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From:
Adam Piontek
To:
idm-list
Date:
Sun, 16 Jul 2000 04:18:28 -0500
Subject:
[idm] prolificism as related to popularity (was Re: american roll call)
Msg-Id:
<09192906606558@mirage.tcinternet.net>
In-Reply-To:
<e2.72ceba6.26a2a0b0@aol.com>
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I would agree that he's possibly the best idm artist in America. However, he hasn't released much. kid606's discography is much larger than lex's, and the kid is a little more proactive in promoting himself with his own label and various other things. this just goes back to what i was saying before; no matter how good you are, if you don't do anything, no one's going to know/pay attention to you. as i understand it, lex has only had 2 vinyl eps out (oh heres some noises on isophlux, double density on orange). other than that, he's about three or four remixes and lots of live stuff. that was all in 1999. the most recent thing i'm aware of is one track on m3rck's "squadron" compilation. and that track isn't completely incredible. it's good, but it sounds almost average. someone correct me if i'm wrong about things lex has released. it's difficult to be aware of a new artist when he doesn't do much. people forget easily. they want more proof, they need more excellent stuff to keep a new artist in their minds. at the start, if you're good and can do it, the best thing you can do to help make yourself popular is make as much music as possible and release tons of it. people will keep noticing you and your name will stick in their heads more and more. plus, if it's really good, people will talk about it. kid 606 is doing this. he's releasing tons of music (relatively) and getting involved in tons of projects, including his own label. accelera deck is another example of someone being very prolific, but people seem less interested in him because i don't hear too much about it. lexaunculpt seems to have released an album's worth of material back in '99, half of which (the isophlux record) was voted to be the best release of the year by this very list. but what has he done since? it's not his fault; people just move on. if you're not doing anything, they look for something else. at least in this culture, where "new and different" seems to be the whole point. the longer you're around, the less prolific you have to be. i mean, people talk about aphex and autechre without them doing much lately. well, they both released in early '99, but aphex at least was pretty slim in that release. he's definitely not as prolific of late as he was back in the early-to-mid '90s. the oxymoron with being prolific, of course, is that, to be prolific, you have to spend less time on your music. if you spend a long time on your music, you can make it better (in my opinion; i don't make music). it's my impression that the very reason for this list is that people are interested in music that some thought went into. music from people who made a little more effort than someone with 4 beats and a note. effort takes time. i mean, aphex had that 'formula' track on windowlicker back around '96; we know it from various places as the 'crappy' track. he's been warping it and fucking with it for years and finally releases it with two other tracks and it's the best thing there. windowlicker itself is quite complex and went through various incarnations (as we can see from the couple of demo versions out there). my point is, if you're good and capable, it takes time to make truly excellent music. so being prolific at the start to help make yourself popular goes dead against trying to make excellent music. and if you take the time and make excellent music, but wait until you have enough to release at once such that it appears you're being prolific, most of the stuff you've spent all this time working on will now be 'old' and people won't think it's as great as it would have seemed had you released it when you first made it. proem is an example of someone who released a truly excellent CD in 1999, but who has had various troubles and hasn't done much more until now. people remember, but it's almost as if he has to 'prove' himself again. sort of. anyway, just my thoughts. and for those of you involved with mp3.com thinking "it doesn't take that long for me to make a track; some only take a day or so!" -- i repeat: "it takes time to make truly excellent music." if proem or aphex or richard devine or lexaunculpt or jake mandell or some other great artist can point out some excellent tracks that really only took them a day or so to make, i'll take back that statement. On Sun, 16 Jul 2000 01:22:56 EDT, Inputcodetrnsfus@aol.com wrote:
quoted 25 lines what do you mean "But lexaunculpt" - I thought he was british because he>what do you mean "But lexaunculpt" - I thought he was british because he >worked under the Leeds label with kid 606, but he has also worked with Orange >Records I know, so I thought he might be american?? He is isn't he??!!! >anyways, if he is you better not be calling him a pretender. Kid 606 and even >Hrvatski (who I give top props) don't compare to Lexaunculpt. I am sorry, I >just don't understand how Kid 606 could get so much publicity and discussion >on this list, when his friend Lex...who he works with often (Don't sweat the >technics, kid 606 and friends......, etc.) isn't considered the best possible >idm artist in America. I guess when you look upon the subject of being >popular, Lexaunculpt never will be cause he is too good, and as it is in >society, people are too stupid to understand true genius. > >Positivity, >Noraul > ><< yeah, okay, sure! Kit Clayton, sure...Matmos, sure...Cex, check. Britney > Spears...sure. But lexaunculpt? such pretenders! > > <smirk> > > > >--------------------------------------------------------------------- >To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org >For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org >
-- Adam Piontek [http://www.tcinternet.net/users/damek/] ICQ: 3456339 [damek@earthling.net] ... The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure for it is occupation. -- George Bernard Shaw --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org