quoted 7 lines No I can't. As long as there's the possibility that the texture was>> No I can't. As long as there's the possibility that the texture was
>> designed exactly how it was laid down, there's no assumption to be made
>> about why it sounds the way it does.
>
>Well, that's a legitimate point of view, but to me that means abdicating
>from any judgement of production (not musical) quality when you listen to a
>record.
Absolutely not. One thing about electronic music is that the production
and musicianship decisions can happen concurrently with significant
overlap between them. I don't make a distinction between production and
musical quality because I can't be sure where one ends and the other
begins. Your concept of production quality seems to be something akin to
having a private channel *into the artist's brain* at the point *in the
past* when the music was being made and being able to say "They didn't
mean to do that, it was a mistake. It just slipped through." I don't even
know where to begin with that one.
quoted 3 lines Well, I'm a musician, what else can I do? If I'm going to totally suspend my>Well, I'm a musician, what else can I do? If I'm going to totally suspend my
>own listening criteria, I might as well just buy records at random, and say
>Britney Spears is as interesting as Aphex Twin.
That's a ridiculous analogy. You've provided ample evidence that your
listening experience tends to favor the analysis of technique-and-tools
over a face-value hearing of the music, where a perceived misuse of sound
can ruin your position as a listener. Certainly your knowledge of
production can help you to understand why something like that might be
included, rather than limiting your concept of these sounds as errors to
be excluded. This is not to say that "error" has not been used to great
musical effect by Atom Heart, Oval, and DJ Sneak (among others, natch).
quoted 5 lines Sure, I am listening through the filter of my own taste and experience.>Sure, I am listening through the filter of my own taste and experience.
>But that's because a recording (usually) contains some kind of
>intentionality on the part of the artist. They're trying to communicate
>with me as a listener, and poor production may get in the way of my
>understanding what they're attempting to say.
You've really got to look at your use of the word "poor" to describe these
sounds you're hearing, and how it causes you to marginalize production
techniques that may require a greater degree of sophistication to hear as
music. As an admitted newbie to this style of music, you might be
interested (or not...) to explore the wide history of "bad production"
being incorporated the music that is discussed on this list, often to
wonderful effect. You are certainly limiting yourself to a subset of IDM.
Beyond that, regardless of personal taste I don't see how anybody can
imply that someone like Mike Paradinas (to use your example) doesn't know
his way around the tools he uses to create his sounds.
quoted 7 lines Maybe it's a valid 'choice' to leave digital artefacts scattered at>Maybe it's a valid 'choice' to leave digital artefacts scattered at
>random across a CD, but then it's an equally valid choice not to bother
>playing in time or in tune on conventional instruments. I suspect you
>can tell the difference between a deliberately twisted rendition of
>something and one that is merely played badly, the same way you can tell
>the difference between a kid getting their first violin lesson and
>Yehudi Mehuhin.
I suppose you'd have to have a way of determining that the artifacts were
indeed "scattered randomly". Is "I can't figure out what the relevance is"
a sufficient definition of "random"? You can read one of John Cage's many
books to gain some insight into the use of randomness to musical ends. At
any rate, I'm not interested in any discussion of validity. Can one not
use child's play in creating deliberately twisted works, or deliberately
twist something to sound like child's play? Insert your own VVM, Basquiat,
or Wesley Willis joke here.
-eric
onnow: Pullman, "Turnstyles and Junkpiles" (Thrill Jockey)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org
For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org