Do you remember cassette tapes? If you don’t, a cassette tape is what we stored music on before Spotify!
Not so long ago, I found some House and Techno ones I’d recorded in my flat in Hulme, in the little studio that I’d set up.
If you’d popped round for a visit, you’d have seen the mixer, the drum machine, the synth. And you’d have seen the Roland TB303. That’s what makes the Acid sound in Acid House and Acid Techno music. Some of you know that squidgy wah, wah, wah! It was a decent set-up. And I’d be there for weeks, mesmerised, twiddling knobs! I was like a mad music Professor, in a trance!
So, you can see why I was dead chuffed when I came across these tapes! ‘No way, look what I’ve found. I know what I’m going to do, I’m going to get a tape to MP3 converter and have a listen to what they sound like now.’
One of them is called ‘Up Tempo’. You can’t really call it a mixtape because it’s just one long track. Man, you should hear it! Bombing it along!
Some of you know that electronic dance tracks have structures: intros, build ups, breaks and outros. This one doesn’t have any structure! It’s just one continuous drum machine beat, with random manic breaks lasting ages synced up to the synthesiser and that Roland 303! Forty-five minutes long; the whole side of a cassette tape! Non-stop! Sounds like a hyperactive robot playing around with a hoover and a dentist drill!
The thing is, when I recorded this, I must’ve thought it sounded really good, otherwise I wouldn’t have kept the tape! Can you imagine what the 100s of others I’ve recorded sounded like? The ones I didn’t keep!
That is where I was at. But I’m not in the same place now! Because God got busy!
See, ‘the middle of a struggle doesn’t have to be a permanent location’.
David, in the Bible, often found himself in the middle of some sort of struggle. But he knew his way through the struggles. He said this, ‘God is my shelter and strength, and always ready to help in times of trouble’. (Psalm 46:1)
Are you in the middle of something? Are you in that place, right now?
Listen: you don’t need to stay there! God’s ready to help! He can get busy, in your situation! But you need to give him consent!
THE MIDDLE OF A STRUGGLE DOESN’T HAVE TO BE A PERMANENT LOCATION
Barry