WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.779 If you think about building a successful record 00:00:02.779 --> 00:00:06.679 label back in 1994, the blueprint was super rigid. 00:00:07.179 --> 00:00:08.640 I mean, there were really only a couple of ways 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:11.359 to do it. Right. You either moved to a skyscraper 00:00:11.359 --> 00:00:15.400 in New York City, or you locked down this massive 00:00:15.400 --> 00:00:18.140 studio compound in Los Angeles. Exactly. You 00:00:18.140 --> 00:00:20.120 planted yourself as close to the center of power 00:00:20.120 --> 00:00:22.800 as you possibly could. You wanted the distribution 00:00:22.800 --> 00:00:24.699 networks, the networking parties, all of that. 00:00:24.739 --> 00:00:26.500 Yeah, you wanted to be where the money was. Right. 00:00:26.600 --> 00:00:29.219 And you absolutely did not just pack your bags. 00:00:29.550 --> 00:00:32.409 Ignore the entire industry map and move your 00:00:32.409 --> 00:00:35.969 whole operation to like the remote Red Rock Desert 00:00:35.969 --> 00:00:39.350 of Sedona, Arizona Which is so wild, but that 00:00:39.350 --> 00:00:41.689 is exactly the starting point for today's deep 00:00:41.689 --> 00:00:44.909 dive We're looking at this surprisingly brief 00:00:44.909 --> 00:00:47.590 Wikipedia stub I mean, it's really short about 00:00:47.590 --> 00:00:49.549 an independent music company called waveform 00:00:49.549 --> 00:00:52.130 records super short Just a few sentences really. 00:00:52.149 --> 00:00:55.070 Yeah, and they were founded in 1994 by a managing 00:00:55.070 --> 00:00:58.399 director named FJ forest And welcome to the deep 00:00:58.399 --> 00:01:00.320 dive, by the way. I'm so glad you're joining 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:03.240 us for this one because, well, while the source 00:01:03.240 --> 00:01:04.879 text we're working with today is just a handful 00:01:04.879 --> 00:01:07.980 of sentences, it actually contains the entire 00:01:07.980 --> 00:01:11.379 blueprint for how to invent, curate, and literally 00:01:11.379 --> 00:01:14.340 live out a brand new music genre. It really does. 00:01:14.420 --> 00:01:17.000 It's all hidden in there. So our mission today 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:20.299 is to look at how this label's very specific 00:01:20.299 --> 00:01:23.719 physical geography basically mirrored its sonic 00:01:23.719 --> 00:01:27.379 identity. We want to examine the mechanics of 00:01:27.379 --> 00:01:29.739 independent curation before the streaming era. 00:01:29.900 --> 00:01:32.340 Oh, that's such a huge part of it. Yeah. And 00:01:32.340 --> 00:01:34.719 we're also going to look at how legacy internet 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:38.099 architecture often flimses like genuinely revolutionary 00:01:38.099 --> 00:01:41.900 art into these rigid. totally ill -fitting boxes. 00:01:42.299 --> 00:01:44.659 The waveform record story is honestly it's a 00:01:44.659 --> 00:01:47.359 master class in the search for the perfect environment 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:49.640 and that search kind of operates on two parallel 00:01:49.640 --> 00:01:51.379 tracks. Okay what do you mean by parallel tracks? 00:01:51.459 --> 00:01:52.980 Well there's the audio environment you're trying 00:01:52.980 --> 00:01:54.659 to construct for your listener like what they 00:01:54.659 --> 00:01:56.459 hear in their headphones but then there's the 00:01:56.459 --> 00:01:58.180 physical environment you actually require as 00:01:58.180 --> 00:02:00.219 an artist to cultivate that sound in the first 00:02:00.219 --> 00:02:02.659 place. Okay let's unpack this right away. I want 00:02:02.659 --> 00:02:04.219 to look at that physical environment because 00:02:04.219 --> 00:02:08.610 the geographic journey of this label Just based 00:02:08.610 --> 00:02:10.870 on what's laid out in the text is staggering. 00:02:10.870 --> 00:02:13.409 It's exhausting. Just reading it, right? So they 00:02:13.409 --> 00:02:16.930 start in Sedona, Arizona in 1994 in the desert 00:02:16.930 --> 00:02:19.490 in the desert Yeah, and then they initiate this 00:02:19.490 --> 00:02:22.610 highly specific series of corporate relocations 00:02:22.610 --> 00:02:25.449 They moved to the San Francisco Bay Area specifically 00:02:25.449 --> 00:02:28.110 Mill Valley, which is all redwoods and fog Yeah, 00:02:28.409 --> 00:02:30.530 and then from there they pack up again and move 00:02:30.530 --> 00:02:33.389 to Austin, Texas Okay, then they head out to 00:02:33.389 --> 00:02:36.569 the coast to San Diego, California And finally, 00:02:36.689 --> 00:02:38.810 the text notes their current headquarters is 00:02:38.810 --> 00:02:42.509 located in Maui, Hawaii. I have to push back 00:02:42.509 --> 00:02:45.469 on the reality of this. Moving to Maui or Sedona 00:02:45.469 --> 00:02:48.129 sounds great if you're on a vacation. Absolutely. 00:02:48.389 --> 00:02:52.030 But mechanically, how does a physical CD distribution 00:02:52.030 --> 00:02:54.689 company survive doing this in the mid -90s? It's 00:02:54.689 --> 00:02:56.870 a logistical nightmare. Right. It doesn't sound 00:02:56.870 --> 00:02:58.750 like a thoughtful artistic journey. It sounds 00:02:58.750 --> 00:03:01.409 administrative chaos, where they just completely 00:03:01.409 --> 00:03:03.370 detached from the reality of running a business. 00:03:03.610 --> 00:03:05.969 It's a crucial point to make because I think 00:03:05.969 --> 00:03:08.229 we really have to remember the physical mechanics 00:03:08.229 --> 00:03:11.669 of the music industry in 1994. Oh, yeah. It wasn't 00:03:11.669 --> 00:03:14.370 just uploading files. Exactly. Today, you know, 00:03:14.449 --> 00:03:16.870 running a label from Maui means you upload a 00:03:16.870 --> 00:03:20.569 WAV file to a server from your laptop while you're 00:03:20.569 --> 00:03:23.289 sitting on the beach and boom, it instantly distributes 00:03:23.289 --> 00:03:26.189 globally. It's frictionless now. Totally frictionless. 00:03:26.569 --> 00:03:29.840 But in the 90s. Running a label meant dealing 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:32.979 with physical manufacturing plants. You were 00:03:32.979 --> 00:03:36.199 pressing thousands of compact discs. You're dealing 00:03:36.199 --> 00:03:38.860 with plastic jewel cases that break if you look 00:03:38.860 --> 00:03:41.500 at them wrong. Yes. You're coordinating with 00:03:41.500 --> 00:03:44.139 trucking companies, managing massive cardboard 00:03:44.139 --> 00:03:47.120 boxes of inventory. You've got physical album 00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:49.780 art printing. And you have to negotiate shelf 00:03:49.780 --> 00:03:52.900 space with, like, brick -and -mortar record store 00:03:52.900 --> 00:03:56.259 buyers over landline telephones and fax machines. 00:03:56.539 --> 00:03:58.979 Right. Which makes their itinerary seem completely 00:03:58.979 --> 00:04:01.259 counterproductive. If you're dealing with physical 00:04:01.259 --> 00:04:03.520 freight and supply chains, you want to be in 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:05.580 a major hub. You'd want to be in LA or New York. 00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:08.080 Yeah. You don't want your inventory crossing 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:10.879 the Pacific Ocean to an island or getting shipped 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:13.379 out of a remote desert town. What's fascinating 00:04:13.379 --> 00:04:15.780 here is that this tells us something vital about 00:04:15.780 --> 00:04:18.920 FJ forests and waveform records. The geography 00:04:18.920 --> 00:04:21.519 wasn't an administrative choice at all. It was 00:04:21.519 --> 00:04:23.699 an artistic necessity. So they were doing it 00:04:23.699 --> 00:04:27.019 on purpose. Entirely. They were completely willing 00:04:27.019 --> 00:04:29.899 to absorb all that massive logistical friction 00:04:29.899 --> 00:04:33.220 because they were chasing a very specific atmospheric 00:04:33.220 --> 00:04:36.319 pressure. Look at the thematic thread of those 00:04:36.319 --> 00:04:39.779 locations. They start in the stark mystical isolation 00:04:39.779 --> 00:04:42.439 of the desert in Sedona. Right. Then they move 00:04:42.439 --> 00:04:45.199 to Mill Valley, a place completely defined by 00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:50.100 ancient redwoods, dense fog. and this fluid countercultural 00:04:50.100 --> 00:04:52.680 history. Totally different guide. Then Austin, 00:04:52.899 --> 00:04:55.759 which is this vibrant, fiercely independent, 00:04:55.759 --> 00:04:59.480 creative oasis. Yeah. Then the oceanfront coastal 00:04:59.480 --> 00:05:02.000 breeze of San Diego. Yeah. And finally, they 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:04.220 just completely detach from the mainland altogether 00:05:04.220 --> 00:05:06.379 to establish their headquarters on a tropical 00:05:06.379 --> 00:05:09.100 island. It's literally a progression of microclimates. 00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:12.480 Precisely. The physical journey is a literal 00:05:12.480 --> 00:05:15.100 mechanical manifestation of the music they were 00:05:15.100 --> 00:05:18.420 trying to release. They rejected the traditional 00:05:18.439 --> 00:05:20.620 industry borders completely. So they weren't 00:05:20.620 --> 00:05:22.759 looking for a boardroom with a good fax connection? 00:05:23.160 --> 00:05:26.160 No, they were looking for a backdrop. They understood 00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:29.180 that the texture of their daily physical environment 00:05:29.180 --> 00:05:32.019 would inevitably bleed into the texture of the 00:05:32.019 --> 00:05:34.980 product they were curating. To curate the right 00:05:34.980 --> 00:05:37.319 sound, they had to physically inhabit the right 00:05:37.319 --> 00:05:40.360 space. And I think that's something really important 00:05:40.360 --> 00:05:42.639 for you listening to consider about your own 00:05:42.639 --> 00:05:45.480 life. Also, think about how your own physical 00:05:45.480 --> 00:05:48.420 environment dictates the vibe and the output 00:05:48.420 --> 00:05:51.439 of your daily work. If you're working in a sterile 00:05:51.439 --> 00:05:54.600 cubicle versus a sunlit room, It changes the 00:05:54.600 --> 00:05:56.660 work. Yeah, that makes total sense. And it's 00:05:56.660 --> 00:05:58.779 actually a fascinating inverse of how we consume 00:05:58.779 --> 00:06:00.980 music today. What do you mean? Well, think about 00:06:00.980 --> 00:06:04.379 why you, as a listener today, might put on a 00:06:04.379 --> 00:06:07.240 deep focus or a chill vibes playlist while you're 00:06:07.240 --> 00:06:09.240 sitting at your desk. You're trying to digitally 00:06:09.240 --> 00:06:11.459 alter your physical environment. Oh, I see. Yeah. 00:06:11.660 --> 00:06:14.379 You're using algorithms to mask the sound of 00:06:14.379 --> 00:06:16.519 the fluorescent lights humming or the traffic 00:06:16.519 --> 00:06:18.879 outside your window. You're escaping your space. 00:06:19.439 --> 00:06:21.660 Exactly. But waveform records was doing the exact 00:06:21.660 --> 00:06:24.180 same thing, just in reverse. They had to physically 00:06:24.180 --> 00:06:26.860 alter their geography, literally pack up and 00:06:26.860 --> 00:06:30.040 move to the Redwoods or move to the island to 00:06:30.040 --> 00:06:33.139 figure out how to capture that specific atmospheric 00:06:33.139 --> 00:06:36.000 sound on a physical CD. So they could ship it 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:38.329 to you. Right. And if you're going to go through 00:06:38.329 --> 00:06:40.829 the absolute logistical hell of running a physical 00:06:40.829 --> 00:06:43.709 media company from a remote Pacific island in 00:06:43.709 --> 00:06:46.930 1994... Which again sounds terrible. The music 00:06:46.930 --> 00:06:49.689 you're pressing onto those discs better require 00:06:49.689 --> 00:06:52.750 that specific environment to exist. Which brings 00:06:52.750 --> 00:06:54.790 us to the actual sound they were chasing. Yeah, 00:06:54.810 --> 00:06:57.569 let's talk about the sound. The source text describes 00:06:57.569 --> 00:07:00.269 their sound in a very deliberate way. It explicitly 00:07:00.269 --> 00:07:03.990 calls it a... sensual and stimulating genre of 00:07:03.990 --> 00:07:06.670 chill and ambient music. Okay. And the label 00:07:06.670 --> 00:07:08.850 took that concept and officially branded it with 00:07:08.850 --> 00:07:11.610 a self coined term. They called it exotic electronica. 00:07:11.810 --> 00:07:14.769 Those adjectives, sensual and stimulating are 00:07:14.769 --> 00:07:16.829 incredibly important when you place them right 00:07:16.829 --> 00:07:19.709 next to the word chill. Why is that? Because 00:07:19.709 --> 00:07:22.829 we have to define what chill music meant mechanically 00:07:22.829 --> 00:07:27.089 in the mid 1990s. At that time, ambient or background 00:07:27.089 --> 00:07:30.029 music was largely associated with muzak. Right. 00:07:30.170 --> 00:07:34.290 Elevator music. Exactly. It was passive, unchallenging 00:07:34.290 --> 00:07:37.009 audio wallpaper. It was literally designed to 00:07:37.009 --> 00:07:39.069 be tuned out while you shopped for groceries 00:07:39.069 --> 00:07:41.230 or waited in a dentist's office. Oh, yeah. Nobody 00:07:41.230 --> 00:07:44.629 was actively listening to that. No. But by legally 00:07:44.629 --> 00:07:47.410 branding their output as sensual and stimulating, 00:07:48.050 --> 00:07:50.649 waveform is demanding active listening. They 00:07:50.649 --> 00:07:52.730 are signaling to the consumer that this isn't 00:07:52.730 --> 00:07:55.709 background noise. It is a primary experience. 00:07:55.850 --> 00:07:57.449 We should break down how that music actually 00:07:57.449 --> 00:07:59.410 functions because the text notes, they were heavily 00:07:59.410 --> 00:08:02.149 focused on a sub -genre called ambient dub. Yeah, 00:08:02.329 --> 00:08:04.310 ambient dub is fascinating. Think about how a 00:08:04.310 --> 00:08:06.889 traditional rock song is built, right? A rock 00:08:06.889 --> 00:08:09.170 song is structurally like a photograph. It has 00:08:09.170 --> 00:08:11.750 a clear subject in focus. You have a lead singer. 00:08:12.170 --> 00:08:15.199 Yeah, a lead singer, a linear narrative. a verse, 00:08:15.319 --> 00:08:18.100 a chorus, and maybe a guitar solo that tells 00:08:18.100 --> 00:08:19.819 you exactly what to feel and when to feel it. 00:08:19.980 --> 00:08:23.360 It leads you by the hand. But Ambient Dub, mechanically, 00:08:23.860 --> 00:08:25.980 operates more like a mood ring. It doesn't rely 00:08:25.980 --> 00:08:28.519 on a linear story at all. Right. It relies on 00:08:28.519 --> 00:08:31.879 deep resonant bass frequencies, heavily echoed 00:08:31.879 --> 00:08:34.799 percussion, and these layered synthesizers to 00:08:34.799 --> 00:08:37.639 basically create a spatial environment. It changes 00:08:37.639 --> 00:08:39.759 the temperature of the room rather than telling 00:08:39.759 --> 00:08:42.960 you a specific story. That structural difference 00:08:42.960 --> 00:08:45.659 is exactly why they had to coin the term exotic 00:08:45.659 --> 00:08:48.259 electronica. Because electronic meant something 00:08:48.259 --> 00:08:52.080 else back then. Exactly. In 1994, the broader 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:55.100 umbrella of electronic music often conjured images 00:08:55.100 --> 00:08:59.059 of like aggressive, high BPM techno. Right, rave 00:08:59.059 --> 00:09:01.399 culture. Yeah, rave culture or really abrasive 00:09:01.399 --> 00:09:04.419 industrial sounds. F .J. Forrest needed a mechanism 00:09:04.419 --> 00:09:06.840 to warn the consumer that the CD they were about 00:09:06.840 --> 00:09:08.500 to buy was not going to make them want to dance 00:09:08.500 --> 00:09:11.330 in a warehouse until 4 a .m. Yeah. disappointed 00:09:11.330 --> 00:09:13.769 if they wanted a rave and got ambient dub. Right, 00:09:13.889 --> 00:09:16.470 so the word exotic performs a very specific function 00:09:16.470 --> 00:09:18.789 there. It implies travel. It implies that the 00:09:18.789 --> 00:09:20.429 audio is going to transport you somewhere else 00:09:20.429 --> 00:09:23.289 perhaps to a desert or an island. Here's where 00:09:23.289 --> 00:09:26.070 it gets really interesting though. They packaged 00:09:26.070 --> 00:09:29.029 this sonic travel in a widely influential series 00:09:29.029 --> 00:09:32.629 of mid -1990s compilations. The AD series. Yeah, 00:09:32.710 --> 00:09:35.509 the source text lists them sequentially. 1 AD, 00:09:35.830 --> 00:09:40.399 2 AD, 3 AD, and 4 AD. Classic. When I read that, 00:09:40.820 --> 00:09:43.399 I couldn't help but think about the sheer curatorial 00:09:43.399 --> 00:09:46.100 effort required here compared to today. Oh, it's 00:09:46.100 --> 00:09:48.820 night and day. Right now, if I want an ambient 00:09:48.820 --> 00:09:51.919 dub experience, Spotify will just algorithmically 00:09:51.919 --> 00:09:54.879 generate a seamless endless stream of it based 00:09:54.879 --> 00:09:56.759 on my previous listening habits. You just hit 00:09:56.759 --> 00:09:59.600 play and forget it. But FJ Forest didn't have 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:02.580 an algorithm. He had to manually package invisible 00:10:02.580 --> 00:10:05.980 sounds into a tangible plastic jewel case and 00:10:05.980 --> 00:10:08.789 convince people it was a cohesive mood. So I 00:10:08.789 --> 00:10:11.070 have to ask if exotic electronica is essentially 00:10:11.070 --> 00:10:14.809 just ambient and chill music Why the sequential 00:10:14.809 --> 00:10:17.789 almost historical naming convention of 1 ad through 00:10:17.789 --> 00:10:20.269 4 ad It's the ultimate challenge of curating 00:10:20.269 --> 00:10:23.210 a vibe before the internet does it for you You 00:10:23.210 --> 00:10:25.049 have to use physical packaging to communicate 00:10:25.049 --> 00:10:29.149 abstract concepts. Okay by adopting the ad naming 00:10:29.149 --> 00:10:32.269 convention Forrest was utilizing just a brilliant 00:10:32.269 --> 00:10:35.360 piece of marketing architecture The text points 00:10:35.360 --> 00:10:38.039 out these are ambient dub compilations, so AD 00:10:38.039 --> 00:10:41.419 serves as a functional acronym. Oh, Ambient Dub 00:10:41.419 --> 00:10:44.799 at AD. Right, but historically AD marks a new 00:10:44.799 --> 00:10:48.179 era in time. By putting one AD on the cover of 00:10:48.179 --> 00:10:50.100 a compilation, he wasn't just dropping an album, 00:10:50.600 --> 00:10:53.960 he was cheekily declaring year zero of a brand 00:10:53.960 --> 00:10:57.340 new sonic epoch. Oh wow. It's an incredibly bold 00:10:57.340 --> 00:11:00.299 framing. It really is. It elevates a simple mixtape 00:11:00.299 --> 00:11:03.580 of chill electronic tracks into like a definitive 00:11:03.580 --> 00:11:05.700 historical document. Exactly. It basically tells 00:11:05.700 --> 00:11:07.879 the consumer browsing the aisle of a record store, 00:11:08.139 --> 00:11:09.840 hey, you are currently standing in the old world, 00:11:09.940 --> 00:11:12.000 but if you buy this disc, you're entering the 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:14.379 first year of the exotic electronica era. And 00:11:14.379 --> 00:11:16.340 doing that creates a built -in community. If 00:11:16.340 --> 00:11:18.460 you buy one AD and you resonate with that atmospheric 00:11:18.460 --> 00:11:20.820 pressure, you are automatically primed to look 00:11:20.820 --> 00:11:22.879 out for two AD. You want to know what happens 00:11:22.879 --> 00:11:25.279 next in the era? Right, they weren't just selling 00:11:25.279 --> 00:11:27.659 individual songs, they were selling a serialized 00:11:27.659 --> 00:11:30.279 subscription to a specific state of mind. But 00:11:30.279 --> 00:11:33.879 if F .J. Forrest is creating this new A .D. epoch, 00:11:34.039 --> 00:11:36.539 he can't populate it with traditional rock bands. 00:11:37.200 --> 00:11:40.200 The architecture of ambient dub requires a completely 00:11:40.200 --> 00:11:42.580 different type of creator. The citizens of this 00:11:42.580 --> 00:11:45.500 new world. Exactly. Which brings us to the actual 00:11:45.500 --> 00:11:47.840 roster of musicians listed in our source text. 00:11:48.519 --> 00:11:50.799 Let's look at these names. Higher Intelligence 00:11:50.799 --> 00:11:55.090 Agency, Liquid Zen, loop guru, future primitive, 00:11:55.409 --> 00:11:58.590 sounds from the ground, and two. The nomenclature 00:11:58.590 --> 00:12:01.909 here is vital. So what does this all mean? Because 00:12:01.909 --> 00:12:04.149 none of these sound like traditional bands. No, 00:12:04.190 --> 00:12:06.450 not at all. They don't sound like four guys practicing 00:12:06.450 --> 00:12:09.169 in a garage. They sound like clandestine research 00:12:09.169 --> 00:12:12.210 projects or like spiritual tech collectives. 00:12:12.330 --> 00:12:15.129 Yeah, liquid zen. Right. The name liquid zen 00:12:15.129 --> 00:12:17.629 is essentially the mechanical definition of the 00:12:17.629 --> 00:12:21.350 genre. They're playing fluid. calming, but highly 00:12:21.350 --> 00:12:23.309 structured. That's a great way to put it. And 00:12:23.309 --> 00:12:26.289 a name like Loop Guru strips away the idea of 00:12:26.289 --> 00:12:28.950 a charismatic frontman entirely. It replaces 00:12:28.950 --> 00:12:31.629 the lead singer with the actual mechanism of 00:12:31.629 --> 00:12:34.429 the music, someone who has achieved spiritual 00:12:34.429 --> 00:12:37.370 mastery over the repetition of electronic audio 00:12:37.370 --> 00:12:40.509 loops. The artist's names are explicitly designed 00:12:40.509 --> 00:12:44.389 to remove the human ego from the music. In traditional 00:12:44.389 --> 00:12:47.350 rock or pop, the personality of the singer is 00:12:47.350 --> 00:12:49.679 often the primary selling point. You're buying 00:12:49.679 --> 00:12:52.120 a Madonna album for Madonna. Right. You want 00:12:52.120 --> 00:12:54.679 the star. But in ambient dub, the environment 00:12:54.679 --> 00:12:56.980 is the selling point. A name like Sounds from 00:12:56.980 --> 00:12:59.399 the Ground acts as an architectural signpost. 00:12:59.960 --> 00:13:01.740 It tells the listener that the audio isn't coming 00:13:01.740 --> 00:13:04.139 from a person at all. It's emanating from the 00:13:04.139 --> 00:13:06.799 landscape itself. The artists are presenting 00:13:06.799 --> 00:13:09.340 themselves as conduits for the environment rather 00:13:09.340 --> 00:13:11.419 than the focal point. Which makes the final piece 00:13:11.419 --> 00:13:14.240 of our source text so incredibly ironic. Oh, 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:16.980 the metadata. Yes. We just spent all this time 00:13:16.980 --> 00:13:20.480 establishing how specific nuanced, and structurally 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:23.179 distinct this music is. We have a nomadic label 00:13:23.179 --> 00:13:26.740 headquartered in Maui inventing exotic electronica, 00:13:27.059 --> 00:13:29.519 releasing compilation epochs by collectives called 00:13:29.519 --> 00:13:32.700 Higher Intelligence Agency. It's extremely niche. 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:35.759 Very. Yet, if you scroll to the very bottom of 00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:38.899 the Wikipedia stub and look at the metadata categories 00:13:38.899 --> 00:13:41.899 used to organize this page within the architecture 00:13:41.899 --> 00:13:44.429 of the internet. Wait for it. It is filed under 00:13:44.429 --> 00:13:46.730 indie rock record labels. It sits right there 00:13:46.730 --> 00:13:49.210 in the database taxonomy. Indie rock. I mean, 00:13:49.289 --> 00:13:51.950 we have bands called Loop Guru making ambient 00:13:51.950 --> 00:13:54.649 dub, yet they are filed under indie rock record 00:13:54.649 --> 00:13:57.690 labels online. Is this just a Wikipedia glitch 00:13:57.690 --> 00:13:59.769 or is it proof that traditional genre labels 00:13:59.769 --> 00:14:02.710 just don't know what to do with exotic electronica? 00:14:02.840 --> 00:14:05.159 If we connect this to the bigger picture, it 00:14:05.159 --> 00:14:08.440 actually reveals a profound truth about how legacy 00:14:08.440 --> 00:14:10.899 databases function. How so? Well, technology 00:14:10.899 --> 00:14:14.340 often forces new art into old, ill -fitting boxes 00:14:14.340 --> 00:14:17.440 just to make the code compile. Think of a database 00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:20.259 taxonomy like a massive physical filing cabinet. 00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:22.779 Okay, I'm picturing it. The architecture of early 00:14:22.779 --> 00:14:25.120 web categorization, and honestly even modern 00:14:25.120 --> 00:14:27.940 wikis, relies on legacy folders that were created 00:14:27.940 --> 00:14:30.100 based on the dominant culture of the time. Right. 00:14:30.200 --> 00:14:32.320 The system needs a binary input to know which 00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:34.720 drawer to open. It has a list of approved genres. 00:14:35.269 --> 00:14:38.950 Exactly. When you show up with a fluid, amorphous, 00:14:39.129 --> 00:14:42.450 completely novel concept like exotic electronica, 00:14:42.889 --> 00:14:45.389 the filing clerk in this case, the database logic, 00:14:45.509 --> 00:14:48.129 or maybe just an overwhelmed human editor panics. 00:14:48.350 --> 00:14:50.269 I don't know where to put it. Right. They look 00:14:50.269 --> 00:14:52.690 at their available folders. They definitely don't 00:14:52.690 --> 00:14:55.850 have a folder for nomadic ambient dub labels 00:14:55.850 --> 00:14:57.809 headquartered on tropical islands. They're really 00:14:57.809 --> 00:15:00.250 not. But they do know waveform is an independent 00:15:00.250 --> 00:15:03.110 label. So they look for the closest fit. shove 00:15:03.110 --> 00:15:05.450 it into the folder labeled indie rock record 00:15:05.450 --> 00:15:08.590 labels, completely ignore the rock part of the 00:15:08.590 --> 00:15:11.470 phrase, and slam the drawer shut. It's a mechanical 00:15:11.470 --> 00:15:14.190 failure of imagination. The internet, which is 00:15:14.190 --> 00:15:16.190 supposed to be the ultimate fluid environment, 00:15:16.429 --> 00:15:19.370 is actually built on rigid, unyielding taxonomies. 00:15:19.929 --> 00:15:22.309 And that rigid taxonomy fundamentally shapes 00:15:22.309 --> 00:15:25.269 human discovery. If you are a listener searching 00:15:25.269 --> 00:15:27.809 through a database and you only open the folders 00:15:27.809 --> 00:15:30.529 the system explicitly provides to you, you're 00:15:30.529 --> 00:15:32.289 only going to find what the system understands. 00:15:32.330 --> 00:15:34.509 You miss the weird stuff. You will completely 00:15:34.509 --> 00:15:37.789 miss the spaces in between. The irony here is 00:15:37.789 --> 00:15:40.490 that waveform records spent its entire physical 00:15:40.490 --> 00:15:43.210 existence moving away from the traditional industry. 00:15:43.389 --> 00:15:45.149 Yeah, running from the established pushpins on 00:15:45.149 --> 00:15:48.090 the map. Exactly. To find the perfect isolated 00:15:48.090 --> 00:15:52.370 environment in Sedona or Maui. Yet decades later, 00:15:52.799 --> 00:15:55.159 the digital architecture of the internet simply 00:15:55.159 --> 00:15:57.940 drag them right back into one of the most standard 00:15:57.940 --> 00:16:01.460 traditional industry boxes imaginable. Wow. It 00:16:01.460 --> 00:16:03.720 really is the ultimate proof that if you don't 00:16:03.720 --> 00:16:06.379 aggressively define your own space, the system 00:16:06.379 --> 00:16:08.879 will eventually define it for you, and it will 00:16:08.879 --> 00:16:11.039 usually get it wrong. It always gets it wrong. 00:16:11.279 --> 00:16:13.980 Which is why you, as a listener, have to be careful 00:16:13.980 --> 00:16:17.039 not to let rigid categories define what you consume 00:16:17.039 --> 00:16:19.639 or what you create. The most interesting work 00:16:19.639 --> 00:16:21.679 usually falls between the cracks of those standard 00:16:21.679 --> 00:16:24.320 definitions. That is so true. And I think that 00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:26.139 brings us to the core of what we've uncovered 00:16:26.139 --> 00:16:29.419 today. We started with this skeletal, brief source 00:16:29.419 --> 00:16:32.159 text about a seemingly obscure label. Just a 00:16:32.159 --> 00:16:35.259 few lines of text. Right. But by examining the 00:16:35.259 --> 00:16:37.200 friction of their geography and the mechanics 00:16:37.200 --> 00:16:40.639 of their genre, the broader picture becomes incredibly 00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:44.059 clear. FJ Forest and Wayform Records didn't just 00:16:44.059 --> 00:16:47.460 press CDs. They engineered a geographic and sonic 00:16:47.460 --> 00:16:50.279 lifestyle. They absolutely did. By creating the 00:16:50.279 --> 00:16:53.059 term exotic electronica and packaging it into 00:16:53.059 --> 00:16:56.159 the AD compilation series, they proved that inventing 00:16:56.159 --> 00:16:59.019 your own vocabulary is the only way to protect 00:16:59.019 --> 00:17:01.360 your art from being misunderstood by the mainstream. 00:17:01.720 --> 00:17:04.359 It's self -preservation. Yeah. They didn't wait 00:17:04.359 --> 00:17:07.519 to fit into a pre -existing genre. They literally 00:17:07.519 --> 00:17:10.119 declared a new era and dared the listener to 00:17:10.119 --> 00:17:12.170 join them. They understood that the physical 00:17:12.170 --> 00:17:14.589 and conceptual staging of the art is just as 00:17:14.589 --> 00:17:17.289 critical as the art itself. And building on that 00:17:17.289 --> 00:17:19.869 idea of defining your own era through sequential 00:17:19.869 --> 00:17:22.890 releases, I want to leave you, the listener, 00:17:23.009 --> 00:17:25.150 with a concept to consider in your own life. 00:17:25.210 --> 00:17:27.349 Oh, I like this. Think about your own timeline, 00:17:27.549 --> 00:17:30.049 your career, your hobbies, your personal growth. 00:17:30.430 --> 00:17:32.529 If you were to look back and package the phases 00:17:32.529 --> 00:17:35.009 of your life as a curated compilation series, 00:17:35.450 --> 00:17:38.230 moving from the Sedonas to the Mauis of your 00:17:38.230 --> 00:17:40.920 own journey, how would it be organized? We all 00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:44.000 have our Sedonas, those quiet, isolated periods 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:46.839 of foundation building, and our Mauis, the vibrant, 00:17:47.079 --> 00:17:49.839 distinct peaks of our journey. If you had to 00:17:49.839 --> 00:17:51.900 define the overarching theme of your journey, 00:17:52.420 --> 00:17:54.759 what would your unique genre be called? That's 00:17:54.759 --> 00:17:56.779 a great question. And if you were to press all 00:17:56.779 --> 00:17:59.160 of those formative, sensual, and stimulating 00:17:59.160 --> 00:18:02.480 experiences onto a disc, what kind of ideas would 00:18:02.480 --> 00:18:05.099 make up the track list of your very own 1AD? 00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:08.339 That is a fantastic lens to view your own history 00:18:08.339 --> 00:18:10.519 through. What is the defining sound of your own 00:18:10.519 --> 00:18:12.819 epoch? Thank you so much for joining us on this 00:18:12.819 --> 00:18:15.420 deep dive. Keep questioning the rigid boxes the 00:18:15.420 --> 00:18:17.359 world tries to put you in. Keep searching for 00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:19.559 the perfect environment for your own work. And 00:18:19.559 --> 00:18:21.500 always keep an ear out for the unexpected in 00:18:21.500 --> 00:18:23.380 your own life. We'll see you next time.