I read Cex's half-rant as well, and I quite agree with
most of what he has to say. Personally, I do find
that, although I get sucked in occasionally, for the
most part I ignore most of the list. The reason I
remain subscribed is for news related to
IDM/experimental electronic music, and people's
reviews and suggestions of new releases or artists I
haven't heard of.
Every once in a while I try to give content to the
list in the form of a reivew or mention of something
I've liked, because everyone just listens, there's
nothing to hear (let's not get into a discussion of
minimalist art which then will digress into the "what
is music?" thread again)
I think Cex was trying to say that when musicians just
play to themselves to much, they forget why they liked
music in the first place. The purpose of creation
gets mutated into something else, which is alright if
you're into it, but boring if you're not, and it
really shouldn't be at the exclusion of everything
else.
Example: the interview with Sean of Autechre just
linked to the list today - here's a pair of guys who
seem to be totally into just what they do, but they're
into it for the music and the parties, not the endless
rants about what music is or should be.
Kind of like, you grow up watching movies or seeing
plays, and you really want to be an actor, so you take
an acting class, and then you take more and more and
get totally caught up in the world of acting, where
actors act to each other in classes and comment on
each others' performances and what they could improve,
etc. etc. - but forget what got them into it in the
first place: that magic of creationg and stuff -
there's a magic in sitting back and *not thinking* and
just absorbing.
Maybe that's where all the difficulty comes from -
somehow there's come to be a division between peeps
who want to think and dissect, and peeps who just want
to sit back and absorb. I'm more of the sit back and
absorb type, myself. I think the two mentalities
produce different types of music, which can be taken
both ways (absorbed or dissected), but the creators
don't think they can be taken both ways.
I'm beginning to not make sense, and this is much
longer than I'd intended. Basically, respect to Cex
for doing what he wants, and respect to the people on
the list who do what they want, but no respect to
those who think the list should be "this way" or "that
way" - it is what it is, and I'm OK with it so far.
As long as I continue to hear about new artists and
the occasional label news and the even less often free
music offers, this list will serve its purpose for me.
If all of that disappears and is replaced by a bunch
of technical discussion and back-biting amongst
artists who have lost sight of the magic in music,
that's when I'll unsubscribe.
-adam
PS - I don't make computer music and have no intention
of starting; I just like listening. Although someday
I'd like to get back to pretending I can play the
drums, like in high school :P
--- Kent williams <kent@avalon.net> wrote:
quoted 4 lines Cex has an interesting perspective on IDM, the list,
> Cex has an interesting perspective on IDM, the list,
> not the music:
>
> http://tigerbeat6.com/cex/news01/cnews043001.htm
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