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To Hear With An Open Hand

from PS, You Are Brilliant by Steve Lawson

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For those who’ve listened to the last few things I’ve released, this is in pretty familiar territory - tonally and rhythmically, this is a space I’ve explored in a number of ways over the last couple of years, and one that feels like it yields a fair amount of subtle variation over time. As soon as I started using the Quneo for playing and looping live electronic percussion in 2015, this was a big part of the vibe I wanted to go for. It owes a BIG debt to legendary hip hop producer Dilla, and his gloriously wonky aesthetic, as well as being part of a long-term thread in my own musical journey for rhythms being formed from overlaying things in ways that are way more complex than the component parts might suggest.

Emotionally, I experience this kind of playing as an exploration of the kind of political space that hip hop has occupied in my own thinking for decades - the guns ’n’ bling end of things held little interest, but the role that the astute observation of the world from the vantage point of urban black america has played in my thinking is difficult to overstate. So this is a meditation on those same concerns, space to consider questions of racial injustice, of white supremacy and its overarching influence on Western political machinations, to consider the voices we allow in to shape our world and the ones we exclude because the cultural context may be alien... A space to listen to others with our hands open to receive their wisdom...

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For those who’ve listened to the last few things I’ve released, this is in pretty familiar territory - tonally and rhythmically, this is a space I’ve explored in a number of ways over the last couple of years, and one that feels like it yields a fair amount of subtle variation over time. As soon as I started using the Quneo for playing and looping live electronic percussion in 2015, this was a big part of the vibe I wanted to go for. It owes a BIG debt to legendary hip hop producer Dilla, and his gloriously wonky aesthetic, as well as being part of a long-term thread in my own musical journey for rhythms being formed from overlaying things in ways that are way more complex than the component parts might suggest.

Emotionally, I experience this kind of playing as an exploration of the kind of political space that hip hop has occupied in my own thinking for decades - the guns ’n’ bling end of things held little interest, but the role that the astute observation of the world from the vantage point of urban black america has played in my thinking is difficult to overstate. So this is a meditation on those same concerns, space to consider questions of racial injustice, of white supremacy and its overarching influence on Western political machinations, to consider the voices we allow in to shape our world and the ones we exclude because the cultural context may be alien... A space to listen to others with our hands open to receive their wisdom...

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from PS, You Are Brilliant, released October 30, 2017

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Steve Lawson UK

The UK's most celebrated and prolific solo bassist - alternating between solo and collaborative releases - have a rummage around and see what you find. The subscription is by FAR the best way to keep track of the many musical goings on!

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