Category: SSAAC

While I have provided a strong basis for exploring the topics I am discussing, I feel wholly unsatisfied with executing this audio paper. I struggled to balance its composition and structure’s creative and academic components. I may have leaned too heavily into the research narration to support my themes. It was also challenging to balance this assessment with the Spatialization Unit and my work outside of school, and I do feel some of my work suffered in all areas due to this. My biggest takeaway from this project is to pace my assessments in the future so that instead of dedicating specific weeks or months focusing on one thing (which is my natural creative tendency), it is better to make sure I am doing small work consistently as to have proper time to consider all the possible issues I may face while working towards a hand-in. However, I feel that my references were strong, my use of the format was interesting and unique, and I could discuss ideas with passion and creativity. Overall, while an interesting exercise, I think I would like to avoid doing an audio paper next year unless the topic absolutely lends itself to the format, as I found certain moments in the paper a bit redundant when thinking about their presentation when compared to a written paper.

The Aesthetic of Failure: “Post-Digital” Tendencies in Contemporary Computer Music by Kim Cascade is a rich resource for explaining the sonic aesthetic of contemporary club music. It talks about how working in environments dominated by technology has begun to influence the sound design techniques of music created in DAW, much like industrial music was influenced by the sound of industrial environments. As this relates heavily to my personal practice, I found its discussion on peripheral blindspots to be fascinating to explore. These blindspots don’t have to be exclusively physical; they can lie at the edges of the software and our imagination in how we use the available tools. I have always stood by the philosophy of “breaking” Ableton to get the most rich, moving, and texturally interesting sounds, and Cascone’s work vocalizes this philosophy candidly. It could also provide some form of legitimacy to a genre or community that sometimes feels too abstract to define or pin down. Discussing deconstructed club more, with its sonic trends of glitching, error, and failure, could be more effective in communicating the culture, as even the term “deconstructed club” often feels derogatory to a genre whose philosophy is so much more expansive.

The other music I have been listening to and will most likely discuss in my audio paper is my friend Kasimyn’s record BUNYI BUNYI TUMBAL, released recently. When ideating on the audio paper, I immediately thought of him, as our discussions always centered around music’s relationship to society, geography, and political history. In this record, he uses club music structures to reflect on the Dutch colonization of Indonesia, specifically on a collection of photographs during the era, which depicts nameless victims caught in the crossfire. Sonically, the stretched drums and distorted samples are meant to reflect the spirits of people forever caught within this space. As a project, its strong conceptual foundation within a specific act of violence can demonstrate the deeper, more meditative nature of this type of sound and its ability to mourn and bring catharsis around such atrocities. While it does not focus as much on a club environment specifically, the fact that the structure of club music can transcend partying and provide a rich examination of history and oppression can become a strong argument for the genre as a reflection of anxiety in modern society.

I wish to use two experimental electronic songs/records released in the past couple of years as my main sonic references. I feel that it is important that my examples are contemporary electronic music, highlighting the most immediate aesthetic trends in the genre to support my argument. The first is the Attachment Style by KAVARI, as its use of distortion and resonance within dance music speaks to a more violent, cathartic, and aggressive form of EDM. As an artist that deals a lot with themes of physical pain and discomfort, sexual violence, identity issues, and psychological dissociation, her music represents a lot of the challenges and trauma in the modern youth. The fact that her philosophy around sound design is so in tune with physical sensation and the emotions connected to such sensations speak to the intuitive and intensely emotional nature of club music today. The fact that the bones of old dance music genres such as drum and bass are still recognizable in this track also grounds it in tradition and can contextualize the discussion of deconstructed club in older dance music genres so that anyone unfamiliar with the genre has a basis of which to judge and examine it.

My main challenges with creating this audio paper are sonic considerations and pacing. How do I use the opportunities the audio paper format provides to service the themes I am discussing? While I have found it helpful to be able to discuss sound design techniques and music alongside actually playing them when talking about literary references, I have found it challenging to implement them satisfyingly without simply reciting them through voice. However, I feel that this does not service the format, as it could easily be made into a written paper. One method I have found was using an AI voice modulated with fx as a narrator, as being able to process and modulate the narrator’s voice can be used to highlight the sound design techniques and philosophies being discussed more directly. However, I would like to find more methods of using the strengths of the format as to avoid directly transcribing an audio paper into written form.

The first part of my research explores Noise: The Political Economy of Music by Jacques Attali. It is a discourse on music as a reflection on Marxist production theories, where four stages of music represent societies’ modes of production at different points throughout history. The section I find most striking is its ideas around sacrifice. It explores the idea of ritual sacrifice as a means to avoid and channel potential general violence in society and music as an act of murder and violence to redirect power. This is a strong framework to examine current deconstructed club music whose mutilated and distorted aesthetic can reflect individuals’ struggles with modern society and anxieties around human atrocity and manipulation by technology. It specifically talks about creating and soothing anxiety as a rhythm and exercise of power within music. I found this phenomenon in my experiences with underground club scenes in Tokyo and London. By providing examples of modern club music that express these same intentions, I can bring the idea of sacrifice and reclamation of power as a perspective to explore the genre and its conventions (or lack thereof).

My topic will relate most heavily to Low-End Theory: Bass Cultures/ Subcultures/ Youth Cultures. I feel that this topic can dissect how a specific culture around sound, music, and specific sonic phenomena relates to creating genres and communities. Deconstructed club and contemporary club music is somewhat of an abstract space, which doesn’t have as strict of founding in a specific place or city. Instead, it results from clashing influences and inspirations supported by the availability of information in the digital space. It is incredibly hard to pin down, and I feel that this part of the curriculum could potentially bring insight into the community that I am participating in as an artist and writing about as an academic by examining one that has formed and seems to have already reached its peak. Sessions on science fiction seem like they would support my research as well due to it tackling themes of dystopia and anxiety around the future being expressed in music. Potentially examining how sound has functioned within speculation of the future and represented fears surrounding that will provide a new perspective on the music I am discussing in this paper.