Secret Thirteen Mix 117 - Racehorses Are Resources

The authors of the mix are Racehorses Are Resources (RRR), a debut alternative electronic music quartet formed in Detroit. Their recordings include motives of blues, acoustic, rock, traditional, hip-hop and noise music. The band consists of Chris Peters (the founder), Quelle Chris, Nick Speed and Nick Cicchetti. In the beginning Peters met Nick Speed (producer of Danny Brown, Talib Kweli, UR) at Submerge club and later on they started making music together. At that time Speed released a 12” inch on Underground Resistance with a song called “Time Capsule”, which included samples taken from John Lee Hooker recordings. Peters was attracted by the idea of exploring a place where the bookends of the American groove meet. Peters wanted to follow the way of people like Son House and Charlie Patton, artists making records in the early days of the medium, and merge this with the rhythmic approaches of Pete Rock, Aux 88, and EpMd. John Lee Hooker was heavily influenced by Son House and Patton, and Peters thought that Speed's track was in the position that he wanted to push further. This was the original idea of RRR to which the band often come back to. However, their sound and approach is not limited by that.

RRR name accidentally came out after Peters heard Wild Flag interview where they were discussing a misunderstood lyric. Peters states that “good things often come from misunderstandings and mistakes” and that is what RRR project is about. The main idea of this project is to let the creative process take its own course without any fear of disturbance. Collaborations with other musicians, creativeness, spontaneity and improvisations are essential to RRR. Having started over a year ago with collaborations with ex-MC5 manager John Sinclair, the band continued working with Wendell Harrison (Sun Ra, Grant Green, Tribe), Yunggiema [央吉玛], the Beijing noise duo Soviet Pop and others, thus making their music more kaleidoscopic and open to diverse audiences.

Moreover, Nick Cicchetti is a man responsible for putting all the sounds through his effects board, thus making every guitar chord, sample, percussion or vocal sound more rich, dense and dynamic. In addition to making noise with RRR, Cicchetti works on the assembly line for Ford. The other member, an incredible songwriter, MC and producer Quelle Chris releases his solo material on Mello Music Group, the prominent hip hop indie label that is also home to Apollo Brown and Oddisee. Nick Speed has produced the entirety of Danny Brown's classic Hot Soup mixtape, together with Quelle Chris he also produced tracks for Danny Brown. Speed has also worked with Talib Kweli, 50 Cent, and Phat Kat.

“Secret Thirteen Mix 117” is a phenomenal compilation consisting of mostly exclusive material that was never published before. The listener should notice that RRR incorporates an American primitive/early blues element that runs through most of the work. This mix includes collaborations with the Beijing noise duo Soviet Pop, Detroit-based jazz sax player and clarinetist Wendell Harrison, political activist and former manager of the MC5 John Sinclair, Yunggiema, a singer from the Menba minority in Tibet and Gedvilė Bunikytė, who reads a melancholic poem written in an abstract, but at the same time impressionistic manner. The mix also includes a solo tracks from Nick Speed and Quelle Chris.

Secret Thirteen proudly invites to listen this wonderful debut mix by Racehorses Are Resources that speaks for itself and definitely reveals new sound horizons due to it’s unusual musical correlations. RRR’s mix is like a vivid and playful, yet cosmic Eduardo Nery’s abstract painting “Solids In Space”. Enjoy the summer of wonders.

Show Playlist

01. Racehorses Are Resources - Beijing Cab 5
02. Racehorses Are Resources - Brush Park Rattle (featuring Soviet Pop and Wendell Harrison)
03. Racehorses Are Resources - Naked Part I (featuring Yunggiema)
04. Nick Speed - Time Capsule (released on Underground Resistance).

This track inspired the idea for the basis of what Racehorses Are Resources is. Heavily influenced by American Primitive and its possibilities in a contemporary rhythm context.

05. Racehorses Are Resources - Long Silence

Featuring a short story by Detroit writer Steve Hughes who publishes the zine Stupor. Hughes has collaborated with an array of artists on Stupor including Matthew Barney and Scott Hocking.

06. Racehorses Are Resources - Ecuador (featuring Gedvilė Bunikytė)
07. Racehorses Are Resources - Delia

Featuring Xiao Dong Wei on a Chinese instrument called the erhu. She was trained at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

08. Quelle Chris - Long Tokes (featuring Cavalier) [Mello Music Group, 2013]
09. Racehorses Are Resources - Beauty Pageant For Bulldogs

Dedicated to Detroit poet Jim Gustafson (1949-1996)

10. Racehorses Are Resources - Coming Out Of the Dark (featuring Quelle Chris on vocals)
11. Racehorses Are Resources - Naked Part II (featuring Yunggiema)
12. Racehorses Are Resources - Tsui Wah (featuring Xiao Dong Wei on erhu)
13. Racehorses Are Resources - Lambchop (featuring John Sinclair)

Sinclair reads a poem by Jim Gustafson.

More about Racehorses Are Resources: Facebook - Twitter