Well, I tried my best to not get involved with this discussion, but ever
since the mention of Otomo <bigger>Yoshihide I've been thinking about it
alot. I don't believe that "The Night Before the Death of the Sampling
Virus" was meant to be an artistic release any more than those audio and
cd-roms of soundbites and sampled sounds advertised in Keyboard magazine.
The fact that they left tracks empty to perpetuate the idea that a virus
was wreaking havok on the disc from misusage (playing the cd through
without fucking with it in some way), to me, shows an element of humor.
The liner notes to the only "DJ" Spooky cd I own, "Songs of a Dead
Dreamer", however, are not in the least bit humorous (at least not
intentionally). Had, say, DJ Shadow, who I believe is a genius and a
revolutionary, included some crap like that in one of his releases, I
could understand (fortunately he's alot more down-to-earth). Spooky's
music just doesn't warrent such rediculous over-explanation. To me, it
sounds like Alex Patterson on a very bad day (please, no flames Orb
fans). Its stock, nothing new, nothing to stand it apart from the
trillions of similar discs being released today.
Why does he get props in the industry? My theory is, as I've observed,
that to a certain degree you can dazzle people, particularly other
artists, with bullshit. Tell enough people you are the shit, and
eventually one or two will believe you, especially in our day of
trend-following. Noone wants to dis someone who could be tomorrow's giant
superstar. Is Trent Reznor a musician worthy of all the attention he
gets? Hell no, he's a good figurehead who has a good act, who can make
millions of kids ignore the fact that his beats were done by the master
Keith LeBlanc, and his guitar textures were done by Adrian Belew. So
Spooky gives us pages of bombast and a flat, boring album. Don't confuse
the talents of his booking agent with his alleged musical talents. If
props=skill, we're all in trouble.
thanks for reading my own little bombast,
clockwise
"How many DJ's must get dissed?" - KRS-ONE
np: Snooze "The Man in the Shadow"</bigger>