dogs on k - morevisa

recommended tracks: half hour visa, shades on at the consulate, diplomat stare, stateless baddies

this one was a doozy. to put it simply, i was really, really, really out of it. a lot of shit was going on and i wanted to make music. but no more mixing until my ears are bleeding and brutalized. just get a quick sketch down and return later. simple and quick and able to melt into

essentially: make house, make it quick

a visa for ... house music?

believe it or not, this album did have a concept beyond just omg visas, omg international relations, omg house...

in 2024, we returned to the usa and lived in my parents' house. there was very little to do, so of course, i got obsessive with music again. i at some point rediscovered midtown 120 blues and terre thaemlitz after listening almost exclusively to this album in the summer of my junior year of college. this album soundtracked a lot of musings and realizations about myself and my position in life, and after deep-diving into their background, i found she had gotten a visa to be an artist in japan (funnily enough, just cause that's apparently the only place his music sold... lol)

so... the alignment on a surface level glance is apparent. i wanted house. i wanted japan. i wanted a visa

but also, i wanted to learn how she made house music so magical and so meaningful. house moved beyond a simple escape route; the meaning and history of house gradually revealed to me house was a soundtrack to suffering and respite more so than an avenue to escape and "be you" and feel free. in a lot of ways, terre has become an important figure to me. this album was my first outing in becoming a student of house, so to speak

these were rather quick and dirty, but by making these i took house 101 and began to poke around at how one does create truly great house music

the history of house

recently, i had to buy a car. at the dealership, one guy asked us what we listen to and i replied: "house"

he proceeded to show me infinitely scrolling clips of festival house, chainsmokers-adjacent tiktok reels, and other assorted commodified artifacts of manicured, entirely consumer-ready marketing highlights. crowds jumping and going crazy, the flashing neon lights, hot women in bras and painted faces and kandy bracelets, the DJ raising their arm up and down to the beat, ripped frat boys in tank tops and shades sticking their tongues out, the sweat palpable and glistening, the euphoria practically leaping out of your dimly-lit screen. yeah ...

i am all for letting people enjoy their thing, but it did still leave a sour taste in my mouth. it reminded me that all things eventually get their contexts erased, their image cleaned up, their core concepts and themes redefined into hollow vestiges purpose-fit for profit. none of the pain and ecstasy and distress that house music was born from existed here. it made me rather sad

a lot of what made it so special to hear that dj sprinkles album was how it immersed me in an unapologetic telling of one distinct, contextual, specific memory of house, from someone who lived "deep in the bowels of house" ... lol

i felt like i was being given a glimpse into a life path i could've potentially found myself on many decades past. the history of house being expertly retold through sounds and samples that soundtracked the everyday struggle lived with this genre as the backdrop, in seedy clubs and queer bars with people hiding and drifting aimlessly through the night. in a way, i felt kinship with both this performer and the faceless, nameless people whose stories were distilled into these songs

drifting in it

in a way, a lot of house music is rather simple. but i've come to realize that making the simple things magical is ... hard. this album for sure taught me that. i am still mystified by what terre manages to do and have a lot to learn, but it was fun to try and capture this drifting feeling in a moment where i, too, felt aimless and foreign once again

i have experimented with all sorts of sound palettes, sampling styles, mixing techniques, you name it... all to make house music i feel fulfills a role for me, now, here, that i can only assume it fulfilled way back when for other people caught in circumstances that drifted them away from their homes, aimlessly colliding with other misfits and castaways and alienated bodies.

sometimes making the simplest of things is the most complicated of all. i do love house music for that reason; craft is paramount :3

in the end, this project wasn't a single effort on my part. my lovely partner keehar made an album cover i think fits house stylings quite well, but still retains a feeling that matches our own take on it

he also made this animation, the corresponding digital illustrations, and rendered this whole video for us! once again, he pushes me to put forward a lot of my creations out into the world, so thank you gato