Was this article ever online? I haven't been able to find it and I can't
find Spin here anywhere...probably too late to get that issue now anyway.
John
Kent williams wrote:
quoted 50 lines On Tue, 17 Jul 2001, Peter Schrock wrote:
>On Tue, 17 Jul 2001, Peter Schrock wrote:
>
>>And besides, I would hardly consider Matmos and Kit Clayton as
>>being of the same category as Kid606 and Cex.
>>
>
>Matmos, Kit Clayton, Kid606 and Cex are all completely different
>people, working with different artistic goals in mind. The fact
>that they use similar tools to achieve their goals is irrelevant.
>Picasso and Grant Wood both used oil paints.
>
>On the other hand, all those guys on some level have similar goals,
>are friends, and constantly influence each other. So while dropping
>them in the same pidgeonhole is not ultimately accurate, it recognizes
>a basic affinity they share.
>
>Words label things with a remarkable range of precision and imprecision.
>Human beings only synthesize meaning from their sensory input by virtue
>of their ability to categorize non-equivalent objects as similar.
>Suppose you lost the ability to look at two trees and say they're both
>trees, because they obviously differ? What would a person be like
>who saw every percieved every thing as unique and unconnected to any other
>thing?
>
>The fact that each thing (and person) is unique doesn't mean they
>don't fit into categories. Where a category is apt, it's useful in
>building a meaning -- reductionism is inevitable and necessary. The
>fact that journalists often don't get it doesn't mean there's no use
>for category and genre labels.
>
>Simon Reynolds manages to annoy people because he simultaneously
>personalizes his perceptions and at the same rhetorically promotes them
>to the level of fact. Because he's human he's sometimes wrong. But
>he always says precisely something, which is more than most writers
>about popular electronic music. Since he's articulate and spends time
>striving for lucid descriptions, he's valuable even when you disagree
>with him.
>
>
>As an intelligent listener it's your job to see and derive pleasure
>from the unique qualities of each piece of music. It's also your
>job to critically evaluate everything you read. While everyone
>is entitled to the occasional bitch about the sad state of music
>journalism, it's a pretty pale phenomenon upon which to obsess.
>
>
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--
John von Seggern
DJ/producer
Digital Cutup Lounge
Hong Kong
http://www.digitalcutuplounge.com