Hamads got a glowstick

came back from Fabric (the nightclub) London at about 8.00 am. Went with a couple of friends to see Richie Hawtin spin (if you want to call it that anymore). For those of you not familiar with the Gentleman; He is considered a pioneer producer in electronic music with labels such as M-nus. I danced for most of the night but also spent the better half of it observing this guy and the way he works.

if taken out of context, the scene may just as well have been of a man sitting at his desk during any regular work day in any company- eyes fixed, peering from a face lit only by the glare of the laptops screen, and notwithstanding the occasional click and scroll of the mouse his body remained more or less static.

Gone are the turntables, the mixer, the mic, and the energy. A click here, a scroll and knob turn there and the sounds came exploding out. He uses a special program which allows users to improvise tracks on the go, and rather than remixing and producing a track traditionally, one can now do these things on the fly and in realtime. Essentially he was basically creating and rediting complete tracks right there instead of just playing a set of songs back to back.

I have to admit ive always been interested in this concept, and this was what sparked my interest in the electronic music genre. How can beeps and bleeps processed and synthesizd on machines and electronics make sense to us? how can it be music? how is it able to trigger emotions? Im not talkin about sampling traditional instruments and re-playing them but coming up with new sounds, squelches and moans that could just as well be sounds and voices of the machines which gave birth to them.

The sounds were great, the music invegorating. It challenged me, kept me guessing, then surprised me. Where did i learn about this? i dont recall anyone sitting and telling me what sounds good and what doesnt, never recall having anyone tuning my ear or educating me on the art of sound. Our appreciation for music and rythme seems to stem from our collective unconscious as humans. I often ponder when on our timeline of existance did humans first begin to relate and identify with the experiences of sounds and music on an emotional level.

We live in a very interesting time, and are now close, i believe, to coming full circle musically from where we were. One could debate the assumption, and question the linear nature or lack thereof of music development but thats besides the point. From the days of the first frantic log banging by our primordial ancestor, our sounds have always been categorized by emotion and energy and instruments. Everything from tribal drums to swing music, had always involoved energy and instrumentation of some sort.

Interestingly enough though, now at the pinnacle of our existance and innovation, where one like Hawtin is able to create in realtime ideas and sounds rushing through his head without nessecarily having to write music or play an instrument in the traditional sense, we see a clear absence of the elements we traditionaly came to accepet as inevitable to the process of music creation. The physical act of blowing through a wind instrument or striking a string have been replaced by the almost sensual touching of the mouse. The extroverted energy of a concert is now the subtle, inconspicuous, and sometimes ethereal process of creation unfolding infront of us. reactive. responsive. writtin then and there for the now and present. Customized and targeted.

Many remain doubtful of new technologies. Digital photograpy, digital music, etc. An overwhelming desire to hold on to the old and maintain the elitist view of specialist areas. the same people who prefer traditional cameras feel digital photography discards what they consider an essential part of the the image-the process (developing, etc) They might be interested to know that the same stance was taken up by advocates of painting in the early days when photography and the camera were invented. it must have been much worse then. How dare anyone think that with a click of a button one could call a piece of art an image which would have have otherwise taken a master painter months to paint through years of experience and learning. Same is true here. New technologies in my mind are not an obstacle or a threat, they are instruments. And if they happen to facilitate or eleminate some process or technicality then so be it, the bar will eventually raise itself in another area previously unkown.

I predict a day when every person will be able to do anything. Any person will be able to expressive themselves musically, artisticlly, vocally, and other ways we probably cant imagine. Let us not get held up and caught in minute details and forget the underlying messege at hand. A Messege of expresion and self thought. Of being able to free what is inside us without having to look for the way to do so. I predict a day where thought will manifeste itself instantly in any form and through any medium. A day when we will finally be able to escape the gravitational hold of our own mind, culture, and lives and at last set our thoughts adrift in the cosmos that is our existance.