Pardon me... the first time I sent this, I think my mail address was set
wrong so it didn't get accepted. Hope it works this time.
I think the main gripe some people have is the Autechre imitators out
there. I don't see having an influence in Autechre as a bad thing for
any artist, though obviously I'm talking about people who are both
drawing on Ae and innovating in and of themselves (and not just
"knockoffs".) In an interview with Autechre that I've read, they
acknowledged that some artists do imitate them, especially in America.
But one of them (forget whether is was Booth or Brown) said that
imitation and working in established styles is usually how talented
artists cut their teeth and get started, before producing their real
"ouevre." But there's also just plain crappy imitation. Luckily it's
easy to tell them apart, as long as you really listen to it and don't
just shut it off the minute it reminds you of Autechre.
I think a good pop-music contrast would be the Beatles (particularly
their more weird period.) Brilliant stuff, some of their experimental
material presaged developments in electronic music that wouldn't happen
for years. Many, many bands exhibit Beatles influences. The opener on
Wilco's recent "Being there" double album has some very subtle
beatles-ish overtones; some weird things with sound on the later parts
of the album also remind me. I do not see this as bad, because the
influence is only part of Wilco.
Contrast this with Oasis, who seem to have just about zero original
ideas. Everything they do is borrowed from the Beatles, including their
only decent song ("Wonderwall"), written by George Harrison if I
remember correctly.
I think the Autechre issue can be somewhat more frustrating since IMO
they have produced few really good tracks after "Cichlisuite", which
even then was beginning to get uneven. Some have suggested
overinvolvement with software as the cause of their lack of focus; some
people think it's just burnout. I have no clue myself. Autechre's
consistency dropped to the point where their last two albums (counting
the full-length EP7) have only had about four or five good tracks each,
with the rest being crap. (IMO EP7 could have really been an EP, with
just RPEG, OUTPT, DROPP, and PIR.)
I get the impression from some of my musician friends that we're now
waiting for Autechre's successor--not just someone who sounds like Ae
but better, but someone who blows us away and defines a fresh style
while also producing timeless music. I think when this happens it will
come out of left field--maybe from someone who learned how to make
electronic music by imitiating autechre, but who branched out and
started something new. Keep in mind that even autechre's early stuff,
while still stellar, borrows from what was going on at the time. Then
they diverged and became amazing.
--
@@@ david o'toole
@@@ dto@gnu.org
@@@ www.gnu.org/software/octal
--
@@@ david o'toole
@@@ dto@gnu.org
@@@ www.gnu.org/software/octal
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