Moods 19: Jasen Loveland
Loveland grew up in the northwest of Chicago. "It was, and remains, a cultural wasteland." He did find some light in the suburban bleak, however: "there was a Tower Records one town over and that became my window to the world. This mix is kind of a tribute to the freaks from back in the day who stocked the import CD section and helped me find my way.
"I listened to B96 all the time growing up and back then they would still play house classics, so I got the groove early, but for whatever reason I thought techno was just hype, bullshit club music. I mean, it certainly can be, but it can also be a lot more. I think the first time I really "got it" was at Even Furthur in 1997 or 1998. I was getting antsy and needed to move so I went to the tent that was playing "some crazy shit" which turned out to be a bunch of Purpose Maker records and the rest is history.
We'll also note that there's a lot of Current 93 on the mix. Loveland hear "A Voice From Catland" around 1995 or 1996 when he was in Oxford, England on family vacation. "I would go hunting for records a lot and found 'Of Ruine or Some Blazing Starre' in a cutout bin somewhere. The CD version, listening on the discman. That track and the whole album have always had a special place in my heart. It's probably something to do with the weary optimism that pervades the record... for me it is a 'summertime, feel good' record.
And in general, the mix is full of stuff Loveland finds in the imports section at Tower Records; it's an ode, in many ways, to record stores as sites of communication across borders right before the internet took hold as a space for discovery. "Wire Magazine helped," he adds, "but this was all pre-internet 2.0, so I had to read the descriptions and guess if I'd like it. My friends Zia and Jason from high school were hardcore weirdos and always good for a recommendation between honors classes."
Moving from Chicago over to Berlin has also recently expanded Loveland's mind and peace of mind. "I miss the American sound, for sure, but I also like kinda hiding out here. One thing is for certain, unlike in the US, techno ain't broke in Europe anymore. There is a ton of money pouring into the scene from just about every angle, not to mention all they hype-ass fashion horseshit going on." (We can draw a parallel to this note to, say, Virgil Abloh moving from DJ to Luis Vuitton artistic director and Pioneer collaborator). "For me, Techno is poor people music, like, you 'make do' in techno. Having all the sounds and samples and technology and whatever isn't really the point, for me. Rather, it's seeing how far you can take an idea with as little as possible to propel it forward. That's what I'm talking about. The other shit is just rock'n'roll with techno sounds, as far as I'm concerned. You hear it all over the place. So-called 'techno' has all the sounds these days, but no ideas. Its a shame." Take notes!
TRACXS
Playlist (In general order)
Current 93 - A Voice From Catland
Autechre - All End
Carla da Forno - You Know What Its Like
Cocteau Twins - Persephone
Coil - Finite Bees
Idea Mind Fire Company - The Terrible Comet Salt
Jon Hassell - Hamburg
Zoviet*France - They're Eating The Passengers
Trapaeng Ray - s/t
Michael Gira - Blind
Si Mohammed Bel Hassan Soudani - Gnaoui Solo Song (Marrakech)
Pharaoh Sanders - Harvest Time
Current 93 - Dormition and Dominion
ART SHIT
We've paired Loveland's beachy mix with a literal beach opera by Lithuanian collective Neon Realism. The hour-long piece has viewers look down upon a half-cast, half-volunteer beachgoers as they lament about SPF, access to their sugar daddy's wealth, spray tans and work woes. It's a siren song to many vacationer's inability to see the world burning in front of them—something you might say is also Loveland's mix as he cautions techno to not steer into capitalist black holes of hypebeasts.
For more on Neon Realism, head here.
For more of Loveland, get his bangin release off the brilliant Acid Camp here.