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C103
Article; from Feature 'Life is what you make of it'
GROOVETECH LONDON
STUDIO
CRAIG RICHARDS
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Craig
Richards / groovetech internet radio
studio / webcam view
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On the
evening of September 11th, the first anniversary of the
Twin Towers terrorist bombing in New York City, groovetech
internet radio broadcast a live set by Craig Richards
that provided a surprising new insight into the Fabric
resident's musical interests and lifted the mood on what
had been a pretty weird day.
By logging-on
to the groovetech site and downloading a free copy of
RealPlayer - the application that enables you to receive
radio online - you can select broadcasts by DJs playing
live in London or Seattle. An interactive window on your
screen provides a portal into the studio through e-mail
(no requests) and a web-camera that observes the DJ at
work from a limited range of wide angles. The overall
effect is oddly intimate. Space and time compress, locking
'voyeur' and 'narcissist' into a contract that allows
both to be in two places at the same time. One alone at
home in front of a laptop and the other performing to
a faceless crowd.
Expectations
of a signature style set of beat-mixed tech house and
breaks were confounded as the first four tracks were dropped:
African Roots' 'Act II Dub' (Basic Channel), King Tubby's
'Cold Hearted Dub' (Jamaican Recordings), Love Joys 'Jah
Light' (Basic Channel) and Rhythm & Sound's beautiful
'Jah Rule' (Basic Channel) - the latter a minimal rhythm
of guitars, synthesiser and drums punctuated by rim-shots
and cymbals. This music was premium quality; broken down
to the bone, pulsating, rootsy and tech-edged - after
only fifteen minutes the vibe was so deep that I was blissfully
comatose in my chair.
Next-up
the sound of pigeons accompanied by a sheet of metal flexing
so that it sang like a Cantonese opera singer doing jazz
vocal warm-ups in the park. Cue Kev Hopper's 'Waiting
For Baby' from the album Whispering Foils (Duophonic),
a lilting lullaby featuring the most soporific glockenspiel
solo you'll ever hear in your life. The pace quickened
to slow on the next track, 'Late' by Opiate (Electric
Tones), an awesome layered piece of tech bossa nova
over a flatulent baseline with an Afro-sounding keyboard
melody looped over the top. You can't give this music
a name. It is appropriated, sampled, re-mixed, loved -
new stories being told with old words.
Bits of
John Beltran, Barbara Morganstern, Two Lone Swordsmen,
Bugge Wesseltoft, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Jimi Tenor later
saw Richards bopping and head-nodding around the SL-1210s,
but with equanimity the slow jam was reinstated by playing
'Radio Burning Chrome' by Showroom Recordings (Cheap)
at 33bpm instead of 45. It shouldn't have worked, as they
say, but it did.
A day that
had been marked by melancholy and a sense offoreboding
was thus seen out by two hours of uplifting downtempo
sublime.
Article reproduced from CIRCA
103, Spring 2003, p. 55.
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