Changed Streets – Lord Tusk’s homage to Jean-Michel Basquiat

A haunting, nocturnal journey in the heart of the artist.

As part of the release of Untitled, we asked UK-based producer Lord Tusk to take on the mantle of assembling a mix drawing inspiration from Jean-Michel Basquiat. The brief was broad and non-specific, and like with so much of the project, has produced something wholly new and unexpected.

Rather than take a historical approach to the downtown NYC world that Basquiat inhabited, Tusk has crafted a tapestry of distorted frequencies, post-industrial electronics and cut-and-paste samples that seem to evoke some of the fear – real and imagined – of Basquiat’s existence, on the streets of NYC and in the depths of his own, often chemically altered experience.

As Tusk explains” “‘Changing Streets’ is a soundtrack to Basquiat’s art through the ears of Lord Tusk, taking the listening through peregrinations to unknown territories outside the realms of underground experimental illusions. One is challenged to identify original concepts out of past futures to the realms of the present. From this the listener will have a small insight into the mind of a creative thinker and messages bestowed within their creations. Shut your mouth, open your ears and see whats taking place in these changing streets.

Like the compilation, which has sought to use the maverick artist as a starting point for the seven new collaborative compositions, this mix has become something new, a synthetic soundtrack that is neither nostalgic nor irreverent – a future-facing sonic palette that stands as a work of art in its own right.

Lord Tusk appears on Untitled alongside Roxanne Tataei for track ‘Know Ways’. Order a copy of the compilation here.

Tracklist:

Psycabernation
All change
Escape
Tech Heaven
Freakneck
Speech Spirits
Rung
Fallen
Every III Man
Barreras
Lights Out
The Late Jack Wright
In Pursuit of Excellence
International Space Expose
Entract
Muzak for Frogs
Dark Streets
XXX
Always Learning

---

Continue exploring Basquiat on VF:

Jean-Michel changed my life – Artists reflect on Basquiat’s legacy

The making of Untitled – A podcast with Anja Ngozi & Lexy Morvaridi

Changed Streets Soundtrack – Lord Tusk’s homage to Jean-Michel Basquiat

“I recharge his batteries”: Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol in pictures

Legendary DJ Justin Strauss on Basquiat’s New York City

Crate Diggers: Wu-Lu

Dem1ns: Kwake Bass on the music and print crew flipping the script on collaboration