Episode 1: Reviews of Sandwell District's "End Beginnings," Hieroglyphic Being's "Dance Music 4 Bad People," Marie Davidson's "City of Clowns" and Marshall Allen's "New Dawn."

MusicWeek: A Roundtable Review of the Latest Electronic Music Albums

Monty Luke and critics Christa Walley, Inbal Gordon and Dom Bartmankowski discuss and give analysis of this week’s latest Electronic Music album releases available now in most formats.

Albums:

Sandwell District - End Beginnings (The Point Of Departure Recording Company)

Hieroglyphic Being - Dance Music 4 Bad People (Smalltown Supersound)

Marie Davidson - City Of Clowns (DEEWEE)

Marshall Allen - New Dawn (Mexican Summer)

Co-hosts:

Christa Walley, DJ and cultural producer. @christabelle.club

Dominik Bartmański, cultural sociologist at Humboldt University Berlin and author of "Vinyl, The Analogue Record in the Digital Age." @analogdomain

Inbal Gordon, Resident DJ at Refuge Worldwide. @madameshazzam

Genres: Techno, Lo-Fi House, Jazz, Electro

Monty Luke is a Berlin-based DJ, Electronic Music Producer, Radio Host and owner of record label Black Catalogue. He has remixed and released music on labels like Rekids, Hypercolour, Planet-E, Ostgut Ton and many more.

MusicWeek comes to you live and direct from Berlin, featuring reviews of the latest and best album releases from the spectrum of Electronic Music.

For more information on the MusicWeek podcast:

Monty Luke on Instagram: @monty_luke

Black Catalogue on Bandcamp.

Transcript

Christa: 0:00

Yeah, shout out to the track title, Push Me, Fuckhead.

Monty: 0:13

Welcome to Music Week. My name is Monty Luke, your host, and we will be reviewing the newest in electronic music releases and beyond. Joining me this week, Christy Wally. She is a cultural producer and Berlin-based, all-around, multi-faceted human. Inbal Gordon, who is a Refuge Worldwide DJ and radio host, and Dom Barkowski, who is a Humboldt University cultural sociologist. Our first album for review this week is Sandwell District and Beginnings. Let's start off with you, Krista.

Christa: 0:55

Well, first off, thanks so much for having me on the show. Happy to be here with such a great group of people. First off, Sandwell District, I know that they started as a record label and collective like around 2002 and through all the DJs who have participated, they've encapsulated a lot of old school, like Birmingham sound and Los Angeles sound that has gone on to influence a lot of music that we hear in Berlin today, such as like, you know, Oscar ton predominantly, and a lot of the DJs involved are also bear kind residents feature dominantly at this club. When I was listening to this Sandwell district release, I was totally on that That journey with them, I was thinking, wow, this sounds like a bunch of people who have been heavily involved in this history, who are totally masters at their craft, having fun in the studio. At the same time, I felt like, at first, I felt it was almost a little bit too clean for me. Like, it's almost so pro that, you know, where's the edge thing? But then, just the other day, I went to this new space and Berlin Riethaus. It's on the water. It's got a 4D surround sound system. And you're meant to go there and go on a journey with the music and experience something. And I have to say the whole space was so minimal and pushing wellness that it made me feel unwell. And I actually think something like this Sandwell District album is what I wish I would hear in a space like that. It's so beautifully tailored and all this sounds are so like delicately placed and exactly in the right moment and this kind of techno does bring in ideas of dystopias and this record has you know even in the track title themes that kind of resonate with political unrest and discomfort I think that we've been experiencing over the past many years and you know it kind of has the music has a point and the music has a direction and I think that this is the kind of music to go on those deep listening journeys with. I think these people also know hi-fi sound systems very well, which also suits huge club sound systems, so I'd love to see it live. But initially I was like, yeah, it's almost like more deep listening than it is like a jacking techno record or something.

Inbal: 3:35

For me, it was also really well produced techno. I did enjoy way more the latter part of the album, or the I found the last three tracks way more compelling and way more interesting. My favorite tracks were Centritus Acid and then also Hidden. I really liked that there was like a little acid synth line in Hidden that made things more interesting than like the usual techno-y vibe of the rest of the EP. I thought as well that they used really well like the spacing and the When it comes to the mixing, you know, a little padding for the vocal samples, Restless also had a really nice arrangement. But yeah, overall, like, I just felt like it was very well produced and in a good way. But I think the last three tracks for me were the ones that I actually connected with the music more and actually felt some kind of like energy or like some kind of of a message coming through i also saw that like the last track was called the silent servant so i i i looked later and then i saw that they actually knew him yeah like i i tried to actually only listen first to everything he

Monty: 5:00

might have been a part of the collective or something like that

Inbal: 5:02

yeah and i i actually really like that track as well i thought it was very emotional and yeah it was quite short that one if i'm not wrong but yeah i definitely like the last three chucks, more than the first three.

Monty: 5:15

Okay, Dom, your thoughts on the Sandwell District album and beginnings?

Dom: 5:20

Well, you just so eloquently described that and it really overlaps with my own feelings, initial feelings. I'm not sure if I can add something so to speak very different or original. One maybe short characterization would be that it's immersive, meditative mid-tempo techno that I like I cannot listen too much to very fast frenetic stuff or at least not that often anymore and I very much enjoy exploring this mid-tempo territory so to speak and I think the album is very consistent in this way there's There's not so much variability, but it's a good thing. And this is what I mean also, that it was quite immersive and meditative. I felt like I'm on a certain kind of journey. And I think one of you mentioned before that it somehow is almost like a perfect music for Berghain. And I think for me, this is what Berghain originally stood for, namely this more mid-tempo, atmospheric stuff. And while I was thinking about it and listening to it, album I thought you know that kind of techno is like all is so perfect as you said it's so intricately crafted like sounds are so nicely arranged and perfectly placed it's like the art of placement really when you think right acoustically and musically it's so amazing that I always feel in those moments when I listen to an album like that that it was always it has always been meant to be played in cathedrals yeah And maybe that's why also Berghain sometimes is described as a cathedral of techno or a temple of techno, right? And there's this interesting similarity, elective affinity between a cathedral and a techno club like Berghain. I think part of the reason why those spaces like Berghain have been so successful and kind of iconic is precisely because they have this almost awe-inspiring religious aspect to it. And that music, for me, is music for that kind of space this cathedral related experience and atmosphere for

Christa: 7:53

sure and on top of that I think what's cool is that they are doing it as a group because also I think before when I you know some of the artists who have been engaged in Sandville District over the years are like yeah Regis Function I don't know the Silent Servant track is just a tribute or if he was actually a part of it but these are artists that sometimes music production can feel like quite a solo and lonely pursuit or it's one person in a room with like a you know in the perfect corner of the V between their speakers trying to listen and recreate where they're gonna you know the world that they're gonna hear this music in so the idea that a bunch of friends can get together and make this kind of art and it seems very fluid uh i think is like quite a beautiful thing it

Monty: 8:47

is yeah you're right moving right along album number two hieroglyphic being dance music for bad people dom your thoughts

Dom: 8:57

yeah that that's uh a quite a different a different album even though we might place it broadly speaking in um techno slash um dance music electronic music um territory um I liked how we do have different tempos here and I like how you know unlike the Sunwell District which is like more dubby and bass heavy you have like a lot of high frequencies in this album this is something that struck me again how intricately and meticulously this like high frequency sound design really contributes to this variegated atmosphere of the album album so even though I have to say in the past when I was listening to hieroglyphic being stuff like it was a little bit like hit or miss for me sometimes I loved some some tracks and others I couldn't find my entry into them I couldn't really it didn't resonate with me but this album I have to say somehow pulled me in and again like it would be important to listen more and give multiple listens to really do justice to to to to what's going on because it seemed to me that there's really quite a lot going on so it's not an album for like a quick and you know immediate consumption rather it's something that invited me I felt like I want to actually spend a little bit more time with the album that was also something like yeah I guess from my point of view an interesting experience because I feel like artist the artist invites me to their world you know so this is how I felt about this album that would be my first description in ball your thoughts

Inbal: 10:47

yeah this was actually my favorite out of the four this week when I first read the tracks name I thought was great like as a package it was really thought out like everything made sense to me and overall as like a as a piece of art I really enjoyed it I thought I was very very interesting so yeah I I I recommend listening to it.

Monty: 11:15

Cool. Krista?

Christa: 11:17

Yeah, so I have been familiar with the name Hieroglyphic being for quite a long time, like ambiently, but I think I'd maybe never heard a track by him. And listening to this record, even though I knew subconsciously I knew the name, I felt like I was kind of listening to a really like bold debut. It reminded me of like back in Vancouver we have the Pender Street Steppers one of their debut records has this track Temple Walk on it actually my radio show Bubble World is named after a track Bubble World by the Pender Street Steppers off that same record and it's got this it just feels like you can hear the studio and there's even I think it's track three on this record a reverb comes in it sounds like the reverb of the space that he's in and I found myself wondering if it was analog or if it was digital and it sounds analog but I was also like if it was digital or he digitally manipulated it. He did such a good job of fitting that into the analog aesthetic that he's going for. Either way, it's like a total W for me. And then, yeah, I looked a little bit more into the past of his music and learned about some of his history on the streets in Chicago and almost living in nightclubs because it was warm in there and then also being this super smart kid who excelled in school. through this all i just felt like it was very honest and real but yeah i'm like curious to go back and listen to what the other music sounded like because i was like yeah what a great first record by this by this up-and-coming musician which um you know like with all due respect and and i will go back and listen to the rest of the catalog

Monty: 13:02

yeah i will say and um just to add uh jamal um went through the last couple two three years he went through a string of like we're releasing a ton of albums and I would say that like that phase and this album is included in that all pretty much has very similar sound to it and this is this is a continuation of sort of that new sort of that current sort of like era that he's in in terms of his production what I personally know about him is that yeah he's mostly analog I'm sure there's some some digital stuff going on in the back end but he's you you know, purely like, pretty much like an all analog kind of guy. But the name of the album is Dance Music for Bad People by Hieroglyphic Being, and it's out now on the Small Town Supersound label. Our next album, Marie Davidson, City of Clowns. That is on, God, I don't remember the name of the label, but we will start with InBall.

Inbal: 14:08

Yeah. So I thought that the name city of clowns really made sense while i was listening to the actual music it was quite interesting because for me i was like wow what a high level of production and the way they used the space really made sense for me it's like some elements sounded far away from me some sounded closer to me so i was like okay this is very high and very high level of production techniques um but yeah it has a lot of pop elements into it it's very catchy bass like Very like cold dark pop maybe a bit of synth wave vibes The first name that popped into my head was in the beginning Molly Nielsen, but she's not as like it's a bit different And I think what I wrote that was like interesting tracks for me or favorite tracks as demolition and And then I also like the YAM, Y-A-A-M, Soul Wax version. I thought it really makes you dance. And I think I also heard like a little Eamon break in there. I mean, yeah, you hear it all the time, but it was kind of nice. It was a little nice change up from the rest of the album. And yeah, that's what I got on this one so far.

Monty: 15:30

Okay, Dom.

Dom: 15:33

Yeah, very, very interesting work. Maybe what I picked on first is actually that right in the opener in the first track you you hear fragments of a pretty well-known book on surveillance capitalism and this is this is actually you recognize that yes yes because I this is pretty well-known book and I know and I have this book I read that book right and and then I was like I think I recognize it this is this is a this is this kind of, you know, thing. And I checked it, I have to say. And indeed, it is discussed, actually, that, you know, the album, this first track, but the album, you know, as a certain kind of overall concept, is really a kind of, you know, a social critique, if you wish. We talked a little bit about it while discussing Sandwell District, that this is also a certain kind of a coded commentary, let's say, and just what makes it exciting. And here it's like really quite explicit, right? It's not a sonic metaphor. It's not a composition that kind of transmits that message, but it's like right there. It's like the artist wears it on her sleeve, so to speak, right? And that commitment to critique of contemporary power structure, which is fueled by AI surveillance mechanisms, how it impacts us, a little bit of a dystopian, obviously, quite obviously a dystopian kind of vision. And I think also the music itself kind of exudes that, you know, it's cold, as you said, right? It's not just in terms of genre, new wave, cold wave kind of stuff, but it is a cold sound, mechanical sound. So for me, there was this like interesting feeling of ambivalence, right? Because there's this critique of like, well, digitalization and AI can lead us that actually is leading us in a pretty dystopian direction right but the music itself is also you know very much part of that world it sounds very like digital cold mechanical on purpose for sure right but at the same time there's this kind of you know feeling of like irony right that it's this inescapable condition right we're in it and we're actually using also like it's good and but at the same time, right? What is good about it has also this shadow of like surveillance and lack of freedom and total control, lack of privacy, all those things that we are quite familiar with. But I think maybe we also need to be reminded of, and I think it's not so common, right? Because in electronic music that has largely and mostly, you know, celebrated a hedonistic side of life, right? It's actually quite interesting to see someone like so conscious inviting for, you know, that kind of reflection. So that's what stood out for me when I was listening to this album. And, you know, like the titles as well that you mentioned, like Demolition, things like that, you know, I kind of like that. And there's the electro-clash aesthetic as well, you know. So like there's this very interesting correspondence between this, you know, kind of verbal message and the sonic aesthetic. I found it quite interesting. And this irony, the ambivalence in it, right? Yeah.

Monty: 19:07

The name of the album is city of clowns by marie davidson on the d we label krista

Christa: 19:13

yeah shout out to the track title push me fuckhead um yeah i think for me this album is so great and so fun um interesting she's

Monty: 19:27

quebecois

Christa: 19:27

no she is quebecois shout out shout to canada shout out to my homeland um Yeah I think so Marie Davidson a couple years ago had her huge breakout track Work It which got you know hugely played remixed was kind of across the board and everybody loved it and I respected it but there was something that I think prevented me from really loving it as a track which was that it was it felt like her lecturing us about the state of the world and it was like girl you know like uh we all know that like we're slaves under capitalism and we all know that like you know the conditions are rough and and i liked that um she was talking about it directly but because it was like the beat and then her speaking over top of it instead of her even just like singing with it it yeah it felt like i was just listening to a lecture that i didn't ask for whereas with this record she's singing her perspective and I think it takes much more of a like Depeche Mode personal Jesus kind of direction that I am so excited about in music because I think for a long time we have been and I've been more tuned into things that are like culturally coded and maybe not making a direct stance on and like I say Murray Davidson kind of missed it for me with Work It but here she totally nails it and it is like it's fun and it's sassy and And it's musical and it's Frankie Goes to Hollywood and it's like Pet Shop Boys and but in this like cold wave thing. And I think it really symbols symbolizes two things for me. One, that music is getting really good and fun because times are hard. And also this idea that one of the futures of electronic music is in bands and band aesthetics. And I think we're going to see a lot more producers forming bands, having bands. and having live shows that look a lot more like a traditional concert

Monty: 21:40

I personally hope that that actually is not the case and I do know where you are riffing on that from I know Sean Rinaldo just recently was it Sean Rinaldo in his newsletter

Christa: 21:52

I think he said something about Avalon Emerson's band I'm not saying necessarily it's a hope but I think it's a direction that's interesting

Monty: 21:59

yeah

Christa: 22:01

I don't know

Monty: 22:01

personally I don't want to just because I am in this sense I'm very much a purist about the aesthetic and the paradigm of dance music and what it's supposed to be about it's not supposed to be about us standing in front of some fucking stage with some people fucking playing down to us you know what I'm saying and that's I totally see what's happening in terms of that and I agree it's definitely something that we're seeing more and more I don't like it

Christa: 22:30

it's more fun to fail as a group that's true though

Inbal: 22:34

yeah

Christa: 22:34

but also i think i think we're seeing more musicians who are vocalists who participate in underground electronic music going in the band direction though like um i don't think that even you know the silence or sorry uh sandwell district with regis and um function and function and everybody i also kind of see that almost as like it's not banned but it's uh collective even remember the big one a Fortet, Skrillex, and Floating Points, right? It's like, I think bands, supergroups, collectives, like, and I totally hear where you're coming from, and that's a good reflection that, you know, electronic music is its own thing, and it's not meant to be consumed in the way that bands have been traditionally consumed, but I think there's something about group dynamics that are coming to the forefront.

Dom: 23:27

Yeah, that's for sure. I mean, think about this formula, right? First common in electronic music that you have like just one person standing there you know focused immersed in the process of generating all those sounds right I think you're absolutely right about the group dynamic when you see people interacting I think that's very very important point it seems to me that there's a certain kind of magic to that group dynamic when you see people together on stage right interacting between themselves and with the audience.

Monty: 24:07

It's cool when I go see a band, but when I go see a band, it's what I'm expecting. But when it comes to dance music, I feel like it's just me being a weirdo purist, being around for so long. I just don't like it for dance music.

Christa: 24:21

I don't think it's a weirdo being a purist about wanting to protect the original aesthetics and intention of being a music producer. So you raise good points, Martin.

Inbal: 24:34

don't sell yourself short I mean I think it's also what attracted me to this kind of music because I actually came from a background of a guitar player like I used to sing and play songs and sometimes with other people and I think for me it was quite what I wanted I wanted to step away and just be in an environment where it's all about the music not so much about being on stage and for me it allowed some kind of like also meditation vibe going on for me as a person while I play a set or whatever and I still think you connect with the people it's just in a different way it's more like in a spiritual way rather than look at me I can do this with my guitar or whatever

Dom: 25:18

except that you know electronic music culture also you know became very much about worshipping personalities yeah but that's not right so I'm with you because this is also like what originally attracted me to to it right and you know when i was like a teenager i couldn't even you know witness most of those guys doing their live shows or dj shows honestly i i knew it from from records from you know cassette tapes and mixtapes things like that and maybe that you know preserved some sort of mystery about those artists right but what we what we see now you know three decades later is like it's totally a cult of personality you know like when there's a party everybody faces the dj booth right and i know there's quite a few djs who say like don't look at me like don't pray to me right just have fun like lose yourself in music because people rarely do actually this is this is the truth right this is what i meant also that maybe this this this tried and tested and also very interesting classic formula is to a certain extent exhausted you know and it's very hard to find something else and i think maybe that's why people try to bring you know import the band formula from another genre because they feel like this can dynamize you know the performance because let's face it it is about performance right i wish it was just about music

Christa: 26:46

i know

Dom: 26:47

right but it isn't and we all know it and we have to face it that it's rarely just about music

Monty: 26:54

the name of the album is city of clowns by marie davidson on the dewey label next up our last album for this week Marshall Allen, New Dawn. And we'll start with Krista.

Christa: 27:11

This one is just wow. This artist is releasing his debut record at 100 years old. And I think I lack the jazz vocabulary to even express how important this record is. But listening to it is just like a journey through time and space. I actually didn't even realize that he was the band leader of Sun Ra's archive before listening, which was really cool because there's some cosmic sounds on the first and last track that are that classic kind of theremin-esque sci-fi futurist, Afrofuturist sound, but the music is so laid back. I was like, wow, I feel like I usually hear music like this that's a little bit more, you know, pushing something forward as opposed to hear something that's just so calm and just like, I don't want to say groundless, because all of this music going back to Sun Ra's orchestra is incredibly grounded but it's it's like cool calm and collected kind of vibes and then it goes into like again lacking some of the jazz vocab I want to say there's a track that's a bit like bebop or goes to really not like not the kind of jazz that we're used to hearing in a notable release in this day and age so yeah when I found out that this amazing person is a 100 years old doing this I just thought how lucky are we to be able to hear something like this and it reminded me a bit of like when Quincy Jones died recently and I went back into his back catalog and saw all of the eras of music and all of the people that he was connected to in one lifetime and how amazing that is I mean when you know yeah he had like friends born in the late 1800s you know and then going up to producing for Michael Jackson and everything so I think this is almost like an even headsier version of that more psychedelic version of that kind of legacy and it's just yeah it's profound

Monty: 29:16

Inbal

Inbal: 29:18

yeah I absolutely love the prologue I thought it was beautiful the whole album is a jazz album it's pretty much like a masterpiece great mixing I like the vocals on New Dawn it was quite a surprise to have a little vocal and I thought that Sony Dance was really cool because it was really stripped down and slowly all the elements build up on top of it so the arrangement there was really interesting and it kind of keeps your ears peeled I don't know if you can say that about ears but I just did so I guess you can and I thought that Angel and Demons at Play had a fantastic bass line and overall as an album like as a jazz band album it was great

Dom: 30:07

yeah fantastic album I have to say that I love that kind of sound and I was immediately reminded of you know Miles Davis albums from the late 60s and Lonnie Liston Smith and Cosmic Echo sound from the 70s so that was you know quite simply quite wonderful to be immersed again in that kind of that kind of sound, very life-affirming, soothing and calm, you know, in a way, you know, to go back to Mary Davidson's album and social critique kind of coded in the album, I think that this is like a perfect antidote, you know, to this like dystopian aspects of contemporary surveillance capitalism and this everything that goes with it, right? That's the kind of vibe a kind of sound that is an antidote to these darker forces that as you said we actually know quite well all too well right to the point that we are even I'm completely with you irritated when we are kind of lectured sometimes about those things right like come on of course we know we don't need to be reminded of it rather we should maybe do something about and I feel like Marshall Allen does something about it right without It's just like telling us, but inviting us into a kind of a sonic atmosphere that is like really so beautiful, uh, raising cosmic consciousness. I'm tempted to say, I think you can

Christa: 31:49

say it in this

Dom: 31:49

case. Uh, right. And as you said, profound, that's a, a very good word, uh, quite, quite sublime really. And, uh, yeah, makes you, makes you feel good. Uh, but not in a shallow way of just being relaxed but in a more profound way that I can't even find good words to describe right now but the feeling is there and this is what this album means to me like it has more to it and it invites multiple listens I think.

Inbal: 32:23

To me it felt like a sunrise I don't know if it's the name New Dawn but while I was listening to it it felt like a shred of hope like there's the next day kind of a thing.

Dom: 32:31

Absolutely I thought that you know that the having the second track is New Dawn, right? Having this as a, you know, so to speak, you know, a mood setter was great. And then, you know, you go through the album and there's Angels and Demons that I think is like absolutely amazing track as well, right? And so for me, that's definitely, yeah, perhaps the favorite out of four, but it also nicely corresponds with Sandwell District's, you know, cathedral-like cosmic vibe but in a different genre and I think although it's clearly identifiable as a jazz album it also goes a little bit beyond right like it really expands the borders of the genre even though of course it's not like completely original in a sense that you know Lonnie Liston-Smith for example or Miles Davis and many others did that kind of thing before but it's just so nice to have it you know a new incarnation of that sound right now so I love it it's great piece of work. I'm going to

Monty: 33:36

really bust up this love fest over this album and say that I was actually disappointed by this record. I think that the expectation personally, I completely am aware of Marshall Allen and his history and his connection to the Sun Ra Orchestra and maybe that's why I was a little bit disappointed about how traditional this album was in terms of its sound, in terms of, you know, to me it felt like this is an album of compositions that you know have been sitting around for a while I found I think that like yes he's a hundred years old and maybe it's asking a bit much to be you know for this guy to be groundbreaking but I really felt like even within this sort of rubric of jazz that this felt very safe um and i was expecting more

Christa: 34:38

did you want to hear like the dmt release swan song from the mind of a genius

Monty: 34:43

i wanted to hear i was expecting more cosmic i mean the name of this album suggests something new something to look forward to something you know uh forward looking and i wasn't getting that i was just getting not even contemporary jazz it almost feels And my jazz sort of vocabulary is also very limited, I will admit. But it really felt retro.

Dom: 35:15

I think you're right. But at the same time, it makes me think about what you said about feeling it's like a sunrise, right? And, you know, there's a new day. And in a sense, it's the day like the others. You know, there's an eternal return of the same, right? It's a cycle rather than... unilinear progression where we expect constantly something new, right? But it's like an affirmation of the fact that, no, we are more in the life cycle. We are in repetition of the same, which is slightly different, but identifiable as the same, right? And the sunrise, I think, is an interesting metaphor for that. Sunrise is always the same in a sense, right? But we welcome it. So I'm with you. I think I know what you mean, because when I heard this album, I didn't think that there's anything new in it. like I was immediately reminded of Miles Davis was doing this stuff 60 years ago right Lonnie Liston Smith 50 years ago and many others after them but I approached this as a new sunrise which means something that I know but something that also makes me feel like I'm in contact with something good and important in this sense right

Inbal: 36:24

I think it felt like not anything like super fresh like everybody says but it did feel like something is blooming you know or like Yeah, like we said, like a sunrise. There was nothing groundbreaking whatsoever, but just, you know, things were like slightly stripped down and then elements were building up and the arrangement and things like that. There were like slight changes, you know, slightly things that in the jazz world you do, but not necessarily in that way. So I did feel it was slightly a bit different than other jazz records I've listened to. But it was just... Just like very well produced and just tasted good. You know what I mean? It's like a nice meal.

Dom: 37:09

Exactly.

Inbal: 37:10

Like it's not like a Michelin restaurant, but it's a pretty good restaurant that you'll go

Christa: 37:16

again. I can understand some of the disappointment from your side, though. I think being like the only black person in this conversation right now, like your relationship to Afrofuturism would also be different than like mine, for example. And I think of people like DJ Stingray who I've spoken to and has talked about people mimicking electro rather than pushing the ideals of electro forward like this was supposed to be music about technological advancement and where things could go and you know this artist carrying like the past present and future of Afrofuturism like on his shoulders in a sense I could understand the build up of anticipation and then to get something that's just Bye. Thank you

Monty: 38:07

for having us.