“New York’s premier beat-blaster,” CRISP, comes through with a special treat to kick off 2013 in proper fashion. By evolving from his previous methodology for creativity, he has brought new life to his artistic music production on his Born Again EP. With a different story of inspiration behind each track on the EP, there is depth and soul to the diverse sounds that stem from the 90s and blossom for the new age of dance music. After the jump, you’ll find the words from CRISP himself giving insight into those stories of inspiration. Read up and enjoy the music.
Bass Squad will be throwing a release party on January 24th in NYC celebrating this release as well as releases from New York’s Figgy(Symbols Recordings) and Creamdream. Details announced shortly here!
“*Born Again* represents a significant shift in my creative mentality. The writing process, which took place over the last three months, was based primarily on a trial and error approach. I had to create a palate of authentic 90’s sounds and contextualize them in as fluid and natural a canvas as possible. I started with the T.I. remix, this track was key to develop the new aesthetic as well as experiment with different arrangements. Throughout the EP, the chords and the sub are the most important elements, so I started with these as the framework. Next, it was important for me to tie in a thematic element to make all the melodies and beats come to life. The “Why You Wanna,” Remix is anchored by “In Da House,” and the concepts in “Under the Arbor,” are solidified in “The Blue Whale.” The two pairs of tracks represent the two thematic keystones I was trying to capture: youth and decadence. Youth was very personal for me, and “Under the Arbor” and “The Blue Whale” draw upon a lot of memories and feelings from my past. I have spent every summer of my life on Nantucket, and the island dominates the way I remember my childhood. My family owns small cottage that is very authentic way Nantucket used to be before it experienced a dramatic commercialization in the late 90’s. The Blue Whale is the name of my house and, yes, there is an arbor in the backyard. From cookouts, to wiffle ball and old friends, to dirty tennis whites and sandy beds – This part of the EP is derived from the time, emotions and memories of this special place.
The other two tracks are a vision of what the rave culture in the early 90’s was like. Rave culture today is a rather disappointing spectacle. It’s a noisy arms race that blasts maximal stimulation at a generation that is too over stimulated to process anything. It’s a cheap trick, a fad that is no more fleeting than the drugs sustaining the plastic sense of identity and instant sense of gratification the culture enables. I wanted to create a party tune that brings you back to a simpler time where the hook and the melody was the only thing that mattered. The scene was a merely secondary consideration. Decadence and Narcacissm have always defined this culture, but the early 90′s presented this vision while it was still raw in the artist’s minds. Before it had become all it could be. Before its decline into the bloated and washed out state it exists in today. Although I’m too young to have experienced this culture first hand, I drew from the pioneers of this generation. Acts like Altern-8, The Prodigy and The Outlander guided me to the heyday of the rave sound, that brief window in the early 90’s where the music was the party. The result: In da House, a track which anchors around a simple vocal hook and a catchy string melody.
As the divisive lines between different subsets of our popular culture disappear, we are losing the distinctions that have defined America’s creative ingenuity. Every genre of music has its proper setting, but as different sounds and ideas have been crushed together by the inertia of the internet, the context and situational aspect of music has vanished. Although it is foolish to fight the change, and hybridization is a natural function of the postmodern zeitgeist, do not lose your ability to discern between what is good and bad. When you are constantly bombarded by a ceaseless flow of information and culture, it can be hard to separate the dross from the product of exceptional vision. Protect your ears. Listen critically. Challenge yourself to distinguish between things that exhibit integrity and virtue, and those that don’t.”
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