You’ve got to feed yourself — that goes for music just like everything else. So your ears don’t just want this playlist from King Britt and Moog. They need this playlist. And you can bet, given King’s incredible Blacktronika project, those ears will be fully satisfied.
Moog is promising a series of Black History Month portraits. And it should — it’s time to recognize synthesis is Black, it’s brown, it’s global. King writes:
In celebration, I compiled this playlist of musicians of color (and other influences), who have pioneered, advanced and propelled electronic music into the forefront. From 4Hero to George Duke to Sun Ra, this is a glimpse into the past, present and Afrofuture. Most feature a Moog synthesizer in some capacity (except 1). Enjoy!
Enjoy is right: this whole playlist is like a ray of sunshine. (And here in Berlin, we better get that from music!)
This is on Apple Music (but see some options below to listen outside that ecosystem):
King Britt’s Blacktronika x MoogMusic Playlist
I appreciate the inclusive “musicians of color” from King, because it’s high time we gathered those stories and fought together — not to equate anyone’s story with anyone else’s, but to unite the struggles. Across all the Americas, with our various mixed-up identities, that should be especially obvious.
How to listen outside Apple Music
Apple Music remains my least-worst streaming go-to for the moment; they still have some editorial, and the quality of the tools and playback is high. Fundamentally, the model still has the flaws of all streaming services, but that’s why I still I spend all I can on Bandcamp and the like and ultimately download locally and listen that way.
Anyway, being locked in anywhere is no fun. So–
This falls into two categories — one, downloading for subscribers so you can listen without a streaming connection. (I’m not going to comment on the legality of that as that gets quickly into some gray areas.) The other is converting the metadata so you can use whatever you want, which is legal — that information is public on the open Web.
TuneMyMusic seems to be the most complete service, and even outputs plain text if you want!
That’s what I’ve used, though there are others — other tips?
Other features on this:
How to Export Apple Music Playlists in 6 Effective Methods [Tunesmake]
Best Apple Music to MP3 Converter: What Actually Works and What to Skip [Mac Observer — long-running Mac site, glad they’re still going!]
More King
Hey, King is another artist to celebrate in music! This is a vintage video but … well, kinda fun to go back in time ten years, too! (but hey, King, we should do a new one!)
And super vintage, shot by me — good memories: