Farley Leads Black Techno Matters in a reclamation of electronic music for black creative expression“I think I was put on this earth to be the party starter. The person in the room who lights the energy up and gets everyone excited to be there. I also like to think outside the box and like creating music and art that shows people new ways of looking at things or doing things. I see founding Black Techno Matters as definitely one of the milestones of my career and a combination of both traits.”

These words come from Bernard Farley, a multidisciplinary artist whose work is rooted in the celebration of black artistic expression. Hailing from Washington, DC, Bernard’s journey from a childhood imbued with music to his work championing the innovators of the techno genre tells a story of perseverance, self-belief and the power of community.

Bernard’s introduction to audio started with tapes and beat making in his youth. “I used to have fun doing tape overdubs, distortion, and simple channel mixing effects on my sister's old karaoke machine back in 9th grade,” he says. “When my family finally got its first computer, it had a demo of Beat2000 which was this loop-based music creation software that had all sorts of fun house, techno, drum n bass, and rave loops in it. Eventually, I got into modular music software like Audiomulch and DAWs like Ableton Live. Now I record exclusively using drum machines and synth hardware like the Roland TR-8s.”

Music was prominent throughout his childhood, instilling an appreciation for a wide range of genres within him. “My mom would listen to disco all the time,” says Bernard. “She had such a beautiful voice; she would sing around the house all the time and make up songs on the spot. She was also a great dancer – that's where I got my dancing genes from. I was absorbing music from artists like Sylvester and MFSB and labels like Salsoul Records. I lived in Queens, NY while in elementary school and my mom would bring home recorded mixes from New Jack Swing DJs she was dating.”

Bernard’s father was a jazz musician and multi-instrumentalist playing several instruments including guitar, saxophone, and keyboard, with a love for artists like Sade, Anita Baker, and Prince. “He would improvise over jazz instrumentals and record it straight to tape. My dad was stiff as a board – he tried to teach me guitar, but it didn't go well. I think I prefer to learn things on my own, including playing and writing music.”

Growing up with an obsession with Michael Jackson, Bernard was one of the kids that had all of his music video choreography memorized. Middle school would open him up to artists like Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers, and Aphex Twin by way of local radio in Middletown, NJ, and by high school, he ventured towards techno, becoming familiar with the music of Jeff Mills, Richie Hawtin and abstract music from the likes of Autechre.

“I went to Virginia Tech and had a show on their college radio station. I would rip hundreds of CDs to my computer while playing songs on the air and that really opened my tastes to all sorts of artists including Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and John Cage. I also became a huge Bjork fan while in college and I taught myself to sing by practicing her songs from ‘Homogenic’ and ‘Vespertine’ over and over.”

Reclaiming Techno

Founded out of the need for a platform to uplift black artistry in techno music, Bernard started Black Techno Matters, a collective on a mission to reclaim techno as a manifestation of black expression. The collective creates online and in-person spaces that celebrate the black origins of techno, champion the originators of the genre and gives a space for new creatives to find their voices as artists.

“I started Black Techno Matters in October 2019 after doing a google search for ‘Black Techno Artists’ and being disappointed with the search results. There were some sites mentioning The Belleville Three and pioneers like Jeff Mills, but I didn't see a list of black artists making techno, particularly in more modern times. This shocked me especially since techno IS black! After about an hour of searching on the internet, I was able to fill a piece of notepad paper with the names of black artists.”

“The phrase ‘Black Techno Matters’ came to me, and I threw a party in DC where there were only black artists on the line up,” Bernard continues. “Several people who came out to the show thanked me for creating that space and that's when I realized there was a real need to highlight black artists and also to physically bring them together in the same space. Since then, Black Techno Matters has grown into a collective, organizing events, playlists, mixes, music releases, and other resources highlighting and celebrating hundreds of black artists from around the world.”

In a personal reclamation of the techno genre and celebration of black music, Bernard’s music has taken on many personas over the years. “I've recorded several electronic music solo albums as Outputmessage ranging from downtempo to techno to indie dance. I've also recorded several ambient albums as Smoke & Tea with my good friend and music partner Patrick Blinkhorn. I have a new album coming out this March, it's called ‘hell0’ and I think it really sets the stage for the musical portals I'd like to open up as B_X_R_N_X_R_D.” Bernard will release his new album as his B_X_R_N_X_R_D persona through Black Techno Matters’ music label, as well as streaming platforms and Bandcamp.

Bernard’s determination to celebrate his existence as a black artist and the history of black artistry is the driving force behind his work, both personally and within his community. His mindset refuses to yield to an oppressive narrative, and so he creates his own.

“As a black man, I have to choose hope over fear, patience over anger, and joy over despair in order to stay sane in this racist society. I also have to think and work outside the system in order to accomplish goals because the system doesn't work for people that look like me. The music world is no different. The intention of my music as B_X_R_N_X_R_D and my work with Black Techno Matters is to create an alternate timeline where the immense power of black creativity is properly respected and celebrated.”

There is an unmistakable sense of pride and celebration conveyed through Bernard’s words as he recalls these moments with Black Techno Matters.

“I live for the moments like the crowd chanting ‘Black Techno Matters’ to techno music at our Liber8 party in San Francisco. Black artists commenting and showing respect and love to each other in the comments of our Instagram Takeover series, artists telling me how welcomed and appreciated they feel after playing at our events.”

The Black Techno Matters website also functions as an extensive resource for black electronic music, including the ‘Blackness is Revolutionary’ playlist which contains over a thousand songs by black electronic artists. “Seeing the artists who have connected and collaborated because of their paths crossing on our platform, artists growing to see themselves in the genre after feeling isolated, all the black faces on our ‘Contributors’ page on the website – I could go on. All of this energizes me to keep going and keep growing Black Techno Matters.” 

The future is community

“2023 marks 20 years since my first music release, ‘Bernard's Song’ on Ghostly International,” says Bernard. “I see Black Techno Matters as a way for me to direct my artistic powers and music industry experience back to the community in a way that creates opportunities for newer artists. In general, that's how our crew works – we all contribute to the Black Techno Matters mission in our own ways using skills and experiences we've picked up along the way.”

While techno forms the foundation of Black Techno Matters’ inception, the collective also champions other forms of artistic expression outside of music, which in turn creates a more unified and all-encompassing artistic community. ‘Audio and video documentation of our events is a big part of what we do. Graphic design is essential for promoting and setting the vibe for our events and the dancers who show up to our events bring their energy to the spaces we create. Also, the candid words used in our Instagram Takeovers to highlight artists is a real tapestry of love and pride for black music.’2023 presents a year of growth for Black Techno Matters. “We're spreading the black fire we started in Washington, DC and taking it to other cities around the U.S. As usual, we're doing something special for Juneteenth, but that's all I will say, so stay tuned.”

With Black Techno Matters acting as a year-round initiative to celebrate and inform others of the impact of black innovation in music, arts and culture, Bernard is actively challenging the minimised perception of the contributions of Black individuals and collectives in world history and trying to change the concept of Black History being seen as “a special chapter toward the end of a United States history textbook that the teacher may never actually get to covering in class” to quote Bernard.

“To be clear, Black history IS United States history. This country was built on the backs of slaves and the suffering of black people. Black people have made countless contributions and innovations to music, art, culture, and technology that have quite literally changed this country and the world,” he explains. “This of course includes the global phenomenon of techno and dance music which would not exist without us. We are not just a part of the story, we are essential to the story, and treating it as anything less is whitewashing history. With Black Techno Matters, we celebrate our black heroes every day.”

Supporting black artists throughout the year is integral to the work of Black Techno Matters, and as well as supporting the collective through their online channels, Bernard shares ways that everyone can help to support and uplift black voices. “Subscribing to our mailing list or buying a t-shirt, attending one of our events, following the artists we highlight on their socials, attending their events, purchasing their music, leaving a comment or sending them a message of appreciation. Even connecting them with other artists or venues in your area so they can get more gigs. People can donate to our Venmo or CashApp (@blacktechnomatters) and also support other artists this way. Every small action counts.”

Community and shared knowledge are core values of Black Techno Matters’ ethos. Through sharing, their community is strengthened and, in that strength, lies power. “The future is family. The future is community. People power is the new power. Don't wait for a white man to give you something. Build it yourself if you need to. Lean into your community to build a stronger future for everyone.”

Find Bernard on Instagram.

Discover more about Black Techno Matters on Instagram, Bandcamp and Spotify.

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Babyface Upgrades His Mixing ConsoleKenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, the prolific award-winning hitmaker behind chart-topping songs by artists such as Toni Braxton, Mary J. Blige, Madonna and Mariah Carey, has upgraded the mixing console in the A room at his Brandon’s Way production facility in Hollywood. The two-room private complex, which opened in 1996, now features a new 48-fader Solid State Logic Duality Fuse SuperAnalogue console with SSL δelta-Control and integrated Fusion coloration processor, which joins an SSL Duality in the Studio B.

The very first production completed in Studio A at Brandon’s Way, which was named to celebrate the birth of Babyface’s first child, was a collaboration with Stevie Wonder, “How Come, How Long.” The song was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. Most recently, in November 2022, Babyface released his 11th solo album, Girls Night Out, a 13-song collection featuring some of R&B’s most iconic singers, including Ella Mai, Kehlani, Ari Lennox, Muni Long and Queen Naija, which was written and produced at Brandon’s Way.

A perfect pairing“We had a 96-fader SSL 9000 J Series in Studio A, one of the first,” reports Paul Boutin, who has been chief engineer at Brandon’s Way for more than two decades. "This replaced the SSL 4080 G+ that was originally installed."

Studio A eventually became a writing room, with Babyface favoring the B room for most of his production projects and the 9096J was used less frequently, Boutin says. “I have a Duality in my room, so I know the board,” he says, so he suggested a second Duality to replace the aging J Series desk. The recently installed console in Studio A is SSL’s newer Duality Fuse version, which features a Fusion analogue processor integrated into the center section. Fusion offers six analogue coloration tools for adding tonal character, weight and space to stereo stems.

The new SSL Duality Fuse is outfitted with angled producer’s bays at each end, matching the footprint of the 9096J previous installed in Brandon Way’s A control room. The new console also includes SSL δelta-Control to seamlessly integrate SSL’s analogue console automation with today’s DAW-based workflows.

Outstanding track recordBoutin had been working on a project with Babyface at Record Plant for about six months when he was invited to take a fulltime position as an assistant at the new facility when it opened in 1996. At Brandon’s Way he has collaborated with Babyface on two dozen Gold records, 15 Platinum records and 16 multi-Platinum releases, and has participated on three Grammy-winning albums while garnering a further 18 Grammy nominations. Babyface, an 11-time Grammy-winner, four of them for Producer of the Year, a Recording Academy Trustee Award-winner and a 2017 Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, has worked with a who’s-who of pop and R&B royalty, including artists such as Boyz II Men, Bobby Brown, Aretha Franklin, Katharine McPhee, Vanessa Williams, Celine Dion, Phil Collins and many, many others.

Babyface's history with making hit records with SSL consoles dates back to the mid-'80s, during his collaboration with Antonio "L.A." Reid. Kenny states: "SSL has always been at the forefront of my hit making formula. Nothing else allows me to achieve the level of production excellence."

About Solid State LogicSolid State Logic is the world’s leading manufacturer of analogue and digital audio consoles and provider of creative tools for music, broadcast, live and post production professionals. For more information about our award-winning products, please visit: www.solidstatelogic.com.

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Filling music streaming’s Disney+-shaped holeBack when Disney+ started its meteoric rise, there was a lot of thinking around what lessons the music streaming market could learn. Three years on from the launch of the subscription video on demand platform, the shine has come off it a little, registering its first ever subscriber loss, but not before becoming a major market player and changing the way in which the industry thinks about developing streaming shows. Disney+ was part of the ‘big bang moment’ of transformative change in the video streaming market. Meanwhile, the music streaming market basically stayed the same. This may have been tolerable during its time of plenty, but now, with global music streaming revenue growth looking set to have dropped to 7% for 2022, the lack of change leaves music streaming vulnerable in a time of scarcity. Never has there been more need for change and innovation. Disney+ might still just point us to the path forward.

There are many weaknesses in the Western music streaming market that are well known and that do not need to be relisted in their entirety here, but there are three that stand out above all others (and to be clear, we are talking about the services side of the market, not the remuneration side, which we previously covered here):

Unlimited, ungated access to everything, everywhere

Minimal differentiation (catalogue, pricing, value proposition, etc.)

A fandom void

Meanwhile, video streaming has long provided a ‘sliding doors’ view of what music streaming could have been if licensing had been done differently at the start:

Catalogue segmented across different services

Wide variety of price points and value propositions

Ability to target niches

Strong ARPU growth due to users having multiple subscriptions

But, just as music has been hit by economic scarcity, video has even more so. Expecting consumers to have multiple subscriptions (nearly three quarters have two or more) might fly in a time of plenty, but as household budgets tighten, the business case suddenly looks vulnerable. Cancelling one video subscription is a relatively pain-free decision. It reduces choice, but it does not mean losing everything. By contrast, the vast majority of music subscribers have just one account, giving them access to everything. Music streaming’s exceptional value for money is becoming a recession-busting asset that the TV industry may be looking at with envy at this stage.

It is all about growth

So, with all this said, why could there still be lessons to learn from Disney+? The simple answer is: growth. With subscriber penetration topping out in mature Western markets, music rightsholders and streaming services only have price increases as a realistic growth driver in these markets. But, if a new, additional service was to launch, then a very real chance of ARPU and revenue growth arises. To be clear, now would not be the time to launch it (for the very same reasons that Disney+ just lost subscribers). But now is the perfect time to plan and build, with a view to launch once the global economy returns to full health and consumer purse springs loosen. The challenge, of course, is how to build something that can deliver genuine additive value when all the other DSPs already have all the music. Here is a vision for how that particular circle can be squared.

Introducing music+

Let us call this concept ‘music+’ for now. Music+ would have to be something that is different from, and complementary to, the mainstream DSPs, in terms of both content and value proposition. It would need two key ingredients:

Community and identity: As MIDiA identified last year, scenes are the new growth opportunity for music and fandom. Fandom itself is simply a symptom of identity. Music has long played a crucial role in communicating and shaping identity. But Western streaming services are audio utilities that sacrificed fandom in favour of convenience. There is no meaningful way of communicating identity. This is why TikTok is the place that music fandom happens in the West, driven by gen Z, who sought something more meaningful than the convenience that was so valued by millennials. So, music+ would have community and identity at its core. User profile pages would be the core asset. A place where users can say who they are, what music they like, where they can connect and communicate with other users, curate radio shows, post playlists, etc. They would also display listening badges (e.g., “I am in the top 5% of fans of…”) and virtual artist merchandise, such as badges, limited-run digital artwork, etc. NFTs may yet prove to be the future of artist merch, but right now it lacks the crucial ingredient – context. Buying merch is about communicating identity. User profile pages would be the trophy cabinet for virtual merch and collectibles.

Content for fans not consumers: Streaming has commodified listening, even for music aficionados (half of whom stream passively). Music+ would be a place for aficionados (20% of all consumers), where fans go to deep dive on their favourite artists and connect with likeminded fans. Artists would provide content, such as sessions, cover versions, sneak previews, limited-availability live streamed concerts, Q+A sessions, photos, etc. That would provide much of the content, but even more would come from fans themselves. Aficionados are four times more likely than average consumers to lean forward and create content. Leaning through to create is the ultimate expression of fandom, and TikTok has proven the use case. So – and this is where things get controversial – music+ would need to operate under a user-generated content (UGC) license. The vast majority of music’s current UGC platforms (YouTube, SoundCloud, TikTok) followed the ‘do first, ask for forgiveness later’ approach. Music rightsholders would need to embrace, rather than tolerate, UGC in order to power the creation of an entirely new music catalogue. Their incentive would be to drive rather than respond, by seeding the platform with content, such as artist sound packs and stems.

Music+ would not be a mainstream proposition, but that is entirely the point. It would be an additive proposition for fans. If priced at a modest cost (say $4.99) and got enough support and input from artists and rightsholders, then it would have a good shot at developing a content library that would deliver real value to fans, and in doing so, plug the fandom hole that Western streaming has never seemed to be able to fill. 

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