Strictly 4 My Underground Homo Deep House Thugs: DJ Sprinkles - Midtown 120 Blues

i'm giving queerifications & ruins a go on a new little onkyo cd micro system i got, haven't had something like that in a while, and wow it's really surprising me. all the elements that sounded like a mess to me before are clicking into place, it's really idiosyncratic and complex... and like i'm finally feeling "woah that is a bonkers beat" to a dj sprinkles track. shamefully i've never owned midtown 120 blues on cd. i think i need to rectify that.

its really expensive :(

Q&R is one of those releases which, like, you know it's amazing but kind of take that for granted (like, "well of course a collection of DJ Sprinkles remixes is gonna be awesome"), and then you listen to it again and think "hey wait actually this really is some of the most amazing music ever devised."

Midtown 120 Blues has been issued on CD three times and it always goes out of print really quickly (was lucky enough to get a copy of the 2012 version). One of my favourite albums of all time. I completely missed out on Q&R though and that's going for £40+ now.

Wow, I'm glad I bought those two records when they came out... Haven't really seen prices go so up for recent(ish) CDs, beyond the FAX label catalogue.

Looks like you can still get a copy of the Kami-Sakunobe House Explosion album on Discogs for a decent price, I'd recommend acquiring it while you still can, it's almost as good as Midtown 120.

Comatonse has both Midtown 120 and Queerifications for reasonable prices btw

DJ Sprinkles is in Glasgow in a couple of weeks, 14th August at Berkeley Suite - is anyone going? Jed?

Yes, Kraków, fancy a mini fap before? Will arrange on Facebook.

I'll probably be going even though it's a Sunday. I saw her at Subculture a few years ago and she was terrific

I'm also hoping that fap means something different in this context from what it usually means

Ha! It's an old school Ilx term for a meet up of ilxors. It stands for fancy a pint?

Paolo, fancy a pint?

Jeez, just looked up what fap means outside of Ilx.

Yeah OK. ILX Deep House Thug meetup!

That would be great jed. I'm keen to go, but my club experience is basically nil, so I'll definitely need encouragement and friendly faces!

Terrific. We can arrange shortly before then!

Took the plunge, ticket bought!

Great! The Berkeley has an upstairs bar and sit down area which is pretty chill.

I think Mr and Mrs Arika might be going too?

Yeah, it would be nice to see them too if they are. I'll drop them a line.

So who's up for this? Me and fellow ilxor MrAndyM are heading along

I'm still in.

The clips of this are sounding good - https://boomkat.com/products/purple-blue-long-trax-ep-1

45 Minute doublepack featuring some of the most engrossing House music you'll likely hear this year or any other - First in a series of three releases pairing original material by Will Long with DJ Sprinkles’ overdubs.

Tokyo, Japan-based American artists, Will Long and DJ Sprinkles, present sublime, durational deep house studies examining the dancefloor in light of contemporary socio-political inequalities and failed illusions of ‘Revolution’ and ‘Progression’.

It begins a series of three vinyl sets and eventually a 2CD package that effectively compare deep house’s original, economical aesthetics and function as the soundtrack to marginalised society, with its current position; repackaging and overproducing the same old ideas with empty sloganeering, operating as the catalyst of social trends, rather than an agent of social transformation.

They both make their point subtly but clearly. Two sides feature extended 10+ minute tracks by Will Long, created using relatively minimal means of rhythm composer percussion, polyphonic synth chords, and rack sampler vocals, while the other two sides provide overdub Sprinkles versions.

The beautifully absorbing results - which sound miles away from Long’s gentler ambient and experimental work - prove that it is possible to elicit subtle yet optimal responses with a well-selected palette of grooves and samples, in this case from Jesse Jackson and Rap Brown, rather than current vogue for showmanship and more-as-more arrangements.

DJ Sprinkles' overdubbed contributions quite literally and psycho-acoustically resonate that intention, tactfully rending a farther, lush physicality and soulfulness thru deftly applied daubs of glutinous subbass pressure, airy strings and subtly shimmering FX, really offsetting Long's trax in a whole other dimension; and via disciplined, stripped-down, full-bodied production values that rank as perhaps the deepest yet in Sprinkles’ already perfectly formed canon.

They could be taken as a call for humbleness and meditative efficiency over cliched buildups and preening vanities, perhaps a comment on “deep" house as the equivalent of a fresh tattoo or sweatshop t-shirt slogan.

Because, you know, it really does stand for a lot more.

Is that Celer's Will Long? Excited for this!

hnng

Mine arrived this morning. Gorgeous. The two Will Long tracks - "Time Has Come" (with a sampled fragment of Jesse Jackson) and "Chumps" (with a sampled fragment of Rap Brown) - are sparse and elemental, very much in the Sprinkles ballpark. Each track is embellished by Sprinkles on the flip, with customarily astonishing sonic range - enveloping sub-bass and parts that somehow sound 3D - which does kind of justify the continued digital refusenik stance. ("Protect the minor - do not upload" on the label.)

Mine arrived this morning. Gorgeous. The two Will Long tracks - "Time Has Come" (with a sampled fragment of Jesse Jackson) and "Chumps" (with a sampled fragment of Rap Brown) - are sparse and elemental, very much in the Sprinkles ballpark. Each track is embellished by Sprinkles on the flip, with customarily astonishing sonic range - enveloping sub-bass and parts that somehow sound 3D - which does kind of justify the continued digital refusenik stance. ("Protect the minor - do not upload" on the label.)

i like sprinkles but that press release is one of the worst i've ever read

Both of these EPs are absolutely gorgeous

xp I really like Boomkat's gushing, over the top Pseuds Corner style write ups. Essential purchase!

Can't wait for the 2cd release.

to be honest I didn't enjoy listening to the two EPs. All of the Sprinkles stuff is well done but it's too repetitive to listen to for an hour-plus, and the source material is a bit boring. The Simon Fisher Turner thing was perfect in its construction and duration and left me wanting more... but now it's here and it's too much.

So, how do people rate Skylax House Explosion, the new 2-disc DJ mix by Sprinkles and Hardrock Striker? I think it's pretty dope, a nice, kicking mix of straightforward deep house. I'm not really familiar with Skylax as a label, but the selection here is pretty awesome. I especially love the Lady Blacktronika track on Sprinkles' disc, with that wonderful choppy piano riff!

The Lady Blacktronika album last year was pretty awesome

has anyone heard the new 'deproduction' eps?
'Sprinkles' House Arrest' is probably the most beautiful & haunting piece of music I heard this year.

if i had my shit together i'd definitely be collecting everything she does

Read this review this AM and have been running through this excellent spotify playlist since.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/dj-sprinkles-gayest-tits-and-greyest-shits-1998-2017-12-inches-and-one-offs/

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5z8OEJXDqczRgZ6gTUuyUz

yes https://ra.co/news/75568?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

awesome. more excited about TT the lecturer / theorist than TT the artist these days tbh so very much looking forward to this.

https://toneglow.substack.com/p/tone-glow-069-terre-thaemlitz

loved this interview

idk. i don't mean to be contrarian but i thought that was one of the worst pieces i've seen with her involved. just when it started to get interesting the interviewer sort of chickened out. once he cuts down all the usual stuff and gets to his goal, which is to minimalize violence. i would want to hear someone question him on that. i just have questions about what that means and i see contradictions in what he's saying. i find it interesting that agency is an illusion except when it comes to not causing harm. if violence is everywhere, it seems like .. a fantasy? whereas the reality might be that violence should be responsibly engaged with, whatever that means. of course i like his materialist pov and find it refreshing but i've discovered that spirituality or drugs or meditation or pleasure or power are not lazy and bad things to want, they are reasons to keep living, and one can take part in some of those things without being too much of a douchebag. in fact it's probably healthiest to do so (at least for me).

her apartment looks lovely.

also think it's worth challenging terre when he drops "cancel culture" like twice over the course of an interview, like for someone who is a very contextual thinker within her particular focus to say that, it rankles 4 me, just sayin

also, the bit about authenticity not existing. i mean i get what she's saying, but ... i can't deny the sort of reaction i experience when i hear certain rooted sounds, when they're close to some kind of folk tradition. like obviously human societies of all kinds have been a nightmare but i'm tired of questioning / denying the inner hum / spiritual reaction i get from music. granted all kinds of horrible exploitative and violent practices hinge on that. but ultimately it's why i'm still alive and why i'm going to keep on living, so i'm focusing on that energy rather than putting up purity tests for everything (spoiler alert: everything will fail).

xp yeah that stood out.

i mean i always find terre interviews alternately edifying and annoying, nothing new for me, maybe this is unfair of me but her straight edgeness extends to her thinking, so even when i'm on the same page as her 100 percent i sort of simultaneously disagree with the inflexibility? not that her thinking isn't flexible, obviously it flexes a lot within its particularly context, but it can still like... flatten other subjects for which that kind of thinking isn't entirely appropriate. not sure if i'm making sense

yes that makes a lot of sense

like it's alternatively nuanced and then just very black-and-white. straight edgeness is a good way to describe it. i thought it was funny when she was talking about how she realizes how american she still is - like, that curmudgeonly midwesterness is very much still there.

and like i get an albini vibe from her sometimes, lol, she would probably be amused to hear that.

I did roll my eyes at the LGBTGDGMROGMROGONFMwhatever joke she was trying to make. But I love that he is willing to say, fuck heteronormativity if it isn't for you, I need more of that in my life

yeah totally, his positions are often extremely righteous and i love reading them

my favorite one is his evisceration of family, that has really stuck with me.