It’s been an unquestionably awful year for countless reasons, not least the news that Steve Aoki has recently been nominated for a Grammy (while both are essentially devoid of any and all romance, it’s still appalling).
Communally we have grieved for the loss of mentors, of poets, of visionaries, and of peers and fellow human beings. The recent tragedy in Oakland, California, in which 36 people lost their lives in a warehouse party fire, has only served to underline how we as a community share these stages of grief. It has shown how we help one another frame and understand this grief, and how we might honour the memory of those lost. By continuing to produce and participate in music, and in all creative expressions, we allow ourselves to reflect, renew and rehabilitate. By coming together despite obstructions and damages to our liberties – whether it’s Trump and his disturbing disregard, or the lockout laws and their entirely unsubtle motivations – we refuse to give in to the passivity of the individual.
As the neurologist Oliver Sacks once wrote, “[Music] has the unique power to express inner states or feelings. Music can pierce the heart directly; it needs no mediation.” Music is memory, music is therapy. Music is composed of nothingness. It is inherent in every part of our being – in the everyday sounds we hear and feel, in the natural world as the simplest form of communication, and in the organic rhythms of our physical constitution. It affords us the most basic and beautiful platform of expression, in marriage with dance.
We will never forget the 36 victims of Oakland’s Ghost Ship warehouse. Nor will there ever be another Sharon Jones, Mose Allison, Leonard Cohen, Dave Cash, David Mancuso, Sir Neville Marriner, Marlene Marder, Prince Buster, Rudy van Gelder, David Bowie, Pierre Boulez, Prince, Merle Haggard, Phife Dawg [below], Sir George Martin, Colonel Abrams, Jean-Jacques Perrey [above], Papa Wemba, Billy Paul, Gato Barbieri, Maurice White, Leon Haywood, Alan Vega, Vanity or Paul Kantner.
Their memory is in our shared experience, and in our memories they helped define and shape.
This week’s playlist
Max Graef jumps aboard the Apron Records bus with the jazzy lo-fi Apron EP,Nina Kraviz takes a typically jilted and skittishly effective approach to her Fabric 91 mix, and check out Bradley Zero and Rhythm Section’s recent NTS radio show, a live recording of their pleasantly meandering Sydney gig.
Recommended:
FRIDAYDECEMBER 16
Hans Down 007: Ben Fester @Slyfox
SATURDAY DECEMBER 17
Picnic One Night Stand: Tornado Wallace@Jam Gallery
SUNDAYJANUARY 1
Field Day: Chance The Rapper, Booka Shade, Childish Gambino, Newham Generals@The Domain
SUNDAYFEBRUARY 12
Hot Since 82: Open-Air Concert@Royal Randwick
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 21
Raggamuffin All Stars: Shaggy, The Wailers feat. Julian Marley@Hordern Pavilion
