I recently read an interview with Fat Jon (one of my favorite beat-makers) that reminded me what electronica should be, and why I love it so much.
The interviewer says:
Now, I’m asking this question in connection to an instrumental album that I just received: When I listen to it, to me it seems that it’s not completed by just listening to it, but that it’s more something to inspire you to do something else, that you need to rhyme over it, break to it, or paint sketches to it. How about your music?
To which he responds:
I agree. It’s thought activated. You do have to think to it, you have to wash the dishes to it, or something. It’s there, but it’s not there to stand alone. It needs interaction. It needs human participation. And whatever you do to it, that’s what completes it. If people like rapping, they wanna throw it on in the basement, and make some tape, or whatever. That’s cool, that’s what it’s there for. It’s a product out there, you can do whatever you want to do with it. And that’s what completes it, whatever you chose to do with it. That’s what makes it complete.
I couldn’t have said it better. The reason electronica is, for me, often more pleasurable than other kinds of music is that it’s minimalistic enough to stay in the background of whatever you’re doing at the moment, yet stimulating enough to tickle the mind. The quote above really struck me because just a couple weeks ago I actually was washing some dishes while listening to one of his albums, and thinking the exact same thing. When I listen to music, I empty my mind and fill it with music, getting lost in the sound, so I tend to be drawn toward music that facilitates that kind of almost meditative experience.
