DJ-producer Jacques Greene develops new styles on Dawn Chorus
Credit to Author: Stuart Derdeyn| Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2020 19:20:29 +0000
When: Friday, Feb. 28, 10 p.m.
Where: The Beaumont Studios, 316 West 5th Ave., Vancouver
Tickets and info: From $20 at showpass.com
Jacques Greene makes stylish music.
His brand of trippy house beats come ready-made to move underground tastemakers, movers and shakers. So much so that it’s no surprise to know the Toronto-based producer has inked deals with two fashion designers for his Vase Records label. You need to look as good as you sound, right?
Born Philippe Aubin-Dionne in Montreal, Greene came to national and international recognition with his 2017 debut Feel Infinite. A Polaris Prize longer list album nominee, the recording arrived nearly seven years after the producer first made waves with a single on the 2010 Night Slugs Allstars compilation.
A mix of minimalism, melody, R&B snippets and assorted house and techno tricks, the recording boasted highlights such as Afterglow, True (feat. How to Dress Well) and the title track.
Greene was clearly an artist who could expand the sonic range of dance music to include emotion and introspection more commonly sourced in soul and urban pop. But he never lost the train of thought that says keep the party bumping. His latest release, Dawn Chorus, is an equally engaging and emotional collection loaded with guests and collaborators ranging from Lost in Translation film composer Brian Reitzell to rapper Cadence Weapon and ambient vocalist Julianna Barwick.
It’s a big leap in arrangements, production and pulse for the artist, who has moved from expertise in cutting and pasting collages of samples to working from a live musician base to reconfigure into something new.
Green took time to chat from his Toronto studio prior to heading across Europe and North America on tour, noting that new material such as Serenity was “pulling off the magic trick” of keeping audiences entranced.
Q: I’ve read about five different reviews of Dawn Chorus, and each talks about how you have “updated” house music. Why is that, and has house become the heavy metal of electronic music, that just never goes away?
A: At this point house music can be more of a catch-all word for any and all dance music that isn’t grim or very minimal and cold sounding. Along with acid house, which is still around as well, it’s a type of updated disco and it keeps coming back around. When done right, it’s grooves in pockets with nice melodies that are fun.
Q: It’s also the electronic music genre that lends itself best to the formation of actual songs rather than just tracks, isn’t it?
A: Yep, the most exciting house music is when it hovers between song and track in its complexity. A classic Chez Damier or Little Louie gives you a little more than just a bass line and a rimshot pattern. My ear is drawn to things with a few more of those elements of melody and hints of structure.
Q: Besides composing your own original material, you have a lengthy resumé remixing artists ranging from Radiohead to Ciara and others. What makes a great remix in your mind?
A: I think you need to study the parts of the original as hard as you can and focus in on one section that you really hook on, like the way the vocal sounds in the pre-chorus break, or something. Not that it has to be one eight-second loop, but more that one section that you can extend and expand upon until it really catches your ear and almost trying to drive someone insane with it.
Q: Dawn Chorus is a different thing from what you just described, involving a lot more input from musicians and singers. Do you think that recording at Hudson Mohawke’s L.A. studio got under your skin and inspired some of these changes, bringing kind of an L.A. vibe?
A: Yeah, that place is infectious and gets right under your skin. Part of the genesis of the album was, how could I use the tools — drum machines and such — that belong to the culture of the genre, but make it so if you were blindfolded and listened, you might file it under alternative pop rather than dance music. I wrote the album in my 29th year; now I’m 30 and not a young gun anymore, but still working in a hedonistic, youth-obsessed ecosystem. What music would make me comfortable where I’m at now?
Q: A very sizable demographic that came of age in the ’90s with the explosion of electronic music and raves is in that same place you describe now. Unlike classic rock, where you can play your hits from a walker, electronic music has never been about staying in the same place. Do you think you are paving the way for where the music can be for changing tastes?
A: There are definitely veterans that are resting on their laurels in dance music too, but that’s not where I’m at. Since 2014, I’ve been really invested in using a lot of visuals in my sets, but trying to avoid the massive projections and LED lights that can be somewhat distracting and take you out of the experience. So I’ve been developing my lighting set with a designer from Glasgow named Shaun Murphy to take almost standard club lighting and turn it into something new that keeps the black space there too. At least I hope so.
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