08/07/2020
Ali Berger has a new release today! Please take a moment to read the description accompanying this album.
https://tracklandacid.bandcamp.com/album/music-power
"i generally don't talk a lot about the music i make (except on twitter where i can't help myself) but i want to take some time to clarify what i am and am not doing by making tracks and participating in the world of dance music. i've been unable to articulate this even to myself for a long time but i have a better understanding now and i can be open about it going forward.
a lot of the music i make is not to express myself or to make a point to the listener. i enjoy the act of making music and i enjoy learning about the process, especially its different iterations throughout the history of dance music. so a lot of my tracks come about from hearing something in somebody else's music. whether it's a whole track, a style of arrangement, a particular drum machine or other piece of gear, my desire is to understand through firsthand experience how they did what they did. this is why i use a lot of old gear, the process and the actual experience is what's interesting to me.
my curiosity and inspiration is primarily about early house and techno music from new york, detroit and chicago. this means music made primarily by black people. my production techniques, my djing style, the way i think about making music, i owe a lot of this to studying the work of black producers and djs, listening to their music and reading interviews. this MUST be understood by anyone who's listening to my music and making judgments or assessments about my proficiency, ideas etc. of course my personality, moods and emotions come out in my tracks but the foundation is the study of music made by black people. you wanna find out how i do this stuff, it starts there.
to help with that, here's a few of the records that i had in mind while creating the tracks on this album, either directly or in spirit:
Agent-X - Mission 2 EP
Robert Hood - Moveable Parts Chapter 1
Theo Parrish - American Intelligence
Psyche - Crack Down
also, i created How It Feels during a rapid-fire track-making session inspired by Jeff Mills' process as shown in the Exhibitionist 2 Studio Mix.
i hope my being direct and open about this stuff here and in future releases can be one tiny step of many on the way to a dance music world where white people are not taking credit for the work black and q***r people have done. since june i've been donating all trackland proceeds to the black trans travel fund and i am continuing to do that as long as i can."
