Moods 31: Savile
We close out Moods 2020 with @savile, a producer, cook, DJ, and tender soul. Most known for his work organizing the Chicago-based event series Service; the Copenhagen-based Self-Disrupt, and abolition-centered productions (cc: savile.bandcamp.com/album/the-abolitionist), we hope this is a sound send-off to this year.
xx from us to you.
Tracklist:
1. Laraaji - The Dance # 2
2. Navy Blue - Ode2mylove
3. Jeff Majors - The Chant
4. Jill Scott - Slowly Surely (Theo Parrish Remix)
5. Makaya Mccraven - Holy Lands
6. Radiohead - MK2
7. Laraaji - Change
8. Medicine - Heads
9. Acemo - Mind Element
10. Fauzia - When It’s All Over (ft Kelela)
11. Basic Channel - Roll Off / B
12. Gigi Masin - Clouds
13. GNS - GNS # 2 Version
14. Theravada - 99 Coupe
15. Savile - Take Back (w/ Jacques Greene, Anne Lacy)
16. Terekke - Nuwav2
17. Chiwonsio - Zvichapera
QnA:
Where, geographically, did you grow up? Was it a single place, or many places?
I grew up in southern Michigan, about 10 minutes from the Indiana border. I spent my entire childhood there, and moved to Chicago when I was in my early 20s.
Can you pick one song in the mix and explain where you first listened to it?
I remember the Fauzia & Kelela track very clearly when it dropped on a Bandcamp Friday this summer - so imaginative, expressive, and beautifully produced. It really struck me and was something i turned to again and again. i feel like you could find a lot of that energy in music this year and I’m grateful to have heard it.
Who "introduced" you to these songs? Was it a person, a radio station, a CD?
This music spans some 10 years of listening, being shared with, stumbling upon, and so forth. I think the moment I realized the music i play as a DJ - or share with others in a public way- could be informed by any source, it made the act of finding music a much more open-end process, full of possibility. So this music, some of it is random algorithm recommendations, some of it was shared by friends, some if it I’ve had in my iTunes since high school.
Where and when did you first hear techno? Who did it sound like it was for?
My first encounters w dance music were associated w something very distant from the place I existed. My first dance music encounters were about traveling to a place where I could be more myself. So I suppose, in that way, it sounded like it was for a freer, more expressive, and less bound and defined place.
You've got the microphone. What do you want to say to the music community?
I think that in my time in dance music thus far, I have been afforded a lot of space to say my piece, and I say that with deep gratitude. in this time, I want to continue to de-center myself and let the vanguard speak and shape their world into existence, I’m here to help serve that in whatever ways I can.
Thank you for having me. My heart goes to all who’re struggling in this moment, especially those cast aside by the system here in amerikkka.
I miss you all very much <3 gianpaolo
We've paired Savile's mix with the essential Teching Hsieh, a performance artist whose primary medium is time; or, rather, the demarcation of time. Both artists play quite literally with time, whether it is punching in at a gallery on-the-hour, every hour, or filling a moment in time with sound. We've wanted to pair these two in conversation for a while now. 2020 ends strong with this.
Savile also elected to move their $40 commission to Bed Stuy Stong, a mutual aid network of over 4,000 people from across Bed-Stuy who are supporting our community during the COVID-19 crisis: bedstuystrong.com/