DJ SOTOFETT releases four mini-albums digitally in August 2020. First a 2006 experimental Wave​-​Edit project, then Acid House collections from 2005 and 3rd out was a collaboration with Osaruxo and Diskomo based on concert recordings from Pool, Tokyo. The 4th mini-album "Dynadub" by Christian Dugstad & DJ Sotofett has been slightly delayed but is now available.

GENERAL DYNAMICS is something we are all very sensitive to, and also the exposure – or rather the lack of exposure to it – is crucial for how we react to our surroundings. If starting with an analogy it might be easier to approach the topic without getting lost in too technical terms.

Simply imagine following a weekly radio show or TV-series, this can be processed and talked about with a fair amount of time in between each broadcast. In the course of a year there is a strong pattern of doing the same every week, 52 times a year, a ritual – still there is space to digest, and a pattern to follow a thread. Then imagine the same radio show as an archive, or a batch of the same TV-series, and listen or watch it more or less non-stop. All the information comes at once, and there is very little time for a variety of content to be consumed, and almost no time for any digesting before it's all over. The latter method, a very compressed information intake, makes us loose some details and reflective possibilities - as an overview it is Low General Dynamics.

A weekly broadcast including it's waiting time has a High General Dynamic no matter what or how loaded the content is, as our surroundings will influence perspective, opinions, and desire for more (or less). To pinpoint, Low General Dynamics is a mass of similar information, consumed fast (information can also seem similar if taken in too fast).

Let's translate this into the execution, presentation and consumption of music: the aesthetics and production techniques shaping what we listen to, and how.

First, there is a very strong idea of what belongs where in music. A simple example is about vocals in music – let's say pop, hip-hop, jazz, funk, reggae, blues, country, rock - any type of genre and sub-genre where the vocalist is a key figure. By most professional and industry standard producers accompanying music is mixed with vocals for the voice to be very upfront; recognisable, present and clear.

Listen to any album where vocals on each track are equally loud, and try to point out a particular track. Maybe it's the slow one, the really fast one with two parts, or the instantly most catchy one, it's simple in many cases. But what if the General Dynamics of vocal treatments on this record was very High – there are 10 tracks on the album, on the seventh song the vocalist almost whispers, on track five it sounds like the vocalist is talking into your ear with no sense of room (reverberation), and the rest are more or less standard, except the last track which is a live session and the vocal sometimes drown in the frenetic music. Out of ten tracks, you can point out that the "whispering song" made an impact, even if you didn't like the actual song, or maybe you think the last song had loads of great energy.

Now take that concept of vocal treatment, and exchange it with a kick drum – usually a very carrying element in Techno, House Music, Disco, Hip-Hop, Jungle, well, most types of electronic dance music. From experience and engineering of both equipment, space and sound systems we do know where in the sonic spectre the kick drum has most effect and creates most punch on the dance floor in a club. In that context, making a track where the kick drum is very low and weak (so low that it only directs the groove) instantly gives it a stick-out quality (no matter how "bad" it sounds). In simple words "remember that track with really low kick drum".

Apply the same idea to a snare drum, or a bassline, percussions, or any element – even the dub-echo on a track. The idea is never set, it is only about having High General Dynamics – a perspective hand-in-hand with your surroundings. If everybody has loud vocals, make them low. If all the music on an album has a live band, make a few tracks with a drum machine, or a synthesiser instead of a guitar.

The basic concept of High General Dynamics is easy to understand, and makes sense even though we lose ourselves in Low General Dynamics during everyday life and much because of conform situations. So let's take it a bit further as we already dived it into loudness of vocals or kick drums – let's do this with length of tracks, with composition, with style and genre – anything within the framework of the artists and producers spectrum. In all its simplicity history has proven that say a Hip-Hop album inspired by Reggae, Jazz, Soul, Rock, Funk, Disco is more interesting than Hip-Hop referring only to Hip-Hop itself (self references will mostly work for a brief period only, remember Dub also comes from Rock'n'Roll). We do not live in a box and there are endless variations to life.

Take a step back and create some overview perspective – a record where all tracks individually sound great, with enough punch, bounce, air on the mix, generous loudness etc – it still makes everything the same if they all endlessly carry the same quality – even if you make gritty noise music you need variation in volume and presence, or if every track has the same mood we will stagnate. Many say that all improvised jazz sound the same, maybe less of a contradiction when realising many of the musicians have similar education and still use bass, drums, saxophone and guitar? Try take a moment and listen to how sonically different Jimi Hendrix' "Cross Town Traffic" actually sounds when comparing it to his other music.

Obviously the balance between being too similar or deliberately making everything different is a challenge (and in many peoples case not wanted), but let's have a real overview perspective – and take a look at what the majority use to create music; there are two interesting key points here, Technique and Style.

Technique - if all producers of electronic dance music use computers with the same software restrictions/possibilities at least each (sub) genre will sound very similar within a very short time perspective. Bass drums have the same ("correct") loudness, arrangements are similar, and the snare hits where it "should" on all tracks. The echo chamber of a genre is as important as destructive for development – High General Dynamic takes you out of the tunnel – a hit is always a bit different isn't it?

Style – same counts for the more aesthetic part, if all Country Music producers follow the one and only "right" path of writing and producing songs we end up having conserved sonics and expressions. This is not how it developed into what it is, and we should remember this in our everyday life.

The key here is Craft, which in my opinion is a nearly perfected blend of Style and Technique.

When sticking to a Low General Dynamic approach things will develop with a very slow frequency. And to make it a bit more complex – this is what we want a craft to be, slowly crafted. The end point here is to always be aware of what needs to be practiced or endlessly repeated, and what needs to be constantly disturbed, challenged and injected with the outside perspective. Simplicity and hands-on complexity is like hand-weaving, there are endless traditions, colours, methods, styles and techniques – but it will always be a threaded pattern and wholeness to it. And within this spectrum the real artist is born.

The excuse for this text is "Dynadubs", an album collaboration between Cristian Dugstad from Norway's Oblivion Dip label, and myself – DJ Sotofett. From an overview perspective our small hardcore scene has come a long way since the early 2000's, alternative electronic music is highly available on global platforms as vinyl releases, tapes and digital download or streams, and on the other side the previously so dominant club music Tech-House and Minimal Techno is long gone from the throne. That said we're at an end point where things have to develop again – the style of "alternative music" is where it's supposed to be, but the craft is starting to lack on an overall basis. Alternative ideas are best in the middle of everything, where we can all share and learn from them. - DJ SOTOFETT