From the latest issue of Disco Pogo. The excerpt is from an archival piece on Derrick Carter, Luke Solomon and Chez Damier.
The bit on Romanthony nails it. Narrative has been bled out of house music. House has always carried a far ‘deeper’ narrative complexity than the way it’s framed in 2025. It’s been taken over by this kind of common denominator euphoria and a performed positivity that’s more about the occasion than the emotion.
Terre Thaemlitz has of course been all about this for years. Midtown 120 Blues is basically a blues album masquerading as house record. I remember a dj friend of mine once describing listening to Terre’s music as ‘eavesdropping on domestic violence’ which I found very apt. Bit heavy this for a Sunday morning but here we are.
The mag’s a great read btw. Features Harvey, Sabres of Paradise and Madonna - ironic, since as Terre loves to go on about, Madonna is very much complicit in rinsing house of its nuance in the first place.
Had to get this out and share if people interested in Terre’s ramblings. It’s an interview from a 2021 publication called Terraforma, associated with its namesake festival in Milan.
Sororities and fraternities attached to US universities are referred to as “Greek” as they are identified by Greek letters - ie Kappa Alpha, Chi Omega, etc…
Generally speaking, the cliché is that people who join these are privileged and conformist; there has traditionally been quite a bit of hazing, alcohol abuse, and (in fraternities) toxic masculinity. Growing up, “Frat guy” was shorthand for a boorish drunken lout, “sorority girl” meant a pretty, ditzy “plastic” type. Of course a lot of these organisations were also historically racist and exclusionary and Black fraternities and sororities were set up.
Pepys is absolutely fascinating. I read the Claire Tomlin’s brilliant biography a few times. He really was a self obsessed, greedy, abusive unpleasant man!
Nice article with some decent pix from the Telepathic Fish parties prior to the album launch.
Some of our crew got heavily into this scene so I went to a few of the parties at ‘359’ the massive squat on London Rd, the Cool Tan and a bizarre party in the garden of Youths place on Brixton Rd.
The music wasn’t for me at the time, and I remember it as quite different to the Ibiza chill out sounds I grew to love as the 90s progressed.
Apologies if this has already been posted. But after @Pulsatio7 posted that 6 music were doing a show dedicated to Keith McGivor, I read this and enjoyed it a lot. Been thinking about him all summer.
