Description
#speakermusic #vinyl #vinylrecords
DeForrest Brown Jr., the creative mind behind Speaker Music, presents ‘Techxodus’, an album that he describes as “abstracting Blackness through information overload”. The project delves into the intersection of technology, Blackness, and resistance, utilizing music from his archived live shows which are then edited, reordered, and reassembled in the studio. A central theme of ‘Techxodus’ is the influence of Drexciya, whose myths have significantly inspired recent afrofuturist creativity. Brown Jr. researches and reimagines the artifacts and stories of Drexciya, creating new maps, ideas, and music that particularly reflect on the ‘Seven Storms’ – a series of seven albums released around the death of Drexciya member James Stinson, which seemingly signaled Drexciyans in attack mode.
The artwork, created by Abu Qadim Haqq who also produced artwork for Drexciya, ties the project together. Brown Jr. re-orients charts and timelines from Drexciyan mythology, exploring possible environments where Drexciyans could survive, ranging from the Atlantic depths to oceanic islands and even outer space. This exploration draws parallels with Sun-Ra, another afrofuturist music icon, suggesting that perhaps the Drexciyans desired to leave a planet they despised. Incorporating these elements, Brown Jr. crafts a soundtrack for an alternate history, a kind of sci-fi sonic fiction that weaves together the sonic warfare and mythos of Drexciyan records with ideas and references from Ishmael Reed’s ‘Mumbo Jumbo’. Reed’s novel traces the story of ‘Jes Grew’, an audio virus, back to the coastal black cities of Alabama and the American South.
Musically, ‘Techxodus’ is as intense as its inspirations. Brown Jr. expertly hand-plays rhythms that fuse trap and jazz drumming, at times resembling orca-song as they pulse through thick waves of digital sound. The music evokes the ocean with its deep, cold drones, or seems to float through time, as in ‘Holosonic Rebellion’, which incorporates recordings of African warriors. Energetic turbulence is present in ‘Jes Grew’, where punched-in passages of jazz brass collide with Brown Jr.’s drums, creating a bizarrely disassembled jazz. As the album progresses, it begins to resemble a spaceship taking off, with ascending rushes of noise and distortion, and distant Southern Gospel vocals that feel like music leaving Earth.
Whether you listen to ‘Techxodus’ without the references or allow them to fuel your imagination, it is a powerful and immersive original work from one of electronic music’s most unique creators. DeForrest Brown Jr.’s exploration of Blackness, resistance, and afrofuturism results in a compelling auditory experience that challenges and expands our understanding of these concepts.
