Preface. Proximity bias and the irrationality of fear
Introduction. Learning through failure
The value of democratizing voices. We aren't the world : all music is "local music" ; The fixation to fixate ; Message monopolization ; Field recording chronicle: Malawi ; The real king(s) of rock 'n' roll ; Field recording chronicle: Malawi ; Unlabelling labels ; Field recording chronicle: Rwanda ; Regressive superlatives : the "g"-word ... and other demons ; Field recording chronicle: Zomba prison ; Winning hearts, not breaking backs : all we are saying is give art a chance
A call for a return to naturalism : the need for randomness. Building an arc ; Everything, including the kitchen sink ; The primordial "social work" : why music heals ; Field recording chronicle: Vietnam ; Consumerism masquerading as creativity ; Field recording chronicle: Palestine ; Parallel rituals : the insularity of technological "advances" ; Sound before volume ; Field recording chronicle: South Sudan ; Recording as a leap of faith
How to get "there" : some possible roads home. Surrendering to sound ; Voices within the voice ; Using the microphone as a telescope ; Field recording chronicle: Juba orphanage ; Acoustic illumination ; What's "left"? ; Element(s) of surprise ; Field recording chronicle: Taranta ; Cooked by culture : ever beware the "experts" ; What can't be owned?
Products of our environment. Making sense of the first sense ; S-urr-ounded : the inescapable symphonies of our everyday life ; Field recording chronicle: Cambodia ; Disposable music ; Inter-specific artistry : "I am not an animal!" ; Aural culture : music not as math, but individuation ; Moving targets : there is no "there" there ; Do you hear what I hear? ; Playing for keeps : there is no rehearsal ; Field recording chronicle: Acholi Machon ; The ricochet of influence
Backin' up for some backstory. Transparency : letting your real "roots" show ; Drawing random inspiration from the inspired : liberating influence from the ghetto of sanctioned outlets ; Who's the boss? ; The road from No-name-ville ; Premature and promiscuous championing ; Pain dues, dude ; Amateur hour : "Real musicians have day jobs" ; Bittersweet dreams
Beware the traps. Living in the moment, but keeping an eye on the horizon ; Sonic prisons : Getting off the grid ; Personalities displacing spirituality ; Field recording chronicle: Transylvania ; Self-sabotage and the unconscious : subjectivity's quicksand ; The school of soft knocks ; Hearing lost ; "Free" samples?
Welcoming magic : Heeding wanderlust's call. Following existing currents ; Put up, don't shut up ; Beneath the words ; Breaking patterns : Creating creativity ; it's all in the details ; Connectivity through sonics ; Say it loud, say it proud ; Castaway ; If you're not having fun, you're not fooling anyone ; Home base
How not to memorialize music. A few "don't" champions from my past ; Some notes from the "do" files
Enlisting limitations as expressive partners. Trained by fire, on the chopping block ; What do you know? ; Imperfect pitch : there are no mistakes ; Gauging the atmosphere
Racing racism. Free for all? ; Same old, same old : colonialism's leftovers ; You call that equality? Distracted by the decoys ; Stangered : disproportionate estimations (on the outside, looking out) ; Single origin fairy tales ; Disgraceful by association ; Outlaw camouflage : Slumming in the "underground" ; Are you seriously "serious"!? ; Music cannot be possessed, but it can possess ; False friends : raw does not always equal real ; Thinly veiled bigotry (the patrimony dies hard)
The battle for democracy in the arts. How music dies ; Cheapshot ; A world of "superstars," Minus an audience ; The myth of purity ; In their owned words ; Wire-monkey music ; Organically grown : truth in advertising ; Every man for himself? ; Too much "like," not enough love ; The talking dead : rest in pieces ; Oversharing
How music dies : $$ and its wake. If you can't beat 'em, Get them to join you ; Now you don't see it (and now you still don't) ; Image cannibalism : The media as a gigantic mirror of infatuation ; Manufactured competition : don't believe the hype ; Sin-ergy ; Don't believe half of what you see ; Fabricated identity : bands as brands ; Sub-merged substitutions ; The superscar system ; Standardized forms, fear of the random : living in boxes, atop Grids
Odds and endings : They couldn't keep doing it without all of the "little people." Souls sold for convenience ; Corruption and arrested growth ; Who are you calling crazy? : The romanticization of mental illness ; Records don't kill people, people kill people ; Open season ; Conditional love ; The collective jukebox is stuck : one world, one store ; "Forever" is a very, very long time ; Guilty as charged
Conclusion. The earth is an echo
Epilogue. Open ears, open mind
