Despite clubs, cinemas and book shops being closed for long periods during what has been a grim year for all of us, the lockdown has provided an opportunity to read, watch and listen to both new and old material. To wrap up the year, we asked the Velocity Press authors how they have been keeping busy during lockdown and what they’re looking forward to in the New Year.
In the face of difficulties placed on publishing, we have still managed to publish five fantastic books this year: Martin James’ State of Bass, Junior Tomlin’s Flyer & Covert Art, Laurent Fintoni’s Bedroom Beats & B-sides, The Secret DJ’s Book Two and Oli Freke’s Synthesizer Evolution. There have also been other notable club-culture related books, such as Caspar Meville’s It’s a London Thing and Martin Russell’s Liberation Through Hearing.
Although the music industry has taken a monumental financial hit, a lot of great records have been released this year, as well as there being an unusual amount of free time to delve into old favourites again. From re-discovering mid-90s ambient techno, going down the rabbit hole of Aphex Twin’s synthesizer inspired titles, to listening to Moses Boyd’s 2020 Mercury Prize-nominated Dark Matter, our authors have been listening to a diverse collection of music.
OLI FREKE
It’s been a strange old year, what are your reflections on it?
Bit of a groundhog day situation – hardly leaving the house and all that. Luckily I can do my day job at home without too much trouble, but I should probably make more effort to get out! Studio tans and book tans are all very well, but…
What have you been reading this year?
Entangled Life by the fantastically named Merlin Sheldrake about fungi was amazing; loads of stuff about quantum mechanics, the history of it, and how Einstein never went with the Copenhagen Interpretation. The Jackson Lamb / Slough House spy novels are great fun. Also sci-fi, like the one about how spiders became intelligent through a genetic mishap and ended up using ants as calculating units in their ‘computers’ 🙂
What have you been watching?
….TO READ THE FULL INTERVIEW, AND MORE, VISIT:
https://velocitypress.uk/velocity-press-2020-roundup/