FROM HIS HONOR, Mr. KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN:

“Greatest Hits” (2003-)

… on the eve of my 30th birthday, I began rendering “automatic” “enhancements” of only the most salient points of the pop music of my youth ; a line, bar, or fragment of a particular song (after being heard out in “the wild” in the present ; akin to running into an old friend on the street) was chosen based on how much my nostalgic recollection of it differed from its contemporary reality. Each was played back at exactly half-speed, then run through a series of time- and gain-based processes that slowly & meticulously chewed through the audio, revealing hidden layers of content, context, and temporal / spectral production details … shining a flashlight into the dark corners of each selection, revealing the ghosts lurking within.

I’ve worked on these on & off over the last 10 years, largely as a form of therapy (a way to combat insomnia ; a way to reconnect with my younger self) … This year, as I approach 40, I’ve decided to make public the first 100, dovetailed into a single just-shy-of-12-hour block. Hopefully at least one of these will trigger a fond memory for you (especially if you grew up in the shadows of New York City during the 1980’s) … My only request is that you listen to these either on proper speakers or good headphones (due to the nature of the alteration-process there’s a fair bit going on in the low-end ranges ; all those crisp LinnDrumm kicks and chorused BassLines, when sent wholesale down an octave, simply will not be reproduced by your laptop speakers or cheap earbuds) …”