A Tiny Journey with Digweed

TAKE YOUR OWN JOURNEY
WITH DIGGERS @ ELECTRIC ZOO
SUNDAY SEPT 5TH
SUNDAY SCHOOL GROOVE TENT
9:30PM to 11:00PM

So I took a little journey this morning and listened to the first CD of John Digweed’s latest DJ mix. But it was more than that. I’ve been in a particularly focused headspace these past few months thinking about Principles – what they are and what they do. And I’m adding another bit to the concept – the idea of Ritual. So as of right now, Principles are ideas you stick to no matter what (with regard to the mental world), and Rituals concern stability with regard to the physical world. And I suppose, Routines would be Rituals and Principles together on a timeline.

Anyway…

So I combined a bunch of Rituals this morning while listening to the mix. In my pajamas and Invader Zim slippers, drinking jasmine tea, turn the fake fire on, set out the broken floor chair in the middle of the room, light some incense, grab the latest copy of Sports Illustrated. Push play.

I consider myself pretty patient when it comes to listening to music, but with purposefully repetitively progressive music with sparse vocals, it really is difficult to just sit quietly and listen. Thus – the rituals. I read the magazine cover to cover while I was listening, mostly unaware of the specifics of the music, just riding the energy shifts.

I suppose, rather than absorbing my environment for that hour this morning, I was, eh, exsorbing. I became the incense, the pajamas, the slippers, the magazine, the chair, the fire, the lazy cats, the tea. I became the music. And those are a lot of things to exist as for 72 minutes! Not really moving. Not thinking. Not really doing anything. Exsorbing.

I couldn’t tell you what tracks were on the mix (you could probably play it for me right now and I wouldn’t recognize it), and I only remember the gist of one article I read in SI. But I’m sure that information is locked in my head somewhere now, for whatever purpose it may serve. And it was a very centering experience. Just being, but not lazily. Bringing information in, allowing energy out, very focused and awake, but in an intentional dream-state.

Kind of interesting.

And totally free from circumstances. I can create, with substitutions as necessary, that same combination of rituals, any time I want. I think that’s a little bit of what I was testing …

As for the album itself:

If you’re one of the people who likes John Digweed, you’ll like it. If you’re one of the people who defends Digweed’s music that you’ve never heard, you’ll defend it. If you appreciate the Transition series, you’ll appreciate it. Nice music, especially right at the beginning. Professional flow and technically appropriate, as all Digweed comps are. It drops into a deeper groove near the end. Doesn’t register as anything groundbreaking, won’t be a classic like some of his others. It’s a good example of a straight DJ set, and that’s about that. For historical and purist reasons, it should be required listening for every aspiring DJ – music most certainly ‘done right’.

So, for my little journey this morning, I meditated on the ideas of Principles, Rituals, and Routines, and had a little music to guide me through. Rather fitting that the album title of Digweed’s mix – is “Structures”.