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When You Are Accustomed To Privilege, Equality Feels Like Oppression

from The Surrender Of Time by Steve Lawson

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When You Are Accustomed To Privilege,
Equality Feels Like Oppression.

This is a quote that’s been rolling around this year. No-one seems quite sure who first said it, but its clarity is profound, and its implications can be seen in so much contemporary discourse. The notion that as we shift away from the various prejudices and inequalities of history, those who have benefited from them aren’t letting go without a fight… As a white, male, English-speaking, mostly-straight, able-bodied man, I’m pretty much in the ‘apex predator’ category in the ongoing culture war. And with that comes a fairly epic responsibility to deploy that privilege against its own existence. The undermining of white power, of patriarchy, of euro-centric, ableist, heteronormative assumptions about the world won’t happen without those of us who benefit from all of those inequalities pushing them away, giving them up and undermining the bogus premises on which they rely. And it hurts. Both the realisation that you’ve lived this messed up life of privilege while complaining about how hard done by you’ve been, and of course the pain of being on the receiving end of all that inequality.

So we listen without prejudice, we hear the voices of those who bear witness to what we’ve done, and we amplify their voices, while resisting the urge to talk for them… And when our own words falter, we make music…

Musically, it makes extensive use of some of my favourite sounds - the metallic scrapes and clangs that will crop up throughout the album. They are woven into the bass parts in interesting ways - one of the creative leaps forward here is combining bass and Quneo parts so they overlap, rather than just been added as separate layers. This gets to that right from the off…

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from The Surrender Of Time, released September 5, 2016

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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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