Double Sustenance

Published on 2020-12-12 00:00:00 by Loose Lips

So here we are, two years after I started gathering Deep Cuts contributions, one year after we published the first multi-writer article ‘Head Space‘. I talked about the upsetting UK election results in this article, not knowing just how much worse things would get, or how much life this feature would give me. Its been mad. I could go on but this months article really speaks for itself, massive shout out to everyone who has been involved and all the repeat writers, I feel honoured to work with you.__This months theme is Double Sustenance, its prompt question: ‘what music satisfies you at a basic sensory level, and also at a deeper, more conscious level (ie it means something to you)? As always, tracks from each contribution are combined in the mix embedded below, all Spotify-able tracks are gathered in this playlist, and the artwork comes from our prodigy Trav.__Stay safe, love yourselves. Will xSarah KuhailOuff, double sustenance! This theme is a thinker, and took me back to uni lectures on the meaning and role of music. I remember we had one exercise where we needed to pick a song, present it and explain why we chose it. By the end of the semester, we had a banger of a playlist, but also a clear understanding of how music cuts deep into all segments of life.Niklaus Katzorke is one of my go-to artists for feel good music, but this one in particular does hit a sweet spot in the heart, the body and the mind. It takes me back to my obsession with jazz, and the first years of my learning how to play the saxophone, a nostalgia that grounds me and takes me back to the basics, but it does more than that too. It takes me to a happy place where I wanted time to stop, and somehow at the same time it forces the face to wear a goofy smile and the body to lose itself to these tingly beats. [Manhã appears at 0:00 in this months deep cuts mix]Sarah has now finished studying in London and moved back to Palistine James HigginsDouble sustenance: the phrase puts me in mind of a new quasi-wellness-cum-culinary craze. PRs latest spin on ‘superfoods: remember when blueberries were the fruit of choice, capable of healing and energising all while fighting seasonal affective disorder and cleansing your lower digestive tract from the inside? What a marvel.Well, my musical equivalent of the blueberry is Kylie Minogue. Sustenance means to nourish, to give life; in musical form, ‘double sustenance means to feed the mind and soul. Kylie does that with bowl-brimming ladlefuls.Its hard to choose the song that best encapsulates everything I love about her. From the camp, ever-revolving disco ditty ‘Spinning Around, to the poised powerhouse that is ‘Cant Get You Out of my Head, she has excelled at producing hits. Lyrically, few songs make you want to sing-a-long more than ‘Better the Devil You Know, ‘I Believe In You and ‘All the Lovers. Even one of her latest singles, ‘Say Something, employs an irregular construction (for a pop song at least) alongside soaring harmonies in sheer whirling jubilation.She can be mournful: ‘Put Yourself In My Place finds Kylie singing “theres no rhyme or reason that keeps me playing along” as she implores an ex-lover to understand what his new-found-love means for her aching heart. It sounds like the opening in a 90s chick-flick, what more can I say. Back in the 80s, she recorded a song called ‘Its No Secret, a song about being the last to know your partner is cheating. Again, it sounds like the soundtrack for a chick-flick, but it manages to be both sad and dancey, which I think is a nice mixture.Kylie recorded an album in the late 1990s that sounded radically different from her previous work. The result, ‘Impossible Princess, was not applauded by the critics but has been reappraised in recent years. Unless Im missing something, ‘Cowboy Style, with its Celtic drums and strings, guitar licks and electro sounds, makes for an earworm. Try it.But, on to my tip, top picks. ‘Slow [4:30] builds but never quite climaxes. It gradually works through rhythmic gears; a throbbing pulse beneath Kylies lyrics which, in a roundabout way, instruct a lover to “do it” slowly. The video, of writhing bodies and suntan lotion, completes the mental image of perfectly executed seduction. 1994s ‘Confide in Me is the closest Kylie ever got to producing a Bond theme, but to describe it as such is to suggest it is simplistic or unrefined. I heard her perform this, and her soaring, wavering voice when she hit “confide in me” was probably the highlight of the entire show. Lyrically, its about asking a lover to confess their pain and desire. Middle eastern instruments, alongside dramatic strings, build a delicate rhythm to support her confident vocals: the effect is haunting. Its her best song, in my opinion.I listen to Kylie when I run (‘Step Back In Time, ‘In My Arms, ‘Magic) and when Im getting ready for a night out (‘Love At First Sight, ‘Boy, ‘Miss a Thing,). I put her on when I get home drunk and still need to dance (‘Breathe Tees Freeze Mix, ‘Where Is the Feeling BIR Dolphin Mix, ‘On A Night Like This) and when Im alone in my kitchen, lip-syncing to an imaginary stadium (‘In Your Eyes, ‘Dancing, ‘Je ne sais pas pourquoi).I turn to her music when I want to remind myself that as a child (six, to be precise) I watched her on TV in reverence. To me, she is familiar but undimmed by all the years (20, to be exact). Her music is fun, camp and unpretentious: if she has a message, and I want to resist aggrandising here, it is that three minutes of solace is worth celebrating.My mind and body are alive when Kylie sings: shes joyful, and her songs never seem to age. She is double sustenance.James is an education journalist. He wrote an Agony Aunt column in the lifestyle section Bristols student newspaper, back when Deep Cuts mama Will Soer was said sections editor.Mr.E“Thinking isn_’t the biggest requirement, it’s more about feeling… that’s what you want the person on the opposite side of the booth to do, to feel something. Thinking is work; music is something to relax yourself.” Larry Heard a.k.a Mr. Fingers in The Guardian.When Loose Lips approached me to contribute to the new Deep Cuts project, I was immediately drawn to the theme of Double Sustenance music that satisfies the body and soul.With the cold winter months approaching in the UK I recorded my guest mix whilst I reminisced of my years living in Toronto, and the influence the North American scene has consequently had on my music. Within Deep House, there has always been an intrinsic connection between the body and soul so it seemed to me like a perfect starting point to develop the concept for this mix (featuring music from: Artro,_ Boo Williams, Cooke, Devv, Meaney, Model 500, Move D,  Mr.E, Mr.Fingers, Paul Quzz, parting & Santiago B__ö__hmer_.)_ I like to think this mix is an insight into my creative process as I continue to develop my new production alias Mr.E focusing on stripped-back, minimal Deep House sounds. I have chosen to adopt this new name as an homage to Larry Heard aka Mr Fingers  whose music was the starting inspiration for my artistic concept as a whole. Pronounced “Mister-E” it is also a phonetic nod to his first track released as Mr Fingers Mystery of Love (1985).Much like this mix as a whole, my first release as Mr.E  Flashback EP __ reflects this largely personal journey of musical exploration that has led me to from the deep house of the early 1990s to the various sub-genres of contemporary minimal that I make under the name of Meaney. In Larrys style, my Mr.E alias is centred around a likeminded approach to using atmospheric tones in my chords, synths and pads.My memories of living in Canada are intertwined with the soothing, warm and visceral tones of classic deep house, the summer events I attended, and the life-long friends I made along the way. Some of my favourite parties in Toronto include Sunnyside, Nightshift, and Cherry Beach where I was lucky enough to see the likes of Move D and Derrick Carter (and review the events for Loose Lips; links to those reviews are in the parties and DJs names). With tracks titled Lakeshore and Sunnyside this EP is a direct nod to the musical lessons I learned at this point in my life. This education in melodic and soulful deep house was a huge influence on my Mr.E productions, and this atmospheric warmth is largely what semantically separates them from my more minimal productions as Meaney.I curated tracks along this same theme aiming to capture the hypnotic, ethereal and subliminal qualities of the genre that tap into the mind, body and soul. My selections feature some tunes from myself, some from good pals in the UK and Canada, as well as some classics from the original champions that defined deep house in its infancy. With music from legends such as Boo Williams, Mr. Fingers, Move D, and Juan Atkins I aimed to reflect the narrative of my musical learning process as a DJ and producer. This meant focusing on melding melodic deep house with the textural and rhythmic qualities of minimal house.As well as my EP, the mix showcases the tracks from microdose #001 the first VA release from my label microminimal. I founded it alongside my good friends parting (Canada) and Artro (Costa Rica), and the spirit of Toronto is deeply rooted it shapes how we explore minimal house as a label, as well as our weekly show on Threads Radio. I included tracks from Devv and Paul Quzz friends of the label & residents of Toronto’s All Blak Records. I ended the mix with Afterglow, from Devv’s debut solo album Hypercolour  which I recently covered for Loose Lips.Check out Mr.E / Meaneys bandcamp page here, ‘Cosmic Voyager from his microdose compilation appears at 8:15 in this months mix.

Jeff Spesh

Will SoerHello everyone! I’ve written a big old personal contribution to this article that appears at the end, but before that I wanted to highlight a really special interview for a really special band, conducted by my friend who goes by the name of Tem. His Freedom Of Groovement Radio show has focussed on a whole variety of different countries, exploring their dance music. At 34:30 in the Ethiopia episode, he talks about the local tradition of lyrical trickery named ‘wax and gold’, whereby words have a double meaning; wax is the apparent meaning, and gold is the hidden meaning. This was used in the 80s to broadcast subversive anti government messages.

Radio Tempo Não Pára · Where In The World Is: Admas w/ Freedom of Groovement

Fast forward a few months, and Tem has begun a new interview/documentary radio series named Where In The World Is, sharing the stories and voices of rhythmic sages from across the globe. Its first episode is dedicated to Admas, a group whose 1984 album ‘Sons of Ethiopia’ was only recently reissued and plucked out of extreme rarity, and Wax and Gold came up in the conversation, specifically with their member Tewodeos ‘Teddy’ Aklilu.Teddy: ‘The musical culture, is very oral, very poetry oriented, most of the aim of the music is to transmit a message, whether it’s in poetry-‘
Tem: ‘like wax and gold’
Teddy: ‘Exactly. Now when I hear music personally, I don’t heard the words really, I hear a hum, the melodic shape, like the whistle, really that’s what I process when I hear music… the sound itself is a message. It’s natural that people who back up vocalists a lot, get their kicks by playing their instruments with each other.’Admas got together in the mid 70s, after their new totalitarian government banned Western styles and started encouraging young urban bands to play traditional Ethiopian music. In 1977 the government became violently hostile towards various parts of the country and Admas fled to Washington DC, where they started playing at a lively Ethiopian restaurant, usually backing vocalists. All of America’s biggest and best music made in living memory has fed upon a lineage of black American music whose sounds display a rich platter of emotions; Jazz, Rock’n’roll, r’n’b, Soul, Funk, Disco, Hip Hop, House, Electro, Techno. Whilst Admas played Ethiopian music to Ethiopian crowds, they went out into the city and soaked up that music. The result is something absolutely beautiful.But that wasn’t the first time that any of them had heard this music; Soul made its way into the life of bandleader Abegasu Shiota, through the legendary Ray Charles. As he explained to Tem;‘‘You know My dad, went to school in Japan and brought back a couple of records, and I remember those records for years, they were basically like, old, you know, there was the Ray Charles album, maybe a collection of Beethoven’s symphony… and then nothing else. I mean, so those were the collections we had, we listened to them to death.’Tem’s show follows up this interview bite with the following classic, which really deserves a relisten. Pure gold.Admas Tez Alegn Yetintu appears at 24:00 in this months deep cuts mix.

Nana Fani-KayodeThis theme inspired many daydreams, dreams of when going out to dance is back on the list of approved activities for fun. In my head, I curated the perfect night with tunes playing that fill in all the needs. The body’s desire to move and get taken by a rhythm so sweet that your feet just have to work it out, led by lyrics so rousing, moving, maddening or even confusing that all you want to do is sing along, you know every word, have lived in every emotion uttered, thought expressed or philosophy formed, all wrapped in melodies, layers and construction that inspire hands waving and arms swaying. Tunes that don’t satisfy single parts but feed and connect the whole of your being. For some reason it felt right that it was a female-identifying space; the authors of the tunes and my running mates for the night, so yes yes to the ‘gal-dem’.Like any good night, it starts way before you get to the venue. The ritual of getting ready, building up the hype and setting your mood button for the rest of the night puts everything on the right track. The hype man for this moment is Betty Davis with ‘They Say Im Different. [27:55]Everything about this is just nourishing, it sets me on fire every time I hear it and will never fail to connect with that raw inner energy that often lies dormant. As a performer she was passionate and provocative, the track pulsates with her energy and her vocals could cut through metal, I’m convinced that she is made up of gravel and steel, sexy and crazy sharp; beautiful. The narrative is so apt too and if you don’t feel like the sexiest, most powerful beast on the planet even just donned in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt then you have not got it turned up loud enough. Davis is a character straight out of a film, her backstory, her look, her sound makes her feel unreal, but she isn’t, she’s one hundred percent straight up Boss. Married to Miles Davis at one time, mates with Jimi Hendrix, pioneer of a sound inspired by blues, funk, rock and soul mixed in with large doses of psychedelia, but all made in her image she was – and still is – a Titan. Like many pioneers, she found it hard to find a home for her music, met with controversy because of her so-called ‘sexually aggressive performances’ her sense of style and the sheer audacity of being a woman who knew herself, didn’t hide or make polite her sexuality and just rocked the hell out of what she did. Stand in front of the mirror and sing with along with the lyrics_“They say I’m different ‘cause I’m a piece of sugar cane Sweet to the core that’s why I got rhythm My Great Grandma didn’t like the foxtrot Now instead she spitted snuff and boogied to Elmore James….”_ Yes. Yes. Yes, that’s why she is the best and only hype man for the job tonight.The next tune means the night is going in. Betty Davis has set us up with the right amount of swagger, drinks have been in, we’ve carved out a space on the dance floor. Stragglers wander in, are welcomed, then gently sent on their way. Nothing has changed its still only for the ‘gal-dem’. The next tune is the crank, the middle section before the grimy drop, confidence is high, there is nothing but a love flowing through and everyone is ready to level up.‘Gimme what you got’ by Amanda Blank featuring Naeem formerly Spank Rock means it’s time for a group challenge. Who can spit all the lyrics from start to finish one side takes Blank and the other takes Naeem? – For the record, I’m always on Amanda’s side. Two other conditions; it has to be arms up, full commitment, then extra points for anyone who can inspire the rest of the space to join in until the majority of the room are in sync. When I first heard this album, I rinsed it so hard I hit a wall and couldn’t listen to it for a really long time – also full disclosure I spent summer music stalking her, starting off in Manchester then twice in London in a two-month period. Her flow is fast and hard-hitting but it’s all wrapped up in this silky tone, the rhymes make me laugh, smile and always have me shouting out at the top of my voice. This whole album I Love you feels like it was inspired by many, many nights out. It nods to 80s and 90s hip hop, pop, rock and R&B sounds, but she is doing a thing all her own. This album is an accomplished effort mixing Blank’s musical influences and styles to sharp effect. It confuses me why she isn’t a bigger name on the global music scene but like so many types carving out their own sound and refusing to stick to one space might make it hard to bottle her for an audience or the hundreds of other things it could be.  This track has all the posturing of a hip-hop battle, fast delivery, sharp similes, edge with beats to make you stomp.  Head is fully engaged and feet ready to match. ‘Gimme what you got’ is my ‘level up track, crank me up to the precipice ready to drop down into the dance floor. Bang. Bang. Bang.Last tune is played back at someone’s, mine or whoever’s to close out the night. We are playing a human jukebox to keep it fair because in this group everyone has an opinion and an internal playlist that’s always waiting to go. By this stage the love levels are at supernova, the dancing has not stopped just changed pace slightly. My choice is the mighty, mighty Kate Bush, the track is James and the Cold Gunfrom the seminal album The Kick Inside. Bush is the other side of the Davis coin, same beautiful musical audacity different musical perspectives. This track fulfills all the criteria set out at the beginning, leads the body to movement, causes the arms to sway, inspires singing out loud and extra bonus; plenty of room for air guitar and dramatic pauses. Another beautiful, magical, epic piece of loveliness from Kate Bush- she is a total master of crafting music that has a constructed narrative that can take you out of your body and transport you into a fantasy. It’s such a sexy track with deep bass rifts, Bush raises the temperature in a sultrier version of her vocal coupled with the sweetest of harmonies. Again, like Davis the narrative is central to what she does, all my senses are fully stimulated whenever I listen to her music.  In every corner are refrained, repetitions that add drama, in our euphoria the song is divided up into main verse singers and the chorus wailers meeting up for the whoo hoos and by the time it reaches the end it leads into this psychedelic rock fantasy that feels like it should be a whole new beginning.  Probably will be because I’m always down for a rewind.Nana works as a tv producer, taking initial ideas and seeing if they have legs. She is also our Sunday Jams writer, and a fucking great one too, just go to our blog section to check out the mass of rich bangers.

Jazzi BobbiThe first time I heard Never Come Back [30:18] was during lockdown 01. It was the first new song I was actually able to listen to during this period. I was finding it very difficult to listen to new music and found myself only listening to songs I already knew. In a time that was so hard (for all of us), I was desperately seeking that comfort blanket of familiarity, something to hold on to get me through those dark days. This song had that familiarity I was craving, the nostalgia of a happier time.The song starts with a throwback 80s Juno type synth and pitched vocal samples blasting you back to your favourite set at a music festival or night out. The openness of the synth in the reverb and the delay on the vocal immediately making it sound soft and soothing. The dry- barely mixed drum machine making it feel light and easy. Then you hear the lyrics talking about something in the past that “you’ll never come back to” but that “you will never forget”. Like it’s telling me I’ll never get those good times back, those festivals or hugging your friends- but then saying it’s ok because you have the memories, they’ll always be with you. It almost gave me a feeling of acceptance- this is what life is now and I gotta just deal with it. It’s what got me through lockdown.Jazzi Bobbi is a producer, songwriter, DJ and multi-instrumentalist. She collaborates and tours with Nilüfer Yanya, making a particular star turn on the saxophone in their cover of Pixies Hey,  Rosy RossI don’t listen to full albums that much anymore the eternal rainbow road of Youtube algorithms and Bandcamp recommendations means I’m too soon onto the next record. But ‘Significant Changes’ from start to finish has been a companion for the last year or so, grooving via rhythms for inner reflection and body moves. Ive picked out three tracks, but really this record should be listened to in full.‘Renewal (Hyla mix) [33:00] is a wiggling staccato fizz sending a ripple of energy through warm synth and mellow vocals. This track is a summons to the low and lonely to take energy from the sunlight, and the music is as disarming and inviting as the call.Perhaps you already know that Jayda is also an environmental toxicologist, and that she made this album to bridge her research with her DJing and producing. ‘Missy Knows What’s Up’ samples biologist Misty MacDuffee referencing a landmark court case in which the Canadian government was prosecuted for failing to protect the habitats of orcas. It’s a tense, warm-up track in a minor key claps suggest a ticking clock, there’s a bit of flanger (great fx for adding a touch of the not-right). “Why are these whales threatened and what are we going to do about it?”.‘Move to the Front (Disco Mix)’ is irresistible, a celebration of women taking space on the dancefloor. It’s so self-assured and inviting like her DJ sets, which swing with a femme energy that connects people and brings heat.Significant Changes offers politics, mental health, social observation, environmental law the ‘real world’ for us to think about while we dance. Not a selling point for most parties these days: we could all do with a night off, esp. right now. But I’ve always liked a DJ set that teaches me something about what it means to be human (see also: DJ Sprinkles, Honey Dijon, Osunlade, Eris Drew…). For me, that’s what brings music into the orbit of House and that expansive House *feeling* of kindness and kinship just as important as the escapism, which on its own is a lonely pursuit. We come to the dancefloor to lose ourselves and our heavy hearts for a few hours and we should but we can also return to reality feeling a bit more full, stronger and more inspired to be part of it.Rosy Ross is a charity fundraiser, DJ and also senior producer at Threads Radio, where she presents her essential En Vacances show, (covered in Will Soers contribution to Deep Cuts: Fantasy Realm_)._Joel BakerThe following are three tracks that keep me coming back to myself as I find them incredibly memorable. They also contain elements that make them stand out immensely within their own genres. They could be counted as squad members…It feels odd to mention this track [35:35] as it’s in absolutely no way a “deep cut” in the classic sense of the term.  For me, what gives extra sustenance herein, is the incredibly out of character driving rhythm that is present throughout. In other words, it quite literally slaps.  For a soul track, this rhythm and the way it’s mixed in the track is actually fucking Jarring- I mean this in the best possible way.  The lyrics cannot be ignored but it’s the driving punch-in-the-face rhythm that makes double sure you’re hyperaware of them. I’ve always noticed there’s something different about this classic, but it was just the other day when I heard it straight after a final thirty minutes of full power from Kortzer on the Techno and Trance Loose Lips sixth anniversary special on Steam radio that it clicked. Finally, I’d like to explain what I mean by “jarring”; in the lyrics, she explains she’s been ignored and left on the shelf for too long. She wants her needs met in the relationship (in this instance a marriage), and has had enough- so something jarring is fucking necessary to get the significant other’s attention and we all agree with her. It’s worth mentioning that Freda Payne apparently wasn’t singing about her own experience. What I’m arguing here is that the backing track (played by members of Motown’s house band The Funk Brothers although not released on the label) perfectly frames the lyrical content (however fictional it may be), creating a kind of double satisfaction (or sustenance) to the track overall.On the one hand, this is quite possibly the best poppy (hyper pop in this case I guess) UKG track I’ve heard since that revival Clubland/Hard2Beat slung out crossover hits within the mid to late 2000s.  This is kind of a flip of Dare (AM) but it’s easy to argue that it takes on such a different meaning just by becoming this late-night heater, the extra pitch upon the vocal and the drop that’s screaming out for a wheel up. It becomes a ‘catching eyes across the dancefloor pilled off your nut’ type track (what ‘Love Shy (Thinking about you)’ by Patinum did in a far more on the nose way in 2008, admittedly without the UK bassline element particularly). Whereas the original kind of sounds, like the melancholy of the comedown- where you realize it was all just the eccies and you’re afraid to call this person you thought you had a connection with or wouldn’t dare (pun intended).The interesting thing is that the lyrics are exactly the same but just take on a different meaning on each version due to this Clubland style tweak of a flip.  A flip this good provides definite double sustenance! I will admit something to you right now though, I only just listened to the ‘AM’ version for the first time just now, make of that what you will but I think we can safely argue that a track that’s kind of in two parts (they were both released on the same day but as separate singles) definitely provides “double sustenance”.Finally, this third track is one you might consider the top of the intensity scale, depending on your tastes, this gradient between these three tracks was never my intention (honestly). Although definitely dancefloor-friendly, the intensity certainly builds to about arguably the maximum even that setting can take. What I find doubles the sustenance here is the lack of sparseness. I find this kind of full-on IDM quite meditative to listen to, possibly in a similar way to how a lot of people enjoy ambient tracks. Just letting it wash over me is nicely therapeutic, simply not being able to ‘hear yourself think’ I would argue is a form of meditation (if we’re considering the usual definition to be freeing one’s mind of all thought).Joel is an OG Loose Lips crew member.

Livia CesaWhen I first heard this song [42:17] I was in living in Paris, sitting in my best friend’s apartment (probably drinking red wine) in between one music jam session and another, before going out clubbing through the night. Later I came to know that one common friend of ours had been collecting African songs in a playlist on Spotify and since then I’ve been listening to it at least a couple of times per month.On that particular occasion I remember that I was blown away by the sounds, but most of all by Fatoumata Diawara’s voice. Then I came to know her personal story, which made her even more charming in my eyes. Daughter of Malians moved in Cote d’Ivoire, Fatoumata’s life has been an epitome of struggle and resilience.Due to my studies, interests and personal curiosity I had already been in some African countries, and I was to go again and again. Yet, this is the song that stayed with me through the years and through the visits to Africa.These days, as Covid made traveling somewhat impossible listening to this song not only brings me back to my trips to Africa, but also to my time sitting on a bed in Paris sipping red wine “off the bottle” with my best friend.Livia Ce__sa is an International Development photographer. Since a young age, she has been passionate about issues such as poverty, social justice and environmental conservation. She says _“_Combining my passion for photography and my knowledge and skills in international development is my dream. I think that taking pictures of people is a way to celebrate them, their cultures and their lives while helping improve their livelihoods.” Check out her work here.Ben Duncan-Duggal_Some people think theyre always right__Others are quiet and uptight__Others they seem so very nice nice nice nice (oh-ho)__Inside they might feel sad and wrong (oh no)_That is the first verse of ‘You Only Live Once’ by the Strokes. It is fucking beautiful and if you listen to it you will find it fucking beautiful too. Go on, do it. Be with me now, person across space and time from me, as we listen together to the first choppy bits as they take your attention in, ready for the release of Julian Casablanca’s voice carrying us over the first few lines, sad and cocky all at the same time.When I listen to this song, for some reason probably the tone of nostalgia for things which haven’t happened yet, combined with the rapid pace suggesting that these things in question need to happen now and so will happen to you now, because you want them to I believe I can do anything and go anywhere and meet anyone and dance to anything.This is the first verse of You Only Live Once by The Strokes. It is an evening, not long ago, a normal evening at the top of my house in my room where a new ikea light lights up only one corner yet still manages to fill the room with just enough light, it is on my speaker and it is good and it is so so free, listening to the plaintive singing of the beautiful man who is so pained and so damaged but young and beautiful. I like someone and I think they might like me and we keep going for drinks or planning to.I’ve been caught like this before, thinking it was a more than friends thing and then it not being so. Later, I think: it scares me how polite people are, that both times this has happened I have told people all this shit and they agree, yes yes I think she likes you and then she hasn’t, people are so polite and I hate it.I feel sad because I feel rejected, and then I feel bad for feeling sad because I am a man and she is a woman and it feels like I am sad because of (gendered?) concepts of possessiveness, which is definitely true on a level but it is also because there are things that I thought were going to happen which won’t happen now, it was stupid to think they would happen but that doesn’t change the fact that I thought them, I took a knife to my own mind and etched in a thousand little scratches of imagined memories into it and now the saltwater of what happened is pouring over them and my mind hurts and it hurts and it hurts.This having happened, I have three things I would like to tell you from what I am thinking at the moment:1: I think it is ok to feel sad. It is how we express that in relation to others which can count against us (who’s counting?).2: Getting better after a thing is always difficult, even if we are just beings on a planet where hierarchy doesn’t truly matter and so when it comes to it none of it really matters. Nothing actually matters, unless you want it to.3: This one will be easier than the earlier ones (so, so many) because I am stronger than I was then. Today, after, I walked outside and the sky was blue and the sun was shining, even though it’s winter and I walked and I walked and I walked and no one could stop me._Twenty-nine different attributes__Only seven that you like__Twenty ways to see the world (oh-ho)__Twenty ways to start a fight (oh-ho)_That is the second verse of You Only Live Once, and I am listening to it in my room now, and now what happened isn’t there in my mind, I have no responsibilities and I have nowhere to be and I can do anything I want, me and Julian can do anything as he tells me about his life across an urgent melody, guitars chopping in a way which is neither sad or happy just very quick, really, a little bass just kicking it at the right moment half way through the verse to drive home the lyrics, and it is impossible not to dance and not to think you can do anything, no matter what has happened to you. Because what has happened never means more than what it is, and it does not, it can not, mean the future.And you know what? That was just the start. Here we go.**********It’s a little while since I wrote the above. Things are good with the person mentioned above. I am not sure why I included that: I deleted it because I didn’t want to muddy the piece, then reinstated it because I want to be honest. I think the initial drive to include it was part of the human bent narrative, towards finishing the narrative, to an end. But, of course, there is no end to these things, the relationships we form with other people, even after they “end” they go on and on and on, in the place where they exist with most importance, our minds.Anyway. Sorry. I was only returning to this to introduce a few tracks which fit with this one, which I will now do. These are tracks that make me feel that anything can happen, like the one above. They tend to have a quick pace, but most importantly their energy feels welcoming, bridge building, loving. These songs sell a dream of everyone enjoying everything now and that is why they fit here. [The Night appears at 47:25 in this month’s mix].

Hannah A C Matthews & Trevelyan
Hannah: As a piece of music and its accompanying video, your track ‘Humans’ takes listeners on a journey through body and mind, theres a duality between a sense of physical movement and emotional resonance. Is this reflective of your life experiences when writing the track?Trevelyan: My creativity is influenced by lived experiences, whether it’s conscious or not. The interesting thing was, where I was at the time- physically and creatively. I was making lots of Dance music, club stuff, but also just started working as a composer’s assistant in Bristol. So, I was between writing this dark brooding electronic music, then making more harmonic, melodic, composed material for work. I wanted to write something like ‘Humans’, to blend my outlets. There was a duality in the music I was listening to and making at the time the more physical, body driven stuff and more ‘emotional’ mind driven material.Hannah: You wanted to change it up a bit and did?Trevelyan: Definitely, as well as changing the music I was making, I had moved back to my hometown of Bristol so I was also changing my location too. My life was changing and with that, my musical identity. So, I guess ‘Humans’ captures that sense of transition and change.Hannah: I can really feel that when listening to the track. This sensation of moving and transitioning. How did you achieve that?Trevelyan: “Well, part of it was that I used quite an unusual musical structure. Because its not like a sort of; A, B, A, B, A, C, or anything like that is its like; A,B,C,D,E,F,G you know? Each section is different from the last one. There is a sonic palette, which ties it all together, but develops musically from section to section, without returning to previous ideas.”Hannah: It goes through phases as humans do! It’s like each transition is a rite of passage into another. For me, it’s here that ‘Double Sustenance’ comes into play. The track is emotionally rewarding, whilst being intellectually stimulating too… reminding me of movement through phases in our lives.Hannah: Can you tell me any more about the physical aspects of the track.?Trevelyan: “Well, it started as a live dance and music installation, a collaboration between me and a friend who is a dancer. It was never intended to be a music video but that sense of physicality had always been there.I wrote the track three years ago, after discussing an idea to put on a live performance with my friend Mikey Stephenson. So, from the start, there was this physical element of movement and flow embedded in ‘Humans’. It’s not a super driving, hard-hitting Dance track, but this sense of tangible flow and movement remained.We had this big white inflatable bubble that could fit 10-20 people inside and inside we planned to have a multi speaker surround sound system. The idea was to bring the audience into this bubble and have lights shining from the outside in. Then have Mikey, interpretively moving to the music. Due to venue issues, it didn’t follow through as a live installation. It was 2 years later when I showed the track to my friend Ben Kokos (the video’s director), he suggested we turn this into an audio-visual piece”.Hannah: I find the video really interesting too, tell me about the process of making it?Trevelyan: “It was a collaboration between me, Ben (a graphic designer and film-maker), my brother Harry, who filmed all and my girlfriend Violet who is the model. We filmed it in our attic in Limehouse- London. We painted Violet white, used a photographic backdrop and a projector and shone interesting shapes and lights onto her. Ben suggested we had this white figure standing against a black background, striking interesting poses. Then, he used interesting VFX techniques to warp the image.While filming it, we played around with shots. These slow movements were subtle but reflected the movement of the music so well. That’s when it became really interesting from a visual perspective. It had come full circle, back to what had always been there- a physical sense of movement.”Hannah: Coming back to the word ‘sustenance’- you had moved to sustain yourself. Youd got a job in London and had to uproot.Trevelyan: “Yeah, that’s true. It’s interesting how both the track and video were made at points of change in my life. So yeah it’s very personal to me. And as we touched on earlier, this is reflected in the music. It’s also reflected in the video, where the subject is seen twisting and warping, changing over time- as we do as people.”Hannah: The reason that I also like nostalgic music is it has this undercurrent of elation, but with light, there also comes darkness…Maybe it’s not sadness- maybe its sonder? I love this definition by _‘The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows’: ‘_The sensation of feeling everyone is collectively experiencing the same emotional response to feelings despite their disparities in life experience.So onto my final question- How does ‘Humans’ relate to Double Sustenance?Trevelyan: “It’s this idea of mind and body, isnt it? This kind of satisfaction physically, and emotionally but also intellectually?‘Humans’ has that Dance element; its got driving beats and more of a body-sense of movement and rhythm. The first half of the track, its quite spacey, it starts less driving and more melodic/harmonic. That is the more introspective part for me- the part thats more emotional. So, there’s the physical and emotional side.Then the intellectual side- the sensation of movement through life development as a human being, flowing through different states. ‘Humans’ is also interesting musically in its structure. It definitely made me ask why this sort of a,b,c,d,e,f,g structure works, and for me, it’s that which makes you want to hear it again. I hope other people do too! It’s something I’d like to explore more in my music.”Hannah: So…. Give me one track that inspires you and resembles ‘Double Sustenance?Trevelyan: ‘This must be the Place (Naive Melody) by Talking Heads [52:40]. It’s emotionally rewarding and has this grooviness and sense of physical movement, in quite a low-key way. But it also tells a beautiful story. It’s about feeling at home with another person and building a relationship. That could apply to a romantic partnership or a friendship. It makes you think about the relationships you build in life and how important they are. So, it’s rewarding on many different levels.”Hannah is an Applied Theatre practitioner and spoken word poet. With an MA in Anthropology, she currently works with young people living in London. You can follow and connect with her here. Trevelyan is a producer and composer from Bristol, UK. As a composer, he writes music for film, TV, podcasts and games. You can follow his work on SoundCloud or contact him via the Trevelyan Facebook Page.

Mrburnz5 seconds into the intro of this track [56:21] and you already know the songs going to make you feel good. The wavey sample is so warm and comforting and the lyrics are so real you feel you can relate to every word. The songs theme is around life being hard but knowing that in the end everything is going to be ok and your good, because nothing lasts forever. I think sometimes we get so bogged down in what we think are unique experiences we forget that the problems we face arent in fact that unique at all, somebody somewhere has gone through what your going through right now or atleast a version of it. This track for me is just a reminder that no matter what we go through, everything settles and turns out alright in the end. we sometimes need someone else to help us see that though.Mrburnz is a producer / beatmaker from Glastonbury, his second beat tape TV Tape Vol.2 is out now all platforms. 

Will SoerDouble Sustenance. I thought this theme could be a fun way for Deep Cuts to fulfil its most basic function; for people to share the music they personally really like, and get at what makes it work for them. It’s a slightly convoluted title, but the concept behind it is actually simple; what do you really like? What works for you on the first listen and the tenth listen? What music tempts you and satisfies you as you continue to eat. The director Guillermo Mon Toro likes to talk about eye candy and eye protein; the former is something you visually eat, that’s beautiful but doesn’t contribute to a film’s story, whereas eye protein tells the story, like Frankenstein and Godzilla, “the monster should serve a more symbolic function to illuminate the human condition.”This symbolism doesn’t have to be a thing that you must stop and think about to understand, at the best of times you just feel it in your gut. My friend Mark (who happens to be the best chef I know) once told me he doesn’t care about lyrics; ‘I just care about the beat and what it does to me.’ It helped me see how similar we really are, even though I want different nutrients from music (simply put he likes happier stuff), at the most level we really just want something that we can feel, something that tastes delicious and keeps enriching us as we digest it.That process of taking the music in is just as confusing as our digestion of food; I find that shovelling down loads of carbs at the end of the day helps me sleep better and feel energised the next day, but I worked this out through pure trial and error. Sure, Mark helped explain my findings by telling me that carbs make you tired, but I would have thought from others advice that eating just before bed is a terrible idea. The way we take nutrition from food, music, friendship, love, sex, it’s so subjective. I once read that Western religions encourage us to see the self as bounded, something that takes form as we grow up and ends up as a little thing contained inside. Some Westerners see the self is a physical thing, some neuron-cluster in your brain, or a metaphysical spirit that floats through their pineal gland, but they all tend to see themselves as separate to the outside world. Apparently a lot of other religions are unlike this, they paint the self as pourous, different to the outside world but not separate from it, with no force field there to keeps us stored in our heads. I really believe this, and believe that a big part of understanding yourself is understanding the ways we interact with this outside world, what we desire or cannot resist, what poisons or enlivens us when we allow it in.These ideas become a lot easier to understand once you start to understand mental health, the way that people can internalise experiences, words, medication, sunshine, take them in and be changed, just as our physical health takes in food.I first learned about mental health and deep music when I was 12. I had recently moved to the uk and was being bullied, I wasn’t clinically depressed or anything else, but I was struggling with my emotions; a few times I burst into tears of frustrations in front of the kids that made fun of me, once in front of a teacher when she asked me and another kid why we were fighting in class. Unrelated to this, around this time my mum showed me the Joy Division biopic ‘Control’. It tells the story of a young band whose lead singer had severe epilepsy, and took medication which brought on severe mood swings that spiralled into severe depression as the brand first gained notoriety. He killed himself aged 23 years old. The story felt so real and clear to me when I saw it on screen, and after that there was one deep Joy Division song that I really gotttt, the first song on their first album, Disorder. I got the lyrics about hoping to feel normal, I got the tight anxious drums, and I got the guitars’ frustrated tears.
I also have to shout out to the film Once, I saw it around the same time and it also made a massive impact on me, Say It To Me Now in particular was so exhilarating in its anguish, the acoustic guitar  rhythmically thrashed like a battle drum and that roaring voice.I started to get more into music, and things started to get better. Aged 15 my Dad took me to the Saturdayof Reading festival. He stood with me as the main stage crowds thickened around us, watching the Cribs, Dizzee Rascal and then at this point we were being absolutely crushed the Libertines. As the sun went down and the Libertines came onstage, the crowd started to convulse like a stormy sea. A few songs in my Dad realised that his wallet was gone, so we left the crowd, walked and walked and walked until we were stood a mile or two from the stage, so dad could call his bank and cancel his cards.The NME which I read religiously at the time gave the Libertines’ performance a 9/10, I thought it was pretty wank. But THEN Arcade Fire came on and I was like yep, this is it, music is the one for me. Their current album The Suburbs was all about leaving your childhood home, about the way that separation distorts your dreams and nightmares. They opened with ‘Ready To Start’, a track that grows and grows like haunted Techno; ‘if the businessmen drink my blood, just like the kids at art school said they would, then I guess I’ll just begin again, you say can we still be friends.’ It builds up and up and up to the final lyrics ‘my mind is open wide and now I’m ready to start.’A few months later Kanye West released an album that totally transcended Arcade Fires sonic maximalism; that band has 7 members, but Kanyes prowess as a producer, collaborator and sampler allowed him to make something absolutely packed with colour and light; My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. It’s been covered a lotttt in music journalism (with good reason!), which is fine; deep cuts isn’t just about sharing tracks people haven’t heard before. I have to mention Runaway, it’s an obvious classic but still, it has to be shared. It’s not just that he stands up and admits to his flaws, you can really believe him, really hear the paranoia behind his arrogance. A mask ripped from the faces of douche bags around the world.The idea of being a dick is important to that album; Kanye actually asked Pusha T to rerecord his guest verse on ‘Runaway to be more of an asshole, set against mournful stomach churning beat, it’s just amazing sonic storytelling. My favourite sonics from those sessions, my favourite beat and hook, are on b-side ‘Christian Dior Denim Flow (released as a free download in the runup to the album). It repeats ‘Runaway’s central contrast, setting comically overconfident rap verses against an astonishingly beautiful heartbreak hook, John Legend harmonising with Kid Cudi, soaring above his sullen calls. The opening verse is uncomfortably distorted, but gradually the sounds warm and swirl, smoke and drink and money and tears. After 5 minutes of spirals, Kid Cudi steps in for the last rap verse, recorded alone in the booth after all the other rappers left, a verse whose undercutting uncertainty is so real that Cudi literally asked for it to be cut from the track.Now this is all good and I don’t want to drone on, but there are two more artists that I really have to mention. Two singer/producers having an absolute moment in 2020, moments that happened partly because they are both amazing artists who have kept pushing their craft forward in the years leading up to 2020, and partly because their magnum opuses released this year both, recorded pre-covid and released in 2020 Q2, when shit hit the fan, and they both happened to reallllly hit that lockdown spot. It reminds me of being bullied, because suddenly out of nowhere I was stuck in this wrong situation, a situation that you can’t leave. You still have the freedom of your mind though, time for marvel comics and fantasy novels and Netflix’s The Midnight Gospel and music.

The artists are Phoebe Bridgers and Grimes. Tracks like Bridgers ‘I Know The End and Grimes ‘Delete Forever [12:30] really give me shivers, and it’s such an amazing clear experience to feel my body react to the words in the songs, this thick powerful elixir of sound given punch by the knotted kernel of lyrics at their core. There have been points this year when I get goosebumps just thinking about those tracks.Ive already reviewed Phoebe Bridgers album Punisher, and its single Garden Song  [58:35], but I want to return to that song to finish off this piece. It worked really well as the last song in this months mix, I didnt plan to put it in there but it just fit so well with the EMC track, and moreover it returns to that theme of mental health. Bridgers would have been about 23 when she wrote it, and shes definitely no stranger to trauma, but thankfully her world has been more understanding than Ian Curtis was. The song features the lyric ‘The doctor put her hands over my liver, she told me my resentments getting smaller. Its not a creative lyric, that actually happened to her, as Bridgers explained in an interview. The only creative license she used was with the word ‘doctor; those words were actually spoken to her by a nutritionist (someone who advises others on matters of food and nutrition and their impacts on health). Isnt that neat?Will Soer is Deep Cuts Mama. You can check out his various outputs here.

Mix Tracklist:Niklaus Katzorke Manha
Mary Lattimore Thirty Tulips
Kylie Minogue Slow (Extended Mix)
Meaney Cosmic Voyager
Grimes Delete Forever
Kano Teardrops
Pharoah Sanders Love Is Everywhere
Admas Tez Alegn Yetintu
Betty Davis They Say Im Different
Caribou Never Come Back
Jayda G Renewal (Hyla Mix)
Belinda Carlisle Band of Gold (feat. Freda Payne)
Kanye West Christian Dior Denim Flow
Fatoumata Diawara Sowa
XXXY You Always Start It
Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons The Night
Change A Lovers Holiday
Boys Life Fire Engine Red
Talking Heads This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
EMC We Alright
Phoebe Bridgers Garden Song

Written by Loose Lips