Teklife, Ghettoville, Eski : the sonic ecologies of Black music in the early twenty-first century / Dhanveer Singh Brar

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brar, Dhanveer Singh, author.

Series:

Goldsmiths Press sonics series

Sonics series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Electronic dance music--Social aspects.

Electronic dance music.

Electronic dance music--History and criticism.

Black people--Music--History and criticism.

Black people.

Music and race.

Musicians, Black.

Music--Social aspects.

Music.

Musicians, Black--Criticism and interpretation.

Genre:

Music

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations

Place of Publication:

London : Goldsmiths Press, [2021]

Summary:

Teklife, Ghettoville, Eski' argues that Black electronic dance music produces sonic ecologies of Blackness that expose and reorder the contemporary racialization of the urban ecologies that can never be reduced simply to their geographical and racial context. Dhanveer Singh Brar makes the case for Black electronic dance music as the cutting-edge aesthetic project of the diaspora, which due to the music's class character makes it possible to reorganize life within the contemporary city. Closely analysing the Footwork scene in South and West Chicago, the Grime scene in East London, and the output of the South London producer Actress, Brar pays attention to the way each of these critically acclaimed musical projects experiments with aesthetic form through an experimentation of the social. Through explicitly theoretical means, Brar foregrounds the sonic specificity of 12" records, EPs, albums, radio broadcasts, and recorded performances to make the case that Footwork, Grime, and Actress dissolve racialized spatial constraints that are thought to surround Black social life. Pushing the critical debates concerning the phonic materiality of Blackness, undercommons, and aesthetic sociality in new directions, Brar rethinks these concepts through concrete examples of contemporary Black electronic dance music production that allows for a theorization of the way Footwork, Grime, and Actress have--through their experiments in Blackness--generated genuine alternatives to the functioning of the city under financialized racial capitalism

Contents:

Mineral interiors : house, techno, jungle

The Blackness of Black electronic dance music

Teklife

Ghettoville

Eski

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 157-165), discography (page 167) , and index

Online resource; title from digital title page (Library Stack, viewed April 14, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version: Brar, Dhanveer Singh. Teklife, Ghettoville, Eski.

ISBN:

9781912685806

1912685809

OCLC:

1280957059

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license

Some versions: Open access versions available from some providers open access