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2LP
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C 026-2EP
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2018 repress; 2016 release. You may still be dazed from the first volume (C 026-1EP), but Will Long and DJ Sprinkles have already cued up their second session, with Mint / Clay landing on Terre Thaemlitz's Comatonse Recordings. The format and aesthetic remains the same as Purple / Blue, namely two raw pieces by Will Long, backed with overdubs by Sprinkles, amounting to the deepest house this side of Larry Heard's nuclear love bunker, all subtly executed and held up as a comparison to the aesthetics and intentions (or, ironically, the excess and lack of) of that sound in relief of current, conceptually-detached takes on the original, queer NYC deep house sound which Sprinkles was instrumental in shaping as a downtown DJ during that formative era. Again, Will Long, who's best known for his experimental ambient work as Celer, proves that it ain't what you've got but what you know and can do with it that matters. "Under-Currents" places sparing samples of T.R.M. Howard -- a mentor of Jesse Jackson and founder of Mississippi's Regional Council of Negro Leadership -- amidst a dream sequence of carbonated hi-hats and lingering chords urged by a plump bass drum, whilst "Get In & Stay In" nods to civil right activist and current Georgia congressional representative John Lewis in a lush haze of crepuscular chromatics and loping swing. DJ Sprinkles goes on to contribute another pair of incredible overdubs, lending Long's minimal elements a richer, fleshlier feel, whether with additional breakbeats, or nimbly lowering the bass and layering up spirited flutes and Rhodes. Quite crucially, the concept never gets in the way of the music, perfectly demonstrating the symbiotic nature of the music and politics in the way they most likely intended, especially for the DJs, dancers, and promoters who act as gatekeepers for this music. Tsuji Aiko has provided illustrations of the activists sampled featured on the front and back covers. Mastered by Terre Thaemlitz, cut by Dubplates & Mastering.
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2LP
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C 026-1EP
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2018 repress; 2016 release. We live in an era when "change" is a soundbite to sell more of the same old ideas, and "revolution" has more to do with social trends than social change. Will Long's deep house debut on Terre Thaemlitz's Comatonse Recordings examines that pack of lies dubbed "change" from the sweaty dancefloor, sounding the aftermath of failure around attempts at equality in "progressive" societies. Made with a simple setup of rhythm composer percussion, polyphonic synth chords, and rack sampler vocals, these tracks have a minimal rawness that contends we've been wrong the whole time about how far the US -- and the world -- has come. Although they are sonically unlike anything Long has produced as Celer or his other aliases for minimal and ambient experimental audio, they share a stripped-yet-full sound that reacts against overproduction -- within the dance music industry, and societies at large. DJ Sprinkles' overdubbed contributions quite literally and psycho-acoustically resonate that intention, tactfully rending a farther, lush physicality and soulfulness through deftly applied daubs of glutinous sub-bass pressure, airy strings, and subtly shimmering FX, really bringing Long's tracks to life in a whole other dimension; and via disciplined, stripped-down, full-bodied production values that rank as perhaps the deepest productions yet in the Sprinkles' canon. They could be taken as a call for humbleness and meditative efficiency over cliched buildups and preening vanities, perhaps a comment on "deep" house as the equivalent of a fresh tattoo or sweatshop t-shirt slogan. Because, you know, it really does stand for a lot more. Tsuji Aiko has provided illustrations of the activists sampled featured on the front and back covers. Mastered by Terre Thaemlitz, cut by Dubplates & Mastering.
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3LP
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C 026-3EP
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2018 repress; 2016 release. Will Long X DJ Sprinkles' journey to the heart of deep house culminates in the third and final volume in a series of three, offering the broadest yet most subtle, spine-tingling session of the lot, presenting the former's raw and 'floor-ready originals backed by the latter's inimitably sumptuous overdubs. Conceptually rooted in the queer, black politics of NYC's late '80s and early '90s house scene -- where Terre Thaemlitz cut her teeth as DJ Sprinkles -- the series can be viewed as a vital reminder of that scene's original values and sense of social democracy, especially when contrasted with the glut of contemporary, commodified representations of that music which sorely miss the mark, or weren't even aware of the scene's provenance to begin with. Make no mistake, though; this is no lecture or snub at younger producers making deep house. Rather, it is evidence of the original form's latent potential to still generate rare, precious feelings which have been lost or glossed over with subsequent, detached and over-produced translations of its original syntax and intent. "Deep" is the key word here on many levels, from their poignant use of historical samples by civil rights pioneers Bayard Rustin, Jesse Jackson, and Kathleen Cleaver, to the unfiltered innocence of Will Long's productions and Sprinkles' corresponding, pensile overdubs, which make utterly incredible use of the frequency spectrum to reveal acres of space in the upper registers and, on the other hand, an honestly breathtaking application of layered sub-bass tones that are just impossible to describe. This one's a little bit special... Mastered by Terre Thaemlitz, cut by Dubplates & Mastering.
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