Recap: Guest Mix by Wifehood

Going over the double-sided mix that Wifehood (Portland, OR) put together for IHN!

More guest mixes in our archives.

A cellphone rings. You don’t answer or you do. It doesn’t matter. The call was made by someone, something, outside yourself. It interrupts even if the call is expected. This constant buzz and wail that comes out of these rectangle we worship dominates the moment. The year is now 2020 and we’re lost as we ever were.

This mix, entitled THE HELL WE’RE IN/THE FUTURE, is a Bipolar look at how it already has happened here, and what dreams may come. Divided into the chaos of the moment and the daydream of the in between, the mix bends the corners of reality for two straight hours. Most genres are touched upon but they interact through technology the same way we call and wait for each other. Not pushing or screaming, but like playing phone tag with an old friend. Softly crashing into their loving waves. Calling is what ties the first half together. Waiting is what bonds the second. Surviving the chaos of THE HELL WE’RE IN doesn’t promise THE FUTURE. But the clairvoyance of disseminating the explosions of the present will certainly make the next step more enjoyable. The two sides of the mix are both one in the same, and independent entities.

The first side, THE HELL WE’RE IN, is an attempt to capture the chaos and misunderstanding running rampant in the world right now. It constantly fluctuates between the poles of intensity. Moments of pure joy and hope are interrupted by walls of noise. Voices dissolve like volatile substances and echo out in a way that replicates our collective social lives in 2020. There’s a calm stream, fertile in inner self, that shows up throughout this side of the mix. It centers the listener in something they want to feel, not what they are forced to feel. But the rest is bad vibes and confusing torrents. It adheres to some Lynchian form of dream logic where the sounds do not dictate the next sounds but instead what would naturally happen while sleepwalking. The fever dream that is this year feels close to home with this mix, you want to find inner peace and escape the void, but day after day you are beat down by the elements and those who abuse this shared space. Love spiked strychnine, at an empty party. By the time you escape your vision is focused wholly on the hope for the future.

The second side, THE FUTURE, is not so much utopian as it is skeptically fearful of the uncanny valley. These are the sounds of the past and present morphed into an idealistic form of submission. Our vision of the future is still rooted in false ideals that continue to carry weight despite the reality warping of the present moment. In contrast to the first half, this side of the mix is easy listening and focused. It’s a security blanket full of razor blades. The comfort is hollow and the grooves are nerve-racking. Yet faith in something, anything at all, is enough to keep you moving. This vision of the future isn’t full of non-human entities or a bombed out wasteland; it’s people helping each other and hitting the dance floor. It’s Ballroom vogueing on the graves of nazis. But even in a non-utopian, peaceful planet, there must be space. To think and dream, even beyond what none thought was possible. To love and accept virtual life and physical life as parts of a whole. To experience it all as past, future and present. Because this future must be made and not found. It’s the audio building blocks of how to move forward.

Side A: The Hell We’re In – featuring Uniform / The Body, Fire-Toolz, Abdu Ali, SB the Moor, Dean Blunt and more.

Side B: The Future – featuring Drexcyia, Susumu Yokota, Joni Void, Momus, Eli Keszler and more.