A new digital release is as good an excuse as any for a reappraisal of the glorious sound of Metro Area. With the first four EPs taking a lot of the limelight for comprising the MA album, 5 and 6 in the 12″ series are well-deserving of a second outing. As with all their output, Morgan Geist and Jesrani craft immaculate, warm and heartfelt disco-house nuggets devoid of any of the negative association that genre tag might imply. “Nerves” is a masterclass in uplifting but sorrowful strings, while “Proton Candy” is all quirky Italo flavour. “Honey Circuit” meanwhile sports a punchier electro strut, and “Things Fall” shows the modern contingent how to really do analogue deep house.
Available now at:
In other news, the next Storm Queen release, Let’s Make Mistakes (ENV037), is now complete and awaiting a mid-July release to take the summer by Storm… Queen…
Like many artists working in music, and electronics in particular, the professional growth begins such low levels that most often has nothing in common with the world of music. Begins as a joke or for the necessity of to pull up some money, maybe in some record store, or as staff at some small radio studio whose coverage does not even come in hundreds of kilometers, but often is in this places that begins the passion for music. Hard work, dedication and a little ‘luck”. The leap, then, there is. Morgan Geist, like others, was introduced to music by the passion of the brothers, listening to their music, which soon made him fall in love with the instrument which perhaps best defines the musician of electronic music: the Synth. A passion, his, which shows in every track, whose music is a masterful blend of exciting sounds sharp, whispering voices and bass lines taken from Detroit’s school. In an interview that attempts to summarize briefly the vicissitudes of his life, Morgan then pauses to think to music in our age, made of technology and simplifications, and tells us that today is really easy to become DJs. But you know, at last, only those who can do this job well can stay on top.
Hi Morgan. Welcome to Soundwall.
What has approached you in electronic music and what made you fascinated in this genre?
I became interested in electronic music from listening to my brother and sister’s records in the 70s. I became fascinated with synthesizers from songs like “Welcome To The Machine” by Pink Floyd and more overt uses like Devo’s albums.
How did the desire to make the producer. How was the music scene in New Jersey?
The music scene in New Jersey had very little to do with what I wanted to do with music, besides the radio stations leaking in from New York or a few in New Jersey. Also, when I was small, pop radio was more interesting to me than it is today, and there were a lot of dance and hip-hop tracks mixed in with the other Top 40 stuff. I just wanted to learn how synthesizers worked.
The passion for techno music and for synths probably explodes during college. What made you fall in love with that kind of music?
I think I just finally admitted to myself that dance music was what I loved and then I started hearing Detroit techno in college. I also met Dan Curtin, who exposed me to a lot of amazing techno and house I never knew before and also released my first records.
How was the period at Oberlin Collage? Did it serve to learn new things and experience in the music world? At the time, had you already begun to make representations in clubs?
Besides the bookstore and doing radio at the college, Oberlin offered very little in terms of a dance music education. I started DJ’ing on the radio in college and exposure to the “record pool” records we’d get with dance stuff from Chicago and Detroit and New York helped.
Study and music. How did you manage to reconcile the two and what advice would you give to young people who would engage in this world?
Study and music are not nearly as hard as “job and music” so I’d take advantage while you’re still in school! I think making electronic music is easier than ever now, so I basically have no advice. In fact, I think it’s too easy.
Environ, your label. Could you tell us how did this project?
I started it in 1995 to learn about the music industry by interacting with it directly.
In 1999 you started the project Metro Area with the producer Darshan Jesrani. How did you started this collaboration? Note that differences with respect to work alone?
A collaboration is always different because you have checks and balances, different influences and different techniques. The problem is you also have different personalities, but luckily Darshan and I are very good friends still. I think the main benefit of working with someone is you have someone keeping you out of your own little world. You get immediate feedback.
How does the project “Storm Queen”, and how did you choose this name?
It’s a reference to Storm King, a mountain range and art center that I love in New York state.
What would you have done if you had not continued with the music profession? Do you have any unfulfilled dreams?
I’d love to do something with food in the future. I’m also interesting in video/film. We’ll see.
Via Soundwall.it
Storm Queen Look Right Through Remixes Part.2
1. Look Right Through (Art Department Remix)
2. Look Right Through (MK Don’t Talk To Me Dub)
3. Look Right Through (MK Morning Vocal Mix)
Written, Produced & Arranged by Morgan Geist
Vocals by Damon C Scott
Track 1 Remix & Additional Production by Jonny White & Kenny Glasgow
Track 2 & 3 Remix by Marc ‘MK’ Kinchen
Published by Hydroelectric Music administered by Bug Music
P&C 2012 Defected Records Limited under exclusive license from Environ Records
Following hotly on the heels of the remixes from Jamie Jones, Aeroplane and Dimitri From Paris, Part Two of ‘Look Right Through’ see’s mixes from delivered from Art Department and MK. Art Department, one of Resident Advisors top 10 DJ acts of 2011 and a consistent feature on Beatport’s deep house chart, deliver a trademark pitched down bass driven vocal rework. MK, back on form and on fire after a mini hiatus, does what he does best and turns in the Don’t Talk To Me Dub, with chopped, looped vocals, on par with his greatest remixes to date, and a vocal mix that slows the pace a little but is instantly recognisable as his own. Two distinctively different takes on 2010’s biggest selling vinyl release.
Available now at:
In 2007, Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten and Grammy Award-winning classical violinist Joshua Bell teamed up to play a prank on commuters in Washington, DC’s public transportation system. Weingarten’s account of what he called “an experiment in context, perception and priorities—as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste” appeared in a Post article called “Pearls Before Breakfast.” It describes how Bell stood in the L’Enfant Plaza Station posing as a subway busker, and performed a selection of classical pieces typical of his concerts. He played them on his Gibson ex Huberman Stradivarius—a 300-year-old piece of wood that is valued at $3.5 million.
The commuters in what Weingarten calls one of DC’s most “plebeian” stations—he takes care to mention that Metro employees frequently mispronounce its name—mostly passed Bell by. Though he quotes a Kantian philosopher and a museum curator as saying context is a part of an artwork, and that he can’t call these busy working people philistines, Weingarten does just that. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his trouble.
In 2012, this insult to users of public transportation has acquired Information Age immortality: it has become a meme. A summary of the article is making the rounds, parroting Weingarten’s lament that we modern people “can’t take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to one of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever written.”
According to Weingarten, the experiment is sound because Bell did not play “popular tunes whose familiarity alone might have drawn interest.” Instead, he played “masterpieces that have endured for centuries on their brilliance alone, soaring music befitting the grandeur of cathedrals and concert halls.” But for Weingarten, cultural value isn’t just a matter of Eurocentric tradition, it’s a matter of money – people who passed by Bell were supposed to notice, and care, that he was sawing away on a very expensive violin.
Walter Benjamin wrote that so-called “cultural treasures” – like Stradivarius violins, or Bach partitas, or Joshua Bell performances – should be viewed with “cautious detachment.” They owe their existence not only to their authors, “but also to the anonymous toil of their contemporaries.”
Who are Joshua Bell’s contemporaries? Weingarten’s most offensive assumption, which has insidiously reproduced itself through email and social media, was that in order to conduct his experiment, it was necessary to take a musician from the concert hall and bring him to the subway.
But there are already musicians in the subway. Damon C. Scott, for example, is a working musician who sings in the subway every day. Fifty-two years old, he has spent years facing the same conditions of anonymity that a big shot like Joshua Bell couldn’t handle for an afternoon.
You’ve heard of Scott, or at least you’ve heard him. His public profile increased suddenly when a recent performance at New York’s 86th Street Station went viral. But Scott didn’t rely on a classical repertoire, and he didn’t play a multimillion dollar instrument. He sang Adele’s hit pop song “Someone Like You,” accompanying himself on a djembe.
The performance was captured on video by Refinery29, and it spread rapidly. Contra Weingarten, performing a popular song won’t make you an instant success; you’re not only competing with a comfortably familiar original, you’re up against countless other cover versions by hobbyists and wannabes. But Scott’s rendition of Adele’s retro-soul ballad bests her own, the delicacy in his voice cut with wizened grit, the propulsion of his djembe beat adding a rhythmic and emotional dynamism the weepy original never dreamed of.
In my social media sphere, most reposts came from an article on Jezebel, but it was also featured in many other widely read venues. After all, it was a great story. Damon Scott came out of nowhere, and captured the hearts of viewers everywhere.
Read the whole article, here.
Text by Shuja Haider on View Point Mag.
Storm Queen ‘Look Right Through’ (Part 1)
1. Look Right Through (Jamie Jones Remix)
2. Look Right Through (Aeroplane Remix)
3. Look Right Through (Dimitri From Paris Erodiscomix)
Written, Produced & Arranged by Morgan Geist
Vocals by Damon C Scott
Track 1 Remixed by Jamie Jones
Track 2 Additional Production by Aeroplane
Track 3 Remix & Extra Keyboards by Dimitri From Paris for la French House Of Entertainment
Published by Hydroelectric Music (ASCAP) administered by Bug Music
P&C 2012 Environ LLC
Having produced some of the most memorable dance records of all time as Metro Area, Morgan Geist’s new alias as Storm Queen looks equally set to rival these glowing achievements, and for a record as well loved as ‘Look Right Through’ you need a remix package to do it justice. Step forward Jamie Jones, Dimitri From Paris & Aeroplane.
Jamie Jones, fresh from being voted RA’s number 1 DJ of 2011, turns in a stripped out re-work, focused around a heavy bassline vibe and some killer snare rolls. Dimitri From Paris’ Erodiscomix takes things on an old school Chicago house tip, with a twist of disco keys thrown in for good measure. Rounding things off the always superb Aeroplane delivers a driving Nu-House remix with a knowing nod to Kraftwerk.
Also, the 12″ version of Storm Queen “Look Right Through” Remixes (Part 1.) includes the Jamie Jones retake featured inn the digital release, as well as a superb Art Department remix.
Storm Queen “Look Right Through” Remixes (Part 1.) is available now at:
