Hey would you look at that: Chief Tizo
is back on the rails with some new state of the art clean coal. Fresh
for an empty station, hardly an empty show: Bryan and I are back with
our dispatches from our desert bunkers. The juvenilea of yesterday
still thrives, here. Look through the archives to see my past
blunders.
This revival comes with new
technologies developed from the doldrums of my twenties. A
graduation to a life of what ifs and potentials with a wrecked will
for today. Well, at least that is what unemployment has partially
done along with the other follies of an early life for me.
Perhaps it would be presumptuous to
announce anything for the coming future. But I will mention what I am
up to now. I am once again reinvested in the literary and filmic
arts. I might drop a song of the day but I feel like I am up to
another task entirely. Look for some book reviews in the future, this
time I am abandoning all the techniques I was indoctrinated into
using and believing. These will all be from a personal place.
The thing about leaving the academy and
entering the uncaring wasteland again is that the embrace of the dust
reminds me of what Artaud had already came to conclusion of. “All writing is pigshit”. All of it. And all of culture and all its
pretensions are just the fecal matter in which we see the sweetness
of our beloved compost piles.
A new discipline is needed for me in
this moment of revival. This is the nascence of a new record for a
different time. A time stretched yawn. And because everything is
based on could be's it is only prudent to accept it as a gift, a call
to the present. Enough of the pretentious ramblings, the mindless
typing.
There are times when the level of seriousness in a musical arrangement can almost seem ridiculously melodramatic, and when coupled with intelligent, emotional lyrics, the effect can lead to overt self-awareness, or at worst, camp. But the songs where this fine line is just on the precipice of being passed, there exists a sense of equally exciting and affecting power. "Split", a song from Ute Lemper's 2000 album, Punishing Kiss, is one of such songs in this category.
Born in early 1960's Germany and brought up with a lifetime of participation in stage musicals, film, and behind the microphone, Lemper seems the sort of classically trained superstar that is largely absent in modern times. Gaining early fame for her performance in the original Viennese version of Cats in 1984 and later recording Ute Lemper Sings Kurt Weill in 1987, she would create a successful career of interpreting classically influenced work that was either derived from or sent to the dramatic stage. Even at the age of 16, she seemed to have sophisticated ambitions beyond those of the usual teenager and would join the Panama Drive Band, a jazz rock band influenced by "Joan Armatrading, Chick Corea, the Brecker Brothers and all that."
But perhaps singing standards left Lemper with a sense of stagnation during the late 1990's (including a minor role in a panned 1996 film, Bogus, with Whoppi Goldberg), a new collaboration would commence with Northern Irish singer-songwriter Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy. Requesting songs to be written for her by serious heavy-hitters such as Scott Walker, Elvis Costello, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, and Phillip Glass, along with her usual Weill-penned classics, the record is a showcase for Lemper's lifetime of prowess as a singer and performer.
Costello-penned numbers "Passionate Fight" and title track merge his cynical lyrics and shifting musical arrangements with Lemper's tender and emotive vocals, while "Streets of Berlin" have her match Glass' chanson inspired "rock" song in period-correct 60's voicing. Even Scott Walker's "Scope J", a behemoth of a finale with dissonant textures and tension, seems to be no problem as she moves from quiet intimacy to siren of despair for the song's continual build and collapse for 10+ minutes.
But then there is "Split", by far the most electrifying and driving track of the whole lot. Written by main collaborator Neil Hannon and his mainstay arranger, Joby Talbot, Ute Lemper goes toe to toe with Hannon handling the duet vocals of an estranged lover.
Like a rude awakening (hear the organ going up the scale chromatically in the first seconds), the song begins with a crash and tom-tom led drumbeats, driven by a persistent staccato piano chord progression, and call and response guitar/organ riffs that are treated with Leslie speakers.
Suddenly, Hannon begins singing in his near-lowest and most serious register (long-gone is
the soft-spoken bookworm of "The Booklovers"): "I was made for you, you were made for me... I thought." And Lemper responds in kind, "But maybe not after all!" Continuing this call and response, Hannon reminds her that "We had so much love..." and Lemper sets the dagger, "Love enough for three, I guess... Oh god."
Clearly, subtlety isn't in the cards for this song, but where the song could plod along as melodramatic moodiness forever, the song takes a relate-able, human shift as Lemper suggest that "Maybe there's hope...". And so the chords change, the pleading for forgiveness begins; "I never meant to hate you." And three, two, one...!
Suddenly the song is in full orchestral melancholic glory as both harmonize in a truly majestic (and effectively catchy) chorus of "ALL the times that we TOED the LINE, look what we've GOT! ALL the times that I FORGAVE YOU!". For a brief moment (and in each subsequent repeat of this chorus), the song has its melodrama validated, both characters here being fully justified in their vindication and pleading. Hannon's character for being so foolish to "let go of the signs" and Lemper's character for taking advantage of this foolishness. It's the pathos of a dramatic stage brought to audio form.
As it continues, the ugly details continue to pour out;"You were there for me... and HIM, and half of the western world it seems!/Oh baby that's not fair, there were two or three at most, but I don't like to boast!" And once the second, angrier variation of the chorus ends, what seems to be the actual physical aspect of confrontation and separation (the split, so to speak) is played by a fierce organ solo on the path of retribution.
Finally, after the orchestra uplifts for the third and final time for a glorious final chorus, the reality of the doomed situation comes crashing down with a repeated progression of descending strings, horns and piano chords. Now fully aware of the gravity of the situation, Lemper's character pleads for a final chance to be heard, "Baby please listen! Oh why won't you LISTEN?!", asHannon sings with equal remorse, "GIVE ME ONE REASON WHY! I JUST want a REASON, WHY!" . Finally the madness of regret turns into vain bargaining, revelations of abuse and full-blown anger from Lemper, "I'm GONNA MAKE YOU LISTEN! So OPEN your EYES! You don't REALIZE the nights that I've CRIED the SALTIEST tears! The lovers who LIED and stepped on my PRIDE! I WANTED to STOP! I wanted to DIIIIIIIEEEE!". All the while, the desperation in Hannon's repetition of demanding to understand just "WHY" this has happened increases, the plea fora logical and rational reason for a devastating betrayal denied.
As the song fades into an eternally descending march into oblivion, Lemper simply whispers to herself, her character's betrayed partner no longer listening, "Want only you, need only you..." So ends the story with two people entirely separated and unable to communicate. And yet, for all the downtrodden nature of the subject matter, it is hard to not root for both characters in this story, for their downfalls are convincing, emotional, and gradually turn more complicated as the song reaches its climax.
When asked about her first band's falsely reported genre as punk, Lemper would respond, "I was never a punk person. The music of punk is not interesting to me, it’s horrible."With her discography and musical upbringing, it isn't hard to dismiss such a claim since punk was the nihilistic "answer" to sophisticated music, where complexity must die. It was an opposite world to what she was raised and thrived in; where performance and skill undeniably mattered the most. But in the confines of "Split", the ferocity and simplicity of punk is matched and replaced by cutting musical arrangements, equally cutting lyrics, and dramatic vocal performances. Punk music simply lacks the vocabulary to reach the upmost heights of stage drama while demanding a quasi-universal emotional response. All in all, the knife is best impaled with precise skill and a confident, wry smile.
Ah yes, the adage of "it's been a while". Repeated endlessly by countless many as an excuse to restart something or to preface how things will be different now. I am not really sure that works in the context of Chief Tizo Records (the blog? the record label? outlet for bored afternoons or insomniac nights?) since it is hard to say what it even was to begin with.
Well, it is possible to chronicle the somewhat patchy history of what Chief Tizo Records was supposed to mean. In short summary, in 2011 there was a need to encompass and legitimize all musical releases that I would make. Inspired by the myths of independent record labels of old, Chief Tizo Records was formed to assist and, perhaps more accurately, fulfill the illusion that it was indeed possible to start a label.
Surprisingly, it got farther than I thought possible; we ended up actually "signing" a couple people that didn't go anywhere, and then merged with another "digital" label to no real strategic advantage. Eventually I landed a decent interview with Dan Barrett of Have a Nice Life, and we started to get some minor traffic. People would submit music to be reviewed, or to be considered for this hilariously intangible label. But over time with other life priorities and general disinterest, we packed our bags and left.
Yet in the era of reunions, even Chief Tizo would have one. So after a short revival in 2016, we packed it up again after doing some video interviews with a couple of friends and artists. It was an entirely easy decision, really. With the advent of microblogging, Instagram, and Spotify as the seemingly only way people decide to read, view, and discover things in the musical and art realm, what was really the purpose of this blog? We did not have an answer, so we disbanded again.
Then something kinda changed in 2017, when I was able to physically release How Scandinavian's single, Emma, on cassette. The folly of this whole Chief Tizo Records thing was somewhat made reality, since it was released under Chief Tizo Records and had that name in the liner notes. The purpose of this initial enterprise was finally fulfilled in an echo of a mention.
So what's the purpose now? Well, Chief Tizo Records is back, but again, it never really existed to begin with. It's a real independent label, but perhaps the capital and logistics of it aren't ever going to be what was dreamed of back in 2011. But hey, at least we can print stuff out with CHIEF TIZO RECORDS on it in bold followed by a catalog number.
So for now, this blog will serve as a place for updates on what releases we might get out (as of right now, we have two that are being completed and planned) and it shares pretty much the same cast of musicians when all is said and done. In addition to that, it'll still share music and "songs of the day" that are of interest, along with small stories and anecdotes on recording, printing, and art. We might even get the interview series back in action if we can muster the courage.
Andrew Henry is a lot of things: a musician who creates cinematic ambient/experimental/electronic music, an avid fan of films and their scores, a follower of Frank Zappa, Omar Rodríguez-López and the Dave Matthews Band (back in the day he swears), and a long-time friend of mine from our shared online forum days a decade ago. We briefly discussed film projects, the difficulty of ascertaining why he makes music, Will Long, his faux-soundtrack work, and his future in film and music.
Andrew Henry circa 20XX
Bryan Santizo: Why ambient music? What is the major appeal of it as a genre for you? As a listener and as a musician who makes it?
Andrew Henry: The "why" of ambient music is a thought that comes up a lot for me, and I can't really say I have a solid answer. I don't ever remember making a conscious decision where I said "I'm going to make ambient music." But I can't imagine any musician does that for their respective genre. I remember being really interested in William Basinski and Brian Eno in 2012-13 and discovering that you could mimic Eno's techniques in Ableton Live and make tape loops from cassettes. I just kept experimenting with those formats until good results started developing. Finding Celer - which I will address in more detail later - was the last aesthetic push from that time to put me into making "pure" ambient music. It brought about the visual element that the music lacked.
The appeal, as both a listener and musician, lies in the bizarre dynamic of repetition and freedom. My favorite ambient music is very repetitive, but it is morphed enough or has a good enough loop that you can find different things to hear. You can let the music go in and out of your consciousness - both while listening or sitting focused at your mixing board. Ambient music is also just really relaxing, which is something I have trouble with. So perhaps it all goes to the simplest explanation: I make ambient music because it helps me relax.
"The appeal, as both a listener and musician, lies in the bizarre dynamic of repetition and freedom."
BS: Surely, since ambient is a music genre that is known for its length and build up of sonic textures, it must be a difficult to assess when a piece is finished. How do you do it?
AH: I suppose there is two ways of looking at this. If the piece is based on a loop, I'll know the loop is finished when it has a flow that is either timed perfectly or where the awkward cut and overlap gels together. The loop also needs to be pleasing, of course.
I know an individual track is finished when I've had enough of it, really. The majority of my recording is done through a mixing board and effects processing, so I'm not just dragging out a loop in Ableton up to a certain marker and saying "Okay, done." I'm listening as I'm making, so once I feel that the loop or my amount of effects variance has reached its limit, I stop. Lately I've had many tracks under 10 minutes, where in the past I had stuff of 30+ minutes as the norm. This is a result of me paying stricter attention to what I'm doing. In the past I would just start the loop and put my attention to something else while occasionally adjusting the delay/reverb.
Tools of the trade.
BS: Longing and nostalgia is very apparent in your ambient music titles. Is there a consistent theme in your music? AH: I would not say there is not a deliberate consistent theme in my music. But since ambient music is very intimate for me, it will always lead back to my personality traits, habits, and lifelong desires. So my sensitive personality is always going to shine through. I do try to keep a consistent aesthetic, and I do have a very cinematic sense of space that I touch upon with my music, so I can see how a theme comes through. So, in short, the consistent theme(s) of my music is just my personality coming back again and again. But I'm never really saying "Okay this one is about nostalgia or this person and that event." I'm never trying to tell a full story. BS: The majority of your work is ambient, but the rest of your work that is not seems to be written from a different perspective and not as personal. Is this intentional? AH: There's not a lot of intention there. In a musical sense, I don't view the ambient and non-ambient stuff differently. I mean there's an obvious genre and sound difference, but to me it's just "making music" and sometimes a very ambient loop or idea turns into a full fledged song. But in terms of perspective and meaning, my personal life does seep into the ambient stuff more, and that's because of the ambient music being a recreation of the visuals and moods that pop into my head. Something like "Iridescent Lovers" certainly means something to me artistically, but samples of squeaking saxophones is not what I'm trying to create and insert into my personal life. It's a reflection of what I feel all the time. The ambient music is what I'm trying to make my life like. The non-ambient is how I feel all the time. And that comes about naturally, not because I'm deliberately trying to make those statements.
BS: You named Celer/Will Long as a great aesthetic and musical influence. How did you come into contact with his music? Why do you enjoy it so much? How do you incorporate his influence?
AH: I came into contact with his music by browsing a forum thread about William Basinski and seeing a user suggest Celer as a similar artist. I enjoy his music a lot because it's just well done! He has excellent loops and is very skillful with incorporating field recordings. He also doesn't make music that has that weird "spa music" vibe of piano melodies and cheap pad synths, and he also doesn't do a lot of jagged noise music stuff. It's just very clean and peaceful, and that's exactly what I want from ambient music.
I'd say I incorporate his influence by trying to keep an ongoing visual aesthetic and a diary-like approach with liner notes and meanings. The sonic influence is probably obvious!
"Most of the time I just open Ableton and see what happens."
BS: You shift between genres consistently, is this difficult or more of a spitballing (see what works) type of creative process?
AH: I never see it as difficult. I like a lot of different genres of music, and I want to work in all of them as much as I can. I don't even view it as a "see what works" process either. It just happens, really. I'm aware of the genre shifts, but it's not something that's so conscious that I say "Okay, this is gonna be a dance record, this is chillwave, this is free jazz. I need to do another ambient album soon, though." Most of the time I just open Ableton and see what happens. BS: Film is clearly referenced in your work, and you yourself have been involved in short films and even music videos. Are there any outside influences to your work you are totally enraptured with besides music? AH: Film is definitely a huge influence, because certain film scores, or even just shots or cinematography styles pop into my head and guide what the music will do. Like I said before, I have visions or moods in my head when making ambient music - even if its not a complete image that I can describe. It's just like a shot from a movie - maybe a florescent street lamp on a summer night with a car coming in the distance. It doesn't really mean anything, but it's something I would pull from seeing Palo Alto or Paris, Texas, and I'm trying to create more context around and within that. But besides film and music, I can't really say there are other outside influences that I'm enraptured with. Maybe minimalism and asceticism. But my work is mostly about that synthesis of image and sound.
The music maker.
BS: You have done faux-soundtrack in the form of Waiting for Contact I and II, how did you form these concepts? Why did you do these time-consuming projects that were so outside of ambient music?
AH: The path of coming up with "Waiting for Contact" is so wacky but I'll try to keep it condensed. I also hope I remember it correctly!
The first "Waiting for Contact" came about because I wanted to make something like that utilized retro synthesizer sounds and Philip Glass-like compositions. The album just started as some sort of beat-less "synthwave" project but as it went on I just found myself making stuff that sounded like a film score. When I was close to done, I realized that I could morph it into some sort of weird sci-fi movie score. I'm also a pretty big fan of alien abduction stories and The X-Files, so I finished the album with an influence from the Allagash River Incident in mind.
The album then sat on my hard drive for a while until I felt that it should be released. I thought the deliberate cheese of the first album fit in well with vaporwave, so I sent the album out to a label (which fell through), and then the album went to a sister label where it got released. I regret that decision now.
The sequel came about because the label asked me if I would do some sort of sequel. It was "commissioned", I guess. But I did these albums because the first one just developed naturally, and the second one let me flex some retro synth and orchestral ideas that are representative of where my music is currently heading.
Waiting for Contact II
BS: You are outspoken for your love of Frank Zappa, projects related to The Mars Volta, and more experimental and loosely created music, is this something that you feel you can do with ambient music? Is this something that may influence your works of fluctuating genres?
AH: Stuff like Zappa or The Mars Volta, when being connected to my ambient music, is only an influence in terms of just, you know, "doing it." Zappa and Omar Rodriguez Lopez are great artists, and they push my desire to make art (and lots of it). Those guys are a way bigger influence on my non-ambient stuff because they both jumped around to different genres, or (in more cases) blended them seamlessly. But I think it's weird to put those two artists in the same space because Zappa was a very rigid musician who composed everything and rehearsed musicians like crazy. The Mars Volta is a lot of vamping and cobbling riffs and jams together - very cut-and-paste prog. But my ambient music is more like Zappa: more rigid with a clear focus and lots of rules regarding what can't happen. I'm more in line with The Mars Volta on everything else. So I don't really view my ambient music as experimental or loose, which I can imagine is surprising.
"There are always albums to be finished or started or changed. I definitely have lots of ideas I can execute on as well, and those would involve getting into a studio and recording other musicians."
BS: When will the Pinheads, your experimental garage rock music project, return? As a drummer do you have any special influences?
AH: I don't think The Pinheads will ever return. The whole gang of people that is involved with or connected to The Pinheads always seems to be in flux, and we all have conflicting schedules, but hopefully something comes together soon. The duo of The Pinheads will essentially be absorbed into the result of this collaborating group, and maybe it will inherit that name. But there doesn't seem to be anything coming soon, I'm afraid.
With regard to drumming, my biggest influences are Deantoni Parks and Carter Beauford. I'm a little ashamed to admit that Beauford is an influence, but I listened to a lot of Dave Matthews Band as a teenager and fell in love with his drumming. It's hard to deny his skill though. Parks is a more important influence, though. He's able to deconstruct drum kits or use traditional kits with a ridiculous style that sounds like programmed drums. Syncopated and funky drumming has always been my go-to style, and Parks just pushed that into the next dimension.
BS: What is after this? Any upcoming release plans as a solo artist or as part of something else? How do you prioritize between film projects and music?
AH: I never really know what's next, and it's not something I worry about. I have plenty of things I could release, but I have terrible habits with releasing stuff and get sort of careless or uncertain. I'm always doing something, though. There are always albums to be finished or started or changed. I definitely have lots of ideas I can execute on as well, and those would involve getting into a studio and recording other musicians. That could start happening soon. But I recently moved and the past year and a half has been very frustrating for me, so I've felt very weird and disengaged toward my art. But now the frustration has turned to anger, so something good could come from that.
And I prioritize film projects and music by not having any film projects anymore! But in seriousness, I never have to think about balancing them. I just start them when I'm ready to roll on them and I just pick away at whatever I feel like working on. I think I have a pretty quick turnaround (which can be bad sometimes), so most projects don't just dangle and have to be scheduled and balanced with others. It works better if I don't think about it too much.
George Constanza: "It was more like a full-body dry heave set to music."
Since the blog had its death in early 2013, three years worth of music that I have enjoyed is sorely missing a written appreciation. Right around March 2012, I was feverishly excited to learn that Justin Trosper and Brandt Sandeno (ex-members of Unwound) had begun playing live in a band called Survival Knife. In the hands of fate though, they would not release their 7" single Traces Of Me/Name That Tune until exactly a year later on March 2013. By then of course, the blog was all but buried and I was not able to give an approximation of how much I loved the single, the following Divine Mob/Snakebit 7-inch, their sole album Loose Power, and how I thought their Survivalized EP was a shoddy collection of odds and sods.
But aside from diverging this into becoming an entire breakdown of the band's small discography (I will attempt it some day), I wanted to focus on what I consider is one of their strongest tracks entitled "Cut The Quick". Starting off with the click of a distant harpsichord, the song enters a slow burning 4/4 trudge with a riff progression reminiscent of Challenge for a Civilized Society. But where the late-career Unwound would focus on atmospherics and layers of unique instrumentation, Survival Knife focuses its collaborative songwriting in a more emotional and straightforward fashion.
The song itself has a song structure reminiscent of Polvo if they were slowed down about 50% (see: "City Birds") and were half as long and complex. But instead of dizzying riffs and frequent tempo changes, Survival Knife allows for "Cut The Quick" to build its tension during its introductory verses, release some "false" tension during the first refrain, enter an uplifting second verse, release the "real" tension ("STOP CUTTING YOURSELF DOWN!"), have a louder noise break, enter the guitar solo outro, and end on an acoustic guitar/banjo/harpsichord instrumental piece. Much like sister song "Roman Fever", "Cut The Quick" is more audibly influenced by guitar-based progressive rock and the more adventurous sounds of late-70's rock.
Yet, it is crucial to understand the most radical shift that Survival Knife introduces is that we hear Trosper loud and clear, front and center. While Unwound's lyrics were typically abstract and passionately sung/shouted, an audibly older Justin Trosper now sadly intones: "A letter from an alien/Never to be read/By anyone/Sorry about the things I did/Couldn't find my way/In this world we live." It is a sign of maturation in a way, where he would previously mask his voice by layers of distorted guitar in the early years or by studio effect trickery in the end, listeners are treated to the full blow of musical inertia in his voice. It seems progression is stripping things back to all muscle and sinew.
Sadly. at present it appears that the band is defunct since their website is down, they have not made any updates since exactly last year (June 2015), and pleas asking about the status of the band have been left unanswered. I was lucky enough to catch them live twice, and genuinely hope they return to make enjoyable and relevant rock music. Purchase Loose PowerHERE.
It is hardly hyperbole that I immediately loved 12 Rods after about 30 seconds of listening to their music. They possessed a very good and rare sense of experimentation and interesting musical arrangement mixed with catchy melodies, strong drumming, and genuine lyrics. Unfortunately, they never got big, were abandoned by their label after their second album, and never really expanded beyond their regional popularity in Minnesota. Still, they remain a very important band to me that evokes excitement and admiration.
This song, “Telephone Holiday”, is the closing number from their final album from 2002 entitled Lost Time. It is funny to think that while the whole musical world over was busy praising post-punk revival and heralding some sort of second coming of NYC bands, this album was receiving no attention for its great songwriting, performances, and blending of rock with other musical approaches.
“Telephone Holiday” itself is by no means their most experimental or complex song in their discography (it sticks to a standard verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/outro format), but it does seem to mix in all their eras (from the gay? EP to Split Personalities to Separation Anxieties to Lost Time) into a convenient 4:42 package. The guitar and bass interweave in an almost impossible to ignore earworm in the first part of the opening verse, but then the second guitar (at 0:30) reveals the underlying tension of the song to gorgeous effect: “I’m a bad, bad person and I just wanted to play.” By the chorus, the ultimate intention of the narrator to avoid his Other is fully disclosed with swirling (and violent) synths entering, and finally shifting into a chaotic disco rhythm with incredibly melancholy synthesized strings. It is a perfect representation of 12 Rods’ nervous energy manifesting at full potential.
To no surprise, the narrator gets destroyed in the song, as leaving this one night stand now becomes an increasingly fucked up situation (“Little did I know, you were still in high school.”) and as the song gets to the bridge, the dramatics are set to stun. Is it the narrator, or the Other, who is now lamenting, “I’m waiting… for someone to TURN ME ON! Make it SEXY! Make it last LONG!”? It could sound all so sleazy on paper, but instead there is a depressing sense of remorse and desperation in the delivery; the sexual innuendo can double as desire for a meaningful and long lasting relationship. The narrator laments, that while he wishes for this too, that emotional distance and abandonment are just ingrained in nature and cannot be avoided.
Is any of that even what the song is about? Who really knows, but I have always found that 12 Rods mixed sexual tension within relationships in their lyrical content very well (see: "Kaboom”, “I Wish You Were A Girl”, “Accidents Waiting to Happen”), and it is a mature and rare quality in most modern music. If anything, the situation in “Telephone Holiday” is an eternal subject in pop music (see: "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover"), but now judgement is entirely ambiguous as it can often be in real life.
Hi everyone! I am happy to be back writing under the Chief Tizo banner once again. Over our hiatus I've been so focused on school I seemed to forget how to write casually about the things I love. Hopefully with more practice and reader support I'll find my tone. Shout out to all three of our followers, you are the reason why we do this!
Iceberg Slim chillin
I've had the privilege of being the
only black male in a class full of white liberals speaking about
race. It always seems like it is the white liberal's responsibility
to face underprivileged communities with the heaping loads of their
valuable pity and dignified ignorance. Just as quickly as one person
may point out the problems with Law Enforcement, another would point to
the flagrant gang culture found in rap music. Becoming the black
representative in this kind of environment is easily the most
stressful part of the semester, but even after this discourse is had
the burden of all these people's unrecognized ignorance hurts. The
one thing that makes it it worse is when these discussions are
spawned by reading black writers that are a part of academia. Writers
like James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston
and Richard Wright are all accepted as great BLACK writers. Writers
who speak against Jim Crow, against the dominant white culture that
has kept them repressed. Now there is no denying the power of James
Baldwin or Richard Wright, but their writings ,as well as the many
other names I listed above, have become accepted within an
academically constructed black literary canon.
I don't think it would be too radical
to say that the majority of black writers published over the years
remain unknown. Alice Walker's recent rediscovery of Zora Neale
Hurston proves there are masterpieces left to be uncovered. While it
is so easy for white liberal academics to hold up a Toni Morrison
novel as evidence of their diversity, they are ignoring the greater bias
within the publishing industry. Academics can't see beyond their
Eurocentric culture and values to notice that there is an implicit favoring
of a certain kind of representation.
The great cultural critic, bell hooks points out in her essay "Postmodern Blackness" that academics calling themselves
"postmodernist" always attempt to call attention to the experience of
difference and otherness. However, postmodern studies are so Eurocentric, they never acknowledge the concrete problems of the black underclass. It not on;y is through the dominant discourse that racial essentialist attitudes are disseminated but also the academic subculture in universities as well. To bring closer attention to the helpless "Other", and to challenge the dominant white supremacy in American culture, hooks advocates creating new subjective representations of the black living. While there is no doubt that there is an explosion of black talent hitting shelves in the 21st century, there is still very little
understanding of our past. hooks' hope has only partially come true. The problem of color blindness in American culture has created a new impediment for achieving a full acknowledgement of the issues that attack the vulnerable black underclass.
I am not sure if any Pan African
Studies department is doing any work to uncover the neglected works by black
writers. I am not sure if anyone really cares. Its just that the mold for a black writer was so narrow and still is narrow. The subjective experience of the ghetto is mostly being published by independent publishers as street lit. The black avant garde is still too weird to draw much sales or praise. I am thinking of Charles Wright's
zany avant garde satire The Wig. I am thinking of about the gritty and
inflated autobiography Pimp by Iceberg Slim.
So,consider this a kind of preface to a
series of reviews on neglected novels from the black community. Here
is a list of novels I hope to review this summer:
Donald Goines: Dopefiend, Black
Gangster, Black Girl Lost, Daddy Cool
Iceberg Slim: Pimp, Trick Baby, The
Naked Soul of Iceberg Slim
