Music Review
Bill Gallagher
3550 Words
I'm going to show you a world within. A world of rage, and intensity. Although invisible, its forces are powerful...
On My Level
The first time I heard James Guttman's HIGHSOCIETY was on a selection compiled by a Youtube music promoter called "Cyberpunk 2077 Mix, NS Dark Techno Electro Music -- Play Hard Go Pro 45". I was driving through Deming at night. It was just me and a few cows and wide open moonlit country. The selection "Louder -- I Can Take Your Pain Away" came up on the USB player, and my adventure began.
The sub-genre of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) called "Cyberpunk" seems most notable because of what the musicians call drops and breaks, sharp transitions between sounds or levels of sounds, and generally much more radical than things like Skrillex or Voicians. Radical to the point of dissonance.
This dissonance in Hardcore Cyberpunk makes it hard to listen to for some people, ie old people like me. This I'm sure is something of an attraction to younger people, because being different from our elders is a rite of passage. There is also a lot of flexing of technological muscles by the younger musicians, and who can blame them? Anybody talking this stuff down is just jealous because they didn't have these capabilities in their time.
Anyway. I'd been listening to a few things called Cyberpunk during my constant quest for New Music, but this, what I was hearing on the song "Louder -- I Can Take Your Pain Away", was not Cyberpunk in the strictest sense. It was definitely Cyber, as anyone with half an ear could tell, but the punk part, I don't think so. Here was a well developed musical intricacy, bordering on dissonance, but never going into it. It was some kind of ideal marriage between hard electronix and melodix, working one into the other.
I had found the New again! There is fun in looking, but more fun in finding. I searched out the track and the artist by querying the promoters title in Google. After some further electro-adventuring I found the single on youtube. Questing even further I discovered a lot about the artist himself, because his output is impressive in its quantity and quality. I heard more music by HIGHSOCIETY, and I even saw the man himself doing instruction videos, and performing live in front of huge boards of electronic equipment, equipment I didn't understand, but I liked it anyway.
It is a New Truth that equipment is a big factor in music today, bigger than it has ever been before. This equipment progresses at a fantastic pace, as fast as code can be written. The computer is as much of music now as simple electricity was among the first electrified musical instruments. It is a whole new world. Consider the literal electro-video barrage that young people today accept as normal, and you can see that they are on another level of perception by default. I think the Transformer movies were much more influential in modern music than most people know, even more than the theme music from the Haunted Mansions at the Disney Worlds, and that is a lot.
In line with the above postulation is the fact that equipment to hear music correctly is almost as complex, in its own way, as the equipment to produce the music. Some of the boom boxes driving around out here in the NM desert have never been wet in their lives, because even if it does rain they shake any water right off with a field of sound whose vibrations can be felt from far far away. Not kidding. Those cars must be equipped with special glass, otherwise it would just shatter from the beats. Everything scientific and patterned a happy dire.
So there I am on Youtube looking for the single track "Louder -- I Can Take Your Pain Away". The first channel I came across was called NC Trap, or Trap NC, or something like that. I initially thought I made a mistake and was at some furriers site. Then I listened to a few things and thought Wow there is some wildness happening in North Carolina! It was only later I somehow realized that NC was not North Carolina but No Copyright. Blimey. Trap Nation is where a lot of HIGHSOCIETY Music can be found.
As for the term Trap, which describes another sub-genre of EDM/BASS Hip Hop with Blax influence, I can bring something to the table on that. Trap was a place to score drugs, usually the projects. I never liked them because there was a lot of treated weed. The weed wasn't treated by the brothers, why would they throw money at something that worked fine as it was? No, it was treated by the people running the drug war. Cops would recycle confiscated weed by putting it back on the streets with chemicals in it, a little something for your teeth or eyesight, something detrimental over a long period of time. Deniable tax free fundraising, and well within the spirit of the Drug War. Drugs As Weapons. There was a lot of this and it just became more prevalent as time went on.
Predation.
It wasn't called War for nothing.
The earliest tests of drugs as weapons were conducted secretly on Rock stars, it was all about availability, making the drugs available, and a lot of the stars succumbed, just killed themselves overdosing. CIA was already beginning to take control of airports during that time, and a lot of early rock stars, an abnormal number, also died in plane crashes, back when Rock Stars could be major social powers, not all diluted like today. Some real old guard pigs were scared silly of John Lennons growing power when he was shot.
The insiders selling high power poppy and coca drugs to the earliest rock stars also became very wealthy, of course. Two birds with one stone and all that. When the government becomes a juggernaut, and not an administrator of the peoples needs, it always becomes an elite mob of insiders making war on the rest, pure and simple. Trap indeed. I worked for three retired Police Officers in the early 1990s who retired early because they witnessed what happened at the housing projects in Fort Lauderdale during the 80s. They said, and I quote: "That wasn't American."
Real traps were constructed by blocking off car traffic so that only a couple streets operated in and out of the projects. Large concrete barricades were used. Sometimes the police would bust 5000 people on a weekend in Dade/Broward, using drugs they themselves put on the streets, and almost all of the busted served mandatory minimums. This is a matter of historical record, but not something you would see on mono-media TV. The people running the prisons got rich as hell. Trappers. These are the movers and fixers in our society today, and their kids.
This economic trapping entailed flooding the projects with cocaine and weapons. Secret insiders sold both the cocaine and the guns, making big money from genocide, along with all the lawyers. It was called The Self Cleaning Oven (Playboy interview with Surgeon General Elders)(2). The death rate was never well publicized but exceeded 40% in many places. The survivors got paid and all but a few forgot everything. The equivalent of flooding the Rez with hard booze. Very old tactix actually.
Just a little of Americas Secret History for ya', from somebody who was there, paying attention. This is all very hard-to-find information, kept from you by the very people who are paid to inform you! I was working at Fed-ex at that time, 1984-87, #54169, out of the McNab Station near Pompano Beach. People tried to sell me crack when I was in my Fedex van, isyn! It was a Frenzy, the whole place was doing a slow burn, inside and out. And it didn't just happen. It was a program. These Traps were intentionally set. The media did as it was told by the political police, and everybody got rich except the prey, the people in the trap. The higher you were in authority, the richer you got. A lot like Covid. And 911. And la la la, and on and on.
We have all been handled. The whole world.
For the record I left Fedex because they were nazis about weed, which is all I use, and pretty much all I ever used, once I got off alcohol in 1991. I could have lied my way through Fedex, but I didn't want to. Call me weak for indulging such a thing as conscience. All the American corporations are corpse-orations, want you to be a good hive member, lie for them, buy in.
Ah, memories, and the evolution of language. It is nice to see I am not the only one who remembers this stuff, even if we are just talking about vestigial awareness here. Funny that I had never heard the word Trap used to describe a type of music before, but I am very familiar with its origin.
I kept exploring this new music I had discovered by actively seeking it. Like a flower opening its petals to the sun my awareness was led inward, outward, and onward, to always newer places. I was beginning to enjoy this adventure, these learnings, so I wrote to HIGHSOCIETY and received a very nice letter of reply. I met James Guttman over the internet, and he was kind enough to answer my lists of questions, no matter how mundane, ill informed, or redundant they were. I found him to be patient, and well spoken, and generous above all. Here are some candid answers to my questions direct from the Artist himself.
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Hi James, thanks for your time. Where do you originate, where is home?
I'm originally from San Francisco. I lived in Amsterdam for the past 2 years and just moved down to San Diego, CA this week.
How old are you, and are there any significant others?
31, and Yes! I have been :) married for almost 4 years.
Who do you admire most within music?
I admire people who are truly being themselves and building something unique. Porter Robinson, Jeremy Olander, Rezz, Le Castle Vania, Kingdom of Giants are some names that come to mind.
Who influences you most musically?
Lately I have been influenced most by things outside of my genre. Lots of rock/metal and more spacey/vibey house music. I actually don't listen to music that much when I am not producing it. When I'm not writing music I generally lean toward styles that are more "background" friendly.
Please tell us about your collaborators.
I don't typically do a lot of collaborations, but a few people I have worked with a lot are two vocalists, Matty McDonald and Sunnie Williams, who are both really awesome. When working with a vocalist it's typically all done online, via passing files back and forth. I have actually never met Sunnie in real life...
How about your preferences in collaboration, recent, past, future.
I am working on another new song with Matty McDonald right now actually. Some acts I would love to work with are Purge & Pedestrian Tactics from the EDM world - from outside of EDM I would love to work with more metal bands. I really enjoy mixing genres and I'm a huge fan of metal music.
One article I read compared you to acts as big as Sonny James Moore/Skrillex, how do you feel about this?
Well Skrillex was definitely one of the first acts that I got really into as far as "bass music" goes (I think this is true for a lot of people, in terms of his music being an entry point into the genre). I don't listen to him as much anymore but when I was first starting out I drew a lot of inspiration from him, especially the way he mixed melodic vs. heavy parts in the same track, that was pretty unique at the time. I definitely respect him a lot, he is always pushing genres forward and doing really creative things with OWSLA. So that's a nice comparison!
Did you move to San Diego because of work?
San Francisco is really competitive. It's a small music scene. I am actually no longer based in San Francisco, so most of my shows are going through my booking agency Cyber Groove. It just depends who wants to book me. I needed to move back to the USA due to an opportunity with a booking agency that brought me on (http://cybergrooveam.com/) that will lead to a lot of US-based shows, so I needed to be based here. Our visas in Amsterdam were 2 Year, and they were expiring, so it was a good opportunity to make a change. I haven't played in LA in a really long time but I have played huge shows there as well as empty shows. It can be really hit or miss. I have only lived here for 2 weeks so...overall I think southern California is a bit more slow paced than San Francisco or Amsterdam, it's much more sprawling. I have been really enjoying it. The weather is incredible... really goes a long way as far as keeping a positive mood.
How about your audience?
In terms of audience it's roughly 18-30 year olds, mostly men. A lot of your standard club kids but a lot of gamers and fitness people as well. If you look around online you can find tons of people making videos of themselves playing video games to my music.
What happened in Amsterdam?
We moved there for a work opportunity that my wife had. I did get involved with the music scene over there which was cool, but about 60% of the time I lived there, the music industry was inactive due to COVID. So I just produced/wrote a lot of music and focused on pushing my online listener numbers.
Any hobbys or sports you like a lot?
I'm really into health and fitness, I like to work out and do things outside. I also love cooking and beer/wine so I'm always trying new stuff.
Who does the graphic art on your musix?
I do all of my own design these days.
How do you feel about the competition in the Music Scene today?
It's a bit of a double-edged sword for me. Overall I think this is a great time for music and art. You can teach yourself to produce music (as I did) on the internet entirely for free, self-release your music, and build an audience of millions. There is literally no barrier to entry anymore. The flip side of it is that there is a ton of really generic mediocre music that makes a lot of "noise" but doesn't really provide any value to listeners. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the amount of music out there. Listener attention spans are also decreasing rapidly, a song/album release doesn't have the impact it used to. I don't really fight this though, I think massive cultural/consumption shifts like this are inevitable and resisting them is a waste of energy.
Do you teach music as an occupation?
I have guest lectured a few times about the music industry but otherwise no.
Are you working on any Movie Soundtrax? Video Games?
I have not ever done any original composing for any movies/tv/games but I have had a few tracks synced for TV on channels like HBO, MTV, etc.
DJ'ing and performing seem to be a larger part of your work right now, true?
Well not for the last 2 years, but it's looking like I will be doing quite a few shows throughout this year and into 2022, thanks to my new booking agency I mentioned above. I really miss playing shows!
Is it possible to make a living with your music today?
It's definitely possible. My view is that you have to embrace the idea of running your own business now more than ever. Artists these days have to be amazing digital marketers, social networkers, content creators, etc. simultaneously. There is less money, being spread around more widely. So it's very important to create multiple revenue streams if you want to make any money. Full disclosure: I do not make a great living from my music. If I lived off music alone it would be comparable to working a minimum wage job or something. I do audio/video editing as a freelancer on the side to make extra cash.
Have you ever been part of a band?
I have been in many bands, yes. Mostly metal/metalcore, but also some punk/pop-punk. I actually started in music playing drums at age 8. I was in a bunch of very serious bands from about 16 - 21 before I got into electronic music. Went on tour around the US a few times. Sometimes I miss playing in a band, especially playing drums. Such a fun instrument!
James Guttman / HIGHSOCIETY
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During the weeks of writing back and forth with James I spent as much time as I could listening to his music. I heard a good bit of his earlier material, noting similarities with todays work, as you would expect, but I could tell it was the earlier material, also not unexpected. Progression Happens, if you work at it, and James works hard.
I also noted that the marriage of hard core sounds with melody that I alluded to earlier was not just something that occurred in the song Louder, it was something permeating all the Music of HIGHSOCIETY, even his remixes of other musicians work. There is an underlying weave in the sounds created by James Guttman, high order, a percussive use of electronic sounds, spoken word, and singing vocals not usually employed so.
The listening appeal of HIGHSOCIETY is way up there, as evidenced by his listener/follower numbers, and the quality of his collaborators. When I first took the song Louder off the Cyberpunk selection where I found it, I cut it at 3:25 because I was looking at the graphic, not listening to the song. This is the version I listen to now, still, and to me it is an almost perfect FM version of the song, I mean it could really go off if given half a chance. There are several others by HIGHSOCIETY in that category too, imho.
There was nothing I didn't like, just some I liked more than others. The cohesiveness of the music gets the part of my mind that goes grasping after order. Sometimes these sound sculptures border the disorderly, but only just. There is synergy, a sound that comes across as much more than the sum of its parts. It is the freshest I have heard in a long time. Genuinely Beautiful. Soaring. Intricate. Novel. It truly is a new kind of music, in more than one way, somewhat due to computer tools and their manipulation of sound. The Infinite Palette. There is high variety by HIGHSOCIETY.
Another thing I especially like about HIGHSOCIETY are the many female vocals, my personal preference. HIGHSOCIETY music is well suited, it seems, to the expressions of female vocalists, and these voices are utilized to the highest extent, in ways that make them musical instruments in their own right. There is a lot of restructuring of vocals electronically to achieve all the effects one hears. Some vocalists who collaborate with HIGHSOCIETY include Karra, Sunnie Williams, Matty McDonald, and Amy Kirkpatrick.
My 4 favorite songs by James Guttman's HIGHSOCIETY are Fake featuring Amy Kirkpatrick, Sinking, Louder (I Can Take Your Pain Away) featuring Karra, and Heartbeat (Magic Free Release). As far as what I personally like in music, this is as near perfect as I have come across yet.
In my quest for new music many things occur, because its a multifaceted quest, not just about one or two things. In many ways rage is my dynamo. Everything is very intense and I wouldn't have it any other way. If it all was to be put into one word it would be TRUTH, and there is enough truth to keep anyone busy for life. Happenstance and tricks, best laid plans and accidents. There is exaltation and depression and treasure and waste, even adventure. Effort and reward all defined by the moment: action, reaction, random interaction...and order too. Lots of order.
The world beheld by the majority is reflected in light, and also sound.
To quest is to question.
Music is news from poets.
fin
.
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Bibliography
(1)Alex Constantine, The Covert War Against Rock: What You Don't Know About the Deaths of Jim Morrison, Tupac Shakur, Michael Hutchence, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Phil Ochs, ... Tosh, John Lennon, and The Notorious B.I.G.
https://feralhouse.com/the-covert-war-against-rock/
(2) Playboy article with Jocelyn Elders, https://www.playboy.com/read/the-playboy-interview-with-joycelyn-elders
Rush, Roll The Bones
Various Online Sources
HIGHSOCIETY
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8P2v37hf-lZhnYqndWP7xA
karra
https://monstercat.fandom.com/wiki/Karra
https://iamkarra.com/
sunnie williams
https://www.sunniewilliamsmusic.com
amy kirkpatrick
https://www.cymbamusic.com/amybio
Matty McDonald
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_State
Trap Nation https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa10nxShhzNrCE1o2ZOPztg
https://highsocietymusic.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/highsocietyofficial
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