By ARIV
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I’ve heard this phrase for most of my adult life, but I never really understood its meaning. Surely everything in my great granddad-esque, mechanistic, deterministic view of the universe can be added to or subtracted from up and down the ladder so to speak so that every little bit is always accounted for. No wool pulled over our eyes and nothing should ever be swept under the rug. Ahh, phrase origins….but that’s another path.
Where we are right now is TERMINAL 5 in Manhattan, NYC on February 25 at approximately 10 p.m.; and the DJ headphone wielding dynamic duo/silver surfers of all things electronica/dub and groove were in the house. Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, the co-founders of a booty-shaking synergistic system of bump and wiggle called Thievery Corporation were on the 5th day of their Northeast tour of the States.
Because of technical difficulties, I missed the opening of their set, but still got to munch down on an excellent buffet of: bass, congas, horns, bare Brazilian mid-riffs, sitar, black leggings housing a Latina songstress, a light show that I got a slight tan from, two horn players that looked like they were peeled off from the bottom of a NYC subway train, a Hispanic percussionist who also shared duties on the mic; channeling lyrics penned from the art damaged mind of David Byrne of the Talking Heads, a wiry olive toned hippie-esque barefoot black toenail polished Hugo Boss suit wearing bass player, a reggae styled guitarist with flam and bouyance whose red scarf seem to blow in a wind that did not exist and three MC’s straight out of Kingston who were dressed like their were ready for a south African jungle safari.
Well anyway, these are the parts that made the whole greater than its own addition. This is truth my friends, I learned something that night, and its not that recording video and smoking pot at a public venue is legal, but I understood why the whole is greater than its parts.
I first heard the latest Thievery album on CD, and honestly, I was not really moved at all. That is because I believe now, that I was just experiencing the parts. Being at TERMINAL 5 and being at ground zero with the live band; my reactions towards the “parts” was vastly transmuted, every song sounded ten times better, every bass thump, and sitar jangle peculated with new meaning and weight.
HEY, I WAS AT A LIVE SHOW!
and the show was great. 10+
EMERGENCE: the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions.
Additional Links:
ESL Music | Artist | Thievery Corporation
Thievery Corporation