IDM Mailing Archive

On 25 Oct 97, Alexander Reynolds wrote: (idm) german 'blech':

quoted 2 lines Something or somebody is certainly mixed up. The word "Blech" means

> Something or somebody is certainly mixed up. The word "Blech" means > "brass", not "steel", which is "Stahl".

Sorry to take this public and to the List, but I have to defend my German heritage. I did not mean TIN the substance (which is "Zinn" in German) - I clearly stated 'the metal used for manufacturing tin cans'. I am sitting here with the Collins German / English/German dictionary open before me. Brass = *Messing*. The word Blech is only applied to anything in the "brass" orbit when specifically meaning a brass band or brass instruments. Blech is in fact listed as meaning "(sheet) metal" "Eine Dose aus Blech = a tin (Brit), a metal container" From my original posting

quoted 5 lines On Thu, 23 Oct 1997 11:41:19 +0200 "Irene McC" wrote:

> On Thu, 23 Oct 1997 11:41:19 +0200 "Irene McC" wrote: > > >And any idea as to why they are titled "blech"? It's the German > >word meaning "tin" as in the metal used for manufacturing tin > cans.

I stand by what I said. Wiedersehen :-) I *

heh.. the only tin connection in the "Blech" orbit is in derogatory reference to sound of an instrument, i.e., a trumpet that has a "tinny" sound. i saw no reference to "tin can" but did note the "sheet metal" definition. as we're talking about music and british humour, however, i stand by "Blech" = brass(alloy) = nonsense as pointing to some understanding of that group's name. what possible meaning could "tin can" have, let alone "sheet metal"? what proof is there that there is a german reference, anyway? blech. alex

hi all, blech does definitely not mean brass as a metal. blech is tin as in tin can. however, with reference to musical instruments, 'blech' instruments in german are brass instruments in english. also, there is no such thing as a meaning for 'nonsense' etc. for blech in german. the only slang meaning in connection with this word is 'blechen' as a verb, which used to be a slang word for 'to pay' in the 80s but is not really any longer used. this information should clear matters up once and for all. cheers, --tom On Tue, 28 Oct 1997, Alexander Reynolds wrote:

quoted 16 lines heh..

> heh.. > > the only tin connection in the "Blech" orbit is in derogatory reference to > sound of an instrument, i.e., a trumpet that has a "tinny" sound. i saw no > reference to "tin can" but did note the "sheet metal" definition. as we're > talking about music and british humour, however, i stand by "Blech" = > brass(alloy) = nonsense as pointing to some understanding of that group's > name. what possible meaning could "tin can" have, let alone "sheet metal"? > what proof is there that there is a german reference, anyway? > > blech. > > alex > > >

"Blech" is an American onomonotopia (sp?) which has no real meaning, it's just a sound commonly made in a state of disgust or mild nausea. Che

quoted 1 line "Blech" is an American onomonotopia (sp?) which has no real meaning,

>"Blech" is an American onomonotopia (sp?) which has no real meaning,

it's

quoted 6 lines just a sound commonly made in a state of disgust or mild nausea.

>just a sound commonly made in a state of disgust or mild nausea. > >Che > > >

thank you! that's all i've ever thought that blech meant. why does it have to mean anything more? look at the cover! how deep could it be? i only wish that the original version of disjecta's kracht from clean pit and lid was the sped up version that is used for blechsdottir <--- daughter of blech. nothing more, nothing less. np:cichlisuite:krib, with more melody than autechre has used in a long time. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

quoted 3 lines thank you!

>thank you! >that's all i've ever thought that blech meant. why does it have to mean >anything more? look at the cover! how deep could it be?

My God, man. I cannot believe you can put a piece of work like the Blech cover down. That is one of the single most well designed and wonderful inlays of any CD. Learn what good layout is, for Pete's sake. :) It's ok.. to each his own, I suppose. Shane

quoted 3 lines My God, man. I cannot believe you can put a piece of work like the Blech

>My God, man. I cannot believe you can put a piece of work like the Blech >cover down. That is one of the single most well designed and wonderful >inlays of any CD. Learn what good layout is, for Pete's sake. :)

To me, a good layout must be functional. The Blech CD cover art has a virtually unreadable tracklist, which means it loses lots of points with me (as do 'Chiastic Slide' and Kenny Larkin's 'Metaphor,' two other nice-looking DR covers that sacrifice content on the altar of form). C. -- Chris.Hilker (cspot@hyperreal.org) "Sex is the darndest nougat murder, something something e-mail something something la la la la beable beable trousers and dingaling nougat..."

On 29 Oct 97, Chris.Hilker wrote: Re: (idm) german 'blech':

quoted 3 lines To me, a good layout must be functional. The Blech CD cover art

> To me, a good layout must be functional. The Blech CD cover art > has a virtually unreadable tracklist, [...] as do 'Chiastic Slide' > [...] that sacrifice content on the altar of form).

ABSOLUTELY !!! Tri Rep was 'minimal' but at least if you look closely, it's all there somewhere. But Chiastic Slide is just contrived and doesn't even look good, *IMO*. Same goes for other Warp releases - think AI 2, where the printed text merges with the background colour making it really hard to read, especially in low-light, which is quite often the situation when you want to listen to that kind of late-night mellow music. And don't even start on SAW 2 :-) I * np : Polygon Window - Surfing on Sine Waves

Excerpts from mail: 29-Oct-97 Re: (idm) german 'blech' by "Chris.Hilker"@hyperreal

quoted 5 lines To me, a good layout must be functional. The Blech CD cover art has a

> To me, a good layout must be functional. The Blech CD cover art has a > virtually unreadable tracklist, which means it loses lots of points > with me (as do 'Chiastic Slide' and Kenny Larkin's 'Metaphor,' two > other nice-looking DR covers that sacrifice content on the altar of > form).

Your response leads me to ask one simple question: What's the point of a tracklisting anyway, other than to refer the track by name to someone else? Tracknames are so trivial these days. Especially for a band like Autechre, does it make such a huge difference? Aaron np: kumo (airbag)

quoted 4 lines Your response leads me to ask one simple question: What's the point of a

>Your response leads me to ask one simple question: What's the point of a >tracklisting anyway, other than to refer the track by name to someone >else? Tracknames are so trivial these days. Especially for a band like >Autechre, does it make such a huge difference?

In the case of Autechre, yes, track titles don't make a big difference, since theirs tend to seem fairly arbitrary. But in other cases, titles can illuminate the intentions and meaning behind a track. Case in point: Orbital's 'In Sides.' The emotional content in "Adnan's" carries more weight (for me, at least) in light of the fact that the title is the name of a young victim of the Bosnian civil war. It puts that heartbreaking, keening synth line that runs through much of the song in perspective. Similarly, "Dwr Budr" is Welsh for "dirty water," which suggests that on one level, that track refers to a then-recent oil spill off the coast of Wales. To me, the track presents the spill from the point of view of a sea creature, as a clouding over of one's surroundings, like a grimy fog. It's really a shame that some artists don't put more thought into what they choose to call their tracks, but I hope I've shown that titles at least have the potential to offer more than simple identification. C. -- Chris.Hilker (cspot@hyperreal.org) "Sex is the darndest nougat murder, something something e-mail something something la la la la beable beable trousers and dingaling nougat..."

quoted 1 line My God, man. I cannot believe you can put a piece of work like the

>My God, man. I cannot believe you can put a piece of work like the

Blech

quoted 8 lines cover down. That is one of the single most well designed and wonderful

>cover down. That is one of the single most well designed and wonderful >inlays of any CD. Learn what good layout is, for Pete's sake. :) > >It's ok.. to each his own, I suppose. > >Shane > >

that's what i mean, though. i love the blechsdottir cover, layout, artwork, etc... don't have the original blech so i can't comment on that. but i love all the little blurbs on dottir. and that color pink! like bubble gum! as far as the tracklisting goes, i don't think it's all that bad. i mean, you have 70+ minutes to figure it out! =) i'll agree that chiastic slide isn't the easiest to read, but i do like the artwork. for me, the music is more important than the titles anyway. something like chiastic slide i like to listen to all at once anyway. i don't need to know which track i'm on, or what the name is. i know rettic ac is #2, cause i've used it on mixes, but other than that, i don't have much of a clue. now if they had done blech like chiastic slide (it's chiastic! boogie woogie woogie!), then we'd have some problems. i think the layout of the tracks on dottir is actually very functional. you know a)title, b)artist, c)album/ep/single title, and d)catalog number. and think about it - all the tracks run together, so why not do the same with the listing? the type is perfectly legible, just very close. got rubber johnny from bent crayon yesterday. talk about not wasting any time on packaging! or is it just more of tDR's "stunning minimal artwork"? not being too sarcastic, cause i do really like the cichlisuite artwork. with readable titles, too! i've gone on long enough. alan! np:nothing nextup:rubberjohnny:jamrolypoly ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

I agree with your point...it makes no difference to the listening experience, but those of us who like to talk about music <enter poignant Frank Zappa quote here> need a common reference for the things we talk about. That really is the only issue for track listings. But I also like to know the names/label info etc. of the people who produce and publish the music so if I like it, I can find more like it.. or if I don't, I can avoid it ;-) Its the same semantics issue as the labeling of music; sure, labeling music is rather silly, but for the purposes of the list, it gives us a common reference to discuss. Kev. np: BDP - Bytes ++++++++++++++++++++ Aaron S Michelson wrote:

quoted 15 lines Excerpts from mail: 29-Oct-97 Re: (idm) german 'blech' by

> Excerpts from mail: 29-Oct-97 Re: (idm) german 'blech' by > "Chris.Hilker"@hyperreal > > To me, a good layout must be functional. The Blech CD cover art has a > > virtually unreadable tracklist, which means it loses lots of points > > with me (as do 'Chiastic Slide' and Kenny Larkin's 'Metaphor,' two > > other nice-looking DR covers that sacrifice content on the altar of > > form). > > Your response leads me to ask one simple question: What's the point of a > tracklisting anyway, other than to refer the track by name to someone > else? Tracknames are so trivial these days. Especially for a band like > Autechre, does it make such a huge difference? > > Aaron > np: kumo (airbag)

-- FreyGuy <Everyday is FreyDay> Network & Lotus Notes Administrator Hansen Corporation / A Minebea Group Company *KevFrey@evansville.net kfrey@hansen-motor.com WebSite: http://www.evansville.net/~kevfrey/ Rule #8 from Horror Movie Character Survival Guide: "As a general rule, do NOT solve puzzles that open the portals to Hell."