IDM Mailing Archive

geez; some "writers" shouldn't be writing; they would be better off leading rallies for their little pet causes. personally, i am incredibly annoyed where the reviewer a) talks about him/herself more than the release reviewed and b) goes on and on about how not only is the release reviewed crap (in the reviewer's opinion) but also the genre from which it comes and various other genres. yuck! tim should trade in his word processor for a soapbox, methinks. too many writers with "issues" out there abusing us readers! andrew :) Greg Clow wrote:

quoted 22 lines Just had to share this laff-riot Pole review that appears in this week's

> Just had to share this laff-riot Pole review that appears in this week's > Now Magazine (Toronto's version of The Village Voice, basically). The guy > who wrote it - Tim Perlich - is basically a jaded hack (like most > professional rock-crits, I guess), so this is exactly the sort of thing > I'd expect him to write: > > POLE CD 1 and CD 2 (Matador) > Rating: N > > The intriguing thing about Pole is not that Stefan Betke was able to > create two distinctly monotonous recordings by trying to control the > crackle of a busted Waldorf filter. Hey, if you had a day job at a > mastering plant listening to terrible German techno for subtle variations > in sonic frequency, errant bits of radio static would probably seem like > an exotic treat worth preserving to you, too. > > No, the real entertainment here is knowing that there are people who will > take at face value the effusive critical praise bestowed upon Pole by > jaded Brit music hacks and actually believe Betke's time-wasting foolery > is the future of dub. Better still, Betke's figured out a way to have > people pay to watch him coax some sputters out of his little filter > set-up. Pole will join Neotropic at Mockingbird Saturday (May 29).

Just had to share this laff-riot Pole review that appears in this week's Now Magazine (Toronto's version of The Village Voice, basically). The guy who wrote it - Tim Perlich - is basically a jaded hack (like most professional rock-crits, I guess), so this is exactly the sort of thing I'd expect him to write: POLE CD 1 and CD 2 (Matador) Rating: N The intriguing thing about Pole is not that Stefan Betke was able to create two distinctly monotonous recordings by trying to control the crackle of a busted Waldorf filter. Hey, if you had a day job at a mastering plant listening to terrible German techno for subtle variations in sonic frequency, errant bits of radio static would probably seem like an exotic treat worth preserving to you, too. No, the real entertainment here is knowing that there are people who will take at face value the effusive critical praise bestowed upon Pole by jaded Brit music hacks and actually believe Betke's time-wasting foolery is the future of dub. Better still, Betke's figured out a way to have people pay to watch him coax some sputters out of his little filter set-up. Pole will join Neotropic at Mockingbird Saturday (May 29).

On 27 May 99, Greg Clow wrote re: (idm) funny Pole review:

quoted 2 lines POLE CD 1 and CD 2 (Matador)

> POLE CD 1 and CD 2 (Matador) > Rating: N

Just a quick question : what does an "N" rating mean? I * np : POLE CD1 ~ you can also mail me at <lime909@hotmail.com>

On Sat, 29 May 1999, Irene McC wrote:

quoted 4 lines POLE CD 1 and CD 2 (Matador)

> > POLE CD 1 and CD 2 (Matador) > > Rating: N > > Just a quick question : what does an "N" rating mean?

Now rates the records they review out of five, using "N" instead of the usual stars. So one N is pretty much the worst rating you can get. For what it's worth - Toronto's *other* weekly arts/ent paper, Eye, give the Pole discs a great review. As did the Toronto Star, Canada's largest newspaper. (They have Ben Rayner, the most techno-savvy mainstram music writer in the country, writing for them - he also gave Theorem's "Ion" a glowing review this week, and had Plastikman, Boards of Canada and Massive Attack in his top ten for '98.) Greg