I had an unusual conversation at a bar in Seoul in over the summer.
We're sitting around a table talking music with some people and one guy, about twenty years younger than me, from South Africa, with a topknot was explaining how he really loves Drum 'n Bass.
Cool, me too.
I tell him I was about ten years late to it, and had to be smartened up to the style by being exposed to Roni Size & Reprazent through a PS2 game called Frequency:
We get off on a tangent here about the music in games, especially the Need For Speed games, but get back to Drum 'n Bass and he tells me his favourite song is Dragula.
By Rob Zombie.
I'm confused, but maybe there's a weird remix I haven't heard.
(There isn't.)
The guy takes out his phone, opens Spotify, hits play on Dragula, not because he thinks I'm unfamiliar with the song, but so he can wax on about how innovative the drumming in the second part of the intro is (after the dialogue) and the verse.
This really happened
I'm not misremembering—I made a note about it my journal afterwards and was the only sober person there that night.
Several things occurred to me in the moment:
- Someone twenty years younger than me might be using different language than me to describe the same thing
- South Africans describe Industrial Metal as Drum 'n Bass
- The guy was misinformed
- I was talking to a crazy person
Anyway, when this happens, especially in social situations, I defer to something written by Dale Carnegie in How To Win Friends & Influence People:
Even when we know for sure that a person is wrong, we may feel like pointing it out. But as Benjamin Franklin said, "If you argue and rankle and contradict, you may achieve a victory sometimes; but it will be an empty victory because you will never get your opponent’s good will."
I pivoted.
Suggested he give Skinny Puppy, KMFDM and even Front 242 a spin, and mentioned that New Forms by Roni Size & Reprazent was my first, and a proper favourite Drum 'n Bass album:
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Apple Music
Inspired by Mr. Topknot
I've thought about this conversation a lot since it happened.
I pulled up Discogs a few months ago and compared what I had written in my notes with the genres & styles listed there, and while there was some agreement between the two, I was way off in more than a handful of spots.
Definitions are seriously hard. Philosophers write entire books about a new term they've invented, painstakingly arguing why it's needed and exhaustively exploring what it is, and what it isn't.
People who think about music more than I do are doing something similar.
Going forward I'm going to rely upon the community for these descriptors in my personal notes; hopefully I'll learn something along the way.
Anyway, inspired by this unusual conversation, September was an alternating mix of Drum 'n Bass & Jungle Music, and an assembly of Industrial, Electronic Body Music and Rock music under the umbrella of Goth Music.
- Goth Music Sampler no.1
- Goth Music Sampler no.2
- Jungle/Drum & Bass Sampler no.1
- Jungle/Drum & Bass Sampler no.2
Dragula Not Included
I don't like the song.
I included Feel So Numb on the second playlist there as a bit of a tribute to Mr. Topknot, but I've never been a big fan of Rob Zombie's solo work.
The way I remember it (and i'm probably misremembering) was that it was the first post-White Zombie solo release and also one I don't go back to, unlike Astro-Creep and La Sexorcisto.
Bonus Sessions
I'm going to let everyone in on a secret here.
When I decided to start sharing my playlists here, I wasn't sure if anyone would be into the three hour long runtimes—I actually specifically shoot for 200 minutes before I start using them at the gym.
So I split those in half and call them Samplers, and the long ones became Sessions.
I'll probably write more about my personal rules for my playlists one day, but for now here's the above playlists how I listen to them: