LSD is leaving Substack
Or really, we already left—read this if you missed the news yesterday.
If you got the newsletter yesterday as usual, you don’t need to read this email. But if you didn’t see it, check your spam folder, and if it’s not there, sign up again here. This is the last email you’ll get from us via Substack, so if you’re not signed up at that link, you will not get the studio newsletter anymore. We are deleting our account. Below is the update we sent yesterday explaining the change. - ZB
For the last three months, KG and I have been working with Jack Foltz, a programmer and friend of the studio, on an in-house newsletter platform. The email you're reading is the first one sent from our new home! When KG asked me to take over writing the newsletter last winter, he had already decided to leave Substack because of its rock-solid commitment to supporting fascists. But it started feeling really urgent to us in January, when the company launched a freestanding site for a reactionary news outlet founded by Bari Weiss, a journalist who first made a name for herself by trying (and ultimately failing) to get pro-Palestinian professors and students kicked out of Columbia (in 2006! Columbia's been in the wrong on Palestine for decades). Substack also isn't really what we need, since we're not trying to massively grow our subscriber base and then make tons of money off it. Instead, we want to grow slowly, by word of mouth, so that the studio family welcomes in new members thoughtfully and everyone who subscribes finds the newsletter useful.
This isn't the only thing Jack is building for us. He's many more months into creating a custom-designed site for the studio that folds the newsletter in with event listings, ticketing, and a lot more, all with the dream (well, one of a few dreams) of getting us completely off social media. No one here—me, KG, Benji, and Greg—likes being on Instagram, and neither do most of our friends. We figure the rest of the studio family feels similarly. With the government weaponizing social media for its deportation agenda, we are happier than ever that Jack already has us on our way out.
Stay tuned for more, and in the meantime, come on through for a show.
4.17 | fieldtalk will Present Sounds
fieldtalk is Vincent Brunetto, our neighbor, in-house engineer, field recordist, cassette collector, composer, and all around amazing human. He rode the Pique-nique Recordings train in here, mixed an early live Take Two session, and basically hasn’t left since. The very first Present Sounds was a live set he played, mixing guitar and tape recordings on his Nagra reel to reel. There were maybe 10 people in the audience. It was so good, I thought to myself, "We should do this every week." - K.G.
It's cool to see series take shape at the studio, and Zen Echo has started really settling into their niche—open space for listening, meditating, or dancing to dub techno. This time we'll hear from Marihito, Kyle Kyle, Eric Hoegemeyer, and mr. cruz.
Layers upon layers upon layers for this one. Layers of time: it goes from noon to midnight, a durational adventure for your Saturday. Layers of sound: Julliard-trained cellist MIZU undertakes a marathon, playing selections from her entire discography, an extended droning set, classical arrangements, and more. Layers of confection: Tracey Shi, the artist behind Lost Horse Cafe, will unveil a cake offering over the course of the day to be devoured by night.
4.20 | DJs Against Apartheid Fundraiser for Palestine
DAA are longtime friends of the studio and have been at the forefront of mobilizing the nightlife community in support of Palestine, despite increasing repression at home and in other global dance music epicenters. Their latest event brings DJs Ūmboma (Omar Ahmad & Miss Alicia), Krithi, theoretic, and PUFF, plus food from King of Falafel & Shawarma. 100% of proceeds tonight will go to the Albess and Al Saqqa families, who need our support to remain steadfast against the genocide. If you can’t make it in person but would like to support the cause, send donations here labeled “Donation.”
This edition of our community movement series begins with a mindful movement workshop with Selena Lee, followed by a double feature from sola system. The Nigerian Brooklyn-based DJ will first play a DJ set to soundtrack the dancing part of the evening, and then ground and release the energy with a sound bath, all focused on Black diasporic sound.
4.24 | Jake Muir + KG will Present Sounds
The first time I heard Jake Muir play, I was lying on a dirt pile in the Grove at Sustain-Release, staring up at a forest canopy lit with lasers. My mind was in an altered state, I don't remember which flavor, and I was hoping for a set to serve as comfy background music to my inward journey. This is not what Jake Muir does, I shortly found out. He balanced his selections and their sequencing on the knife's edge between ambient and experimental. I couldn't space out like I'd planned to, which I found frustrating at first. But once that myopic initial reaction wore off I had no desire to leave. I was both tethered and floating, enraptured and alert, restless and fixated. The word "textured" is an overused on in music writing, and yet it's the one I have to use with Jake: a lot of what he plays (whether his own productions or others') has a frictional quality, sometimes as light as water over rocks and at other times as grinding as metal sheeting on cement. Not literally those things—despite being a devoted field recordist, his sound is too complex and nuanced to break down into identifiable sources. Have I convinced you yet to stop by for this one? I hope to see you there.
Have you taken a breath lately? How about a really conscious breath that puts you back in your body? Either way, Community Acupuncture is a good place to do that. This month's session has Reiki with Amanda Hemminger, sounds from Greesh, and as always, acupuncture with Alison Roehs.