Snax 4 da Soul 1: Welcome!
- Kome Eleyae
- Jun 27, 2022
- 10 min read
Updated: Sep 11, 2022
Records, Music, & Art
Spotify Playlist:
Music & Me
Eyes closed. Spinning round and round. My earliest memories surrounding music are of a 3-4 year-old self listening to a CeCe Winans CD or some Kirk Franklin or some Stevie. I’d be in the living room of our small Romford (or earlier Walthamstow) semi-detached house, alone - parents working next door or cooking downstairs. I am certain that this spiralling ritual was something of a common occurrence because I clearly remember falling over and bumping into things as a result. And clearer still, is the memory of my Dad’s prized, and seemingly eternal, Bang & Olufsen CD player with sliding doors (it lives on to this day!). It’s one of those strange, significant memories that you desperately try to hold onto with the trembling, sweaty tips of your brain-fingers. Yet inevitably, the clarity of its details fades growingly with time.
I would do this until I collapsed with dizziness. Until the colours behind my closed eyelids blended into something that looked like a glowstick rave in a tornado. I’ve since learned that these colourful flashes are called ‘phosphenes’ - ‘a visual phenomenon caused by mechanical stimuli resulting in pressure or tension on the eye when the eyelids are closed.’ These flashes originate from ‘inside the eye,’ not from an outside light source. As I would spin, these colours would form a circular vortex, centred by a pitch-black chasm, into which I would fall.
That THERE is the feeling that good music brings about in my entire being. It feels like falling.
As I emerged from the blurry daze of my spinning years, I started my formal music education. At 4 years old, I started learning the recorder and basic music theory at Havering Music School. From the age of 7 onwards, I started picking up a few more instruments: piano, an assortment of percussion instruments, the trombone, bass guitar, and the love of my life…the double bass. There could have been no better catalyst for turning me completely mad for all things musical. The double bass is amazing for thousands of reasons, but I only have time to name a few. First of all, it has the versatility of being both a staple in Jazz and Classical music, as well as being used in a huge range of other related and unrelated genres. This really was a blessing as, from a young age, it opened up and normalised my mind to a wide range of music, encouraging me to derive important lessons from a variety of influences. Similarly, the double bass is an instrument that is well placed sonically to cultivate a holistic education of music. You quickly become good at navigating different scales and keys, as you are often playing music based around the root note of any chord progression. Yet as a bassist, there are still many ways to engage in the more melodic sides of music too such as the unison bowed bass parts in classical music bangers like the opening to the fourth movement of Hector Berlioz’s ‘Symphonie Fantastique’ or Camille Saint Caen’s ‘l'éléphant’ from The Carnival of the Animals (my Mum and I would listen to this on repeat as we’d drive for hours to the next audition or lesson or youth recital). A more contemporary example of the double bass is its use in A Tribe Called Quest’s ‘Electric Relaxation’; this bassline is doubled between the double bass and bass guitar by double bassist George Duvivier and bass guitarist Gordon Edwards. It was sampled from Ronnie Foster’s ‘Mystic Brew’ from his “Two-Headed Freap” album (1972). In this, the original, the bass part creates a perfect groove that completely drives the track rhythmically, whilst engaging with the wailing organ parts and vibraphone middle ground, only to be reimagined from a hip hop perspective (in countless bangers) and stand the test of time. It's a true testament to the quality of the instrument.
I was further boosted by the most supportive and thoughtful parents who diligently looked for all kinds of free camps and courses to broaden my understanding of different music beyond jazz and classical. I learned that the bass had a place in all of it! Not to mention the amount of crazy bass playing and basslines and bass samples used in the Hip Hop, Garage and Grime that my older sister was schooling me in. I knew that I had found a constant in my life, something to constantly obsess and dream over. Somewhere to retreat to when life gets long. Music presented itself to me as this magical equation that translates into sound, and the opportunities were endless.
From about the age of 7-8 onwards, I have been obsessed with exploring the relationship between music-making and music consumption (and enjoyment!); what is it exactly in the music that moves people? This pursuit has made me analyse life differently. My life is underscored by a family-oriented soundtrack that is inextricably linked to the most excitable moments, and the most banal: the lifts to the train station, the celebrations, and the holidays with the family. I’m sure that this soundtrack pre-dated me and tells the story of my parents meeting, their love for each other, and their subsequent journey to the UK. Whether it's the formative experiences with friends and lost loves, gigs that completely shift your perspective on how you see the world, or witnessing musical talent at levels that seem so unreal that you practice as soon as you reach home. All of these experiences create a musical narrative in their own right, a soundtrack that is a reflection of you and your loved ones - an ever-growing curation of ‘frequency art’ shaped by life. I love to tune into these frequencies every day, not least because all of my memories seem to be interlocked in a random series of songs, but also because I love the blend of family and friends sharing, celebrating and comparing notes with the world! And so, for the past 5 or so years vinyl has become a large part of that process for me.
Why vinyl?
I started collecting records at a similar time to when I started painting (in the summer of 2016, after a 5-year stint at boarding school on a music scholarship). I had recently moved back to Walthamstow with my parents. I was recovering from a shoulder operation at the time with nothing to do and found some old acrylic paints, tried to remember what my teachers had taught me, started, and quickly fell in love with the whole process. There is a great indoor market on Wood St, Walthamstow which was only 5 mins from my house at the time and had a few great record vendors. https://www.instagram.com/woodstreetindoormarket/ The standout, however, was a store operated by a gentleman named Ray. His collection was so diverse and incomparable to what I’d seen anywhere else, in so many different ways. I was immediately blown away by the artwork. I had never really been into an intimate record shop like this before, and it felt like being a footballer in one of those stadiums where the crowd is stacked vertically against the edges of the pitch, towering over the grass. It's an explosion of colour, and colourful individuals, shapes and fonts, all screaming silently at you, begging for that chance that you might uncage them from their sleeve and lend them your ear for a while. And when they have enticed you enough to unsheath it…the vinyl. A pristine, shiny black disc, holding these tiny ancient inscriptions heavy, tangible and seemingly worth your while, like the big piece of meat in some stew.
Above was the first record I bought and it was from Ray’s stall; The Manhattans’ ‘Love Talk’. I had no idea who The Manhattans were, but I LOVED that artwork. Completely based on the contrast between the striking art on the front, and the four guys on the back, the artwork is a vehicle through which they saw fit to describe what they were putting forward musically. The act of a beautiful woman blowing a bubble is almost too perfect a representation of the smoothness and softness of The Manhattans’ close vocal harmony that they generously lace this album with. I love the visual connection between the object and the sound. I love how soulful and cool the music is and how soulful and late 70’s they look. I love how everybody involved is credited on the back of the sleeve. I went home and listened to it on my Argos record player which I connected via an aux cord to my Dad’s Bose speaker in the living room. Instantly I loved it, and it remains one of my favourites to this day. I have a few more of their albums in the collection and will be sharing them on this blog at some point in the future.
Record collecting has certainly become more popular in recent years. I recall an article that The Vinyl Factory posted in January of this year stating that;
“UK vinyl sales reached record highs in 2021, according to new data from the British Phonographic Industry. More than 5 million (5.3m) records were sold in 2021, the highest total since 1990. This marks an increase of 11% on 2020 – making it the 14th consecutive year of growth for the format. Vinyl LPs now represent more than a quarter of physical format purchases.”
The story of its resurgence is nuanced and people have them for different reasons. They are not always cheap and, early on, I was worried as to whether I’d been swept away by the newest, overpriced hipster flavour of the week. But as I’ve fallen deeper into it, and as my collection has grown, I’ve been convinced that it is a worthwhile endeavour. What ultimately convinces me is the entire craftsmanship behind the record as a complete object. A piece of art, a marketing device, a technology, a platform for artists to communicate with people in times where you’d far sooner be heard as a musician before ever being seen. The music production of the record, the sound engineering, the mastering. All of these things help me to understand and respect the efforts of the people who make music, often working amidst, and against, general social and political hardships that have seemingly vanished from the collective memory today.
Then, there's the community and the listening experience. I can tell you about each place I bought records from because the people that I meet in these shops are so kind. You’ll find that if you show a genuine interest and willingness to learn you'll be embraced by this often weird and wonderfully warm community. You’ll find yourself developing a rapport with experts in disguise, who have been ten times as obsessed as you are for decades, with pockets of knowledge in the most specific corners of the musical spectrum. In a world of fickle connections imbued with a looming sense of scepticism that constantly divides different groups of people, the vinyl community has been a real treat. So from the object itself to the community who trades and engages with it, there is so much to learn.
You might have gathered from all the preamble that listening to music is one of my favourite things to do beyond breathing and just generally existing. Life is faster than it has ever been and we are forced to consume things at an ever more rapid pace. Fast food. Fast fashion. Music is not exempt from this. And although I love the access and ease of using Spotify, Bandcamp and Soundcloud on my devices, listening to records is a refreshingly slow process; you have to set it up, you have to flip the record over halfway (a sort of an in-built interval). You might get comfy with some tea or fresh fruit or ice cream; listening to records can feel like eating your dessert with a small spoon. Likewise, digital music consumption can be like trying to eat a cake in one bite, like Bruce from Matilda. Constantly switching between songs, potentially missing good bits whilst not listening thoughtfully. Of course, you can skip songs on a record, but it's not at the click of a button. When I commit to listening through an album, whether I like the songs or not, I am forced to listen. I often learn a lot from what I don't immediately like. Listening to records brings me a lot of peace, and as I catch my head spinning trying to read the label after I've switched the damn record on, I'm brought back to the beginning of my musical journey each time.
Plans moving Forward
For the past year and a bit I have been working on a music/art project with Segun Oyebanjo (Shogun Shato) and my record collection has been a huge inspiration for it, particularly my 70-80s funk and soul heaterrrz! During my studies at university, the demands of my course meant that I fell off the musical train for a while. But this project has involved the piecing together of lost knowledge with muscle memory, and the reacquainting of myself with a love for writing lyrics. Poetry & prose reimagined. It has always been such a pleasure to create music and I’ve been surprised at how much creative output is just a couple of practice sessions away. I feel as though the time I spent listening to music might have filled the void since I last seriously played.
The project reflects my appreciation of the record in its entirety: artwork and music. The 10-track EP will be accompanied by a 10 30x30cm record size paintings. These originals will be exhibited at the launch and will be part of a giveaway (including framed prints) for those who share the stream.
This blog and the sharing of my journey through these records is an extension of the project and an insight into the precedents that affect my music production the most. I thought this would be a great time to share this side of my life with those who are interested! I will be posting a different groups of records to my IG every, based on different themes. There will be clips of the music posted to my stories some additional related singles sprinkled in for extra-seasoning purposes. Then there will be a blog post made here , wrapping up my thoughts on the music and shedding light on vendors’ & upcoming sets too. An accompanying playlist will be added to Spotify. I will try to attach vocal recordings of the blog for all my podcast people on da moooove! Any loans/swaps/donations/ recommendations are welcome!
Please feel free to reach out any time through the website or other social media platforms.
Looking forward to this journey.
Excited to learn more and share my love of music with you all.
Peace & Love
Kome Eleyae
AKA “Teknical KO”
Edited by: Segun Oyebanjo AKA "Shogun Shato"
& Misha Radkevitch of "Zero Press Collective"
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