I have to run for my mental health. I'm sure I'm not the only one out there frustrating the people of the sidewalk. Sorry!
There are a few songs that always come through when I need a little extra push: Kiki Gyan's Disco Dancer, Heartbeats by The Knife, Spitting Blood by WU LYF, Badala Zamana by Zohra, Tenere Den by Tinariwen, Teenage Dream by T. Rex, Y Control by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and always, always Why Can't I Touch It? by Buzzcocks. These are all staples of my running playlist, which also includes quite a bit of Motorik for running down the autobahn. Some exercise playlists are all set to the same BPM. I prefer to mix it up. Besides, you can always double the tempo by dividing the beat (landing on eighth notes instead of quarter notes - half time). Or you can slow things down by doing the opposite and running in double time. I know this seems like it should be the opposite, but you can implement the idea without actually remembering which is which. If you do care, it's easy if you think about it in terms of how note values affect tempo and not in terms of tempo itself.
Rhythm, the duration of notes and rests that sit on the meter, is also interesting to consider while running. While a song like Heartbeats has a 4/4 time signature with a fairly straightforward dance beat, the added percussion in the background propels the momentum of that primary beat. I just added El Telefono by Hector "El Father," Wisin & Yandel to the playlist because I wanted to explore an idea of genre specific rhythmic running a little more. The syncopation of Reggaeton provides a bit of a bounce to a forward momentum. I'd like to see people, including myself, branch out more regarding running music. It would be fun to look out on the street and see a runner swinging back and forth as they move forward and say, "Look at that, they've really mastered Jazz running." Or, someone runs past you, counting his steps in 11/8 - The Progressive Runner. I know that sounds absurd. But an absurd world is generally a more interesting one, if not at times more irritating.
As much as I enjoy running along to my standard playlist, I needed a break a few weeks back and thought it might be a fun idea to create my own remix/mashup record to run to. I didn't realize how much time this would take away from my recording schedule, so I didn't get too far. But I did manage to finish one track that combines David Bowie's Golden Years and Robyn's Dancing on My Own. Anyway, feel free to add it to your exercise playlists!
This is actually a Re-Issue. Originally released on the Sounds True label. I have only been able to find it on YouTube until now. I love all things Lou Reed -Yes, even 2011’s Metallica Collab Lulu. For those not as obsessed with “Lou’s Views” as I am, he was deeply into Tai Chi. This is detailed in a new book called The Art of the Straight Line. The music on this record is the counterpoint to Metal Machine Music, the Yin to that album’s Yang. And it’s also the music that would accompany Lou Lou’s martial arts practice. It’s hard to explain how twenty minutes of what is primarily a single oscillating tone that opens the album could be anything but maddening. Still, it manages to expand outward forever while also going nowhere. On the original release Lou calls the music, "ordered sounds of an unpredictable nature - new sounds freed from preconception." As always Lou says it best. 10/10 Coney Island Babys.
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