Thanks to Ty.
I never quite know how I feel, and more importantly how I should express how I feel when the music community loses someone. Having lost people in my life, I always feel acutely aware that whilst I have said goodbye to the prospect of future art, others have said goodbye to a friend, a parent, a sibling, a child.
In the days we live in right now, losses of life are stacked up as metrics we see daily – that we use to work out how good a news day it is, or how well our politicians are doing; but these numbers represent friends, parents, siblings, children who have been lost.
Losing the musician Ty was a shock because it brought home the statistics on the TV at a point when they were in danger of blurring into routine and at point many of us (in the UK at least) were getting used to better news.
It was sad because of his unique output of which there will be no more, and personally because his album Upwards was released at a formative time for me, and will always be important; but also because he seemed like a genuinely good human being. His friends will express this better than me.
When will we dance.
Amongst all the thoughts of heart rattling bass, of being lifted off the ground and carried clear across the road in a mosh pit, of ridiculous times with friends and strangers. Amongst the goose bumps, the reloads, the roadblocks, the ad-hoc crowd-control by MC’s. The thoughts of trainers ruined, of the hurried train journeys across the UK from clashing bank holiday obligations at silly times on Sunday mornings. Amongst all the memories of elevation in the sunshine and madness in the rain, amongst the chaos; is one very prominent and also very calm idea.
The Notting Hill Carnival experience each year seems to start in the middle one season and finish well into another; as if there was more energy left in summer but that it gets spent on the streets. After the sound systems shut off on Monday, the air changes, and by the time you leave the zone you need a top layer in the early evening for the first time in a while. You notice how yellow the setting sun is, and how early it is ducking behind the Westway.
These thoughts are formed of years and years on those streets – however they will not be added to this year – and indeed, it may be a while before we dance again. Though surely we will do so again before long, and perhaps this year Autumn will arrive a little less abruptly.
Maxime Denuc – Solarium (Edit)
The Cinematic Orchestra – Burn Out
Respectfulchild – Glitter
Viktor Udvari – Fathers
Error Lake – Outline
Sylvain Chauveau – nd
Kali Malone – Sacer Profanare
Natureboy Flako – Contemplation
Ty feat Sarina Leah and Shaun Escoffery – Emotions
Mike Slott – Tabriz
Logos – Medicate
Commodo – Loan Shark
GHSTLY XXVII – Mitus
Lewi B – Forest
Wiley – Morgue
DJ Sinclair – Low Morgue
High Plains Drifter v Goldspot – Sholay
Ty – Wait a Minute
Captain Over – Jupiterrr
Proc Fiskal bust your windows – pork biskal lungfarm mix
San – Subject 9
Koffee – Toast (clipz Remix)
clÜ – Rainfall
Soviet Space Research Institute (SSRI) – A Black Cat’s Journey To The Other Side
96 Back – Fe Symbolic
Jamie XX – Oh My Gosh
Cover image thanks to Stuart Boreham on Flickr