Hip hop, a truly American art form, is central to pop culture, and it is difficult to establish the boundaries of its influence, and its influences. Drawing from deep jazz traditions, and international percussive styles, the bones of hip-hop are the beats.
In conjunction with the Toledo Museum of Art’s The Rise of Sneaker Culture exhibit comes a Midwestern exploration of beatmaking culture, Beats: out of the Box // A Look at Contemporary Electronic and Hip-Hop Production from Chicago and Detroit on Friday, December 4 in the TMA’s Glass Pavilion.
The Midwest stands in the middle of a rich history of electronic production. Techno, which is what most think of when they consider “electronic music”, was born in Detroit. Coming to the TMA for Beats out of the Box will be Detroit producers, the heat-making Doc Illingsworth and soft, electro-weirdo, Pastel Arsenal.
Hailing from Chicago, coincidentally the birthplace of House music, will be the spacey-textured Tewz, and two producers from the Push Beats beatmaking collective, Cōs and Sev Seveer.
The eclectic line up provides a diverse look at what beat making culture is about— a community of crate-digging record junkies who live for pairing “Damn son where’d you find this” samples with nuanced sonic approaches, textural collages, and the head-in-the-clouds sounds that drift seductively off of The Land of the Lotus Eaters.
Most important to production: honoring your influences, and uniquely contextualizing them in a way that maintains the producer’s thumbprint.
“I’ve making beats since 2005, and I’ve been making good beats since 2010,”
said a laughing Troy Brundidge, who produces under the Sev Seveer moniker.
Brundidge, who started with Apple’s entry-level software, GarageBand, and has since moved on to more sophisticated software, like Qbase, says his style really picked up once he got into hardware, or analog synths like SP-404s, under guidance from older beatmakers he met in college.
“I had huge mentors at the time, DJ Limbs and Spinitty… they sort of put me on the right course for making beats. I really value my influences, and it’s a really big part of my music and coming into myself,” said Brundridge.
“From doing Stones Throw Records Beat Battles, I gained a Soundcloud following… but I was just making bedroom music. Eventually Cōs [from Push Beat] reached out and… [after a few months of me getting nervous about live sets] he put on a bill for a show and threw me into the fire,” said Brundridge. “After my third set they made me a resident… now I often do sets with Cōs that will be completely improv. We go into a show completely blind and just see what comes out of our machines.”
Like jazz, beat makers play with history to create something new, sculpting their tunes in a relaxed but deliberate way. Brundridge represents something true to beat making culture— a balance of integration and identity.
“I don’t draw influence from other beat makers,” said Brundridge. “I love to see cats do their thing. But for me, I’m trying to flip symbols and sounds in a real interesting way. My goal is to make people think differently with my music.”
Visualizing the patterns
As part of Beats out of the Box, local, cross-disciplinary experimental artist, Asha Tamirisa, will provide a visual element to the evening. While Tamirisa typically works with sound and image, she will supply projected animation during the performances. Part of the animation will be prepared prior to the performance, but the rest will be audio-reactive, creating an environment that is abstract and colorful.
“I want people to listen more than watch,” said Tamirisa. “I really like thinking about pattern and texture. It’s really fun to work with other people who are making sounds so I can just think of the visual component of it, and kind of bring out some of those things that I notice or feel in the sound, the general character… the fun challenge is to think about and find what will visually compliment it.”
Don’t miss the free performance.
6:30-8:30pm Friday, December 4
Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion, 2445 Monroe St
419-255-8000 | toledomuseum.org | facebook.com/events/894656767319582/
