"Arthur B. Purvis" <abpurvis@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> wrote:
quoted 8 lines not a total evil at all, because the fact remains that it is a glossy
> not a total evil at all, because the fact remains that it is a glossy
> magazine with a large circulation with Steven Stapleton on the cover
> (it only took them 15 years to notice him, too! - this is the basis of
> my dissatisfaction).
> See the NWW point: NWW has been around _forever_. As has Current 93,
> Death in June, etc. It's great that the Wire has recently done a
> cover story on Stapleton and a feature on Tibet. But why didn't they
> notice in the early 80s? Answer: because they were a bunch of crazed
OK, just out of interest, how long has The Wire been around for then? I
know I personally only got into it fairly recently but then I live in
Australia and the total number of subscribers is probably less than 100
(about 2 or 3 record stores in Sydney are clued up enough to get copies
in too, and probably some in Melbourne etc). Anyway, I somehow doubt it
was around in the early 80s, which is perhaps why they didn't write
about Stapleton etc (if it's true!)
I tend to feel that the stuff they write about *is* obscure often in the
sense that in Australia there are close to about one or two record
stores in maybe two or three cities which stock more than a very very
small proportion of the music they write about. Certainly there is a lot
of music around that doesn't get into The Wire, and certainly they don't
write about little unsigned bands and the like. But I don't think that's
really their brief. As it is The Wire is jam-packed with amazing music
that most people wouldn't know about. There is music, and good music,
out there that even fewer people know about that doesn't get written
about in The Wire, but how would you choose, given that there's only so
much space, and there are uncountably many interesting acts? And if I
was interested in that music how would I get hold of it, in Australia?
Maybe they should be a UK magazine and concentrate on UK acts only, or
perhaps only London? Honestly, whatever level of obscurity they
concentrate on some people will get pissed off that their type of music
doesn't get included. As far as I know, The Wire is still the only
magazine that writes so much about the sort of music it does. To expand
its resources into some kind of cool-music seeker may be out of the
question financially (I can imagine getting flamed for this as well as a
lot of other bits in this post).
Well I don't honestly know - I only know that there is nothing else
available to me (except things like IDM on the internet) that inform me
of the sort of music the Wire does. Many of the complaints about the
Wire seem to want it to be something that it isn't. Whatever you think,
it seems to me that without it there would be a lot of music that
doesn't get any sort of coverage in "glossy magazines".
My $0.02 for what it's worth (probably somewhat less than 2 cents!)
np: 5000 Fingers of Dr T - Orange Chrome. 5000 Fingers... is an
electronic group from Sydney whose debut album is released by Clan
Analogue, a collective of electronic musicians. Nice well-produced
ambient atmospheres and metallic sounds, a bit of drum'n'bass sometimes,
a bit of dub or ambient techno or; well hard to categorise. But if you
are able to get this, do at least give it a listen. High quality
Australian idm; the only stuff I like better out of Australia is
Melbourne group Soma, released on eXtreme.
--
Peter Hollo raven@cia.com.au
http://www.cia.com.au/raven/
"Of course, dance music can be a music where you lie on your back and
your brain cells dance" -Michael Karoli of Can, quoted in Wire mag.
What's wrong with Mcdonald's?
http://www.McSpotlight.org/