OK, since the little controversy of Ae's kiss-off note to IDM-l a
couple of days back, which consisted the regurgiation of some
pagefuls of hotwords and finishing off thus:
" we tried to work out what we'd have to become to feel comfortable
on this list. we decided not to go there. "
I've decided to do a little analysis on the circumstances surrounding
their departure.
The penultimate posting from our pals lambasted some unwitting
<mark@sonance.demon.co.uk> personage analysing their recent EP7
release and speculating on the future of Autechre, concluding
" Like I said, I've no specific problem with 'ep7', but it does
highlight a possible danger that Autechre could swiftly disappear
up their own arse if they're not careful. "
Obviously Ae weren't impressed by some punter forecasting their fate.
" trying to predict the future is as pointless as this posting. relax
and enjoy the present while you still can.
sean. "
Other <lota@pop3.demon.co.uk> postings (mainly from a s., presumably
Sean) included the following:
June 12 in response to the computer geekery and idm thread:
" it would be interesting to find out how idm members use their
computers.
s. "
June 7 on gamelan music:
" check out all basf "world sound" cassette releases.
they have relased shitloads of otherwise unheard gamelan stuff
internationally
and its really cheap.
also contact universitas warmadewa in denpasar. much stuff there.
s. "
June 7 in response to <godpup@ix.netcom.com> spilging thus:
" anyway, back to ae. same fucking sounds as the last album with the
exact (well, pretty damn close at least..) digital signal
processing. i think they must have, let's say 20-30 songs total,
and have remixed, re-hacked, and re-released the same damn thing
over the past five years. " ,
Mr. S replied
" i was wondering which sounds were the same?
can you be more specific?
s. "
I think Sean and Rob have a point. From their postings, it's quite
apparent that they thought the IDM list was about music and sound.
They made a couple of tentative attempts to enter the fray with
seemingly appropriate responses about music making with computers and
gamelans.
It didn't take them long to realise that IDM was not in fact the list
they thought it was, but rather the sort of list where members engage
in endless cant and twaddle about record collection dicksizing,
how very strongly---!!! some cats feel about Tom Jenkinson------,
infinity and typing monkeys and how they relate to the inherent
musicality of using samples, in particular the ubiquitous "Amen,
Brother!" break, the sexual proclivities of Richard Dogbert James
(that Salbutamol kid), how the name of track 2 on the Windowlicker
single is a Weitzman expression referring to the track, whether
Funkstörung are ripping off Fatboy Slim or not, the role of script
kiddie unions in the dissemination of Japanese gabber, 'chiqs in
IDM', whether mp3's represent good value for money, the relative
merits of competing nightclubs in Perth, Scotland, killer apps for 8-
tracks, Farmers Manual remixing Britney Spears, whether anyone gives
a goats bollocks about demo/tracker groups that have sold out and
gone mp3 only, the value of Lego Feet, the tDR issue of Emigré
magazine, and Pamela Anderson's used breast implants as collectors
items, whether The Orb were inspired by klezmer music, places to shop
for IDM records in Austin, TX, whether or not to go to th@ Burning
Man thing, whether the Wire is pure wank, the brand of the clock that
Flavor Flav wears about his neck, whether having an introduced
species of ruminant selectively grazing a patch of ground and then
eating the ruminant is better than clearfelling that ground and
growing introduced crops, the ethics of taping shortwave broadcasts
of American fundamentalist Christian rant engines, whether Christina
Ricci is thE sex avatar of the cosmos, whether Lemmy of Motörhead
should grow his beard back, whether Bill Laswell makes shite dub or
not, whether Jean-Michel Jarre is a brilliant artist and a credit to
the French people, fascinating skin diseases used as names for IDM
labels, how the apparent userfriendliness of Roland's groove gear
soon turns to frustration as one realises how bloody difficult it is
to produce something with a MC505 that doesn't sound like hackneyed
acid house, where the coolest place in the universe is: Detroit or
Sheffield, whether artists got paid for having their music used in
Beetle commercials, "Cute" John Peel vs Richard "Kuddly" Kingsmill DJ
showdowns, postmodernism applied to the role of disk jockey as
interpreter of our hopes and dreams, potential soundtracks for a
movie adaptation of "Neuromancer", "The Illuminatus Trilogy", or "The
Little Engine That Could", if kicking a tin can down a gravel lane
automatically constitutes a live performance of IDM, whether wearing
adidas brings good karma, and of course, whether Jimi Hendrix be
writing ambient music if he was alive, and if he was would he sound
like Yanni or the Future Sound of Podunk, and of course the burning
question we've all asked ourselves at one stage or another: what are
they building in there?
Sean and Rob know, and they're not telling us. Best to wait until
they see fit to unveil the work.
Which brings me back to the first statement I quoted.
" we tried to work out what we'd have to become to feel comfortable
on this list. we decided not to go there. "
Let's face it, if they became active participants on this list, they
would have to face the continual analysis and speculation on their
lifes work. They might be willing to put up with the occasional
exegesis of their product in magazine articles, where they would be
able to explain their craft to the reporter in a more broadband
manner. Even then, there would be some heartburn as the journalist
wrote the story in his words, which would probably be further edited
before publication. The meaning they tried to convey would be lost.
Sure, they might've found this mailing list a suitable medium to
explain themselves, being able to clear up misconceptions and bring
up a different angle on their work, that of the creator. But I doubt
it. Their initial missives were lost in the noise, being too minimal
in their engagement of this audience. And if they chose to make their
pronouncements more amplified, they would end up distorting the
message, and consequently distort the reception to their music.
In the pressure cooker environment of a public forum, one might
imagine that they might be tempted into spending more time justifying
how they sequence the "bleep"'s and "bloop"'s and "zzzzt-krkl"'s they
have released, than they would spend in their ultrasecret laboratory
cooking up strange and frightening new sounds like "bing". They would
run the risk of turning into DJ Spooky. And as they became public
figures, they would slowly find their soul being sucked away
by the omnivorous intentions of the typical genredropping IDM geek.
They would become stressed. They would start taking Prozac. They
would start doing concept albums about the heady days of the Summer
of Love. They would make lots of money. They would forget about the
music. They would start trying to fly balloons to the Moon. They
would asphyxiate and die. We would have killed them. It would be our
fault. Autechre would become the Princess Diana of the music world.
It is quite clear now why they pulled out. If the cost of their
participation in this list was to corrupt the impact of their music
on us, then it was better that they stay out of the fray and to just
transmit, and to let us receive. Better to avoid the demystification
of their unique form of expression. Better to not grow fat and
entertain delusions of grandeur. Such are the hazards of
audient/artiste interaction.
We should be eternally grateful to them that they pissed off out of
here, so we can listen to their music without prejudice.
-- Graham H Freeman
np: Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band: The Mountain.
--
Graham Hubert Freeman. Graham the Happy Scum. WWGD.
Your computer has been Alstoned.
http://www.mpx.com.au/~gths mailto:gths@flat-earth.org
... you will never know, how much i love you...