Julius Eastman - Evil N-----: Part I

For my review today, an acknowledgement that this week will indeed be a busy one due to finals, an adjusted work schedule and so forth.  Therefore, don’t expect much from me here per se!

But on a day when I could have either taken note of Beyonce’s latest, heaved a weary sigh at the continuing presence of the Strokes and Vampire Weekend (long story, though the latter just make me shrug while the former actively bother me by existing) or said a little something about Jason Molina’s passing — others are saying it better, largely because they actually actively followed his work far more than I ever did — I’d prefer instead to look at a locus point of two areas I’m always learning more about, ‘modern’ classical and DJs/producers as formalist innovators. 

Thus Jace Clayton aka DJ /Rupture’s classical album A Julius Eastman Memory Depot, discussed in some detail via this WQXR post. To avoid repeating what’s there, I’ll simply say I’m intrigued to learn about this confluence of creators and personalities reacted both explicitly and implicitly to their surroundings, and how Clayton’s reclaiming of Eastman for a more fluid though hardly perfect present functions as both an extension of reissue/reclamation and finding those new contexts to thrive in. Having recently been working again through DJ /Rupture mixes and marvelling at Clayton’s ease of expression and creation across many realms, hearing this is a gift.

At the same time without knowing anything about it, I would have enjoyed it simply because modern classical — however defined, probably very poorly in my case — is something I enjoy very much without pretending any, any expertise on it. It’s a continual state of growing and learning.  Figures like Part and Taverner, as well as Glass, Reich, Nyman and Bryars, are even now something of a generation removed, so there’s just a lot of catching up I’m always doing (and even the fact that most of the people I’ve just named are white dudes gives a sense as to my poor limits and real knowledge). Therefore, anything like this that helps me extend my knowledge is highly welcome.

Sometimes, though, the pleasure is just simply in the hearing. And I quite enjoy hearing this.