Shovel Dance Collective^uk

“This podcast explores the tension between the respect of musical convention, and the desire to extend them, warp them sometimes to the point of bending them. It’s a dedication to the ecstatic, the communal and transgression. These tracks often use simple techniques, old styles, playful melodies, but pushed into something so much more. This productive tension helps formulate so much in how we imagine our own music, between tradition and diversion.  

The journey begins with Thelonious Monk,  the ultimate jazz figure who encapsulates being both ‘in’ and ‘out’ a musical genre. From the young man critiqued for being too ‘out there’ to having an influence so embedded into the fabric of the music it is hard to separate what we call ‘Jazz’ from ‘Monk’. This short and sentimental horn section tugs at the heart strings acts as a nursery rhyme with none of his angular chromaticisms. 

Then begins the act of longform listening, a return to the start. Albert Ayler‘s ‘Spirits Rejoice’ is played in full, how could we not! From the power and raw affect of those first notes we enter entirely into his worldview. It is such a dream to do that with the music you make, to make others feel exactly as you do through sound, and once again to take simple, traditional melodies to such new heights. 

It’s important to recognise for us it’s not only jazz where this inspiration comes so deeply. Composer and theorist Pierre Schaeffer‘s experiments with magnetic tape paved the way for our own experiments with cassettes. By recording, manipulating and arranging a variety of sounds produced by trains, he too freed himself from musical conventions. 

The heart wrenching double bill Aretha Franklins euphoric and genuinely live-in-gospel-church ‘Amazing Grace’ paired with Jackie-O Motherfucker’s ‘Amazing Grace’ speaks to something of our own tastes. Both push in their own ways, taking the age old hymn that is so well known to longform extremes and back again. Both from gospel and experimental music they pull and extend this most well known song in their own way. Both with a raw emotion, a rough around the edges approach that is no less powerful. 

Alongside titans like Monk, Ayler and Aretha Franklin, it felt important to also include our friends and comrades: Milkweed, Max Syedtollan, Shakeeb Abu Hamdan & Sholto Dobie, whose music inspires us in such close proximity. We are built entirely by the communities in which we find ourselves in, and in constant dialogue with our fellow musical friends. 

Conversations across styles happening across this mix, ending with Pelt’s conversation with John Fahey. Two artists who have been instrumental in our own formation, and who folk music owes so much for pushing the boundaries. 

We thank all those we have listened to, and indeed all those who went before.”