Instrumental: Toward a Sound Science of Hybridity

"Hip hop is all kinds of forms." - Afrika Bambaata

"These fragments I have shored against my ruins." - T.S. Eliot

"Appreciate and enjoy our music with an open and relaxed mind." - Ravi Shankar

Growing up listening to hip hop has profoundly influenced the way that I perceive music. All the music I listen to (and there's a lot of it) is heard through the pricked ears of a musical scavenger, a cultural thief, a postmodern re-assembler, a hip hop producer. Whether I'm listening to Ornette Coleman, J.S. Bach, Umm Kulthum, or Bob Dylan, I'm constantly hearing snatches of sound, sublime little units that sound infinitely repeatable. My love of music operates on many levels, but I have realized for some time now that part of my brain is always processing on a hip hop level: Oooh, I could definitely jack that! That’s an ill little sample right there! Play it again, Sam, and again and again (oh yeah, and throw a breakbeat over that shit).

The music on this disc celebrates hybridity: specifically, the hybrid nature of American music as exemplified by the omnivorous appetite of hip hop. This music is coming first and foremost from a hip hop aesthetic. For this reason, a listener might be surprised not to hear any rapping. I don't think that detracts from the experience, however. I've always listened closely to the music in hip hop--not just the incredible vocals--and I find a richness and profundity in the loops and beats of artists like DJ Premier, Prince Paul, Muggs, Hi-Tek, DJ Shadow, and the Automator comparable to the highest achievements in musical expression. A great sample is hard to find, and a beautiful assemblage of great samples is even more elusive. When these producers I've named, and any of their many brothers in dust, create a dope beat, even if it's a four-second loop repeated verbatim ad infinitum, I find myself able to listen to each iteration with deep satisfaction. A great loop seems to gain significance with each repetition; the listener is simultaneously gratified by the confirmation of repeated beauty and surprised by new ways of hearing what seemed familiar.

Hip hop is my foundation, but it's also a point of departure. While I consider my music completely within the hip hop tradition, some people might be tempted to label it something else. Labels are, of course, loaded simplifications often promulgated by music critics and the recording industry, but labels can also be enabling if they help someone to relate to or communicate about music. (I certainly can't claim not to fall back on them.) So, what I'm saying is, call it what you want to call it. Still, I want to stress that although there is no rapping in these songs, the aesthetic orientation is intentionally indebted and subconsciously subject to the tempos, timbres, and textures of hip hop. However, I listen to everything (and love most of it), and so there are many other musical approaches here as well, especially from jazz and certain musics of the world. In terms of jazz, I try to sustain an improvisational freshness and sense of play in many of the songs here, from the subtle variations in drum and percussion patterns to the rhythmic flux of certain melodic fragments. In terms of musical traditions from other parts of the world, I find parallels between the experience of listening to texturally dense, loop-based music and, for example, the rich repetitions and complex counterpoint of Indonesian gamelan and the mbira of Zimbabwe (both of which scream to be sampled every time I hear them; and I confess to succumbing to the calls of the former, see tracks 4 and 11).

All sounds on this disc are either sampled or synthesized. Some might question the amount of artistry inherent to such practice, but I'll let the music stand for itself. I would argue that the forms and juxtapositions here are novel enough that they argue persuasively for their own existence. Legally, I doubt this album could ever be released in commercial channels, but that’s not my interest anyway. In the future, I will probably take a more subtle approach to sampling, using much smaller, unidentifiable fragments. But for this project I really enjoyed using more familiar sounds. Making this music was incredibly fulfilling because it allowed me to engage my treasured music collection (my wax, if you will) in a more interactive way than ever before. I truly feel like I'm jamming with the giants when I set up a call and response between Sonny and Monk, or James Brown and B-Real, or Jimi and Jimi. I hope that at least some of the surprise, the funk, the humor, and the ecstasy I experienced, even while sitting in front of the beige plastic box that allowed me to make this music, comes through your beige or black plastic box or your headphones or your car speakers. Thanks for listening.