I didn’t do an end of the decade list.  Whenever I start making lists, they end up way too long, and I always forget something.  That’s how this whole thing started out, as a long list of songs from about 2005 to 2009.  The selections were made for any number of reasons but mostly because they inspired me to proclaim, “yeah that’s my joint.”  One joint became ten, became twenty, became fifty, became a hundred….  As the list grew, a new picture was emerging; the best way to categorize it was potential.  In looking at the list, I realized just how incredible this period of music was.  Even more, the list was an amazing indicator of what the next period was going to be.

So I took my list and started prepping to turn it into a mix, or rather a series of mixes.  I wanted to capture the moment not just as a record of what had been, but as an inspiration for what was to come.    Because the medium is the message though, it had to go a bit further.  The mixes themselves were done live using my scrtch application for the Monome and Stribe Duo.  Once completed they were passed on to GtP Studios who had a slimmed down version of the interactive mixtape we’d worked on for Proto-Heads.

I partnered up with Rhythm Incursions and Percussion Lab to release this four part series, one to be released every Tuesday for the next four weeks starting today.  You can check them out via the interactive version below.  If you’re subscribed to the Rhythm Incursions and Percussion Lab podcasts (and you really should be) you’ll get the downloads directly.  Otherwise you probably want to click those links and subscribe to the podcasts now.

Hopefully as you listen to these mixes you’ll discover new artists, remember some favorites or hidden gems from artists you already love.  Most importantly though, I hope this series leaves you as excited for the future of music as it has left me.  This is the sound of tomorrow, today.

Published under: Art
Tags: beatgen • blends • download • dubstep • instrumental • interactive • interactive mixtape • live mix • mash-up • mix • monome • plpheads • stribe • Vanguard • wonky

Harbinger of The AvantUrb, which is to music what post-structuralism is to the written word, Primus Luta dissects the essence of sound and molds it into works reflective of the human condition. He is the digital analog. The old new. The now infinite. The first struggle – creation.

Georgia born and Bronx bred, Primus Luta has been addicted to the production of sound from the early age of two when his grandfather gave him is first piano.  He would spend the next fourteen years of his life studying the various ways of manipulating those keys to create sound, dreaming of becoming a jazz pianist in the tradition of Thelonious Monk and Dr. Billy Taylor.  But a freak accident on a roller coaster would literally shatter those dreams into a hundred little pieces of bone floating around in his arm.  Perhaps because of this tragedy, Luta’s focus shifted when he was first introduced the studio through a summer internship with Salaam Remi.  After one hour of watching Remi move between the mixing board and the two inch reel Luta knew he had found his calling.

In the years that would follow Luta worked as a recording engineer, arranger, producer, mixing engineer, mastering engineer, manager, booking agent, road maneger, band leader, stage manager, and just about every other supporting role out there for a good number of musicians.  It wasn’t until the recent birth of the Heads project that he decided it was time to step out from the shadows.  Through Heads Primus has found a way to bridge his musical background with his technical know how to create the sound that is authentically him.

The Heads project is a culmination of three years of work and study in which Luta aimed to apply the principles of head based jazz to modern electronic production techniques.  The project is both a theoretical study and a body of compositions brought together in an interactive experience directed by Luta himself.

Primus Luta’s Discography

	Various Artists – Educate Yo’Self! Executive Producer
	Takuma Kanaiwa – The Lemurian Sounds of Takuma Kanaiwa Performer
	Tomchess & The Love Dogs – In The Beautiful Future Recording Engineer
	iPL – The Catalyst Producer & Executive Producer
	Dumhi – 3 Seats From Heaven Mix & Mastering Engineer
	Various Artists – WHWBAYL Volume 1 Executive Producer
	Fermented Spirits – Demystification Mastering Engineer
	Primus Luta – The Optimus Primer Mixtape

In an effort to give an about for a project that is still very much in the making, I’ve scraped from some recent emails about the project and edited them into something I hope makes a little sense.

So I started this project almost three years ago now, born from the inspiration of the possibilities in the then new open source controller the monome.  The monome itself reminded me of the book Vehicles I had read over a decade ago now on the recommendation of who would become my technology partner.  The monome is a digital box of clay.  0’s and 1’s from which you have the ability to create infinity, one step at a time.

In it I saw the possibility of realizing a recurring dream of mine to sit down with Roger Linn and design the sampling drum machine to beat all sampling drum machines.  In fact the monome went beyond that dream and it was reality.

Around a year or so later, Wynton Marsalis released a new album, which of course meant it was time for him to take public pot shots at hip-hop with the famous quote:

“Listen, I don’t have to attack hip-hop. Hip-hop attacks itself. It has no merit, rhythmically, musically, lyrically. What is there to discuss?”

“And as for sampling, it just shows you that the drummer has been replaced by a loop. The drum – the central instrument in African-American music, the sound of freedom – has been replaced by a repetitive loop. What does that tell you about hip-hop’s respect for African-American tradition?”

I not only took offense to his words but I took them as a challenge, the final catalyst for The Heads Project.  Could I create a body of music which embeded the human touch into technology based music (the human touch here characterized by the complex freedom of head based jazz).  In so doing could I prove that hip-hop is indeed a natural progression of the musical lineage Marsalis claims it has no respect for.  To catch phrase it, could I apply heads based jazz technique to hip-hop production?

So to start I began building instruments for the monome, the first of course being a sampler (inspired heavily by the first generation monome application mlr).  Since I built the sampler around the Heads concept I also built a notation system for it.  And in building the notation system for it I kind of stumbled upon the grounds for a legal argument that could change sample laws.  So then the project started embodying ways to provide evidence for this legal argument.  Heads built around the music theory colliding with technological/technical/legal definitions.

But I wasn’t just trying to make a legal brief I wanted to make music too, so I went back from the experimental phase to really putting together solid music ideas for an album.  Going back in on this from the technological groundwork I had laid building the sampler, I built more instruments, six in total. More than 50% of the album is played using these instruments.

I made lots of notes during the process and kept most of the explorations used to get to the point where I could create what will be the album.  Its a large and rather detailed body of work.  And all of it together makes up plpheads – Primus Luta Presents: Heads.  As of this writing in addition to completing the mixes of the album, I am in the process of negotiating the means by which the full project will be reaching the public.