Flexology
ABDULLAH FLEX
Amidst the stylistic calcification momentarily paining the cetacean anatomy of dubsteb there are sonic extensions willing to defy its predictability, to challenge its academic alphabetization as in the case of Abdullah Flex. The intertextual vocation evoking an elaborating approach to music production manifests its desiring self within the etymon of the collective name, which semantically questions the paranoia-ridden hype against the Islamic civilization.
The conceptechnique Abdullah flexes ontologically pushes the perceptive potential of bass frequencies - whose plastic moulding has indeed found a visual amplification during theirs live sets – wherefore the listening experience externalizes the cerebral while implementing the physical.
We caught up with the three members of Adbullah Flex: Deepash and Shervin, and David to discuss challenging preconceptions, the attraction of dubstep and how visual projections became so entertwined in their live music performances.
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Where does the (Arab) name come from? Why the Arab lettering?
Shervin: It’s a form of Arabic dancing performed by the first son usually named Abdullah before his journey into the desert alone...
Deepash: Yeah, the actual story is pretty boring, and it seems to change with every re-telling as well. In all seriousness, we had the name kicking about for ages, never had the chance to use it, the opportunity to make "Tell Me" came up and it seemed like a good fit. Also I think after 9/11 there was a lot of social stigma associated with anything vaguely Islamic, and people have often interpreted it (the name) as meaning that we are or the music is. It is a challenging name for some people, but that's a good thing everyone needs to be pushed once in a while. I like the fact that you can make an assumption about something just based on its name, but when you actually delve a little further, it completely changes, and if you like it, it brings you closer. I think its called discovery. Like the ending of "The Usual Suspects" but not a film, and there's no Kevin Spacey.
Your music (I'm here particularly referring to 'Tell Me') seems to be informed by a high dose of self-reflexiveness, is this a conscious procedure you felt necessary to adopt or the subconscious mirroring of your sonic militancy?
Shervin: Sometimes the case is that before making any sort of noise we talk about a concept, how elements of the track should feel. Tell Me was one of those tracks where we talked about the sounds and how they would work together before they were created. This might seem odd but, it gives a greater degree of openness and possibility when beginning something.
I think that it's important for us to mention that we're always searching for ways to experiment within a structure or let say genre that can give us direction.
Deepash: Also coming back to Shervin’s point about the creation of the track, using Tell Me as an example, we created a bed of sounds to use as a starting point but also as a point of reference, and this in turn directly influenced the structure of the track. Also I personally admire the use of metafiction within literature, and although we're not necessarily conscious of reflexivity when we're making music, both mediums rely on thematic value. The sound bed in Tell Me is a major theme in the track and its reprisal is a big factor in mood and emotion, especially when the structure evolves around it and the other elements create contrast.
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In the Kingston yards the bass pressure was functional to a territorial mapping whereby the deeper your sound system was the further people would hear it from; what do you think is the communicative charge - and its consequent function - that the bass frequencies represent in the London (Dubstep) dancehalls?
Shervin: I don’t think I can give a completely informed answer to this to be honest with you, or actually if we're being honest with ourselves, because we're not constantly surrounded by dubstep. None of us go militant on listening to every new artist, or are maybe as immersed in it as other producers/artists are. Our approach is diverse... dubstep like any movement has its own manifesto, its own structures from which to begin the research... like the futurists... or the impressionists... or death metal! It’s a point of focus and the experimentation with it is always pushing things further, how many ways can you complete a rubix cube? How many ways can you bend time and bass? For us maybe it’s about energy.
Deepash: Well, I think things are a bit different when you take music as a form of communication over distance, and when you look at it as a form of communication in one location. In the Kingston Yards the usage of music - or in this case specifically bass - for territorial mapping is ultimately a tribal throwback. It's saying we're making noise, we're here. This our space. In the dancehalls of London, it's also a tribal throwback, experiencing those same frequencies together locked in to the same motion in the music, parallels the trance-like state ritual dancing creates and holds in tribal cultures. The main difference is that in one instance people are hearing the music, it serves as a warning or a reminder of the power of one faction in relation to the rest, they are communicating through the music, and in a way it's causing separation. In the other instance, people are experiencing the music, together, and it's communicating through them, but it's creating a connection.
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Dubstep cherishes the plastic modulation of the bass and strongly relies on its physicality, which are in your opinion the socio-acoustic reasons of this 'obsession'?
Shervin: I think the physicality of low frequencies has always fascinated humans in one way or another. I see it as explorations into the art of bass, bassliness is next to godliness, like hearing thunder. It’s maybe our attempt to be demigods, to create an almighty sound.
Deepash: It's an amazing experience to be moved by bass. A certain Radio 1 Experimental DJ described dubstep as elemental; I'd have to agree with her. Shervin mentioned thunder before, and I think he hit the nail on the head, hearing that rumble makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up on end. As humans, millennia ago we must have wondered and been terrified of the elements in nature generating so much noise, what power must they possess? What gods have we angered? Ever seen a cat or a dog in a thunderstorm, they don't like it much! l think there is an element of this animal reaction left in us, yet coupled with the modern age we are terrified and thrilled at the same time.
We can recreate that sensation, ride the lightining as it were (sorry, Metallica reference there), control it and experience it in new ways. There is a theory that postulates, as humans we developed communication through music before even speech, as technology has increased in the last 100 years.We've been able to record, recreate, synthesize and distribute at an increasing rate and increasing quality. This to some degree indicates that music is vitally important to us in communicating our emotions, shared or otherwise. Low-end has finally been able to be reproduced on a major scale, we've managed to harness the awesome power of the elements, so it's no wonder we want to put two fingers up to the gods, and rave.
Why did you feel desirable to incorporate visuals onto your sets?
Dave: I don’t think there was a conscious decision to incorporate visuals to start with - it just happened. The 'beater blocker' was the testing ground and it worked, from then on it started to develop; for example coming out with ideas for the visuals while creating the track. Our aim was to strengthen the relationship between the sound and image and to further intensify the audience experience in our live performances.
Deepash: We didn't think really about the visuals until we were asked to perform for the "Beaterblocker" launch party, which was our first live performance. Dave had previously done some VJing for Sherv in the past and we're all good friends, so we had him in mind from the start. Initially, from my point of view, it was to give the audience something to look at and keep their interest visually as back then there were no live vocals on the tracks.
Dave's work is really engaging, both as a director and a VJ, so this developed into a closer relationship between the visuals and the music as time progressed. As David mentioned before, we've now been planning things from the start, even getting him involved with the music making process to cement the relationship further. He's also been making some music videos for the tracks, as well as other people in our creative circle, like Russell Etheridge, a recent RCA graduate. Being able to incorporate elements of these videos in the live performance will create a stronger continuity between the music and the visuals and help identify the themes of individual tracks. I think now, I can't imagine performing as Abdullah Flex without Dave's visuals. They've become, from inception, an integral part of what our live experience is about.
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Waiting for the enormous pulsations of the electronic collective to lapse the Inspired Flight upcoming party, SWALLOW we salute Abdullah Flex and wish them to encounter transonic empathy on their creative commute towards deeper and emotionally charged realms.
This article is protected at the request of the author under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.0 UK: England and Wales