EPISODE · Mar 2, 2026 · 58 MIN
Conversations With the Drum
from Midnight Radio · host James A. Reeves
Read the full post.I’ll admit, I flew too close to the sun on this one. First off, the Concept series has become such a personal landmark that it’s hard to approach it objectively. Of the 32 songs across these records, I have 23 favorites, which would be a four-hour mix. Eventually I had to turn the process of selection into an exercise in subtraction until I was left with an hour of my favorite bits.Second, I’ve never been good at matching beats. It’s hard and boring. And these songs are phenomenally difficult to mix, filled with analog drift and reversed stutters as if they were designed to ratfuck any crossfade.Thomas Brinkmann’s variations make this even more challenging. He built a custom turntable with two tonearms that had separate outputs for the left and right channels. By splitting the stereo field across two needles in the same groove, unexpected rhythms and phase shifts emerged, creating what Brinkmann described this as "a little intervention and displacement of elements.”There's a lot of displacement in tonight's tribute: hard cuts, truncated tracks, and rips of static that remind me of late nights in high school when I would futz with the tuner trying to catch a faint signal of the alien sounds from Deep Space Radio.When I listen to Concept series today, I hear the wild sense of play that only emerges from routine and parameters; I think about the commitment to a regular cadence that teaches one to live with imperfect results. Most of all, these tracks succeed because they are a dialogue with the listener: they stake out a rigid framework so expectations can be fucked with. The offset of a snare becomes high drama. A glitched drum or an abrupt silence plays off what I expect to hear.96:01 01:00 96:01 02:00 VR96:05 09:00 96:05 10:00 96:07 13:00 96:08 16:00 96:11 21:00 VR96:12 23:00 96:12 24:00 VRRichie Hawtin - Concept 1 96:12 | BandcampThomas Brinkmann - Concept 1 96 VR | BandcampThe request lines are open.Enjoy life and get the full Midnight Radio experience delivered directly to your inbox ’round midnight on the 1st and 15th of each month.
What this episode covers
Read the full post. I’ll admit, I flew too close to the sun on this one. First off, the Concept series has become such a personal landmark that it’s hard to approach it objectively. Of the 32 songs across these records, I have 23 favorites, which would be a four-hour mix. Eventually I had to turn the process of selection into an exercise in subtraction until I was left with an hour of my favorite bits. Second, I’ve never been good at matching beats. It’s hard and boring. And these songs are p...
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Conversations With the Drum
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