A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion.
Last week's Oblique Strategy suggestion was Short circuit (if eating peas improves virility, shovel them into your pants).
I responded to this fairly instantly and without much lateral thinking going on- Fred Wesley and The JBs and their 1973 single More Peas, and Secret Circuit's Jungle Bones from 2012, two dance tracks forty years apart. There was more going on in the comments box. Lizarus suggested musical nonsense and the 'wilful horny chaos' of Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica, Keith offered The Spitting Song, Ernie went for Groin Strain and Keith Hudson, Rol opted for Goober And The Peas and Chris went with Natural Life's Natural Life. All of which led me back to I, Ludicrous and their Preposterous Tales.
This week's card says this- Don't be afraid of things because they're easy to do.
It made me think of a famous John F. Kennedy speech from 1961, ''We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
When thinking about the compositional prompt... "Don't be afraid of things because they're easy to do", what genre of music is more intuitively made than (don't fight it, feel it) Acid House?
ReplyDeleteThat notion applies equally well to those making it as it does those consuming it, particularly so when it first emerged in its earliest guise.
The formula is simple - add a repetitive mechanical beat, create the atmospheric conditions for shamanic worship to support said worship (drugs help) and Bob's yer Uncle.
The basic ingredients have been endlessly tweaked since, but the core structure of the end product is essentially unchanged to this day.
Winding the clock back to 1988, Dave Ball, Richard Norris and Genesis P-Orridge were essentially making an informed guess - more in whimsical hope than expectation - that the emerging house sound from the US would take off in the UK and launch a counter revolution.
Indeed, Gen (with Richard and Dave's help), is now recognised as a pivotal, early champion of the UK acid house scene, shifting from industrial music to electronic dance music via their band Psychic TV.
As Gen explains, making 'Jack the Tab' was something they hacked together in two days, pretty much as a prank, but it sold well and helped to cement "electronic dance music" as as the new sound of the resistance.
Here is the compilation album of tracks they pulled together in double quick time, which opens with a sample imploring, "Britain wake up"...
https://youtu.be/1LXwIdjHCGs?si=Ho6cVevtZUPZxcZc
And here's a short clip of Gen explaining how the project was conceived and executed...
https://youtu.be/9BGYa-a7rCs?si=6nLA2_cEg2cGVIHf
Wonderful stuff!
There are some easy things you should be afraid of though, like slipping. Lowell George did and look what happened to him.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/jHKFkLhr4_I?si=gaxT9erIkJfuXqiK
Pertinent advice from Mansun here, to either a coward or an actual chicken - for the purposes of this, we’ll assume the former
ReplyDeletehttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HVOzDPkPx8o
PTVL- yes, great choice. I love Richard Norris' description of this, making an acid house record but not having heard any actual acid house.
ReplyDeleteErnie- yes, fair point.
Al G- indeed. Not sure I ever really took to Mansun but this sounds good.