Woah boy!!! If anyone was worried about techno going mainstream (heh
heh) then check out the May issue of Creem Magazine. This one tops them
all for a good laugh. The article, "Tech-noid" (cool name, huh?) written
by the omniscient Tony Fletcher, is so-o-o-o-o-o bad I didn't even want
to waste a stamp writing a letter to the editor. Get this:
"...Unfortunately, after stellar releases by Polygon Window, Fuse
(gee, I always thought it was F.U.S.E.), B-12 (not B12?!?), and Black
Dog (don'cha mean Black Dog *Productions*?), the newest album in the
series, "Incunabula" by Autechre finally reveals the shortcomings of the
genre.(*WHAT*?!?!?) Instead of providing "electronic listening music",
Autechre gives us electronic background muzak (yes! he really wrote
this!); none of Incunabula's moments of gentle charm and delicate
intrigue come anywhere close to the English duo's proposed "Melodic
industrial soundtracks for futuristic horror movies".
AAAARRRGH!!! -- this was my first reaction. Then I kept reading:
"Part of Autechre's problem (drop jaw here.) is that it falls
into the vast void between techno and ambient, neither hard enough for
the dancefloor nor soft enough to chill out to."
I *SAW* and *HEARD* Autechre play live at a rave in Toronto where they
blew me and everyone else in the place away, and I have their CD, and I
*know* that they are one of the best groups out there. Anyway, it didn't
take me too too long to console myself. The rest of the article is almost
as bad. But you know what, I'm glad that Cream and other big magazines
like it don't know shit about techno. Like Tony Felcher said (one of the
only things he got right): "Techno has not actually swept the mainstream
(no thanks to you, buddy) --but that, most of the music's producers and
the culture's participants agree, is possibly the best thing that could
have happened to it."
If you want my advice, don't buy the magazine, just rip out the two
pages (mostly for the three-column interview with R.James) and pin them
up on your bulletin board. And everytime you feel like maybe you don't
really know anything about techno after all (is it just me?) read this
article and reassure yourself that compared to the rest of the world (the
people magazines like Creme are marketed _at_) you are a _part_ of the
movement. After all, you subscribe to IDM.
Crispin
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