On Tue, 17 Jul 2001, Peter Schrock wrote:
quoted 2 lines And besides, I would hardly consider Matmos and Kit Clayton as> 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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