Straight outta Atlanta… to Bratislava, Warszawa, Roma, and just about everywhere

About eighteen months ago I went on a trip that passed through a bunch of European countries. Along the way I met up with a series of old friends. The conversation would invariably turn to our kids and the music they were into - and the answer was invariably ​“Trap!”. During this trip I also gleaned that each country had its own local version of trap.

Since then I’ve been itching to write a piece on the internationalization of trap. The opportunity came with an invitation from The Face to contribute to their “looking back on the 2010s” coverage, with a piece on how the trap beat has dominated the decade - and traveled all across the globe.

Despite its seeming redundancy – it’s so very close to the Real Thing, of which there is no shortage in the first place – I was surprised by how enjoyable I found much of this Czech, Polish, Italian, Slovakian, French, Moroccan etc trap. Despite being unable to understand the lyrics at all. Which underlines one of the points in the piece: the relative downgrading of lyricism as a component of this music. Instead, it's all about the slippery glisten of the Auto-Tuned vocal, the becoming-melody of speech, the moans and the murmurs. Pure flow.  

As much as That Beat, it's this vocal mode midway between rapping and crooning - along with the peculiarly indefinite affect that its glazed texture embodies - that has struck a chord across the world, and that seems to have caught something of the not-so-secret sadness of our time. 

Big up to those who pointed me in the right direction: Miloš Hroch, Agus Tomaszewska, Jan Błaszczak, Damir Ivic, Sadmanbarty, Beatrice Finauro. Etienne Menu.

Gong

Here's a piece I did for The Guardian on Gong, the anarcho-surrealist cosmic rock troupe.

November tour of Germany and Switzerland

I'm heading off on a tour of Germany and Switzerland to give talks about The Sex Revolts, the book about gender, rebellion and rock that I wrote with Joy Press back in 1995, which is now coming out on Ventil Verlag in a German translation  (by Jan-Niklas Jäger).  Most talks follow the format of a video-illustrated lecture + dialogue with a moderator + audience Q/A.

I'm also doing some non-Sex Revolts talks while I'm over there, including a video-illustrated talk about UK rave and the hardcore continuum as part of the Robert Johnson Theorie series of discussion events held by by the renowned club Robert Johnson in Offenbach am Main. That's on November 16th. The other two I'm not sure are open to the general public as they are part of conferences, but included here on the off-chance. 

Details about those + the  Robert Johnson Nuum event are below this schedule for Sex Revolts events. 

SEX REVOLTS 

Berlin - Sunday, November 10th

Acud Macht Neu - 19.00

Veteranenstraße 21

10119 Berlin Mitte

https://www.facebook.com/events/2140311809606613/

Nürnberg  - Monday,  November 11

DESI Stadtteilzentrum e.V. - Doors 19:30 / Start 20:00

Brückenstraße 23
90419 Nürnberg

with Bettina Wagegg and Jan-Niklas Jäger

https://www.facebook.com/events/742351012947905/

Mannheim  - Tuesday, November 12

Port25 –Raum für Gegenwartskunst Hafenstr - 20 h

25-27 68159 Mannheim

with Julia Alicka and Matthias Rauch

https://www.facebook.com/events/690320258138257/

Zürich - Wednesday, November 13

Photobastei  - 19 hr book signing / 20 hr talk

Sihlquai 125, 8005 Zürich

With Shantala Hummler

https://www.facebook.com/events/870210276713165/

Bern - Thursday, November 14

Kunsthalle Bern, Helvetiaplatz 1, 3005 Bern - 19.00

With Shantala Hummler

Köln - Friday, November 15

King Georg, Sudermansraße - 20.00

With Wolfgang Frömberg

https://www.facebook.com/events/398831661060729/

Offenbach am Main  -Sunday, November 17

Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach - 18.00

Schlossstraße 31, 63065

Paderborn - Monday, November 18

Paderborn University - 17:00 Uhr
Warburger Str. 100, 33098 Paderborn
Room H1.232 (Tower H, Floor 1, Room 1.232.

with Prof. Dr. Christoph Jacke

Bochum - Tuesday, November 19

Oval Office Bar,  Schauspielhaus Bochum - - 19.00

https://www.facebook.com/events/547562852689338/

Münster  - Wednesday, November 20^th

Spec Ops - 8pm

Von-Vincke-Straße 5
48143 Münster

With Anna Seidel

https://www.facebook.com/events/1016790881997046/

OTHER EVENTS 

Hamburg - Saturday, November 9

UNERHÖRT! Musikfilm Festival

Talk about rock documentaries, rock biopics, and the cinematic industry of nostalgia,  and dialogue with Prof. Dr. Christoph Jacke

Katholische Akademie - 2:30 p.m

Offenbach am Main  - Saturday, November 16^th

Robert Johnson Theorie – a video-illustrated talk about UK rave and the hardcore continuum

Robert Johnson, Nordring 131, Offenbach am Main

21:45 Doors Open - 22:00 Start Lecture

https://www.facebook.com/events/463963911130226/

Hamburg - Thursday, November 21th

Hamburg (Insecurity) Sessions conference – a talk about “the slow cancellation of the future” and music in an atemporal era

Terrace Hill  

Feldstr. 66/5. Stock, 20359 Hamburg

19.00 doors open / 19.30 talk / 20.00–20.30 discussion with Michael Rother, Daniel Miller, Diane Zillmer.