As DJ Sprinkles, Terre Thaemlitz’s musical productions hold a mirrorball up to house music, bouncing back a reflection of those within it. And, from the off, 2009’s iconic Midtown 120 Blues is an album that doesn’t like what it sees. The intro, knowingly mocking classic big room dance track dialogue, sets its stall out early, calling out house for the old lie of ‘life, love and happiness’ it peddles.
It points out that a hundred records ask, “What is house?” But, the dancefloor hook of an answer beaming out of the club’s speakers always fails to mention those scores of forgotten, marginalised, ignored, and brutalised communities that helped build and define the contexts that this music emerged from, especially in America.
“I’ve often talked about how this idea of both house music and the nation are actually emblematic of traumas that the house community have suffered from, both in terms of queer and trans communities,” says Thaemlitz. “The domestic sphere and the nation are the two kind of major sites of social abandonment for many of us, in terms of being ostracised and kicked out of our houses.”
Thaemlitz’s own teen journey from rural Missouri to the bright lights of New York City is also referenced in the album [Grand Central, Pt. II]. Part of the queer migration story, known by many, who found themselves (in every way) in the club scene.
Along with tales of sex worker woes and pop music’s appropriation
