Even Your Friend slow mix

August 18th, 2010 by Jo

since this “hauntology” concept seems to continue being all the rage, we thought we’d jump the bandwagon. as far as i can tell, if someone who is not very old takes elements of an old song (i.e. one which was popular when said someone was a toddler), slows them down and puts a load of reverb on them, this constitues an act of “hauntological” music making, the idea being that somehow the hauntologist’s subconcsious is haunted by the old radio smash hit from their very early life and this haunting finds its way into the character of the new piece of music. i always figured there isn’t a great deal of haunting going on anywhere in pop music, not even in the  current revival of what was once called, i believe, “shoegaze” . what IS going on is  just some very basic digital effects treatment of songs which have been omnipresent since the eighties and through the internet are almost more easily available than during the days of their release, which eliminates their potential to haunt anything or anyone as if from a distant past.   but what do i know. anyhow, to prove this point, keith took one of our own, very recent songs (which is by no means omnipresent) and slowed it right down and – bingo! it sounds very “hauntological”, although no-one’s subconscious was ever penetrated by it twenty-odd years ago. it also sounds rather nice, methinks. here it is:

http://thechap.bandcamp.com/track/even-your-friend-slow-mix