DJ Jim Q's Playlist: Procrastinate
Ah procrastination my old nemesis, the daemon of productivity and the burden of the non linear mind. If you haven’t guessed it, the theme this month is procrastinate. Most creative people I know are chronic procrastinators and history is dotted with famous procrastinators, from Frank Loyd Wright to Leonardo da Vinci to Marget Atwood. On it’s face it seems like procrastination has a negative effect on creation, but is that always true? Throughout our lives we have been inundated with warnings of waiting until the last minute. However, there is definitely some correlation between great ideas and procrastination. I can’t speak for others, but I know when I am delaying action on something, my mind is still actively, yet somewhat abstractly, processing in the background. It’s during this low level processing that the mind often generates novel ideas. These ideas typically emerge in sporadic ways while the mind is focused on remedial tasks, cooking, cleaning, or the classic spark of inspiration while showering. There is something tapping into the subconscious and snatching these gems from the recesses of the mind.
Adam Grant discusses this non linear processing in his talk “The Surprising Habits of Original Thinkers”. He makes the case that procrastination creates room for divergent thinking and time to consider unexpected ideas. Well that is reassuring but that’s not going to help with those unpaid parking tickets, overdue dentist appointments, or that email you need to respond to.
There is the now infamous story of Kanye West showing up at Rick Rubin’s doorstep with the raw unfinished tracks for Yeesus in hand. From what Rubin heard, “It sounded like several months more work had to be done.” They had less than three weeks before the last possible delivery date. Many of the tracks didn’t have vocals and apparently Kanye provided vocal performances on a number of songs as late as two hours before the final recordings needed to be delivered. Yikes. Yeesus stands as a brilliantly subversive and unique artistic document, it’s by far my favorite Kanye album and I would bet procrastination certainly contributed to the unconventional and disruptive soul of that record—there was simply no time to play it safe.
This month’s theme comes from the Turin chapter. I have included a small sampling of bands from the northern Italian city. Enjoy the retro 90’s tinged sound of Nowolf’s “Passatempo”, this track reminds me of some of the more hip hop influenced britpop bands of the time, think Stone Roses or Electronic—great stuff. Sickarone’s collaboration with 1403, “To You”, combines the smoothness of an 80’s Sade groove punctuated by chiptune video game bleeps and bloops, all filtered through a classic sample-chopped boom-bap production style. XIII’s polyrhythmic “Breathe” is broodingly atmospheric and deeply foreboding. The high pitch syncopated high-hats sound like insects swarming around the ominous vocal performance. The monotonous almost whispered monologue is like an unsettling yoga instruction delivered by a serial killer. I love it. “Conchiglie” by Andrea Laszlo De Simone is ambitious. The song is quite an odyssey as the sound drifts from soundscapes to intimate folk to an uptempo jig and resolving in a cinematic orchestral march. I’m sure there are many other wonderful acts from Turin, I encourage you to do your own musical tourism or better yet once when it’s safe to travel again, visit Turin in person.
Worth the wait, this month’s playlist theme is procrastinate From the queen of country Dolly Parton to the undisputed guitar god himself Jimi Hendrix to the don of Baltimore Club Rod Lee, this playlist will sidetrack you for hours. Productivity is ruined with this collection of songs about distraction, putting it off, postponement, and waiting until the last minute. As the saying goes “Why waste today on something you can do tomorrow” er… yeah, something like that.
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