See Moir Music: Where's June?
I'm back and the month is almost over
Where I’ll Be
Taking a break, that’s where. It’s been a minute. A rough minute, equivalent to about 3 weeks. A lot has happened. I’ve celebrated Bandcamp Day, buying music by Black artists. I celebrated Juneteenth, buying more music by Black artists (and White artists too) from Bandcamp, who donated their 15% cut to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. I did a lot of non-music things too, like taking bystander intervention training from Hollaback, watching videos from Juneteenth Conf and Juneteenth Book Fest, plus reading a lot.
I also “went” to Digital Mirage 2 and Abracadabra TV virtual music festivals, and checked out the local Noise Pop garage sale (where I bought too many t-shirts). The Twitch music community has been a delight.
Just Announced
Sat June 27 @ 5 PM — The Roots Picnic, featuring H.E.R., Sza, Janelle Monae, Michelle Obama, Tracee Ellis Ross, Kerry Washington, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and others in an evening-long festival with performances and “appearances”. It’s about voting. Vote, y’all.
Fri June 26 – Sun June 28 — Club Quarantäne, featuring Dixon and Palms Trax and bunch of other DJs I’ve never heard of but are probably amazing. Maybe I’ll manage to make it to some Club Quarantäne sets.
These festivals already happened yup. Both of them will be posting sets on YouTube over the coming weeks, so stay tuned:
Fri June 12 – Sun June 14 — Digital Mirage 2 got postponed out of respect for the #BlackLivesMatter movement. The lineup featured A-Trak (drum machine set), Aluna, Baauer, Big Gigantic, Boys Noize, Chet Porter (underwater), Chromeo (DJ set), Dombresky, GRiZ, Hot Chip (DJ set), J. Worra, Kaskade (redux set), Netsky, Oliver Heldens, Party Pupils, Robotaki, San Holo, SG Lewis, Shiba San, Snakehips, Wax Motif, Whethan, Yung Bae, Zhu (club zhum set) and more.
Fri June 12 – Sat June 13 — SET hosted another virtual festival, featuring Marsh, Nox Vahn, Verlk, and others. It’s still a tough time for music, and this is a local promoter doing what they can to stay afloat during this time. <3
Livestream highlights
A few weeks ago it seemed like the heyday of livestream festivals had died down, but I think it just settled into a new steady state. Most summers there are festivals every weekend all over with music that I might or might not want to be tuning into, and it turns out that a shelter-in-place summer can end up in the same situation.
There are also more artists settling into individual streams and building more dedicated artist or record label audiences on Twitch. When I have been listening to streams, I’ve been working through the recordings on my quaranstreams playlist on YouTube, and really it just feels like there is SO MUCH MUSIC these days.
The first week after George Floyd’s death, I didn’t listen to any livestreams but I did watch several recorded DJ sets by Black DJs.
Africa is Not a Jungle, featuring DJ Kabila, Xtetiqsoul, Karyendasoul, Hyenah, and Black Coffee. Hyenah has a track in his set that talks about anti-racism that really caught my ear. I couldn’t track it down so I messaged him on Instagram and he said it’s coming out in September or so. So get hype, that’s only 3 months away. (5 hrs, YouTube)
Themba played a set at Defected Virtual Festival (1 hr, YouTube)
Black Motion also played a set at Defected Virtual Festival (1 hr, YouTube)
As I settled into seeking out more diverse DJs in my everyday music habits, I enjoyed these sets at Digital Mirage. None of the sets are uploaded yet so I’ll just let you know what you missed and then share some links later:
Matoma’s set at Digital Mirage was probably my favorite.
Wax Motif and Boys Noize also played excellent sets.
Griz played a powerful set, featuring Black musicians and footage from his point of view at a #BlackLivesMatter protest in Boulder.
Party Pupils were fun, I discovered them last summer when a DJ that I saw at Goldroom’s boat party set played the Party Pupils mix of Lauryn Hill’s Doo Wop (That Thing).
New-to-me DJ sets that I enjoyed were Cat Dealers, Elohim (she collaborates on tracks with Louis the Child and Whethan too), and Vintage Culture.
I also watched a bunch of Twitch streams, finally tuning into an Akira Akira set on the Mad Decent channel and wowwww I’d been tuning out before his sets started in the past and that was a mistake. I’ll be keeping a closer eye on him going forward, good stuff. RAC has also been streaming 3 times a week and it’s been fun watching him live mix tracks and samples.
Okay Abracadabra also had a livestream festival this weekend, that’s Blond:ish’s record label and it was outstanding. I loved the chat all weekend and every time I tuned in there was great music. Every set felt like it ended too soon. My favorite sets (most of the sets I caught):
Themba played on Friday night, great stuff. Ended up buying several tracks that he played since they were on Bandcamp.
Blond:ish and Diplo played on Saturday and both played amazing sets.
Birds of Mind played after Diplo and were very good, another new DJ duo to keep an eye on.
Tuned in today intending to watch Qrion’s stream but checked in on Abracadabra and a DJ called Ameme was playing and he was super good. I stuck around and never made it to Qrion lol. Planning to check out this set from Ameme tomorrow (YouTube, 1.25 hr).
Other notes
Recent great releases
Chloe x Halle put out a new album, Ungodly Hour. I’d never heard of them until about 2 days before their album came out when a Black outdoor photographer I follow on Instagram, wildginaa, started posting her favorite songs and bunch were by them. Then 2 days later, Disclosure, Robyn, and other artists are sharing this new album. It’s great. Give it a listen. And follow Gina, her photography is incredible.
Polo & Pan have a new single, Feel Good.
Chromeo put out a Quarantine EP, Quarantine Casanova. It’s pretty fun.
Moon Boots also put out a new EP, Pure Moons Vol. 1. My favorite track is Sundae.
Shamir also released a single, On My Own. I was lucky enough to see him open for Stars at a show at The Fillmore a couple years ago and he was a DELIGHT onstage.
Frigid Armadillo also released Roam in a Day and well, if you’ve ever watched a DJ set, shazammed a song 4 times in a row, and then realize the track isn’t released yet, and then two weeks later watch another DJ set, hear the same track, shazam it again, get sad, and then realize IT GOT RELEASED in between those two sets, well then you’re me and that track is this track. Thanks to Black Coffee and Themba. And Frigid Armadillo.
If you want to diversify your music library too (hopefully yours is in better shape than mine is/was), I put together a Buy Music Club list of my favorite Black artists, and you can also check out http://blackbandcamp.info/ for 2000+ Black artist recommendations with music on Bandcamp. I did a pass through the recommendations list for new artists when I first spotted it and it was around 400 artists, but there are genre classifications now that should make it easier to explore and find some new artists. I haven’t gotten the chance to listen to my music library much at all this month so I don’t have any more recommendations, sadly :(
Shazamming while Dancing
Still keeping my quarandjed playlist updated with my favorites from all the live and recorded streams I’ve been watching. It’s 106 hours of music and counting now, wow.
Favorites of late:
Dennis Cruz - El Sueño (played by Blond:ish)
As mentioned, Frigid Armadillo - Roam in a Day
Le Tigre - Overmono (played by Joe Goddard)
Omar Souleymann - Layle (Boys Noize Remix) (played by Boys Noize lol)
Bélier feat. Ri-bass - Va A Caer (played by Blond:ish)
DJ Kabila feat. MXO and Slyso - Tarubawo (played by DJ Kabila)
Read Moir Music
Club Quarantäne has a takeover from Ash Lauryn who curated resources for all of us to learn more about the Black contributors and founders of the electronic genres we know and love today. My book list got a lot longer reading Ash’s resources. I’m planning to buy the following:
State of Bass: The Origins of Jungle/Drum & Bass by Martin James
Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco by Peter Shapiro
Bass, Mids, Tops: An Oral History of Sound System Culture by Joe Muggs is currently out of stock, but planning to check that out soon too.
A shorter essay about R&B is here too: Tell It Like It Is: A History of Rhythm and Blues.
Pitchfork published an essay about Bandcamp, if you needed more reasons to buy your music there first: This Is How Much More Money Artists Earn From Bandcamp Compared to Streaming Services.
Rolling Stone published an essay about Rewriting Country Music's Racist History, and Pitchfork reported BMG to Review Historic Contracts for Racially Equitable Compensation. Lots more to absorb from a reading perspective, and lots more action to take from a reparations perspective going forward. Thanks for being here.