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The places, spaces, THE BRONX and monuments of NYC's musical past, present, and future. A column on PAST FEATURED LANDMARKS the gear and 1 MA X NEUHAUS’ 12 D APTONE processes that inform “TIMES SQUARE” RECORDS 2 T HE THING 13 T HE VILLAGE the music we make. SECONDHAND GATE!LIFE!LE ELECTRIC STORE POISSON ROUGE 3 THE LOFT 14 T HE ANCHORAGE 4 MARCY HOTEL LADY 5 A NDY WARHOL’S joris van grunsven is the head of Studio Takt, a music and sound-design company FACTORY based in the Netherlands. A Red Bull Music 6 Q UEENSBRIDGE STUDIOS HOUSES Academy 2013 participant, he also makes ex- 1 7 RECORD MART 6 perimental dubstep as —brooding Appetite City, former New York Times 7 5 Krampfhaft in his 2010 book 8 DE ITCH and cinematic stuff that leverages a lot of the restaurant critic William Grimes wrote of a “goofy restau- 8 PROJECTS 5 QUEENS tricks he’s picked up behind the scenes. We in- rant where city slickers could get on the floor for a square 9 A REA!SHELTER! 7 5 terviewed van Grunsven about how music and dance and whoop and holler to their hearts’ content.” VINYL sound design cross-pollinate. This was the erstwhile Village Barn, bedecked with wag- 10 STUDIO B 2 11 MARKET HOTEL 13 on wheels, horseless saddles, and live caged roosters; a 10 3 RBMA: Sound design is often more felt than place where—according to an old postcard—guests could 9 8 8 heard. How do you make music that intention- participate in “monkey dances, potato games, turtle races, MANHATTAN ally stays out of the way but still has a mean- and midnight waltzes.” (Turtle races?) 12 ingful presence? Owner Meyer Horowitz opened the Village Barn in 4 1930; it offered folk and country acts and other “rural 14 Joris van Grunsven: The music should be entertainment” until closing in 1967, presumably be- 12 11 good on its own. But after that you can add a cause interest in western kitsch waned. (Side note: Just lot of subtle things to the sounds to give them upstairs from the Barn, the abstract expressionist paint- more movement and space. This can also cre- er Hans Hofmann maintained an art school and studio WHAT: THE VILLAGE LOGOS ate a very nice distinction between listening from 1938 to 1958; the space later became the 8th Street experiences. If you don’t make your mixes too Playhouse, known for its interactive midnight showings BARN!ELECTRIC LADY STUDIOS full, it will sound really good on a big system. of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.) WHERE: 52 W. 8TH But if you add extra effects, it will also be inter- The story takes an abrupt turn when the Village STREET esting to listen to on headphones. Barn reopened as the short-lived Generation Club and The origins of WHEN: 1930-1967; acquired a very famous regular, Jimi Hendrix. In 1968, 1970-PRESENT iconic images from RBMA: In your own music, you use sub-bass Hendrix and his manager Michael Jeffery bought the WHY: HOKEY WESTERN- in this very gentle, rolling way. Do you have space with the intention of turning it into a club of their THEMED DINNER CLUB NYC's musical history any tips for creating this kind of drama with own but decided to convert it into a recording studio in- AND WORLD-FAMOUS sub-bass? stead—or, as the Times put it in a 2010 article, “a psyche- RECORDING STUDIO explained. delic lair, with curved walls, groovy multicolored lights, JvG: The simple answer is just to leave space and sci-fi erotica murals to aid the creative flow.” Electric STATEN ISLAND even before designer reid miles the time: “It fed on a lively photographic for the sub. I always check all the other sounds Lady Studios was finished, way over budget, in August BROOKLYN for frequencies that might interfere with it. I 1970. Hendrix recorded there for only a few weeks before joined Alfred Lion’s in culture and on a good stock of typefaces cut really low frequencies from snares and hi- flying to London, where he died on September 18, never 1956, the label was well known for the in the printers and reproduction houses— hats so that the sub has its own place in the making it back to the States or to his brand-new studio. mix. There are, as always, a lot of exceptions But everyone from the Stones to Bob Dylan to Patti Smith visual artistry of founding art director and especially of the American sans serifs.” to this rule. subsequently recorded there and, 43 years later, the Lady photographer . During the Under Miles the label adopted its first is still going strong as the longest-running major record- transition from plain 78s to packaged 10- and brand identity system, abstracting a musical RBMA: You also take advantage of panning in ing facility in New York City. !ADRIENNE DAY your mixes in unusual, almost painterly ways. 12-inch LPs, designers Paul Bacon, Gil Melle, note as its logo. While numerous books and John Hermansader played a role in celebrate Miles’ dynamic use of type and JvG: I really like to play with stereo imaging. Just like with the sound effects, it’s a great what Leonard Feather, in his liner notes for unconventional photo cropping, history tool to create space in your mixes and give in- 1955’s The Blue Note Story, described as the takes the icon for granted. By default we’ll struments some separation. If you have your “painstaking attention to quality… present credit Miles, who used it extensively as a drums in the center, you can do a pad with a lot of stereo width to really let them have their every step of the way—in the material used design element that moved around within own place in the mix. for the pressings, in the excellence of the each composition. The icon is also a conduit recording, in the design and production of for practical information—the catalogue RBMA: Do you think of your music visually? TOP 5… the covers, and in everything else that goes number sits inside the oval and the tagline JvG: I do. It’s very helpful to think of your PROJECTS THAT music as being in a space. Near, far, left, right. 1 2 3 4 5 to make a finished, thoughtfully prepared “The Finest in Jazz Since 1939” resides in a PRODUCED RAPPERS It is a very abstract space though. Especially BRONX RIVER QUEENSBRIDGE MARCY HOUSES FOREST HOUSES STAPLETON HOUSES HOUSES HOUSES “Cough up a lung, The Bronx gets recog- The Staten Island product.” rectangular box. The first cover to feature in electronic music you can break the rules Recognized as the The Queensbridge where I’m from. nized for yet another home of Ghostface Miles wasn’t the first designer at the label the logo was Blue Note 4017, ’s that are present in nature, which allows for proverbial Mecca of Houses are something Marcy, son.” We can hotbed of rap proj- Killah, Method Man, some interesting and disorienting effects. PRESENTED BY New York City hip- like the Nazareth to all thank Brooklyn’s ects via Fat Joe, Trife Da God, Shy- but he best defined its aesthetic, delivering Blowin’ the Blues Away, released on August hop, the Bronx River the Bronx River Hous- Jay-Z for the global Lord Finesse, and heim, and GP Wu. It’s Playing with cognitive dissonance is a big part Houses claim owner- es’ Bethlehem, spawn- recognition of Marcy. Diamond D. Digging pretty safe to say more than 400 covers in his 11 years at Blue 28, 1959. of the fun. ship to DJ Kool Herc, ing old-school names Acts like Jaz-O, Mem- in the Crates Crew that one of New York Since its inception in 1996, Mass Appeal maga- Afrika Bambaataa and like Marley Marl, phis Bleek, and Sauce anyone? City’s most interna- Note. Miles didn’t share a passion for jazz (he As Michael Cina, a Blue Note collector zine has dedicated itself to the art of creative the Soul Sonic Force, Roxanne Shante, and Money have also re- tionally renowned rap !NICK SYLVESTER instigation. What started off as a graffiti zine and DJ Red Alert. MC Shan. The torch spectively called it groups, the Wu-Tang preferred classical) but he understood how and designer who has applied a similarly eventually evolved into a full-fledged publi- Easily where it all has carried over to home. Ain’t nothin’ Clan, wouldn’t exist cation whose premise was to speak to the under- started. modern acts like Mobb nice! without Stapleton. to graphically interpret the music as Lion standardized approach to his work for the ground from which it came. The same can be said Deep, Capone, Tragedy described it. As design critic Robin Kinross Ghostly label, points out, “Most record about hip-hop, except that it wasn’t necessarily Khadafi, and Nas. a publication that brought all of its respective noted in 1990 in Eye magazine, Miles’ “cool, labels didn’t integrate a logo into the actual “instigators” together... it was the New York City housing projects. clear” work was representative of what was design, but [Reid] didn’t try to hide it. He happening in New York graphic design at exploited it.” !SUE APFELBAUM

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