In today’s media currency, copy is the ultimate value. Bitrate and resolution are the deciding factor in the worth of any given object. Duplication has become ritual.

Our remix culture was birthed from the blogs.  An endless swamp of snapshots containing the audio/visual stimulation that shapes and defines us.  As we click and download, it is too easy to shift from the rare dark obscurities of Mutant Sounds to the highlife grooves of Afro Slabs in mere moments.  As a result, our music is fractured with influence.  This invasion of stimulus wreaks synaptical chaos.  This is probably why, as a genre, this Grave Wave fails to find a voice.

What we do have is common ground. Regardless of any artists particular style it is there. Early industrial and old Italo disco fused with the tape aesthetics of  DJ Screw and the Memphis Underground.  We delight in the joysongs of Charlie and his Girls as we dream about what is was like to dance at the Batcave.

Everything lies in how we arrange these tangrams. The power lies in translation. Our sounds are neuro-tarot, the deck designed by our collective’s hive mind.

I was considering a running feature wherein artists remix songs that have moved them when I stumbled across Felis Demens’ drag mix of Joy Division. Devilishly simple, the song seems to emit dread at this leaden tempo. Nearly single channel (there are a few added drum sounds) everything you hear is extracted from the original recording. This is the essence of Screw. But wait, coincidentally (?)… Mater Suspiria Vision side project twYlY▲ght ►ZoNe then goes and drops their own take on the Joy Division classic just a few days ago!  Taking the original track to Paul Stretch dimensions, their ghost drone borders on demon drag.

It all seems to fit. As demos of Warsaw reveal, JD’s cold, hollow sound comes from Martin Hannett’s production.  Live they were almost just another punk band.  Essentially, it is about the copy.

It is always about the copy.

- Nattymari