Jon Drukman defends FSOL:
quoted 4 lines how odd. sometimes i find it hard to remember what their stuff sounds> how odd. sometimes i find it hard to remember what their stuff sounds
> like because it is so advanced... but of course after numerous
> repeated listenings i can hear just about any part of "ephidrena" in
> my head at will.
To be quite blunt about it, I haven't felt compelled to listen to
"ephidrena" enough to gain anything near that level of familiarity with
it. No more than I get the urge to look at the white textured walls in my
apartment for hours trying to find the smooth bits, if you get my analogy...
quoted 4 lines i really don't understand all these comments about> i really don't understand all these comments about
> it being sterile and just a collection of sounds - i hear melodies all
> over the place. they aren't traditional forms and they aren't played
> in traditional ways but they are in there.
And I hear a large sample collection, creatively applied to be sure, but
not much that goes beyond cleverness for cleverness's sake.
quoted 6 lines i'd say the fault lies> i'd say the fault lies
> with the listener, not the creators. perhaps FSOL is just
> too... well... *futuristic* for the people on this list (i'm not
> singling you out dave) who claim that they want to hear the future of
> music but in actuality prefer a thumpin' 909, some gratuitous weird
> noises, and a few simple synth lines around it.
Forgive my bluntness once again, but that's a truckload of buffalo ordure.
I don't have a really clear picture of what the future of music will be,
and despite protestations to the contrary I'm not particularly convinced
that most musicians and IDM-readers really know either. I know that it
won't be world full of 303/909 acid stompers, but I'm equally convinced
that it won't be a formless collage of samples and "pretty bits" wrapped
in a raytraced cover with "Future Sound" stamped on the spine in big,
friendly letters. I think we're kidding ourselves more than we'd
probably like to believe.
quoted 5 lines i've noticed a> i've noticed a
> tendency when dissing FSOL to say "well, i really liked Papua New
> Guinea, but this new stuff just doesn't work for me." PNG is a very
> accesible tune in a standard format that just happens to have a few
> really well chosen (and integrated) samples.
So true. But it _works_. For all it's "simplicity" and adherence to
"standard" techno structure, it achieves more for me than the majority
of the "listen to the wonderful noises, and pass the bong while you're
at it" stuff on AA. Perhaps it's a matter of history and perspective --
I'm approaching this from more of a "Detroit" direction. To me, what
Jeff Mills accomplishes on "Atlantis" is far more impressive than what
Dougans & Cockbain do on "Ephidrena" -- working almost entirely with
synthesized/tweaked sounds (produced on bog-standard synths and a phalanx
of distortion boxes) he creates a *coherent* sonic landscape that never
sounds forced or gimmicky.
quoted 5 lines well, i couldn't disagree more. if FSOL have a fault, and you did> well, i couldn't disagree more. if FSOL have a fault, and you did
> mention this, it is that their music is sometimes abstract and
> intellectual to a fault. as you said - it engages the head but not
> the heart. well, if you can listen to "mountain goat" and not be
> affected, then i guess we don't have much musical language in common.
I *do* like "Mountain Goat", actually... But the fact remains that most
of the time I'm listening to their stuff I feel like they're trying too
hard to impress; that their soundscapes distract rather than enlighten.
quoted 1 line and before giving up on them for good, check out their Curve remix.> and before giving up on them for good, check out their Curve remix.
OK, but I warn you I like Curve better than FSOL :).
-Dave
(still trying to find something else as good as that last
Born Under a Rhyming Planet single...)
| Dave Walker, Detroit Art Services (DAS) |
| |
| marmoset@msen.com "...driving in my Cosmic Car..." |