'Everyone is Content' - Hemant Sreekumar is back with a new album, in cassette and digital format, abetted by manic-cut videos, stacking up as a reactionary interpretation of the times. A concept, more than just another noise-music album. He refers to the name of the album based on "3 semantic anchors". The dark satire and curated noise which heavily draws from the political, social and technological zeitgeist. A play on the duality of the word (content) itself. The sound and imagery at antipodes, creating a 'discontent' like feeling. But then What is content? Who is content? The album itself is called 'Content' and the first track on Side B is titled 'Everyone is Content'. "anyone, everything and anything used as a piece of propaganda to validate the ideology of being, forever in a state of consumption..." states Hemant as we ask him about what does 'content' stand for? As seen in the past, his song titles are again based on psychotic imagination. "A state when Artificial Intelligence gets smart enough, but to be clumsy and lazy, refuses to obey, starts to vomit..." about the first track on Side A, titled 'Retardation'. We dwell further, into the making of the album, the demonised and satirical visuals and the artist's view on technology, sound and the inspiration leading to everyoneiscontent
Elaborate your view about the impact of information technology upon humanity?
As a free association tool, all computer mediated activity by humans, becomes content for the info-tech industry : only to be measured and monetised, or served with more content to be consumed. This sense of being encased in a permanent loop of consumption and being satisfied but also anxious while being - vicious feedback loops - in this state of consuming digital media assets wether through social media, chat, info-hoarding, advertisements, news etc was the conceptual space the album was located. Lastly - it was also looking at how internet culture homogenises everyone ( from visual artists, musicians, producers, actors, writers, dancers, journalists, politicians ... everyone ) into ‘content creators’
The idea seems to manifest more like a concept. It's not just an album?
It was composed/optimised/recorded during the winter residency I did in Paris at the “Cite Internationale des arts” last year. Though I had not expected it - but ended up encountering the most prolific harsh noise scene in that city with some super abstract performances. It sort of offered the will to record stuff which I had only tried live during performances - and not had enough confidence to render out as a recording. The cassette format is something I have a lot of faith in. It sidesteps this the entire playlist, share, comment culture, services offered by Spotify, Soundcloud, Mixcloud and all the other “streaming super-markets”. Especially after myspace, rapidshare etc asthe industry busted the myth of free uploads and downloads...
The structures are minimal, are you still dwelling only within the realm of noise?
Emotionally i will try to explain. But, technically - It was the most successful attempt I had in working with a free association principle - where you literally work caved within a concept and do various single take recordings till the most compact version arises. Again no DAW was used except in the mastering stage. During the recording itself all the monitoring was done on a small JBL bluetooth palmtop speaker. No credence was given to the bass - it was kept flat. Overall was working with the one line concept of “ You are what you consume/share” with respect to evoking a nauseatingly pure synthetic pressure sound. Literally all sounds were designed with just two actions - of striking or being compressed.
Elaborate your view about the impact of information technology upon humanity?
As a free association tool, all computer mediated activity by humans, becomes content for the info-tech industry : only to be measured and monetised, or served with more content to be consumed. This sense of being encased in a permanent loop of consumption and being satisfied but also anxious while being - vicious feedback loops - in this state of consuming digital media assets wether through social media, chat, info-hoarding, advertisements, news etc was the conceptual space the album was located. Lastly - it was also looking at how internet culture homogenises everyone ( from visual artists, musicians, producers, actors, writers, dancers, journalists, politicians ... everyone ) into ‘content creators’
The idea seems to manifest more like a concept. It's not just an album?
It was composed/optimised/recorded during the winter residency I did in Paris at the “Cite Internationale des arts” last year. Though I had not expected it - but ended up encountering the most prolific harsh noise scene in that city with some super abstract performances. It sort of offered the will to record stuff which I had only tried live during performances - and not had enough confidence to render out as a recording. The cassette format is something I have a lot of faith in. It sidesteps this the entire playlist, share, comment culture, services offered by Spotify, Soundcloud, Mixcloud and all the other “streaming super-markets”. Especially after myspace, rapidshare etc asthe industry busted the myth of free uploads and downloads...
The structures are minimal, are you still dwelling only within the realm of noise?
Emotionally i will try to explain. But, technically - It was the most successful attempt I had in working with a free association principle - where you literally work caved within a concept and do various single take recordings till the most compact version arises. Again no DAW was used except in the mastering stage. During the recording itself all the monitoring was done on a small JBL bluetooth palmtop speaker. No credence was given to the bass - it was kept flat. Overall was working with the one line concept of “ You are what you consume/share” with respect to evoking a nauseatingly pure synthetic pressure sound. Literally all sounds were designed with just two actions - of striking or being compressed.
How did the videos come about?
What do you make of emerging electronic music in India ?
The significant observation I have is, that the term electronic music is meaningless now. From bhojpuri pop to the amount of hip-hop being created in nearly every language in India - is all under the larger electronic music category. Hence, almost all music is electronic music now...
Has your long standing 'against-the-tide' repertoire taken on a newer form?
The connection to the audio is totally arbitrary. The videos were curated/edited by Rana Ghose heading Reproduce Artists - we were looking at various documentary footages which showed people in a state of trance, possessed or hyper engagement, a state of total belief and being succumbed in the moment. We decided not to use any footage that was designed for entertainment and only focus on pure documentation of the amateur sort. Rural that too. We also narrowed down on footages with a lot of body sweat, exhaustion - basically to humanise the synthetic acoustic matter. It was felt that since the audio itself was so abstract we needed visual gratification to make a series of marketing content of the exploitative sort.
What do you make of emerging electronic music in India ?
The significant observation I have is, that the term electronic music is meaningless now. From bhojpuri pop to the amount of hip-hop being created in nearly every language in India - is all under the larger electronic music category. Hence, almost all music is electronic music now...
Has your long standing 'against-the-tide' repertoire taken on a newer form?
I have tried very hard to sell out, for but been quite unsuccessful at it. But of course now I like this approach of being the 'sheep in wolf’s skin' rather than its biblical inverse. Also the more experimental music I discover, the history and artists, the lesser I feel any sense of rebellion but more of retailing old wine in a new bottle efficiently...
https://www.everyoneiscontent.com/
https://www.everyoneiscontent.com/
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