Amanda Palmer (Patreon)

From the Desk of Degenerate Tempo…..

Love from a rainy upstate New York morning. I’m deep in cleaning my house and making endless admin calls after the tour collapse.

Above article linked, full body goosebumps, morning inspiration to take fingers to phone with a musing.

Here we go:

You’re out of luck, Speed Metal and Mopecore. Step aside, 7 seconds and Portishead. Too bad for you, Elliot Smith.

But seriously; what about Tempo? Let’s talk about it.

What’s astonishing here is thinking back to the “Entartete Kunst” (“Degenerate Art”) ban enacted by The 3rd Reich back in the day. (Some you who don’t know me may not know that I was a German Studies major @ University, with a concentration on Weimar, art and the holocaust).

All art that didn’t conform to their “ideals” was banned. That meant no depictions of things that weren’t Wholesome Germans Doing Great Things and so forth. It’s worth a search down the Rabbit Hole if you don’t know your history.

But…tempo? Huh. That’s a new one.

I’ve been thinking about Tempo as Choice a lot lately, as I tour with The Dresden Dolls and feel the impact of the tempos we have chosen. These songs are far faster and louder but also dirgier and slower than my last solo record (There Will Be No Intermission). But of course they are. I was traumatized and furious when I wrote most of these songs, or accessing those memories (I’m still writing). Speed carries meaning. It carries rage. It creates excitement. For dancing, for rebellion, for revolution: you need speed. For mourning and deep pathos, you need slow. For emotional expression, you need a wide palate.

Slow pr speed in music, nowadays, carries risk. It’s not palatable, and it doesn’t carry across the algorithm very well. Check out the tempo range of most pop music right now. The mean average tempo of a Taylor Swift song. There’s pure comfort in 100-130 bpm. Why? It’s physiological.

(Reading recommendation: “The Song Machine” by New Yorker staffer John Seabrook, about the created addictiveness of pop music.)

Onwards,

I was just talking with Michael about this on the day of the Nashville show, as we were walking from the Graveyard Ninja Gig to the Brooklyn Bowl and I was excitedly telling him about the Lexington Re-enactment (which I’m about to attend with Ash), and how I’m only just learning the purpose and meaning of Drums in War. I only recently learned that snare drums in battle were there to give directions, because the human voice of a general or commander could not carry as far, or be heard above the weather, or the din of exploding gunpowder.

Could not carry as far.

Oh, sound. Oh, tempo. Oh, war. Oh, money. Oh, late stage capitalism. (Album title…?)

Oh, for fex’s sake.

Oh, music. What shall we do with you?

So many feelings here.

I suppose this is where I ask you to join my patreon, get on the dolls’ mailing list (we are about to announce 4 final shows of the year in the USA) and listen to “Girl Anachronism” infinitely on repeat in the run up to the November election in case Trump gets any inspirations in the music department.

Also, I just ordered a book about the parallels between 1939 and now. I have been saying it more and more lately.

It’s beginning to look a lot like 1939.

1) Know your history.

2) Read books

2) Support your local speed metal or mope core band. They’re gonna need you.

(Thanks to Veronica Swift - who’s on tour with Brian right now - for sending me this article this morning. I dare here and you all to go write a 180 bpm and a 50 bpm song today for fun. No cheating)

Xx

AFP