MVP features artists and their favorite albums.

In this edition, the Manchester-based producer Oceaán contemplates his own production stylings with the help of a few works that have stuck with him along the way.

Sounds from the Salt Coast and beyond.

When asked to write about my favorite album, it took a good hour or two before I could remember the last one I’d listened to beginning to end. Whilst retrospectively it seemed I’d breached my own musicianship, it made me contemplate why I hadn’t bothered (or cared) to experience an artist’s complete body of work. For those in my generation, the ideal of the album as an art form has been one that has transformed itself since the gramophone days, almost to the point where many artists see the medium as void or invalid to their own audience (irrelevant to monetary gain). Within this, the internet’s role involves a sense of duality throughout: record labels, PR, and publishers utilize its means to grow their own corporate identity through the advertisement of their respective artists—and on the flip side, anyone with a computer can self-release and upload individual tracks to SoundCloud/Bandcamp/younameit, personifying the public’s perception of the artist. With this in mind, the artistic/critical corner of the internet encourages a sense of participation and inclusion within its inhabitants—and what I will evaluate for my musical inspiration.

Around two years ago, I stumbled across this on YouTube:

This was music that needed no training, no score —only the participation of its performers. However, it feels strange calling them performers—they may not realize that to us they have composed a complex rhythm from minimal materials; they are simply performing a task. But what I admire are the divisions of labor between parts, the various timbres, and the way these simple elements of percussion create a facade of pleasing complication towards us all. A more relevant example of this could be seen in the instrumentation of El Guincho:

The broad, developing percussion and (again) incidental timbres allude to the repetitiveness of the postal workers’ composition, and the use of traditional Hispanic percussion provides us with his individuality; something that inspires me to do the same in my own productions, yet also drives me to learn more about the heritage behind the tracks I listen to.

The concept and application of ethnomusicology within popular music is something I believe heavily in—with the role of the ethnomusicologist discovering why people make music, the study and scholarship undertaken throughout the world has been vast and well received. One of the most inspiring projects I have come across have been both volumes of Music For Saharan Cellphones (Christopher Kirkley). Funded by the public via a similar method to Kickstarter, the LP’s cover tracks passed on through various memory cards and cassettes throughout the Sahara.

Again, without the internet, I’m sure me and countless others wouldn’t have had the pleasure of listening to such a great display of field recordings. The uses of melody within the tracks are also a contrast to the postal workers—not only down to each artist’s scenario, but there is more of an emphasis on song structure. On many of the Saharan recordings there are clear examples of verse-chorus-verse-chorus, in which some have very memorable hooks; if the use of traditional instrumentation can be used to create an enduring pop song, then what’s stopping us?

Now whilst I’m not expecting an African cell phone to have a KCRW session, I am expecting a change in the way producers today view their own writing methods. It has already started, with artists such as Jai Paul and more recently Ben Khan combining stunning voices with forward-thinking production.

With the technology available today, and the sources in clear view to appreciate, all the pieces I’ve shared have made me review my own production choices, hopefully adding something people enjoy and haven’t experienced before. From what I’ve heard over the past few weeks, this isn’t going to stop just yet.

Listen to Oceaán’s latest single below: