Listen to “Make Space 36” on Spotify
A few weeks ago, Deadbeat and Sa Pa contributed a mix for the RA podcast series, a live recording of a recent set from Hoppetosse in Berlin. I haven’t listened to it yet—not sure why—but it did prompt a return to Deadbeat’s Radio Rothko from 2010. To my mind, it’s the apotheosis of dub techno, propulsive and swirling and loose and breathy. Years ago, when I commuted on Metro North from Harlem to southern Connecticut for my first teaching gig, Radio Rothko was a core text—the sound of graffitied tunnels and blurred trees and winter sunrises, the city dissolving into the burbs.
One morning, I took a sip of coffee just as the train lurched forward. The lid wasn’t on tightly enough, and blistering hot coffee splashed over the front of my white dress shirt. When I stood up in shock, a portly woman sitting behind me gazed up at the mess. “Oh dear,” she said, stretching the vowels into a lazy drawl. She returned to her book.
A bunch of the other riders on the 6:05 AM train were investment bankers (young, male, wingtips) commuting to Stamford. I despised them. I’m sure many of them were good dudes, but I still despised them. I assumed they were elitist and self-important, an assumption that itself was dripping with elitism and self-importance. One guy’s morning routine consisted of wrapping his maroon scarf around his eyes so he could sleep. To be fair, it looked pretty slick.
Last week, I led a writing workshop on the personal essay. One student underlined the way that her topic had evolved. She had planned to write about X, but then X led to Y, and Y led to Z, and ultimately she realized that X wasn’t actually that interesting in the first place. There’s a metaphor in there somewhere…
In the spirit of Deadbeat, I considered devoting this entire playlist to dub techno— classics from Basic Channel and Model 500—but I’m sure those playlists already exist. (Fact check. They do.) Anyway, X led to Y (maybe include a bunch of Kompakt tunes? Stars of the Lid? A thirty minute Ricardo Villalobos remix?) and Y led to Z, which was actually something like X².
X² = Pub’s “Summer” = the core text in this week’s syllabus, 16 minutes of liquid bliss. It’s something like a masterpiece. I could listen to it on loop for hours. Dub techno? Sure. I guess. But that doesn’t feel quite right. It’s too majestic, too serene. Rob Mitchum recently reminded me of that Phil Lesh bit about how the Dead’s “‘Dark Star’ is always playing somewhere. All [they] do is tap into it.” Maybe “Summer” is always there, too. Turn on. Tune in. Drop out.
The rest of the playlist aims to buoy that vibe. Not unlike “Make Space 35,” it’s music for horizontal dancing. I just put it on. A thunderstorm is cresting over the foothills. Looks like rain.
Thanks for listening.
Your bud,
Ross
Art @ Hasisi Park