By David Chiu
When it comes to making electronic music, Brooklyn sonic collage artist James Towning, a.k.a. Realistic, is rather unique in some ways. He draws bits and pieces from previously recorded material—the melody of a familiar soul song, a sound bite from an old ‘70s television show, or the noise on a street corner—and mixes them up to create something new. “I guess there's an amount simple joy I get juxtaposing sounds and images from a variety of sources,” said the 43-year-old graphic designer and animator in an e-mail interview. Those sounds can be heard by Realistic’s just-released album, Perpetual Memory Loss, his third effort following Maidenhead (1998) and Private Moments (2001). The music can be described in a number of ways: original, experimental, danceable, and familiar. “There is no real theme behind the Perpetual Memory Loss tracks or the title,” he said. “The only theme for this Realistic album is that all the tracks were programmed and arranged by me using any sound I want.” On a song from the new album, “The Camera Track,” Towning listed the numerous sources he used to create it: “The TV show “The Six Million Dollar Man”; the film “Carnal Knowledge”; the film “Drumline”; Queen “Fat Bottomed Girls”; “Queen Talks” interview; Archie Bell & the Drells “Tighten Up”; the TV movie “Rudolph”; Eric Clapton crowd noise; ELO “Don’t Bring Me Down”; Pleasure “Let’s Dance”; Depeche Mode “Lie to Me”; Fad Gadget “Love Parasite”; the TV show “The Andy Griffith Show”; Queen “No More of That Jazz”; Xymox “Stranger”; and VHS deck motor recording.” The music’s reliance on previously recorded material is similar to the approach taken by mash-up artists such as Girl Talk. Both Realistic and Girl Talk are on the Illegal Art Records label, which has drawn attention for its musicians using unauthorized samples. The label claims fair use, in which an excerpt from a copyrighted work could be used for commentary or criticism, according to the Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center’s web site. “I believe the Realistic sample usage is “fair use,”” Towning said. “I think the final Realistic product is more of a transformative than derivative use of the source material.” Towning makes music in his off time—he works at a video production company in Manhattan. He said that he creates a song first by experimenting on his computer while thinking of ideas. “After a few hours,” he said, “an initial demo or rough version is basically composed and a rough mix is made. Then it usually takes me a few months of listening to and revising a track before it is considered complete.” His influences in sample-based music include the Art of Noise and Depeche Mode; he also listened to artists such as Queen, David Bowie a nd T.Rex. “I grew up with them and there's an amount of nostalgia I feel by both listening to and sampling them,” he said. Before making music as Realistic, Towning was in a band called Fact TwentyTwo that lasted from 1986 to 1995. He described the band’s music as pop-oriented and traditional in structure. “I grew tired of writing and singing words,” Towning said, “and as I started using the computer more as my main instrument.” He later moved to New York City in 2003 for a job, and he now currently resides near Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO. “I like how industrial DUMBO and the surrounding neighborhood is,” he said. “I lived in Williamsburg and I like that neighborhood and Greenpoint too.” Although working as a graphic designer and as a sonic collage artist may seem different, there is a slight connection. “Technically [designing media is] very much like working on music where there are layers of things happening together over time,” said Towning. “I think the Realistic tracks are very visual.” Towning said he has never performed on stage as Realistic though he plans to make it “a live act with video projections and maybe some dancers and smoke and lasers.” “I do think it would be really fun to hear Realistic tracks blaring through huge speakers,” he said. For information on Realistic and to listen to some tracks off his new album, Perpetual Memory Loss, visit myspace.com/realistic.
