UW-Madison Ethnomusicologist in Da Capo's Best Music Writing '06

hastings | 11/02/2006 9:59 pm | Emcees Without Voices

I've been holding this for a week, but since the Fader went and posted re: their own contribution, might as well get this out of the way: Wayne Marshall, who completed his ethnomusicology grad work* at UW-Madison, has a piece in Da Capo's Best Music Writing 2006.

There are a bunch of other things re: the book itself that I will hopefully post here and elsewhere, but for now, read Marshall, on Reggaeton and Fruity Loops:

^{"reggaeton is digital music par excellence. it is, for better and for worse, fruityloops music--just listen to the unmistakeable sound of the FL "pluck" instrument in countless reggaeton songs (yes, even those on the daddy yankee album). such wide adoption of FL, and its concomitant effect on the sound and style of contemporary music, isn't so far-fetched, or shameful for that matter. i heard it through the grapevine that the mighty chrome riddim was built on FL. and i swear could have sworn [my bad--see here] the kinda-grimey bionic ras riddim was made with fruityloops, too. (the bass tone gives it away for me, not that the south rakkas crew haven't been advertising their use of FL with those silly robot-voice intros.) of course, a lot of grime producers and dubstep producers freely admit to FL being their primary tool, and the software is increasingly being used by producers across the board, even if some don't admit it. as techno producer jeff samuel puts it:}

A lot of people don't want to say that they use it because it has a stupid-ass name, and had gotten this reputation as a toy and not a serious program, but who cares? There are a lot of really established techno artists who are using it. I hear the kickdrum that's in the blank template when you open up the program all the time. (XLR8R, may 2005, p.34)

and though the program, and its ease of use, can obviously make for some lazy, unimaginative music, its user-friendliness and, yet, its flexibility and power mean that a great many more people are making music these days, and the world is no doubt richer for it, despite needing a few more filters (perhaps) to weed through it all. and that's what mp3 bloggers are for, no?"

• Read the full text of his Da Capo-anthologized post/piece "we use so many snares" @ Marshall's old blog.
• He has moved posting to an eponymous site right here.
• He's a post-doc fellow @ the University of Chicago.
• If you're in Chicago Nov. 27th, he'll be spinning @ @ D'Vine 1950 W. North Ave, Chicago, IL 60601

  10pm - 2am. No cover. w/ resident DJs Zebo, Hess, and Chump , "More of a head-noddin' than a hip-shakin' night, so I'll be pursuing slow end of the low end theory." Incidentally, that's about 2 blocks from where I once lived, mere feet from the city's yipster epicenter.

• Listen to his most recent album, Boston Jerk. Extensive liner notes precede/surround the tracks: "Recorded between Kingston and Cambridge over the course of 2003, Boston Jerk is my attempt to create a critical ethnographic recording, a sonic version of my dissertation , or, as I put it in the liner notes, "the synthesis to my analysis." Below you'll find the full audio, the liner notes, and a brief explication of each track. Boston Jerk is also available via cdbaby or iTunes."
• His old blog has a sort of Thoreauvian-I-went-to-the-woods moment right here: when i went out to UW-madison to study ethnomusicology, i knew that i wanted to "work" on hip-hop. no, they weren't teaching about hip-hop at UW, and i really didn't need classes to tell me what was up at any rate. what they were teaching was method--the tools to use to understand this big, complex, socio-musical monster. (and not monster meaning bad but monster meaning good.) i wrote my master's thesis on the development of dj premier's sample-based style--from the loops of "words i manifest" to the stabs of "you know my steez"--and the relationship between primo's steelo, street/underground resistance, authenticity (aka, the real), and (the threat of) copyright litigation."

Notes: *this period--or maybe just when he was working on his dissertation--seems to have also included "academic"ally-inclined excursions to Jamaica, time in Boston/Cambridge, where he got way more press, including a Fader plug. All I found in a cursory search of Madison press was this piece re: local music bloggers, (excavated and excerpted from the Daily Page google cache):

Local, music-oriented sites to spend some time with when the boss isn't looking (By Al Ritchie)

No need for a jewel case , Wayne Marshall (a.k.a. Wayne & Wax) simply publishes his "albums" online. His latest, Waste Management, is a home-recorded collision of contorted electronica and oddball rap inspired by, among other things, Ted Kaczynski and the Cambridge Department of Public Works. Check out "Buggin'" and "Song for Sharif," or start with W&W's two previous albums, also available here.

Incidentally, I couldn't find a copy of his dissertation in the library--presumably because it's some sort of AV-intensive mixed-media thing. Got his master's thesis right here though--more details to come.

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