Threads 05.11.20
We Have Sound 20.11
Music
Kuma – The Sound Of Breathing is the Sound of the Tide
Jessica Moss – Opened Ending
Triad God – China Town Everyday
HRZL – AAAAAA
Triad God – So Pay La
Manonmars – 6 Walk/Resurrection 33
Mark Templeton – Burning Brush
Cktrl – Robyn
Gil Scott Heron – Winter in America
Mr Beatnick – Luxette (Breakplus Remix)
Jah Head – Bald Head (version)
Mad Professor, Mafia & Fluxy – Alien Invasion
Nelson Bandela – Blames Jake
Reepa feat. Shogun – In The Rain
Jay0117, Brotherhood, VET., Sangy – Find My Way
XP Burstgang feat. Murkage Dave – Sometimes
Mez – No Manners
East Man & Walton – Screw Face
S8JFOU – Analog Things
Etch – Naitsri Complex
San – What I am Seeing
Earl Grey – Wiretap
&apos – Yesblāāb
Lilt Elision – Terek Becoming Lupin
Aho Ssan feat. The Mensah Imaginary Band – Outro
John Beltran – Soft Summer
MFSB – Love is the Message (Larry Levan Mix)
Simplicity
I find comments about what a dark year 2020 has been to be a bit trite. The outbreak of Covid 19 virus did co-inside almost to the day the start of the calendar year, its creep into Europe and the US, followed by its subsequent gallop across the world a perfect inverse of spring into summer in the west. This last year we also saw flash-points in our society; state brutality followed by unrest – elsewhere we saw news of the increasing intensity of forest fires. Our public discourse has been polarised too – at best turgid; more often incendiary.
Divisive politics, a stretched society and a dangerous pandemic however, are not accidents of timing, they are noticeable effects of years of the inequality of economic systems, and the advance of our mastery over the world we live in outpacing our understanding of the effects of doing so on it. Whilst the events of 2020 were compound rather than accident, the most recent serving politician in high office in America was representative of all of them, and their re-election or non-re-election important for the trajectory of our times. The prescience of this decision by the public of America weighed heavy on all of us, the chaotic manipulation to established democratic systems – and more importantly to truth around it was equally perceivable. For a week it felt that we were fatigued and disorientated to such an extent that gravity and the turning of the earth were noticeable.
At this point, these issues remain unresolved however it does seem that the way things are going that particular whirlwind might have been slowed. If that does happen we are only given a moment to catch our breath; we drastically need to make changes to how we are living on this planet, in our societies and how they overlap the natural world. In the face of such work, it is easy to dismiss messages of simple positivity, but in order to do what we need to surely we have to find a way to be kind to each other – to try and understand each other.
On the day of the US presidential elections I saw a clip of the Sun Ra Arkestra performing to queues of voters in Philadelphia, and was moved to tears. This was not a Political act, it was not a trying to change the course of the election, simply to encourage it to happen – for people to enact the powers that they do have, and to make that act something hopeful and human; an act of community. There are complex issues facing us all this year, and whilst we might see an eye in this storm, there will be more bad weather come. We will need a collective resolve to tackle increasingly complex problems. Sometimes the simple ideas however can cut through; love must be the message.