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music: july 26

resonance, and a loud july of trip hop, dub techno and acid house

/ 4 min read
abstract wave of pink, blue and red brushstrokes, like a sound wave mid-swing

In physics, resonance is what happens when a vibrating force matches an object's natural frequency. The object picks up the vibration and starts moving with it. If you pluck a string on one guitar, a string on a nearby guitar that is tuned to the same frequency will start to vibrate on its own. Similarly, something resonates with a person when it meets a frequency that they already carry, such as an existing memory, belief or experience.

This idea is super interesting when it comes to sharing stuff with others (like music!). Resonance is the feedback that you receive from a person, and it is based on that person's own movement or energy. Personally, resonance is my favorite kind of feedback, because it happens on its own and is therefore authentic.

For example, imagine playing or sharing a track with a friend, and later hearing it at their place or seeing them play it on Spotify or Last.fm. That's resonance! If someone actively tells me, "This is a cool track", it's aimed at me and may just be politeness or signaling. However, if they play the track for themselves, I can trust that they really like it. The same applies to books, restaurants and films: you recommend something, and later you see your friends enjoying it. It even goes beyond recommendations – sometimes you do something a certain way, and a while later you see a friend doing it the same way. In my head, I think "wow, I see what you are doing there; you paid attention!"

The funny thing is that you can't actively seek out resonance. The moment you ask, "Did you ever listen to that record?", the answer becomes performative. There's some social pressure attached to the response. Resonance has to happen naturally; you can't fake it.

My favorite example: a couple of years ago I gifted my parents a vinyl of Traumprinz aka DJ Metatron – Loops of Infinity (A Rave Loveletter), assuming it would just live on their shelf. Recently, we were talking on the phone and I recognized it playing in the background – they had put it on themselves, just like that. I was like, "yeeeeah, this is so cool!"

Here is my listening journal for July, all tracks on Spotify.

Haze

  • Album: Kyle Bobby Dunn – Kyle Bobby Dunn and the Infinite Sadness (soft drone ambient, very Stars of the Lid, subtle sadness despite the title)
  • Album: Serenity Complex & Aika Mal – The Garden (cute trip hop release from two dancefloor producers who got tired of the club; fav track: The Garden)
  • EP: The Bug – Ladybug 1 (feat. Dis Fig) (trip hop + bass, ambient dub, illbient; the label calls it a fusion of Massive Attack and Basic Channel, heavier and stranger than most trip hop; the vocals keep decaying into dub; this is the first in a new series pairing Kevin Martin with a different female vocalist each time; so cool I can't pick a fav cut)
  • Album: Mark Ernestus' Ndagga Rhythm Force – Khadim (Senegalese mbalax rhythms and vocals, combined with minimal Berlin dub techno; tribal, very viral, groovy, almost infectious; saw them live at LGW25)
    • Great mini documentary featuring Mark Ernestus and the band, on the origin story and present day touring
  • Album: R.O.W.S. – 6.05 (dub techno at first, slowly turning melancholic and progressive, with a big Traumprinz vibe; R.O.W.S. is Martinou and Eletun Selona, who passed away in 2024 – Martinou finished their unfinished tracks alone; fav track: 11.1; unfortunately youtube only)
  • Album: Function – Aeternum (Existenz) (ambient techno and acid, warm and a bit sci-fi; fav tracks: Ascent (slow ambient techno opener, feels very 96 rather than 26), City of Luz (acid ambient techno), November 29 (acid + electro in one))

Strobe

  • Album: Decius – Decius Vol. II (Splendour & Obedience) (acid house + dance punk, very hedonistic and fun; fav tracks: Queen Of 14th St, Walking In The Heat)
  • Album: Decius – Decius Vol. I (the 2022 debut, sexier and less punky; fav tracks: Look Like A Man, Quick Reliefs, Come To Me Villa, Roberto's Tumescence)
  • Album: Batu & Donato Dozzy – Exhale (Batu's Bristol bass meeting Dozzy's atmospheric techno; more bass and percussion than usual for Dozzy, who Batu says has an unusual appreciation of bass and soundsystem culture; fav tracks: Drift, Emergence, Bloom, Exhale, Off Axis)
    • Recorded in about three hours, all on the fly, in Dozzy's studio – which has no chairs, to keep the process "active and upright"
  • Track: Forest on Stasys – "Deprogramming of Reality" (hypnotic driving techno, gives off the vibe of an alarm system going off, with a surprise brass melody on top)
  • Album: Octo Octa – Sigils for Survival (warm acid and deep house, ranging from progressive tracks like Hypnotic Cycle to breaky ones like Rituals to Exist & Connect; my fav track is the downtempo sound of ...To The Divinity of Gay Sex; her first album in seven years)
  • Singles: Black Rave Culture – "Jump on Da Floor" & "Herengracht" (super cool sound – what is this, bmore club? looped ghettotech vocal on the first track; looking forward to the whole album release)
  • Compilation: Shannen SP (curator) – Mzansi Bass (gqom and more, the "real current underground" of South Africa; broken kicks, heavy, sweaty; curated by Shannen SP, who put me onto State OFFF back in February; fav tracks: NOPS, Alarma, Midnight Session)
  • EP: Efdemin – Mirror Phase (minimal acid techno, somewhat spacey and atmospheric, very energetic overdriven kicks; fav tracks: Unity Grain & Mirror Phase, which samples DJ Minx's voice)
  • Album: Madonna – Confessions II (my fav Madonna album is Ray of Light, a proper 10/10; on this new release, My Sins Are My Savior and Betrayal have that same downtempo trip hop throwback feel; the rest is dance-pop and a bit kitschy, sometimes over breakbeats, mixed as one continuous set; fav tracks: Fragile, My Sins Are My Savior, Betrayal)

Thanks for reading!

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