Sound as Matter: Creating Electronic Music as a Space (an Environment)
While electronic music is often portrayed as something that exists outside of the tangible world – as merely a collection of files, signals, software and abstract commands – sound is a mechanical vibration traveling through a medium such as air. Sound travels through air. It pushes against walls. It passes through the floor, can set nearby objects vibrating and reaches your brain before you've even had a chance to identify it.
This physical relationship to sound is central to the concept of Turntable Kachina.
Turntable Kachina treats electronic music as a space (an environment) that a listener can enter, move around within and perceive. A track is not just a sequence of beats moving toward a conclusion. It is a constructed space composed of rhythm, texture, silence, repetition and pressure.
Feeling Sound
The lowest frequencies make the physicality of music unmistakable. Low-end can be heard, but it can also be physically felt in one's chest, in the floor and in the objects surrounding a speaker.
Turntable Kachina's music uses low-end as an integral component of the composition rather than an afterthought. Low-end gives the music weight. It defines how a track will occupy a space and how a listener will navigate that space.
The drums provide yet another form of physical information. A kick establishes weight. A snare provides distance and impact. Small percussion instruments establish surface and movement – something gritty, metal-like, wood-like, dust-like or dry.
Collectively, these components create more than just a groove. They create a material presence for the track.
The material presence of Turntable Kachina connects it to the physical traditions of Hip-Hop instrumentals and sample-based electronic music. Although the tools used by Turntable Kachina are typically those found in modern production studios, the underlying principle is much older – music gains significance through tactile contact, timing, repetition and human decision-making.
Creating a Space, Not Filling a Track
A production does not need to be busy or cluttered to feel complete.
There are times when the most effective decision is to leave open spaces for other sounds to fill. Space allows a drum hit to land with greater authority. It allows a sample to retain its strangeness. It enables the listener to perceive the decay of a note or the texture embedded beneath it.
This restraint is characteristic of the production method employed by Turntable Kachina. The objective is not to fill every available frequency range. The objective is to create an environment where every sound has a purpose.
The resultant work can often appear similar to a physical environment rather than a conventional arrangement. Some elements of the environment appear close to the listener. Other elements appear distant. Repetition creates horizons. A low drone alters the mood. Percussion moves across the stereo field in a manner akin to wind blowing loose debris.
You can observe the environmental approach across Turntable Kachina's releases and in the longer listening sequences contained in its playlists.
Textures Hold Memory
Perfectly clean sounds can be useful, but perfection rarely conveys history.
Recording noise, tape saturation, filtered samples, inconsistent transients and subtle variations in timing can contribute to making electronic music appear lived-in. These details imply that a sound has passed through various experiences prior to being received by the listener.
Experience matters.
Turntable Kachina utilizes texture as a means of memory. A sound may appear worn-out, submerged, faded by exposure to sunlight or partially recovered. It may evoke images of machines, rocks, dust, vintage media or an object handled numerous times throughout its lifespan.
None of these connections need to be explicitly stated. Texture communicates meaning before language begins to arrive.
Sampling remains so powerful for this reason. A sample contains more than just pitch and rhythm. A sample contains traces of the recording process, performance context, room characteristics, equipment employed and time period during which it was produced. Once incorporated into a new composition, a sample becomes both raw material and memory.
The responsibility of a producer is not simply to gather these sounds. The responsibility is to determine which fragments belong together and construct a new environment from them.
Repetition Transforms the Listener
Repetition is frequently misconstrued as simplicity; however, repetitive sound is never entirely static.
A listener evolves with each repetition.
An unfamiliar phrase eventually becomes familiar. A subtle background element starts to emerge into prominence. A rhythm that initially seemed straightforward ultimately reveals an emphasis that was present throughout. The same loop may appear different once the bass enters, once the drums fade out or once silence interrupts it.
Turntable Kachina utilizes repetition to enhance focus. Instead of continually replacing one concept with another, a track can linger with a particular sound long enough for its qualities to become apparent.
The patience demonstrated by Turntable Kachina in its production practices relates directly to DJ culture. A DJ understands how long a groove can maintain audience engagement, when a transition should occur and how a minor adjustment can dramatically affect collective energy. These lessons remain relevant even when music is produced in a studio setting rather than performed live on turntables.
The relationship between recorded music and live performance can be explored further through Turntable Kachina's video content and other project-related links available on the official website's "links" page.
Technology Serves the Content
Technology serves as an indispensable tool for creating electronic music; however, technology does not inherently create a perspective.
A producer can possess thousands of plug-ins, samples, presets and virtual instruments without establishing an identifiable musical voice. The critical inquiry is not how much technology exists at an artist's disposal. Rather, it is what an artist chooses to accomplish with available technology.
Turntable Kachina employs digital production methods to organize abstract concepts: impact, distance, movement, density, degradation/erosion, repetition and space.
The computer serves as a valuable resource due to its ability to provide precise control over sounds. Sounds can be shortened/elongated/filtered/reversed/stacked/manipulated by milliseconds. However, precision does not equate to sterility. The final product is ultimately dependent upon taste/instinct/listening/willingness to retain beneficial flaws.
Technology supports the environment; it does not replace it.
Similarly to Turntable Kachina, 1st Drop Music supports various independent projects within its ecosystem that employ digital production methods as a means of expressing diverse creative perspectives – ranging from Bear the Astronot's vast universe of soundscapes to Bear Cole's singer/songwriter focused works. Turntable Kachina, Bear the Astronot and Bear Cole are musical identities of the same creator. The shared use of similar tools does not guarantee similar results.
Music as an Environment
When electronic music functions as an environment, listeners are actively engaged in listening processes.
Listeners begin to perceive where sounds are positioned. Listeners recognize differences between wide open sections of a track versus busy ones. Listeners recognize when a beat is propelling them forward and when it is prompting them to remain stationary.
The track transforms into a location where listeners can spend time.
This represents the larger concept underlying Turntable Kachina: sound is treated as material, and composition is the process of arranging that material into a place. Rhythm becomes structure. Bass becomes gravity. Texture becomes memory. Silence becomes distance.
Sound has physical effects.
Listeners can access the environment through Turntable Kachina's entire catalog of releases, peruse curated playlists or learn more about Turntable Kachina in the news archives.