes, inferring about sounds from artwork, examining the grooves of the record for possible drum breaks, tuning into the names of musicians on the back covers, and listening not only for what the break is but what the break can be. And don’t forget the dollar bin! 

Digging can also be deeply personal. You come up on a record your grandmother used to play when you were young, a record your father had, or an image on a cover that reminds you of home. Vanessa bought a record because of the futuristic looking image on the label. Stephany bought a record because it had a song referenced in a book we read. Rowan bought a record because it reminded them of their mother’s marching band. 

I used the records students got while digging as source material for this piece. As such, the piece explores the sensibilities, memories, desires, and aural inclinations that guided us through the archive -- chopped, screwed, sampled, pitched up/down -- what we found and what found us.

Class Diggs (an experiment)

Records mostly bought, made, or pressed in Detroit. 
Photo by  Vinícius Henrique.

102J38CD

People Still Make Beats

Veteran DJ & crate digger. 
Maker of beats with kids. 
Music miseducator.

Em.

Pinned to spotlight

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