Moods 61: Sold
The Lizard Label Co-Founder and Chicago-based music enthusiast takes us through August with a selection of moody beats and ethereal sonic portraits.
With Fall around the corner, we look to Sold to take us through the feeling of trying to feel again. It’s time to decompress, grab some tea, take a seat, and ride the wave.
I struggled immensely with this mix (and quite frankly any creative endeavors in my life the past year or so). I was inspired initially when asked by Rose E Kross’s Beyond Below mix where she took extremely theatrical sounding music and made what felt like a soundtrack to an older movie. I wanted to do something over the top and theatrical, centered around Philip Glass’s “Liquid Days.” But unfortunately, that never manifested for me. Instead I belabored over many different sounds and songs over time. The shape of the mix shifted immensely over time. I threw out MANY attempts that I became frustrated with probably too quickly.
I still am not sure the shape of it. It’s strange. I was talking to my therapist about it, and was telling them how I always center my mixes around feelings or narratives or themes, and because of my anhedonia/apathy/lack of motivation and inspiration in life, my mix was turning out to just be a mix about feeling unmotivated, which is, honestly, quite boring. They were like, “Well, maybe you just have to be boring then.”
So I guess that’s my story: unmotivated, uninspired, disassociated, and trying to exist. I wanted to avoid something cloying, to avoid something weird for the sake of being weird, and to avoid it just being cool sounds (which is admittedly hard, I love cool sounds). It’s a bit of a hodge podge of beautiful and thoughtful sounds, but maybe that’s the best I can pummel my brain into doing when any story I attempt to create right now is so *boring* artistically. I hope it makes sense to whoever is listening, for whatever sense they want to make of it.
Where did I grow up, geographically?
The burbs of Youngstown, perhaps the rustiest of all the Rust Belt. It’s incredibly depressing, and in general I think being from the Rust Belt makes you a very strange and dark kind of optimist. You have to be.
One song from the mix, explained: where was I when I first heard it?
I feel like it should be obvious to talk about Forgetting but instead I’d like to talk about Enon. Honestly I don’t quite remember. I know college for sure, I had a buddy who was really into Brainiac and I would have to assume that’s how I came across Enon. If I were to guess, it was in front of my computer late at night while Soulseek binging. I cut a lot of class just to obsessively download tons of music. I got extremely into Enon and drove to a one off festival in Cincinnati called Desdemona just to see them. Me including Enon was an attempt at feeling passion about anything; sometimes revisiting old favorites can help stir emotions when you need a good kick in the seat.
Who introduced me to these songs?
Oh gosh. It’s a combination of friends, my brother, the internet, and browsing in record stores. Some of the music *is* friends. The most random intro is probably Ichiko Hashimoto: I discovered her because she scored my favorite anime (RahXephon). Three CDs of extremely varied wild shit. She’s amazing. The first rain sounds is just something I found on Bandcamp because the Environments had too many animal sounds in the gentle rain that I wanted to play earlier (lol).
When did I first hear techno?
Age 14 knowingly, but I barely had any idea what it was. I was listening to some sort of techno—random tracks my brother had downloaded from Napster, and a lot of electronic stuff that was not techno, of course. Coming from a place that offered very little in the way of experiences outside of the norm, electronic music was so fascinating to me. I don’t know that I was thinking very deeply about it beyond “Wow, cool!” It really took me quite a long time to really *listen* to music.
What do I want to say to the techno community?
Tell the people around you that you love them. Unabashedly gush to your favorite artists about how much you love their music. Pet a dog. Look at nature. Just do anything you can to feel things. Take those experiences and have music help you tell your stories. Always with feeling.
Anything else to share? What are you up to?
Not a ton to promo here really. I do a monthly radio show on Particle.fm called Just a Dilettante. I have a label called Lizard Label with my spouse I am very proud of. I have a bi-monthly called Hodge Podge with Tony G. Ummm…just be kind to people and give any unhoused folks you see your extra dollars or change. Thanks!
The Tracklist
Ichiko Hashimoto - Strange Paradise
Lucrecia Dalt - Ser boca
Klein - top shotta
Forest Management - Pushing Pianos At The Apex
Oto Hiax - Silt
Enon - Rubber Car
we™ - flutesque
Fuzzy Logic - fuzzy logic?!
Urban Tribe - Cultural Nimrod
Jo Rad Silver - Peace Be Up On You
Davis Galvin - Shiver
Nondi_ - FCD (Floaty Cloud Dream)
Pamela_ & her sons - Dayslipping
Sean Jacobi - Slow-TEK
Rain Sounds - Empty Streets At Night
Philip Glass - Forgetting
Environments - The Psychologically Ultimate Thunderstorm
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We paired Sold's mix with a 1974 work by Frank Bowling titled Head. Bowling’s work in abstract expressionism and color field painting resemble a similar mastery in handling and composing dramatic saturation using raw form, and we think his knack for intersecting geographies, times, and lineages resonates with Sold’s work —and particularly this mix.
For more on Frank Bowling, head to his Site or see the piece Head up close on Wiki.
Thank you and goodbye from the Moods team! <3