On Thu, 6 Jul 1995, Gibo wrote:
quoted 24 lines I think that if ambient techno want to discriminate itself from new-age> > I think that if ambient techno want to discriminate itself from new-age
> > music it should seperate itself from new-age ideology- as far as I'm
> > concewrned I'd shelve Deep Forest in the bin with Kitaro and Yanni.
> > In general, one of the reasons why I'm interested in new techno is its
> > utopianism and also its lack of sentimentality. In reaction to the dismal
>
> new-age ideology isn't much different from the hippie nonsense of the
> sixties; it shares its basic themes, its total incoherence and its
> self-serving sterility. (imho) in the Sixties, we had a lot of cultural
> change but nobody had anything even remotely resembling a clue; despite its
> massive unrest and the real changes it's had on American life, the only really
> valid model for understanding that period is a four-year-old's temper
> tantrum. (add hippie mysticism and you get a Tantric tantrum, but I'm
> off-topic already.)
>
> **HOPEFULLY**, our generation is learning something from the past which
> we can apply to the future. and hopefully, techno, et alia, expresses
> this. the whole idea of continually needing to create new sounds and
> styles if you're going to be heard on the dancefloor places a high
> premium on innovation. (though the whole x0x fetish seems to defeat
> this.) it's a stark contrast to the more nihilistic styles our
> generation has created in gangsta rap and grunge, both of which consist
> of little more than placing your own personal spin on the music you grew
> up with.
I'm not sure about this. A lot of ravers I know are totally apolitical,
into personal expereience- even when raves have a lot more potential than
any social trend in a long time to become a new form of collective
experience. They are into neo-primativism and fail to see how excitiing
the fact that this *hasn't* happened before is, that they are at a unique
juncture in history. My Ex who is a twelve years older than me sa
id when I took her to her first rave- this is what we were trying to do
in the seventies (more disco than hippy) but we were never this good at
it (and sited alcohol as fucking up the scene and getting in the way of
dancing etc). In a word they participate in a quest for immediacy when
what they have found imho is the real pleasures available in mediation-
totally medieated music (re-corded re-mixed re-cycled) and consciousness.
quoted 3 lines (much bandwidth conserved and text deleted...) >> > (much bandwidth conserved and text deleted...) >
> > Sorry this is a long post, but I'm rather excited to have somewhere to
> > put these thoughts which have been brewing a while. It seems like a lot quoted 9 lines you raised a lot of good points, but in no particular order. I'm totally> you raised a lot of good points, but in no particular order. I'm totally
> amenable to discussing this stuff further, and I hope
> other people are too, but the words "bandwidth," "waste" and "edit" come
> irresistably to mind.
>
> my advice is this: you're clearly into writing about this stuff. if these
> thoughts are brewing in your head, organize them into specific articles
> beforehand. it would make reading them and responding a lot easier.
>
Actually, for all my apologizing I've been on lists like Marxism or Film
Theory where this would be a short post. I actually use and get a lot out
of posting my ideas off the cuff and getting some response- seeing what
gets latched onto what is clear to me but seems complicated to others
with different backgrounds- before I write to publish. To plug myself a
wee little bit, the special issue of P-Form (performance art magazine)
on theory and practice I edited is due on newsstands next week or so.
There is an article by Ultra-red of the LA ambient space Public Space
which is really fantastic, the rest of the book it was taken from should
be up on my web page (or Terre Thaemlitz offered to post it too- this guy
is Terre's friend I mentioned earlier) when I get a scanner and can OCR
it in the next couple weeks. P-form is reachable at
randolph@merle.acns.nwu.edu or they have a web page- can't find the URL.
Seamus Malone
redye@amanda.dorsai.org
________________ __
][ ]E (C ]H ]N ]E
_____________________________________
d e s i g n - m u l t i - m e d i a
(7 1 8) 3 8 3 - 6 9 8 8