MNML SSGS began on 11 December 2007. While
we definitely had plans when we commenced the blog, we certainly had no
expectation that it would ever develop in the way it has. A lot of time,
energy, thought, love and luck has shaped the path(s) MNML SSGS has taken
in the intervening 4.5 years. It has
been a weird and wonderful ride, but it is time to bring the blog to an end.
Even though the blog is closing, Chris will
be continuing to fly the MNML SSGS flag in Tokyo through putting on more parties, doing some more DJ'ing and engaging in some other
activities that he hasn’t quite worked out. The Sound Garden chill out
parties will be continuing, with the next ones being on Sunday 22 July and
Sunday 9 September. There is also another MNML SSGS club night at Module
planned for later in the year on Saturday 17 November. For more information
about these and other activities, Chris has set up a MNML SSGS TKY tumblr,
which he will be regularly updating, and he will continue to operate the MNML SSGS twitter account. After
some rest and time out, there are plans to start some new projects. He is not sure
what, how or when these will occur, but Chris is not done
with electronic music, that’s for sure.
PC intends to continue the critical and
reflective trajectory of ssgs ‘in some form’ as yet undecided. It may well
involve an online presence, but would most likely be heavily text-based, though
in a way which, if it works against the medium, deliberately sets out to do so
in a creative and productive way. It may also feature interviews, interactions
with live events, even recordings, though more like PC’s semi-regular radio
appearances. It would also emanate from Melbourne, though it could hardly be
‘Australian content’ in that horrible cultural cringe-responsive,
cringe-inducing way. For this reason it will have no relation to any iteration
of the ABC, living or dead. Likely as not, it will not be a blog; it will not
have a comment box; it will not be called MNML SSGS – but it may embody its
spirit, in some rearranged form.
The MNML SSGS blog may be complete, but we are interested
in maybe finding a way to continue to connect the community of likeminded souls
that we have found through doing this. In case that happens, we are creating a mailing list as a way of being able to update you
of any future plans that may eventuate. There definitely will
not be any regular emails, so in case you would like to subscribe, please do so here.
We will be leaving all the content of the blog online – including the mixes – and we hope that it will still have some use, either as a historical record of one particular take on electronic music between 2007 – 2012, or as a resource for people interested in exploring some of the sounds we have featured on the blog. We are proud of what is here and believe it has – in some small way – a certain enduring value.
We will be leaving all the content of the blog online – including the mixes – and we hope that it will still have some use, either as a historical record of one particular take on electronic music between 2007 – 2012, or as a resource for people interested in exploring some of the sounds we have featured on the blog. We are proud of what is here and believe it has – in some small way – a certain enduring value.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed
to and supported MNML SSGS over the years.
MNML SSGS / Chris and PC
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Terre Thaemlitz Terre's Neu Wuss Fusion (2007 Archive of Silence Mix) from thisfatzoo on Vimeo.
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MNML SSGSが誕生した2007年12月11日から早4年半。
ブログとしてのMNML SSGSは終わっても、クリスは東京を拠点にリアルでのMNML SSGS活動、そしてDJ活動を続けます。
PCは、いわゆる「ミュージックジャーナリズム」や「ブログ」
定期的なコミュニケーションはもうなくなりますが、
ブログのコンテンツやミックスシリーズは今のままネット上に残し
最後に、MNML SSGSをサポートしてきて下さった皆様。MNML SSGSに関わって下さった皆様。改めまして、4年半もの間、
MNML SSGS / Chris and PC
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Chris: ‘The
end is important in all things.’
'When
guests are leaving, the mood of being reluctant to say farewell is essential.
If this mood is lacking, one will appear bored and the day and evening’s
conversation will disappear.'
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
MNML SSGS was always an experiment of sorts – it was an attempt to make a
critical intervention on our own terms. There has always been a critical intent in what we have tried to do, and by this I mean not
simply offering criticism, but also providing alternatives, standing for
something and trying to carve out our own particular (and personal) vision of
what electronic music should be. This was never meant to be an open-ended project, however.
Yes, we could keep publishing mixes, putting together the occasional think
piece or round up and so on, but we have done all of this, and we have done it
for quite some time now. In this specific format and structure, I doubt we can
come any closer to achieving our core aims. A more basic reason why it feels like the right time for the blog to end is a very simple one: I am tired. I don’t have enough energy left for it. It is time to take a step back, rest and gain fresh inspiration so that I can find a new way to contribute.
It is quite difficult for me to really
comprehend properly the distance I have travelled – physically, mentally,
emotionally – between when the blog started and now. MNML SSGS commenced at the
end of 2007 when I was in living in Canberra, and since then I have spent a
couple of years in the UK before relocating to my current home of Tokyo.
The blog was founded between 4 people. Dave: my oldest and closest musical
friend, Cam: the person that joined us together and subsequently departed, and
Peter: my very dear friend, sparring partner and trusted co-pilot. Dave has
always been the silent partner in the back seat, Cam got out at some point, and
Peter and I have driven the ssgs bus together the rest of the way. But the close personal relationships relating to the blog extend well beyond these 4 people: one of the most rewarding parts of doing MNML SSGS has been the many wonderful people I have had the chance to connect with over the years. A defining moment for me that sums all of this up was Labyrinth 2008. Arriving on my birthday, over the next few days I met the woman I am now very lucky to call my wife, and a number of people that have become some of my closest and most trusted friends. And though Labyrinth is the obvious reference point, through the blog I have been fortunate to connect with people literally all over the world. The
majority of my musical life was lived in near isolation – pre-internet, in
Australia and with only Dave to keep me company – so to go from that to a
situation where I have been able to meet, engage and develop friendships with many like-minded people has been something I have really
appreciated.
The blog has been a powerful learning experience for me in many different ways. Musically, my tastes have changed and evolved over the years, as can be evidenced from the various posts in the archive. While some readers may have viewed MNML SSGS as a resource, for me it has been an incredibly good way for discovering more. I have learned more about music in the last 4.5 years than I have in the rest of my years combined. And during this time I have also found out - through trial and error - more about how the internet works, the power (and problems) of words and so on. There have been mistakes and missteps over the years, but this has all been part of the process. Another incredibly valuable lesson I have learned through doing the blog is simply what is possible. We built MNML SSGS from scratch into something that has had – in its own unique, limited way – some kind of ‘impact’. My point here is not to try to make claims about what we have done, but to hopefully leave our experience as something that others can benefit from. If you care about electronic music and you want to contribute, you can. It is not easy: it takes a huge amount of time, energy, persistence and much more, but it is possible for you to play your part. One of the great things about electronic music is that there is plenty of space to move and groove. There are lots of opportunities out there, and plenty of ways that you can make a contribution. And doing so does not simply mean making music or DJ’ing – the scene is reliant on so many other people: organisers, journalists, bloggers, label owners, and of course, those that buy the music and go to the parties. For years I wanted to be able to contribute more to the music I so dearly loved, but I felt I couldn't because I wasn't a DJ, producer or promoter. Eventually I found through doing this blog that there was a way I could do something and play my part. If you want, you can too.
The blog has been a powerful learning experience for me in many different ways. Musically, my tastes have changed and evolved over the years, as can be evidenced from the various posts in the archive. While some readers may have viewed MNML SSGS as a resource, for me it has been an incredibly good way for discovering more. I have learned more about music in the last 4.5 years than I have in the rest of my years combined. And during this time I have also found out - through trial and error - more about how the internet works, the power (and problems) of words and so on. There have been mistakes and missteps over the years, but this has all been part of the process. Another incredibly valuable lesson I have learned through doing the blog is simply what is possible. We built MNML SSGS from scratch into something that has had – in its own unique, limited way – some kind of ‘impact’. My point here is not to try to make claims about what we have done, but to hopefully leave our experience as something that others can benefit from. If you care about electronic music and you want to contribute, you can. It is not easy: it takes a huge amount of time, energy, persistence and much more, but it is possible for you to play your part. One of the great things about electronic music is that there is plenty of space to move and groove. There are lots of opportunities out there, and plenty of ways that you can make a contribution. And doing so does not simply mean making music or DJ’ing – the scene is reliant on so many other people: organisers, journalists, bloggers, label owners, and of course, those that buy the music and go to the parties. For years I wanted to be able to contribute more to the music I so dearly loved, but I felt I couldn't because I wasn't a DJ, producer or promoter. Eventually I found through doing this blog that there was a way I could do something and play my part. If you want, you can too.
The only thing left for me to say is ‘thanks’.
Doing this blog has been an incredible experience and I feel deeply grateful to
everyone who has contributed to it. We have been very fortunate to have had so many
people support us – the artists, the labels, many other people in the scene,
the various sites and blogs we’ve bounced off, official.fm and
good ol’ blogspot, and, of course, all of you for listening, reading and
engaging with us. There are many people I could thank
individually, but they know who they are. I would, however, like to specifically
thank my wife Yuri for all her love and support, as well as providing very
valuable help with the Japanese translations on the blog and twitter. And most
of all, I would like to thank Peter. I can honestly say Peter is
one of the most truly excellent people I know and it
has been a privilege and a pleasure to do MNML SSGS with him. This blog is as
much about my friendship with him as it is about music. I’ll leave it at that.
Thank you ssgs. Catch you on a (non-existent)
dancefloor again soon.
Chris
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PC: Stick a fork in it and turn it over – it's done
The passage of ssgs passing and past
This has been a real
adventure. We started ssgs as an experiment for ourselves, and as a response to
what we thought were the deficiencies of the way electronic music was being
written about at the time. It was about finding a way to say... something we wanted to say... in a way we were
comfortable saying. It was about making a space for this 'something to say', a
space that didn't exist in the way most dancefloors do, but that was available
because of the materials we had access to. But at the same time, I can only say
all that retrospectively. It's funny how we have cultural frames for
premeditation and preemption, but struggle with meditation and emption, and can
barely conceive of postmeditation and postemption. There's a quote from The Man Without Qualities where Musil
conceives the course of history as being like the passage of clouds that
captures something important about this. He writes:
The course of history was therefore not that of a billiard ball, which, once it is hit, takes a definite line – but resembles the movement of clouds, or the path of a man sauntering through the streets, turned aside by a shadow here, a crowd there, an unusual architectural outcrop, until at last he arrives at a place he never knew or meant to go to. Inherent in the course of history is a certain going off course.
Processing ssgs: the starting and sustaining
thereof
For me this is what
the process was actually like, much more like meandering, bumping into music
and people that interested or repelled us, ending up somewhere we hadn't
expected, ending up defending something we only realised we'd built at the very
moment we were engaged in fighting for it. I don't want to get defensive about
the structure we've built, I think it's defensible. It's weaknesses and follies
are all our own... I hope also it shows you that anyone can do what we've done,
there's nothing special about any of the components, they're still all there. It's
among the things I enjoyed doing the most, building something then defending
it. I guess I never outgrew my Lego sets, and my particular fondness for
re-building the castles contrary to the instructions. That's not what was
challenging about the whole thing, I have to say...
It's not difficult to
start a blog; many I know have started blogs, or talk about wanting to do so.
It seems to be a common wish, still:
start a blog, express yourself, reach a public, become something. That's what
we wanted, too. And yet... what doing a blog over so many years has taught me
is that it's much more difficult to keep going, to sustain things. There are
moments of inspiration, and there is momentum, but often it's a matter of
continuing when you're tired of the routine, impatient for new patterns (and
hoping someone else will make them for you), or just plain old fashioned bored
(especially of your own schtick). This can be doubly stressful when you're
supposed to be the people providing an excess of passion and enthusiasm.
Boredom is also
fundamental though, and not least of all to the future of any possible
sustained storybuilding. And so is silence. But even then, to repeat, it's hard
to sustain something... much harder than beginning it. The Spanish author
Javier Marias talks about this: much easier to imagine something, to dream up a
story, than it is to really sustain that vision, to see it through to the end.
I wish the keyboards we use had a sustain pedal. We seem to need to keep
hitting the same notes, with various attacks, in order to strike the kind of
chords that might resonate in the space we made. Perhaps I should have done my
piano practice, as mum instructed, instead of dreaming over Lego.
habit-forming ssgs (now with 30% more wrinkles)
A stone never acquires
the habit of its trajectory. Not only are no two throws the same, they never
tend, with repeated throwing, to form a habitual arc. Unlike us. That's another
thing that makes ssgs different from stones. We're creatures of habit, and
creatures of habit carry the scratches of their repetitive paths: 680 posts, to be precise - and god knows how many comments, how many words. It's easy to
see now, as we end the blog, how note and passage worked, one by one, mix by
mix, toward a collection of grooves that have deep relations to one another,
that mix. The round and round of ssgs has made a lasting impression on me. Ssgs
is in the mix for the rest of my life. Then again (again) I don't remember
everything; I re-read the shit I wrote and I am actually surprised by myself: 'I said that?' Or, on the other hand:
'fuck, I've been saying the same thing over and over since we started, with
only the tiniest variations.' Upon re-reading, I notice that some of what we
wrote was okay, it didn't even make me cringe or flinch. This is as close to
contentment as I ever am with anything I've ever written; I don't like the way
this post is going... it sounds too much like... me...
our pop crackle present: this beautiful ssg box
I can say confidently
that most of the music we presented was really magnificent. In fact I'm quite
astonished at how well it turned out. This is what makes the archives so
precious. Now that all's said and done for the purposes of the blog, this is
what I feel the strongest fidelity to. I'm very proud of the archive we've
managed to put together, and the way in which, as a gathered thing you can put
in the ssg box, it marks out a space in time that I am thankful for being a
part of.
And most of all,
finally: thank you for listening.
PC
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