The World Doesn’t Dance But I Do is a piece created with the intention of “abstractifying” the dancefloor. There’s often discourse around whether sound pieces created under the term “sound art” should be classified as either DIY or Avante Garde, making sound art sound to be something inaccessible to the mainstream. The piece I have created has taken a tumultuous journey, being deconstructed, reconstructed, reaching to be a sound that can be enjoyed by the mainstream and the art worlds alike. Created by first constructing its basic structure and “musical” elements in Logic, then being run through the SP 404, I believe this piece has achieved its goal, the journey behind being explored below.

With a lack of access to resources needed to create a sound piece (a laptop, a DAW, microphones), much of my time leading up to its creation was spent pondering on inspiration. As a jungle / drum and bass DJ, I was becoming increasingly pulled towards the sounds of Source Direct. In their music, the basses used act as a driving force, with the harmony being left as an afterthought, if included at all. The basses used are often accompanied by higher pitch synth sounds, not usually constructing entire melodies, but as more of a decoration to the main elements: the drums and the bass. I had also become less interested in the use of sampling, and became more drawn to the use of musique concrete, or authentically composing elements. I decided to experiment- I was to make a drum and bass track composed entirely of concrete sounds, no synthesisers, no samples. 

However, once finally acquiring a studio space and the resources needed to compose, my entire idea was flipped on its head. The first problem was that the concrete sounds I had recorded didn’t fit authentically with what I was trying to create; the percussion sounds recorded from park benches and punching bags didn’t have the richness that traditional drum samples provide. With this being said, I wanted to ensure that I stuck to my rule of no sampling from pre-existing material. To my luck, there was a drum kit in the room. I recorded kick drum, snare, hi-hats and cymbal sounds using a dynamic microphone. Each part was recorded individually. The second reason why my initial idea was ruled out was because once I entered the studio, I was sidetracked by the beautiful noises I could create on the hardware synthesisers. I began creating a bassline using the SE-1 X, using it as a driving force for the piece. I then constructed the drum groove around this, then used the AX60 and  Juno-106 to add secondary bass parts and tangents of harmonic lines.

Although I am very happy with the outcome of my piece, I believe there were a couple downfalls. Whilst using hardware gives a unique touch, it highlights technical issues. Once the different elements had been run through the SP, many sounds were lost in the mix, most notably the tangents of melodic lines. Usually this wouldn’t be a problem, as I’d just go back into Logic and adjust the levels. However, this was not possible on the SP, as the effects added were recorded in real time. This demonstrates that whilst hardware allows you to create and manipulate sounds in very unique ways, it becomes harder to manipulate individual elements and rectify mistakes. In saying this, I would have loved to utilise the hardware in the room more advantageously, as there were compressors and EQs at the studio. I did not know how to use these, meaning that I had to mix in Logic using software plugins. This meant that the piece wasn’t entirely created without digital manipulation, which may take away from the end goal.

In spite of this, I believe this piece has achieved its goal to “abstractify” the dancefloor- in theory. It is a piece that lacks clarity in terms of structure and musicality, yet is easy on the ear in terms of instrumentation and rhythm. It is fast paced with a rolling percussion line, making it enjoyable to dance to (particularly in the second half). This was an important goal for me to achieve, as I am someone who creates music that is often out of time and out of key, usually pieces that don’t have musical or rhythmic feel to them, and whilst I am proud of these pieces, I am unable to use them within my sonic practice- DJing. At the moment within dance music scenes, there are discussions surrounding representation, particularly about womens’ representation on the dancefloor. If I am able to play out my sonic creations on the dancefloor, not only will I be opening up club-goers to the world of sound art, but I will also be lessening the ratio of music made by men to women within this context. For the future, I will play this piece in my next set to see if I have achieved my goal in practice.