it is, unfortunately, time for another break from this newsletter. i’ve been pretty happy with the quality of this “season” of recs, and i think a lot of that is down to me taking a break after the first season and letting myself stew in some Good Content for a while. i’ll be back at some point next week for ✨ s e a s o n 3 ✨.
in the mean time, here’s a low-key season finale of recs:
thanks to Sam for reccing the new brockhampton songs, “N.S.T” and “things can’t stay the same”, which are not only typically great but also set me off listening to a bunch of their old albums. they definitely have a very definite and singular Aesthetic, which i’m trying to pin down, thus far unsuccessfully…
another great edition of andrew key’s “roland barfs” film diary this week. film buff or not, this is always an oddly soothing read in lockdown: key is often very frank and upfront about the difficulties he faces writing, how he often pauses films to do something else. (he also just read spinoza so there was a lil point of contact there for me as well.) he also, of course, writes very elegantly and delicately about all the films he watches. i’m yet to follow up on any of the actual recs there, but i really should; check it out.
still slowly getting through that radio series “the strangeness of dub”. there was a wonderful moment in episode 2 where they talked about the expression of the memory of slavery in dub and reggae via nietzsche’s writings on the “untimely”, which absolutely sideswiped me. i basically only hear philosophers names when reading (about) philosophy, despite that being the exact opposite of what i think should happen (the smuggling of philosophy into areas it has hitherto been excluded is why i love mark fisher so much). anyway, they played some burning spear in episode 2 or 3, i forget, which is supposedly seminal, socially conscious reggae. i probably wouldn’t have thought much of this beforehand, but “the strangeness of dub” has really opened up reggae and dub to me as a rich social and historical product and archive. you forget, treating it superficially as just cheesy stoner music or whatever, that reggae and dub really exploded in the decade after jamaican independence, and that those very recent memories of slavery and colonisation are absolutely integral to the formation of the music. even in the least explicitly “political” bits of the music — the echo on an instrument, the reverb on a guitar — it’s present.
while we’re on the topic of dub, it’s always worth chucking in a king tubby rec. i first heard “dub from the roots” a few years ago — i remember playing it very loudly in my small halls room in my first year of uni — and was really blown away by it. it’s massively spacious music… without a tight, Pop structure, it just wanders, stretches you out, all dream-like…
finally, i found this article about reimagining networks in an age of social media and big data really interesting.
that’s all folks. hope you’re all doing well while the rest of the country goes to shit - and keep sending in recs!
jake x