The track “Hitam Jumat” by Gregory Taylor bears the simple accompanying line “not buying anything. not me.” The piece was posted around November 27, which suggests it as a response to — a respite from — the consumer frenzy that is Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) here in the United States. It consists of a field of light percussion and gently dissonant, organ-like chords. The percussion plays as a repetitive, circular theme, the tone somewhere between a gamelan and a Caribbean steel drum (Taylor himself tagged it as #Indonesian). The dissonance plays against the percussion. It’s a bit more brooding. It will momentarily abide by the underlying rhythm, but then hold back, or add a beat, or go in a different, more diffuse direction. This is a beautiful recording, even as it actively undermines the very hush that it evokes.
Track originally posted at soundcloud.com/gregory-taylor. Taylor is based in Madison, Wisconsin. He has recorded for the labels Stasisfield, Palace of Lights, and c74, among others.