Moods 35: Veblen Defect
Our Moods Mix for April 2021 is brought to you by Veblen Defect (@veblendefect), an NYC-based deejay who also works the door of venues like Good Room and events like Unter. The guardrails—or guardian angels—to any good party are the staff, bartenders, and bouncers; without folks like Defect (aka Sophia Matilda), parties simply wouldn't happen.
Veblen Defect takes us down an NYC Avenue and over the Brooklyn Bridge through the sounds of jazz, funk, R&B, and rap.
Where geographically did you grow up? Was it a single place or many places?
I grew up in Brooklyn, and still to this day have never been out of Brooklyn for a stretch longer than 6 weeks. I also grew up in many places, because this city is an endless multiverse—and that is its beauty if you don't shelter yourself from it. When I was younger, I often fantasized about printing out a giant map of NYC, block by block, and mapping out all my experiences on it. Some took place only feet from each other, but in entirely different cities.
Can you pick one song in the mix and explain where you first listened to it?
Graffiti by Digable Planets was one of the first songs I learned how to play on the drums. When I was 13 or 14 I had a drum teacher who I'd go see once a week at a music studio in Greenpoint across from the Acme smoked fish factory. I would bring him a track each week that I wanted to learn in addition to our regular lesson. My dad had a Digable Planets CD that I had borrowed and converted to get on an iPod. I was obsessed with funk style drumming, syncopation, and swing, and Graffiti was such a great stripped down rhythm to represent that. Most of the tracks in this playlist are songs I listened to the most when I was in my early teens and learning the drums. I still feel this taste in rhythm reflected in my love for breaks and electro in the scope of electronic music.
Who "introduced" you to these songs? Was it a person, a radio station, a CD?
More than half of the tracks in this mix are songs or artists that I was introduced to by my dad (his Soundcloud is here), who is also a musician, and the other half are songs I discovered on my own through the music exploration that was always encouraged growing up in my home. I am very thankful for growing up surrounded by such open and encouraged access to so many styles, genres, and time periods of music.
Where and when did you first hear techno? Who did it sound like it was for?
As a teenager I discovered Kraftwerk through listening to Afrika Bambaataa and other classic hip hop and breaks. I always had an ear for the types of sounds that would go on to form my love of techno, but I don't think I had a word for it yet. I started DJing with friends around 19-20 and was initially mostly playing UK garage, early dubstep, then house & tech house. I once again started drifting toward the sounds that most spoke to me, and found myself discovering techno more "officially" at that point.
I felt like in the techno scene in NYC I had finally found my home, a place that had the same energy as the underground DIY shows I had gone to in high school, and free of the overt sexism, obvious wealth disparities and general douchebaggery of the bottle service clubs I had been playing in as a young DJ (it wasn't free of any of those things, I'd come to find, but it was a lot further along).
The first time I went to Detroit I remember feeling emotional hearing techno be on in the background of restaurants and seeing "normal middle aged" people dancing and enjoying techno. It solidified the feelings I had about it that were sometimes not reflected in parts of the NYC scene. Techno belongs to the working class, Black people, Queer people, and to those looking to openly participate in it's energy while respecting where it came from, not gatekeeping something they never had the right to gatekeep.
What do you want to say to the techno community?
This past year has really challenged my concept of the techno community. Are we still a community when the music isn't here? There is a timeless, ancient energy that can be tapped into on an ecstatic dance floor. It unifies you and everyone around you, but when it isn't there are we still connected? I would love to say yes, but I think this year has challenged that. There is something more vulnerable in reaching out and connecting without the guise of music protecting us, and I have definitely felt isolated and lonely, questioning if some of my conceptions of community were actually sincere, or I was just playing myself. Mostly I want to say that I miss you all so much, I miss the energy so much, and I hope I never again take for granted just how important these spaces and moments are for my mental and spiritual well being.
The Money
Veblen Defect moved her commission to Make The Road New York. “Consider supporting immigrant and working class communities in achieving dignity and justice by donating,” she says, “by supporting or volunteering with them:
https://maketheroadny.org
.”
Tracklist
Damn Right I Am Somebody - Fred Wesley and the J.B.'s
Going Places (Zemix Version) - Kid Creole & The Coconuts
Forest Nativity - Francis Bebey
Graffiti - Digable Planets
You've Got The Love I Need - Al Green & Anthony Hamilton
You Can Have Watergate Just Gimme Some Bucks and I'll Be Straight - The J.B.'s
Jungle Boogie - Kool & The Gang
D'Hardest - Shadow
Body and Soul - William Onyeabor
The Funky 16 Corners - The Highlighters Band
Get Together - Bright Engelberts and the B.E. Movement
Aztec - Bo Diddley
Say Man - Bo Diddley
Talking About Music - Nana Love
Around The World - Señor Coconut & His Orchestra
He's Not Such A Bad Guy After all - Kid Creole & The Coconuts
Dance To The Music - Sly & The Family Stone
Menyeckse - Atomic Bomb Zigoto
Storm - Rare Silk
Be Thankful For What You Got - William DeVaughn
Color Him Father - Linda Martell
Doomsday - MF Doom
The Art
We paid Veblen Defect’s mix with a black-and-white illustration from Keith Harring. A natural pairing between two NYC icons. To learn more about Harring, head here