re: romanticism. good thread. a couple of things pop into my head on this
topic.
1. i think part of the problem why a lot of electronic music loses some feeling
is because of the tools we're forced to use. they're designed to create rigid
structures for dancing and they do their very best to remove the human element.
the repetitive nature of e-music often creates more of a trance-like state
rather than drawing me into the music itself. not that there's anything wrong
with this - i love the ability of electronic music to numb my brain. it's just
not as initmate an experience as music with words or unquantized sound or
instruments we recognize as being played by humans...
2. someone else commented on this, but it's a good point - i think a lot of us
get too sucked up in how the music is made rather than what it does to us
emotionally. i know i do the same thing. there's a lot of e-music that i love
just because of the gee-whiz factor, but there's also a lot of e-music i love
because of the raw emotions contained within. that's why something like BoC and
circa-1996 autechre work so well. their music and emotions aren't obfuscated by
the technology itself. even if the most technologically advanced music is laden
with soul, i seem to first get caught up in the how rather than the wow and
something is lost. for me, it's almost always the simplest music that creates
the strongest emotional reaction.
3. i think that once we get more proficient in using computers and electronics
to communicate emotions, there won't be the huge divisions that seem to exist
right now. we're definately getting better at it, but i think that when we
listen to something that obviously has the mechanical touch, the emotional part
of our brains shut down a bit and we stop thinking of it as just music.
technology is just a tool, and instrument like any other. we just need to
refine our ways of working with it and reconsider our ways of listening to it.
hope this makes sense to someone other than myself...
re: violence. just bought nord by imminent starvation. i know it was mentioned
a while ago on the list, but i need to offer a very strong recommendation for
this cd. much better than human dislocation, in fact much better than anything
i've heard from the ant-zen camp. period. wonderfully noisy - those into
caustic window, richard devine, or other ant-zen acts but wished they would be
louder and more consistantly good need to check this out. not a bad song on the
whole darn cd. but those that fear repitition should be wary...
ethan
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