tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post6575342109000632411..comments2023-09-25T22:26:25.692+10:00Comments on mnml ssgs: D&E: we need to talk about Blando...(scattered speculations on why the d&e soufflé ain't rising in 2011)chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17030219185948353658noreply@blogger.comBlogger107125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-91849477441380989092011-12-21T05:43:53.388+11:002011-12-21T05:43:53.388+11:00how are your observations holding up as 2011 comes...how are your observations holding up as 2011 comes to a close?<br /><br />Not surprisingly, Kyle Hall and Mount Kimbie are still here.Tyler Weaverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03661953939996540007noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-56512965548246885022011-09-13T23:09:05.743+10:002011-09-13T23:09:05.743+10:00"We shape our tools, and then our tools shape..."We shape our tools, and then our tools shape us, and then, somehow, most of us become tools holding tools, tweeting each other about the latest mix tools made on our favourite tools, which we play and send to each other – on our tools. What a bunch of tools. Lonely, needy, compulsive tools."<br /><br />Pure, modern poetry. Describes the current culture poignantly. Thank you for such a great post!Geohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08908989674320477923noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-15383262901275324212011-09-09T06:05:04.728+10:002011-09-09T06:05:04.728+10:00You write like some producers programme, very tech...You write like some producers programme, very technical and trying too hard to be cool. Just say what you mean without wrapping it up in cool words to impress your friendsindicahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04953581622590448008noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-29989701515484347122011-09-03T08:04:18.406+10:002011-09-03T08:04:18.406+10:00If you haven't heard any great new music this ...If you haven't heard any great new music this year you're either completely deaf or a massive idiot. There's plenty out there to be enjoyed.Clovishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00400088147258237931noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-71727595032340205742011-08-28T07:56:01.447+10:002011-08-28T07:56:01.447+10:00There is so much good music out there if you look ...There is so much good music out there if you look closely. I really resonate with a lot of Russ's points... cant quite believe you took the time to write all that but my hat goes off to you. <br /><br />Some of you sound like you have too much of a good thing you really do... thats why youre bored perhaps? Take a break, then get on with finding the music that inspires you. That maybe kindles some creative resonse in you! If its what you love, enjoy it. If not, bog off! Simples.Davehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05871698451738502552noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-40499647292730752102011-07-11T13:35:38.083+10:002011-07-11T13:35:38.083+10:00This comment has been removed by the author.Captain Pantshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08009414711032501046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-86106607823432992842011-07-01T01:10:20.267+10:002011-07-01T01:10:20.267+10:00I mean - "Djembe and grass skirt"? reall...I mean - "Djembe and grass skirt"? really??!?Jason Carrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14734715353982487891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-83245331646351406612011-07-01T01:01:20.782+10:002011-07-01T01:01:20.782+10:00@PC - ugh I wish you hadn't brought up the who...@PC - ugh I wish you hadn't brought up the whole "black guy on the cover" thing. Does that really contribute to your overall argument? I'm afraid you lost a little credibility from the start with all that...Jason Carrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14734715353982487891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-86008403324216428402011-07-01T00:34:10.150+10:002011-07-01T00:34:10.150+10:00Well Dav, just read this far and I think you'r...Well Dav, just read this far and I think you're right : More passion is required and more quality vs quantity. Cheers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-25066611110868375292011-07-01T00:14:46.711+10:002011-07-01T00:14:46.711+10:00Interesting read, can't say that I am in compl...Interesting read, can't say that I am in complete agreement with everything you've written, but for the most part you hit the nail square.<br /><br />To me, electronic music was at it's pinacle about 10 years ago. There was some fantastic music about, an exciting scene, and excellent gigs. Things have slowly gone downhill from there but the causes are pretty obvious.<br /><br />MP3s ABSOLUTELY hold some responsibility. It is utterly mind melting why at the same time that people demand HD videos and TV, Blue ray discs etc, the majority of music is listened to in an absolutely terrible format. Probably through some dreadful earbud headphones, probably little White ones....<br /><br />without wanting to go too in-depth in the matter, the net result is, from my expeiance, a communal shoulder shrug and "why bother trying" attitude. People no longer put any real value in media, it collects like dust in their hard drives, and as you say, never gets fully explored as it ought. Therefor, the artist and labels are no longer motivated to try create something truly deep or meaningful, it would feel like a wasted effort almost.<br /><br />and along the same lines, aside from the debate over music live vs music for listening.. The unfortunate truth is that unless you are one of the lucky minority, making a living from music sales is impossible. It is about making your crust from gigging now, which as you mentioned, is exhausting. Releases are not about wishing to share ideas and show your music to the world, they have become advertisements, promotion for bookings.<br /><br />You no longer gig to promote an album, you release an album in order to gig. Not saying if this is good or bad, just fact...<br /><br />the way out is somewhat unclear, but I think rests a lot on re evaluating just what music means to all of us. For the listener, it can be the soundtrack for your life, the world you choose to exist in, and the mirror for your emotions. To the artist it is a bold expression of self, what will eventually be their legacy, and how the world will know them. <br /><br />If people could admit to themselves just how important music is to them, and to each other, perhaps they could treat it with a little more respect and decorum. Not just flooding their drives with free drivel, but treasuring each piece that they buy, and fully appreciating it's value.<br /><br />anyways, I have old fashioned opinions, but to be far, doubt that anyone would read this far down the thread!<br /><br />great article, thanks for a good read!Davhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03073546023110240757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-61201243065119306012011-06-30T20:15:28.907+10:002011-06-30T20:15:28.907+10:00@frequencies - damn blogger needs threaded comment...@frequencies - damn blogger needs threaded comments.<br /><br />Really like that idea man. Am trying to get some locals together for a regular music & events review site, would love contributions of reviews of just *ANY* good piece of music.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-9809315530268518392011-06-30T19:46:19.490+10:002011-06-30T19:46:19.490+10:00I read everything and I enjoyed reading them all. ...I read everything and I enjoyed reading them all. <br /><br />But this makes me feel soooo glad I'm not the academic type in the slightest, simpleminded even, and when I listen to music it's all simple and rarely too much more than whether it's fascinating to me and makes me want to listen to it again and again.やまぐhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04334424855816414899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-12162555543860007822011-06-30T18:54:21.772+10:002011-06-30T18:54:21.772+10:00great article. I have to say though that I feel t...great article. I have to say though that I feel the breakcore/hard dnb scenes are pretty original still. In fact its the development of subgenres almost daily where originality is to be found I think.<br /><br />I love your article though, both the point of view and the phrasing.<br /><br />And you say there's no journalism in music? What's this then?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-62049825600243262252011-06-30T08:27:30.266+10:002011-06-30T08:27:30.266+10:00@ Sherburne & on the Stott, this is from the F...@ Sherburne & on the Stott, this is from the FACT review:<br /><br />“At a time when dub techno is one of the laziest and least inspiring genres in electronic music, one of the brightest people at its peripheries shows just how far into the jungle those borders extend, and it’s one hell of a place to visit. Hopefully you can make it out alive."PChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11828854682227101864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-47203599143655171232011-06-29T22:42:11.076+10:002011-06-29T22:42:11.076+10:00@PC, I thought you might interpret my use of the w...@PC, I thought you might interpret my use of the words like "thoughtful" as being synonymous with contrived. On this we will have to disagree, as I simply don't hear the justification for it being lumped in with the names you mention. <br /><br />I don't know anything of the hype surrounding the record (thank god by the sound of it), so this really hasn't affected me. I have simply enjoyed his productions greatly over the years, and feel this album is definitely a continuation of the path he set on "tell me anything" (one of my favorite releases of last year). <br /><br />I look forward to reading your praise for John Maus, whom I feel is quite untouchable at the moment.never really beganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08919666571746723630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-33498151687336055202011-06-29T19:32:32.145+10:002011-06-29T19:32:32.145+10:00@ none
& almost everyone else
time to chime ...@ none<br /><br />& almost everyone else<br /><br />time to chime and say, yeah, thank you so much everyone for a really stimulating and interesting discussion so far. I will be offline for a while over the next day or two, so you peepz will have to continue without my further clarification (thank goodness, you say...)<br /><br />To re-iterate: thank you, everyone :)PChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11828854682227101864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-52458844534033273752011-06-29T18:43:35.518+10:002011-06-29T18:43:35.518+10:00@ pc
you got me there!
great post btw, seems t...@ pc <br /><br />you got me there! <br /><br />great post btw, seems to be stimulating alot of discussion, which is always a good thing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-73256309166269734982011-06-29T18:39:48.550+10:002011-06-29T18:39:48.550+10:00@ pipecock: ah, pipecock, I admire your remorseles...@ pipecock: ah, pipecock, I admire your remorseless, relentless 'perspective'. And, btw, 'it's not a narrative, it's a series of people and artifacts'. From what perspective/how are you able to say 'it's a series'? What makes it a set? What makes that set sensible/sensical...? Surely not... storytelling?<br /><br />@ PSherb: hmm, yeah, you're totally right, it *is* presumptous of me. Perhaps it is critical/playful. Does at strike you as that though? It's not as if Andy S 'owes me' anything as a fan of his; his directions are a matter for him, that's his creative freedom. I just can't follow him here, and, you know, the way I see it, it's just (sorry, this sounds wanky, but, you know, I'm a bit of a wanker, so...) it is semiotically disingenuous to have a b&w grainy cover with a 'man of African appearance' on the cover, w/ facial scarrings, and then say - but hey, it's not about Africa and all the associated concepts and phantasms that cluster around it. Okay, this is my subjective reading, and, of course, it is no more than that. But that's my reading. And I think Andy got a lot of rope for... well, several of the reasons mentioned in the post. Your authority as a justly respected writer, Philip, is key among them. As is the pitchfork stamp ?prong? of approval. Positioning is interesting, and an important aspect of the way Iisten to and understand music. <br /><br />Oh, and exhibit the next:<br /><br />http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=2959170<br /><br />@ never really began: my hit count on my player says seven full listens, and I would say that three of them have been close, two on the headphones, one on the speakers. <br /><br />It's not 'muddy' in the sense of just, you know, mush, or thoughtless - there's a lot of thought that's gone in to the sound design. It's just that, like a lot of on-trend records (peaking lights springs to mind straight away, Night Jewel also, but I see it elsewhere, I'm happy to name names), AS has deliberately used a lot of techniques to fuck with what would be considered by, you know, a Steely Dan fan, as muddy/low fi/cheap/fucked up/degraded, etc... <br /><br />And, you know, I really *tried* to like this record, based on what I'd been told about it/read about it on the interwebz. It was hyped as interesting, important, new, and exciting. I don't think it lacks merit, I just think, you know, it's okay. And, as should be really obvious by now, I think the disjuncture between the recording and its reception says something, more than just my disaffection for this release.<br /><br />I like the Peaking Lights record a lot, for example. And the John Maus album, which is retro/pastiche/nostalgia dialled up to eleven. But somehow both are more interesting, creative, engaging to me...PChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11828854682227101864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-45552102161170832332011-06-29T15:14:45.814+10:002011-06-29T15:14:45.814+10:00I mean, to my mind, any discussion of "interc...I mean, to my mind, any discussion of "interconnectedness" (or indeed "historically minded... texts") is by definition a kind of narrative. But, hey, that's a perspective I got from my studies that's deeply ingrained. I'm not gonna get hung up on whether or not we agree on what to call it. (But I still say it's a narrative. ;))Philip Sherburnehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16442490702959919081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-64921439018910446162011-06-29T14:40:18.494+10:002011-06-29T14:40:18.494+10:00It's not a narrative. It's a series of peo...It's not a narrative. It's a series of people and artifacts. If you want to impose a story on it, then you're making up something where there was nothing. I don't really care for "waves" as the media has called them, I'm not even really all that interested in the fictions the artists themselves come up with to go with their music (Drexciya, Jeff Mills, Juan Atkins, etc). All this is distantly secondary to the power of the records and the skills of the deejays. No story necessary! I find personal details of the artists that perhaps give a bit of insight into their personality, because I think that helps explain their music's personality for people a bit more. That's why I'm a fan of interviews and straight up historically minded dance music texts. I'm not really into the Simon Reynolds style of analysis.pipecockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11092825988675368839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-24028730526197765872011-06-29T14:06:37.967+10:002011-06-29T14:06:37.967+10:00Just by chance, I came across this quote from Anto...Just by chance, I came across this quote from Antony on Pitchfork today, and it seems very relevant. I can certainly sympathize with him, and I envy his ability to get off the internet, to a certain degree; I can't really afford to, as it's my livelihood. <br /><br />"The Internet might be useful for creating revolution, but all it's creating in the Western world is more passivity, more disconnection. It's a fucking nightmare. When I was 20 years old in New York City, do you think you walked into a coffee shop and saw 40 people staring at $2,000 purchases all made from the same company? And those are all the artists! I talk to young musicians now, and they're just happy to be making records that get released. They don't even consider that, in the old days, they could making a living by selling records. They don't even get paid for their work. All that money just goes to Apple and they're happy to just have people going to their shows. It just took two generations for Apple and similar companies to convince artists they don't deserve to get paid and that they should just be grateful for the tools that Apple is providing us to make our work, as if we need them to make our art. It's very, very fucked up.<br /><br />I've stopped using the Internet, basically. I text, but I've whittled that down. I'm trying to just revert to a landline. I don't want to live in computer time. The Internet doesn't care if we've had enough."Philip Sherburnehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16442490702959919081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-62132821658234261102011-06-29T14:04:27.542+10:002011-06-29T14:04:27.542+10:00"to me there is only one thing that makes Det..."to me there is only one thing that makes Detroit what it is: a steady stream of awesome records, labels, and deejays that are all interconnected."<br /><br />But dude, that's a narrative!Philip Sherburnehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16442490702959919081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-4668033380593751692011-06-29T13:55:36.814+10:002011-06-29T13:55:36.814+10:00"I'm not particularly into "narrativ..."I'm not particularly into "narratives" as such, I think that is part of the failure of rock music journalism crossing over into dance land."<br /><br />Excellent Pipecock.never really beganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08919666571746723630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-64718156039534146962011-06-29T13:49:44.165+10:002011-06-29T13:49:44.165+10:00I can assure you, the thought "Africa" b...I can assure you, the thought "Africa" barely registered when I saw Stott's album cover. That is a fantastic image (one I am glad to have seen), that evokes so many more thoughts than the idea of "piggybacking off Arica" encourages. It was, to me, chosen quie thoughtfully, and certainly not infected with the cynicism you have chosen endow upon it. I would even say, that in it's thoughtfulness, it bares no relation to any of the other covers you decided to post, as some kind of evidence. <br /><br />I think your approach to this issue has been quite lazy; as I think your term "muddy" is lazy, for what is an excellently produced piece of work. Actually it's not muddy at all, in production terms.<br /><br />Isn't your problem with the front cover really just an attempt to subsume it into your over arching belief, that this realease in general, is a cheap attempt at originality? Doesn't this suggest too much predjudice involved in your approach to this release, and not enough critical anlysis? Has this release fallen victim to your current piece of writing? You mentioned it deserved time, have you given it any?never really beganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08919666571746723630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7220957931635097123.post-25452801337838564272011-06-29T12:51:59.674+10:002011-06-29T12:51:59.674+10:00There's a pretty obvious distinction between a...There's a pretty obvious distinction between a myth that serves to teach an idea vs. one that serves only to perpetuate a falsehood (especially one that happens to allow people to make lots of $$$). Perhaps my lack of heavy drug use (I've never done E, K, coke, etc., and I don't even really drink either!) has kept me grounded in reality, but I've never had that "this music doesn't really mean what I thought it meant" crash. I've looked on every E'd up PLUR raver as a deluded mess, not someone who "gets" this music. I'm not saying that it's impossible to achieve a higher state of consciousness through this music, quite the opposite in fact. I do believe it is possible, and I've seen it. I do think it has very much to do with the right kinds of records being played, and the right kind of crowd (generally not those on the above mentioned drugs I have not done. I can see pot, alcohol in moderation, and maybe some psychedelic use as a good indication that the crowd is in the right frame of mind...) along with a talented deejay and good soundsystem and space being the truly essential ingredients. It's not mysticism, but it ain't exactly rocket science either! <br /><br />I'm not particularly into "narratives" as such, I think that is part of the failure of rock music journalism crossing over into dance land. I do find it valuable to know history, and to be able to play musical connect-the-dots between eras. This is a different thing altogether, tho. I know you guys have called out the Detroit "mythology" card before, but to me there is only one thing that makes Detroit what it is: a steady stream of awesome records, labels, and deejays that are all interconnected.pipecockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11092825988675368839noreply@blogger.com