The first antidote to any element of today’s music scene we don’t like is to begin sharing the music we love.
And here’s a case in point. It’s a must-listen mix of all-female artists (via the female:pressure network), assembled by Akkamiau Kočičí aka hiT͟Hərˈto͞o.
This list for me is significant not because these are female artists. This could just as easily be a list of artists who move me personally, who inspire my own music.
Akkamiau shared some sentiments on making this mix with me that would seem to echo that. These artists are not only female but members of the vast female:pressure network, it’s true. (The only exception is Happa, who remixes Holly Herndon.) But that restriction, says Akkamiau, was “just as a conceptual limitation of the selection, to set the pool.”
“After I did that, I went much more for feelings hidden in the tracks and tried to tell a story, to express a story. But the story is quite abstract; it’s really about the waves on the surface, the visible outcome of the inner movement. It’s like the reflections of deeper, more complex emotions on a two-dimensional screen.”
I like inner messages, so for me, this one was about expressing the individual “voices” of the ladies into a common chorus of techno abstraction and experimental attitude to sound. In a way, I think I also selected similar characters for this story, researchers, people who search in soundscapes for their own structures. People who don’t follow any prescribed methods and are not afraid to step out of genres.”
Now, I could easily just forget this is a list of female artists and share it under the heading of “here’s some of my favorite music right now” – full stop.
But too often, I hear people say “I don’t know very many female artists.”
And even beyond that, too often I hear people say, “I can’t find electronic music I really like.”
These are two problems that clearly have some connections to one another. And they’re also two problems with easy solutions.
We need to share music with each other – our own, other people’s. I think when we do, our own music and our own listening will get better. We can make weird elitist arguments or look for musical heroes like we’re trying to find producer equivalents of Richard Wagner. But I think it can be much simpler than that. Listen, and if you hear something, something you care for, share it. If you don’t hear that something, then don’t stop to complain – look elsewhere.
I’m biased in that I know some of the people on this list reasonably well – but I feel really lucky to know them, too, so I’ll accept that bias, and keep getting to know people like that. I hope you get to, too.
Tracklist:
Anna Stereopoulou – [-∞] )o++o(
Cio d’Or – Now And Then
Aschka – Oktogon
Milena Kriegs – Auburn
Monya – Apolitical Policy
Mary Velo – Art Of Speech
Laura Luna de Castillo – Oxytocin
Adriana Lopez – Indicie
Irradiation – Angular Momentum
Jana Sleep – Libra
Micol Danieli – Hold Back The Down (Andrea Belluzzi Remix)
Planningtorock – Changes
Aisha Devi – Hakken Dub
Myriam Bleau – Photomaton (rmx)
NIC ENDO – I didn’t exist
Rebekah – Equilibrium
Electric Indigo – Cinq
LCC – Caix
rRoxymore – ####
hiT͟Hərˈto͞o – 02
Hyperaktivist – Senseless Rebellion
Holly Herndon – Chorus (Happa remix)
Arielle Esther – Angst
Bonnie Li – White
Machine Girl – Ionic Funk
Neotropic – Wreckage of DReams
Lower Order Ethics – Soft As Sin (excerpt)
Check out Akkamiau at:
https://www.facebook.com/hithertoo
https://soundcloud.com/hithertoo
and
https://www.facebook.com/akkamiau
https://soundcloud.com/akkamiau
And because networks are the future, see this one network:
http://www.femalepressure.net
http://femalepressure.tumblr.com
Photo, top, by Jordan Katz.