Slow to Speak Series/Dope Jams

If your ever visiting New York please take the time to take the train over to Brooklyn's Dope Jams. On regular occasion, artists such as Kai Alce, Moodymann, Joe Claussel to name a few, may stop by to thrown down a set. I especially enjoy this store's Slow to Speak Series (super rare). Besides the label Slow to speak there also exist the sub labels Gay Records,Feed.back and Celebrate Life, where they do strictly limited represses from popular rock and pop artists. Please be sure to subscribe to their newsletter which is always refreshing to hear constructive witticism on today's dance music scene. Criticism is totally missing in today's society and Paul Nickerson's article below certainly contains an original perspective on the current consciousness of today's collectors. Point blank here we go!!!!

“As we wrap up 2008, we find ourselves in the same musical bind that has plagued us for close to a decade: records are still judged through comparison—their validation tied to their ability to mimic & replicate, to feign originality under the completely unoriginal umbrella of predestined sound & carefully constructed presentation. “man, that record is so Detroit!” or “that sounds like an old Garage record”; if I wired the store to record every conversation of the last year, I could literally compile hours of this sort of useless banter. It’s come to a point where most record buyers purchase music based on image, on packaging, rather than taking the time to clear their head, open their ears and actually listen to the records they’re buying. This seems to be a simple task of anti-dogmatic conditioning, but the wretched grip of rigid-music-as-fad-ideology has proven practically unyielding in it’s hold over the ears & minds of countless dance music “aficionado’s.” Too many good people have been seduced by the fantasy of belonging to a privileged and select group of underground enthusiasts, who have, in their eyes, already earned their ear, their taste and their aesthetic superiority simply by pledging their loyalty to the often-despised but secretly cherished underworld of dance music—that secret society of connoisseurs and devoted enthusiasts who have already won the holy war of music simply by uttering the words “I like House” or “I like Techno,” and then proudly standing in defiance, separating themselves from the rest and in so doing defining themselves as people & as consumers. But after all is said (and said, and said) and done, a record is dope or it isn’t. Either it makes the cut or it doesn’t.”

-Johnny G