Ewan Pearson (Partial Arts/producer of M83 album) Friday 27 June (1 Viewer)

[Shock]

A Shock Event
Ewan Pearson, Sol O'Carrol, Jon Averill
Kennedys, Friday 27th June 2008. 10.30pm

Shock will be taking a big of a break soon to concentrate on our new projects. We plan to go out on a high as our last show is with the DJ that by far has impressed us the most over the last two years; Ewan Pearson.

Ewan has never yearned for the spotlight some other DJs clearly enjoy. Instead he's spent the last ten years creating some seminal productions from way back to his re-take on Freeform Five's Perspex Sex, his Moroderesque mixes of Goldrapp, his epic take on Courtney Tidwell's Don't Let The Stars Keep Us Tangled Up and his work with Al Usher under Partial Arts moniker to name a few.

His re-mixography is one of the most impressive in electronic music. What's even more impressive is his ability to improve on originals by acts like Playgroup, The Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, Goldfrapp, Franz Ferdinand, The Rapture, Moby, Ladytron, Alter Ego, , Black Strobe, Feist and SuperMayer

Pearson's lavish production bleeds into his DJ sets, which are gaining a higher profile due to his superlative mixing style: matching not just the beat but also the harmonic key between tracks, he has a knack for pulling off fast but flawless transitions that sound utterly organic. Mixing skills are only part of the story, however, and his Sci.Fi.Hi.Fi. mix was equally impressive for the distinctively melodic floating quality it sustained for long stretches.
Pearson's Fabric mix, while more percussive also show his ability to envision a group of songs together as a solid piece of work creating a mood and consistency throughout rather than a couple of tracks stitched together.

Ewan's production credits include Tracey Thorn's (Everything but the Girl) acclaimed solo album 'Out Of The Woods', The Rapture's 'Pieces of the People We Love' & he has just recently finished production on M83's new album Saturdays = Youth which is probably his best work so far.

Ewan is also working on new material with his Partial Arts partner Al Usher,

Doors 10.30pm, Tickets are 15eu + 1eu booking fee from City Discs, Temple Bar.

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http://www.stateofshock.net/blog

 

[Shock]

Here's Ewan's mix for the Allez Allez blog,
any mix that starts with Kate Bush is good by us.

http://www.allez-allez.co.uk/ewan.mp3

01 Kate Bush - Nocturne
02 cliff martinez - First Sleep
03 Can - Don’t Turn The Light On, Leave Me Alone
04 Johann Johannsson - Englabörn
05 Hatchback - White Diamond (Prins Thomas Disco Miks Part 1)
06 Maps - To The Sky (The Loving Hand Remix)
07 Mugwump - Boutade
08 Vangelis - Let It Happen (Beatfanatic Mix)
09 Jim Rivers - I Go Deep
10 Marc Ashken - Root Rot (cb funk’s rootdown mix)
11 Brazilian Girls - Last Call (carl craig Mix)
12 The John Waynes - Violeta
13 Laidback Luke - Housetrap
14 Etienne Jaumet - Repeat Again After Me (Âme Remix)
15 Eine Kleine Nachtmusik - Feuerprobe
16 Midlake - Roscoe (Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve Re-animation)

 

[Shock]

Here's info on Ewan's book Discographies....

Experiencing Disco, Hip Hop, House, Techno, Drum ''n Bass and Garage, Discographies takes a revealing look at the transatlanticdance scene of the last twenty-five years. Tracing the history ofideas about music and dance in Western culture and the ways in which dance music is produced and received, the authors assess the importance and relevance of dance culture in the 1990s and beyond.
The book considers both the problems posed by contemporary dance culture for various forms of writing, academicand cultural, and their origins in the long history of oppositionto music as a source of sensory pleasure. The authors offer a framework for understanding the bodily nature of musical experience using a range of theorists including Derrida, Irigarayand Judith Butler, and consider the limits placed on contemporarydance culture as exemplary of the modern regulation of social space.

Discussing such issues as technology, club space, drugs, the musical body, gender, sexuality, and pleasure, Discographies explores the ecstatic experiences at the heart of contemporary dance culture. It suggests why politicians and agencies as diverse as the independent music press and public broadcasting are so hostile to this cultural phenomenon. Discographies breaks new ground in considering important culturalphenomena not only in terms of a politics of identity, but a politics of experience.

 

[Shock]

Video from the last Shock party at Kennedys

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh_lf9Nb478"]YouTube - Shock First Birthday 29.09.07[/ame]

 

[kings lead hat]

I engineer for him sometimes..... He is a mighty DJ

 

[Shock]

Here's an extract of Ewan's interview with Analogue Magazine...

Your methods are much more cerebral than many might expect of an international DJ. How do you reconcile your intellectual approach with the mindless hedonism of the dancefloor?
I don’t think I’m more cerebral. I’m interested in talking around some of these things we do, and wonder about them, sometimes privately and sometimes publicly. That’s not so weird is it? And hedonism and intellect aren’t mutually exclusive. They’re both vital parts of life. The head is just another part of the body after all.

How do you feel living in Berlin has changed your work?
I don’t think it’s affected my work in terms of what I make, apart from maybe that I’m generally happier all round and that might feed into what I do, I guess.

I was quite taken with your blog post entitled “The Supreme Overlord of Dance Decrees,” where you encourage producers to “throw away everything you think is not genuinely going to add something to the world.” Is this a viable option for everyone?
Well, that piece was half a goad and half a joke as manifestos should be. I do think we should probably all try and make fewer things and make them better. Al [Usher] and I are putting out one Partial Arts single a year at the moment and trying to make it a damn good one each time.

You are quite vocal in your condemnation for illegal downloading. Can you see a viable solution to the problem, or are the days of small artists and labels getting by well and truly past?
I don’t think there is a solution. The cat is out of the bag and musicians are going to have to rely on playing live, or working in cafes or living off trustfunds or something. But I think that we shouldn’t ever stop pointing out to people that what they are doing is actually stealing other people’s hard work, and that it’s wrong. What’s more that if they’re independent music fans they’re hurting the thing that they purport to love by sharing it. In the end to me it’s about whether you’re always taking, or whether you’re putting something back. In that sense we need to have a more folk model, where fans feel like they’re contributing to the scene they love by supporting the people that help make it.

With blogs giving out free tracks every other day, it’s almost impossible for DJs to constantly stay ahead of the clubbing public. How do you bypass this challenge?
It’s about how you put it together; it’s not just about having this or that track. And it’s about the experience of hearing it in a club, with all the other people and the sound system, not just coming out of your laptop speakers.

What DJs and producers inspire you?
Ivan Smagghe, Andrew Weatherall, Joakim, Matt Edwards [Radioslave], Carl Craig.

You had two significant releases last year; a collection of your remixes and a Fabric mix CD. How did you decide which remixes to include on Piece Work?
I just tried to whittle down 6 years of mixes into most of my favourites, and ones that would work together on a CD. I could have happily made it a triple CD though.

What is your approach when you’re given a track to remix?
Just to think really carefully about what the music and the artist would benefit from; to try and be sympathetic to what’s there. Not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I’m quite picky with what I choose to do, and if I know I can’t add something useful to it then I always say no.

You blogged in detail about each track on the Fabric mix. Were there any constraints imposed by the label?
Constraints on my selection or constraints on my writing? Neither. Fabric were great to work with and cleared everything I wanted to put on there. The rest was just a question of making 15 or 16 tracks work well together.

The mix closes with a memorable juxtaposition of tracks, as Aril Brikha’s Berghain sits alongside Carl Craig’s reworking of Beanfield’s Tides. Was this a question of just playing the two records together, or did it require more delicate studio work?
I’m absolutely honest and have always been clear that I put the mix together using a computer. But I discovered the mixes from DJing in clubs in front of people – that combination I found at a gig in Cookies in Berlin a couple of months before doing the mix. They are in the same key at the same tempo so you can try it live yourself. It’s great when you discover records that go well together like that – you can see me sometimes scribbling in a notebook at a gig – that means I’ve just found two things that work really well in key together and I want to make a note of them.

How much of your own production do you incorporate into your sets?
I’m usually quite shy of playing my own stuff until I’ve heard someone else do so.

You refer to yourself as a librarian trapped in a DJ’s body. Is there any part of you that regrets leaving the academic world behind?
Regret is too strong a word. I definitely made the right choice I think. But I miss the reading and the writing. That’s why I still do the blog and write the column for Groove and so forth.

Even now, it can be difficult for people to take seriously the idea of an academic study of clubbing and its associated proclivities. How did people respond to your publication Discographies: Dance Music, Culture, and the Politics of Sound?
People have been really positive; the book sold out its print run and has been translated into two foreign language editions – Korean and Spanish. I was a bit scared when I wrote it, but that’s because there is an unfortunate tendency in the UK for people to distrust or diss anyone that dares to take popular culture seriously. That kind of anti-intellectualism doesn’t exist on the continent at all. And things have only got worse since we wrote it; music journalism is in quite an awful state now. When I started reading the NME as a kid it had lots of lots of passionate, intelligent critical writing about music in it. Look at it now. A comic.

What, if anything, do you have planned for your set at Shock in Dublin?
I never plan; but the last gig I played for them was ace. Loved the crowd and I can’t wait to come back.

 

[Shock]

Ewan Pearson's Groove Column: The Supreme Overlord of Dance Decrees... (December 2007)

So, I have elected myself Supreme Overlord of dance music for 2008. Well, benevolent dictator, at least. Here are my decrees:

1. All producers will take a vow of chastity for the first half of the year. Have six months off. Learn to paint or to knit. Take up bird watching. Do some voluntary work in an old people's home. Make yourselves useful.

2. Further to decree 1, all producers will count the number of remixes completed and records released in 2007 and release a third as many in 2008. Work harder than you did last year, but throw away everything you think is not genuinely going to add something to the world.

3. No releases will be allowed that are generated entirely by laptop or plug-in. All records should contain at least one certified example of someone hitting something real with a stick, yelling into a microphone, wrapping strings around an object and strumming them. That kind of thing. Documentary proof, photos etc, will be required.

4. Vinyl promo is henceforth banned.

5. At least 500 copies of every release must be pressed on vinyl, preferably in an attractive colour sleeve (remember, you learned to paint at the start of the year).

6. Said vinyl will be made available to record shops 14 DAYS before any electronic download release is permitted.

7. No digital download service will be granted ANY preferential treatment, lead-in times, rights or exclusivity in distribution over any other. Further they will mandatorily provide all downloads at no less than 320mbit MP3, AIFF or WAV.

8. EPs are henceforth banned. Two tracks per single release and no more will be permitted.

9. No house or techno record shall exceed 122BPM in tempo, and, further, every other release must contain at least one track that is 118BPM or slower. There will be no exceptions.

10. All DJs will undertake to change tempo at least once and play at least 3 vocal tracks or disco records in every two hour set of music.

11. DJs will undertake to be courteous and name any track they are playing to any member of the public that wants to know.

12. The public will refrain from asking the DJ to play harder / faster / better or "a request for my friend, as it's her birthday".

13. The superimposition of live percussion (comprising congas, bongos, timbales etc.) or saxophone over DJ sets is punishable by death.