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This New Generation

from 52 Weeks Of Downloads by Wayne Horvitz

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To talk about Prince, especially in relation to oneself, or even worse one’s artistry, seems cloying, pandering, even self aggrandizing, or at best just not necessary. Problem is, to not talk about him seems even stranger.

His music was the soundtrack to so many people’s lives, at so many different times. For me the rock music of the 60’s and 70’s was the music of youth, Prince was the soundtrack to early adult life, and specifically living and working in the 80’s in NYC. His presence remained- and continued- and to this day he may be the only music my whole family can always agree on during any given road trip.

Trying to articulate anything emotional seems absurd, so I will stick to the technical. It was a relatively short time between the advent of the drum machine, and sequencing, and the common usage of sampling. Drum machines were replaced by the more human feel of samples -and cut and paste -using live recordings in new ways. In all that the argument is often for a more human feel, and quantizing, in particular, soon became a dirty word.

Prince, however embraced that sound, and no one ever made it better. Big brass synth patches, spare and blatant drum machine beats, raging guitar sounds, on the surface nuance was not the name of the game. The humanity was in the meeting of real musicians with machines, and the unbelievable nuance of all the little details- the hidden harmonies and flourishes, the lyrics, his incredible voice.

For myself and my comrades, this was a huge inspiration, and the influence seeped into our music in no uncertain terms. The improvised music scene exploded with keyboards and drum machines and production values and new ways of thinking about recording and performing live. Prince was not alone obviously, everywhere we looked soundscapes were changing and machines were changing music almost daily, from Marvin Gaye to Tom Tom Club to Herbie Hancock to Madonna. But Prince always had the edge-the immense sound and production of some tunes, to the almost bizarrely spare production on others-he was a force unto himself.

The download track this week is called "This New Generation," originally released on the Dossier label, on 12” vinyl entitled “Dinner at Eight” . It was later released on Nonesuch on a vinyl, cassette, and CD entitled “This New Generation”. It was one of the very first things I created that was directly inspired by owning a drum machine. I built the track in an apartment in San Francisco with a DX-7, an RX-11 drum machine, and an 8 track reel-reel. Elliott Sharp visited and laid down some guitar, as did Doug Wieselman on sax. For you tech nerds out there the “marimba” sound isn’t even sequenced, its triggered by the drum machine, and after tuning the midi notes, the pattern of the drum machine created the marimba pattern, and the tune was written from there.

A final note: The title of this track was often misperceived as a reference to the scene at the time. In fact it was a reference to the pending birth of my daughter Nica, who in subsequent years was to keep the music of Prince in my life, by playing his music incessantly, and with no complaint from me.

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from 52 Weeks Of Downloads, track released April 27, 2016

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Wayne Horvitz

Wayne Horvitz is a composer, pianist and electronic musician. In addition to his own work, he is known for his work with Butch Morris, Robin Holcomb, John Zorn, Bobby Previte, Skerik, Bill Frisell, Sara Schoenbeck, Ron Miles, Peggy Lee, and William Parker just to name a few. ... more

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