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Squarepusher "My Red Hot Car' Warp WAP147CD I don't know how many David Foster Wallace readers there are out there, but he wrote an essay on Toxic Irony, and how permeated our culture is with that attitude. Advertising, always at the forefront of any poisonous aspect of pop culture, led the way with ads like Joe Isuzu. The seek to ingratiate by appealing to the tendency to take nothing at face value. The casualty of this trend is any credible semblance of sincerity. The way TJ exploits cliche samples on "My Red Hot Car" just drips of smirking irony. His twisted take on R&B and drum and bass convention really work best with listeners who are in on the joke, who hear his track overlaid with every hardcore and jungle track from the past ten years. At the same time he's followed T Power into nu skool breaks territory. It's interesting that whenever a dominant musical fashion gets played out (as I'd argue Drum & Bass and EU Techno are) some new group of kids retreat back into breakbeat music. Which is an elliptical way of saying that there's nothing really new here, except a certain transparent calculation to further unit-shifting. His more recent adventures in deliberately crude jazz fusion, though brilliant in my opinion, were never big favorites, and hey you sell records to make a living. Not to say they aren't killer tracks on their own terms. They're exactly the sort of thing I love to play out -- deep bass and instant accessibility are what you need to rock a party. But playing "My Red Hot Car" becomes a calculation on my part -- a transparent bid to ingratiate myself to a few hundred sweaty teenagers. But then there are the Obelisks. Hardcore Obelisk is one long isolationist drone, which gradually morphs over it's course. It's followed by a short track of frantic breaks and the trusty 303 through a Sherman Filter Bank. Then the obligatory hidden track (starts at 26:30 of track 4) which is a sort of Pink Floyd-esque ambience that goes on for about 5 minutes. The Obelisks seem completely at odds with My Red Hot Car. They're lovely tracks, but seem like they're there strictly to baffle the punters who buy the single because they hear it on the radio. More toxic irony? Maybe, but craft and cheek of this CD make it essential. But what I'd like to hear from Mr. Jenkinson is the music he makes when he's being sincere. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org

Kent williams <kent@avalon.net> wrote:

quoted 11 lines I don't know how many David Foster Wallace readers there are out >there,

>I don't know how many David Foster Wallace readers there are out >there, >but he wrote an essay on Toxic Irony, and how permeated our culture is with >that attitude. Advertising, always at the forefront >of any poisonous >aspect of pop culture, led the way with ads like Joe >Isuzu. The seek to >ingratiate by appealing to the tendency to take >nothing at face value. >The casualty of this trend is any credible >semblance of sincerity. > >The way TJ exploits cliche samples on "My Red Hot Car" just drips >of >smirking irony. His twisted take on R&B and drum and bass >convention >really work best with listeners who are in on the joke, >who hear his track >overlaid with every hardcore and jungle track from >the past ten years.

This is remarkably similar to Simon Reynolds' take on Jenk's work as a whole-- i.e. that the supposed "avant garde" offered up by TJ and multiple other artists is just an elaborate sneering pisstake on "actual" dancefloor innovations. I actually agree with what you say about MRHC, except that the problem isn't actually irony. DFW's article, throughout, dangerously conflated the concepts of irony and sarcasm, which should be distinguished with a little more care. Irony generally involves wholehearted belief or commitment even as one recognizes the absurdity, contingency, or stupidity of that belief or commitment. Some of the video uses of irony (i.e. distanced recognition of absurdity / exposure of hypocrisy through pointed juxtapositions) end up being closer to post-Enlightenment cynicism, which is where DFW places his middle ground, although he loses it with his examples of snide "everything is fake and we all know it, wink, wink" advertising examples. The *self-congratulatory* Smirk shouldn't enter into the equation with the concept of irony. The reason why the new TJ is so reprehensible (even if it is kind of fun in a really baby-fresh way) is that it's nothing but the *sarcastic* sneer of a twelve-year-old savant. Sarcasm being the form of elevating oneself above a subject matter by simply uttering it with a disapproving tone that implies, without offering any viable alternative, that everyone who believes in it is 'toopid. That is: [irony] - [belief or commitment] = [simple sneer] = [sarcasm]. Cynically making commercial sounds while smirking at the gullibility of your audience for liking it is the very definition of selling out. 'N Sync do it. The Backstreet Boys do it. Britney isn't quite that sophisticated, which makes her kind of lovable. Well, now Squarepusher is doing it. Tom, we never knew ye. M. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org

quoted 23 lines The reason why the new TJ is so reprehensible (even if it

> >The reason why the new TJ is so reprehensible (even if it > >is kind of fun in a really baby-fresh way) is that it's nothing but the > >*sarcastic* sneer of a twelve-year-old savant. > > >Cynically making commercial sounds > >while smirking at the gullibility of your audience for liking it is the > very > >definition of selling out. > > I think you're right on with your assessment of irony vs. cynicism. > However, I can't find support for the above statement anywhere on the > record. Where does he encode (or express, if you like) sarcasm in the > record? Where is the smirk? I'm not taking the piss here; I'm serious when > I ask why you find those qualities in MRHC, just because I don't see them. > > Cheers > Philip > > > > > >

Philip Sherburne <philip@askjeeves.com> wrote:

quoted 4 lines Where does he encode (or express, if you like) sarcasm in the

> >Where does he encode (or express, if you like) sarcasm in the >record? Where is the smirk? I'm not taking the piss here; I'm serious when >I ask why you find those qualities in MRHC, just because I don't see them.

I wasn't referring to the entire record (haven't heard the whole thing, although I intend to check it out) so much as the single. As to _where_ I hear sarcasm, well... everywhere. Granted, it's a pretty subjective interpretation of the track considering that whichever way you read it, the song is just Tom Jenkinson finding a way to entertain himself. It struck me, though, as a kind of simultaneous mimicry/mockery of UK dancefloor garage, and by extension a slam on its fans (the red hot car bit I took as an upscale-dance-culture aping pisstake). The only thing that differentiates it in my mind from, say, v/vm, is that TJ actually made something fun out of it instead of *merely* childish. I was probably a little bit strong in my denouncement, though, since it is definitely possible for the informed listener to hear the track without having to interpret it that way. Nevertheless, when I listen to it I hear that annoying latter-day-Aphex pop persona shining through in all its juvenile glory. Not that I really have it on authority that that's what TJ's doing---that's just what colors the way I'm able to listen to it. And like I said, I still think it's a fun track, even if I _do_ think it's a bit reprehensible for the mostly abstract reasons mentioned earlier. Best, M. "It is the pledges that this place makes to me, pledges that cannot be redeemed, that will confuse me later." _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org