For Seven Plays, each week one of our contributors will keep a personal music diary for seven days, then hands the feature over to another Truant at the end of the week. The idea is to keep sharing great music with our readers, but with a more individual touch than our more objective posts and reviews. The second instalment comes from Truants founder Soraya Brouwer, going from saxophone and Planet Mu classics to housing project raids and a little bit of Brick Squad.
Sunday: Archie Shepp Quartet – Blue In Green (Venus Records)
“Hi, it is Soraya and it is my Seven Plays turn. Firstly, I’d like to thank Tabitha for delivering such a great first instalment of this feature, you can read her contribution here. Secondly, I would like to apologise for derailing the feature from a weekly idea to a monthly one this early; I had the worst luck with technology over the last few weeks. Not having a modem, a laptop, or a working vinyl player temporarily changed the way I listen to music though, which was good. During the first few days of this hermit 3G life I was left with a handful of random tracks on my phone, and some shoe boxes full of CDs I hadn’t opened in years. These CDs are mainly hardcore punk and hip-hop records I would’ve referred to as iconic a couple of years ago, or CDs I “borrowed” from my family. I think I wouldn’t have gone through them otherwise, so I thank myself for spilling liquid over my laptop for the second time in a matter of months. It made me rediscover a couple of folk, blues and jazz records which I used to rinse back in the days but don’t listen to much anymore. Examples of my weekend records included Joni Mitchell’s Blue (“Little Green“), B.B. King’s Deuces Wild (“Thrill Is Gone”) and John Coltrane’s My Favorite Things. I got stuck listening to Archie Shepp for the most of my weekend, and a fitting pick for my Sunday would be “Blue In Green,” off Blue Ballads by the Archie Shepp Quartet, composed by man like Miles Davis. It was between this or this Stevie Wonder cover but I chose “Blue In Green” as it is so soothing!”
Monday: Marco Bernardi – Klinsfrar Melode (DJ Sprinkles’ Deeperama) (Crème Organization)
“I came across this remix by accident today. I think I was looking for another Sprinkles track, but I completely forgot what I was looking for in the first place after I found this. Everything Thaemlitz has done as Sprinkles is fucking incredible: I rediscovered MCDE’s remix of “Grand Central Part I” over the last weeks after Jackmaster included it in his Essential Mix, but I have a feeling that the Deeperama remix of Bernardi is my new go-to Sprinkles track now.”
Tuesday: Waka Flocka Flame feat. Slim Dunkin – Tyler Perry (1017 Brick Squad)
“It is no secret that I am obsessed with everything 1017, and whenever I feel any type of way I draw for the 808 Mafia produced “Tyler Perry” collaboration between the creator and ruler of my universe Waka Flocka Flame and the late Slim Dunkin. Today, the stress of not being properly connected to the world started kicking in, and this was the track I blasted on max to unwind a little. This is my favourite track Slim Dunkin and Flocka did together; I have fond memories of one of my friends and myself trying to annotate this track. We spent a good nine hours session and a bottle of Hennessy on trying to figure out the indecipherable St. Matthew and tortilla lines. I don’t care for “Tyler Perry 2.0” much, this track is the one and I hope to hear it out one day. If any DJs are reading this, please fulfil this dream for me and I will be forever grateful. Rest in peace, Dunk.”
Wednesday: Sudanim – Midrift (Air Max ’97 Dazzle Remix) (Her Records)
“I change the music on my phone almost every night so I can listen to new music when travelling through the city. I think I only have two constant tracks on my phone, my alarm clock (“Talk About Our Love“) and my ringtone (“Racks“). The rest of the tracks I carry with me are mainly promos we get sent and whatever the rest of the Truants crew tells me to listen to, and their suggestions are always on point. The next Seven Plays contributor, Tobias, introduced me to fellow Aussie and Liminal Sounds delegate Air Max ’97 a few weeks ago, and I’ve been obsessing over his tracks ever since. (He is also included in Gage’s Functions Of The Now.) I can’t really pinpoint a favourite track as I was listening to an Air Max playlist on shuffle all day so I am going to go with the most recent track on his SoundCloud, a remix of Sudanim. Great stuff.”
Thursday: Wu-Tang Clan – Clan In Da Front (Loud Records)
“When I wrote my initial Seven Plays post, I started out with a track dedicated to the True Detective finale – remember that series? Feels like a year ago already. I was supposed to post this article in the week after the finale was released, and initially picked Sleep’s “Holy Mountain” as my very first track. I usually do not care for television soundtracks much, but the True Detective OST one had me mesmerised. As Sleep is for the weak I am going with the GZA cut they played during the raid of the housing projects as everything about that scene was flawless, but you probably don’t need me to tell you about that. Wu-Tang Killa Beez, we on a swarm! Wu-Tang Killa Beez, we on a swarm!“
Friday: Pinch – Qawwali VIP (Planet Mu)
“I almost got a Pinch related tattoo during a music festival two years ago, because I was inebriated and wanted to prove to my friend that I truly love Pinch. Unfortunately I was stopped, and though I am grateful I am tattoo free I am also a little sad that I never had the experience to wake up with a giant Pinch tattoo on my forehead or whatever. The “I really love Pinch” line had become some sort of recurring line we would drop randomly into any conversation: I don’t really remember why we started doing it, but I really do love Pinch for real. Today was another Pinch themed day, and the Qawwali VIP will always be one of my favourite tracks of his ever. It was between Qawwali or the entire record he did with Shackleton. Impeccable.”
Saturday: Source Direct – The Crane (Source Direct Recordings)
“I really only started paying attention to drum and bass and jungle two years ago as somehow it never really clicked with me before that (too much material, too overwhelming), so I’m doing a backwards ‘nuum. I’m glad it finally clicked with me though, because there is still a lot out there for me to discover. Source Direct are easily my favourites, and I found myself listening to “The Crane” today .”
Read our previous instalments here. Next up in the series is the fam Tobias Shine.
