IDM Mailing Archive

quoted 6 lines Okay, I like the Lesser stuff, most of it (not the remix my high-school

>>Okay, I like the Lesser stuff, most of it (not the remix my high-school >>band stuff) on a purely cut-off level; as if he'd heard one Goldie record >>from 1993 and mapped out his own agenda of what drum n' bass should sound > >Please explain how in the hell you like something on "a purely cut-off >level." That is one of the stupider expressions I've heard recently.

You'll have to pardon Hekla, his english isn't what it should be after five years in Boston. I think what he meant was that a member of the Drum n' Bass 'scene' in the UK would have access to the tips & techniques of his peers where as someone in the US who doesn't have direct communication with said 'scene' tries to emulate the style without having a definite knowledge of the 'correct' techniques necessarily involved. This is why all of the UK guys are now eating up US stuff (it's happening, believe me), we do it WRONG, and they like the spin we put on this 'now had' genre. He's putting Lesser in with the great legion of American 'cut-offs', i.e. Jandek, Bertoia, Partch, etc... people that made music based on their fundamental understanding of other existing musical forms, and continued to mold their own mutant strain into something along the lines of their 'voice' of 'individual take'. This is a good thing.

quoted 6 lines like by now. But the Haters? Men's Recovery Project? When you follow the

>>like by now. But the Haters? Men's Recovery Project? When you follow the >>lineage of something like that through techno/breaks you're bound to end >>up with something bad. > >You are an idiot. I won't even bother to comment further on the above >statement.

But you have. Oh, the great IDM irony. I've seen the Haters four times now, and Hekla's been there for three of them. In a particular show, Larsen 'played' a contact-miked tire w/ an electric sander. While this sounds good in theory, and does still seem appealing after the first few minutes, it does not after 90, and the resulting vulcanized air spewing around the small room makes EVERYONE ill, including those who go to 'test' their appreciation of experimental musical forms and die-hard fans. I'm all for art pranks (as is Hekla), but only good ones. Hekla (and now I as well, to some extent) is railing against this whole idea of 'joke' records; not even pranks but full-on jokes, ones very easy to see through before even landing the CD in your player. 4 disc CDs? i got a little weary after I reviewed the second one (which came with a free marred CD-Rom; from some damaged Macromedia batch nonetheless). By releasing these records by artists any of us would rather here in their respective aegi (Matmos in particular, if they didn't spend so much time on this derivative pap they'd be cranking out more of their own stuff (can't wait for those Bjork remixes)) they sort of donate to the glut of bad records clogging up 'experimental' sections in shops and detracting attention from the real groundbreaking stuff that remains hopelessly obscured. I'm not saying that VC is the direct cause of this, I just really think that if you had to choose between a recording that someone spent two years of his life perfecting versus something recorded stoned in one afternoon, well, which one you got would sort of define you... Sorry for the bandwidth. Hekla's back in Iceland for a few weeks so I kind of felt responsible for retaliating on his behalf. I'm always picking up after that guy... -Våt. ___________________________________ Reckankreuzungs Klankewerkzeuge & Company PO Box 382864 Cambridge, MA 02238 - 2864 is online @ http://www.tiac.net/users/sheket

On Wed, 2 Sep 1998, Hrvatski wrote:

quoted 8 lines of the 'correct' techniques necessarily involved. This is why all of the UK

> of the 'correct' techniques necessarily involved. This is why all of the UK > guys are now eating up US stuff (it's happening, believe me), we do it > WRONG, and they like the spin we put on this 'now had' genre. He's putting > Lesser in with the great legion of American 'cut-offs', i.e. Jandek, > Bertoia, Partch, etc... people that made music based on their fundamental > understanding of other existing musical forms, and continued to mold their > own mutant strain into something along the lines of their 'voice' of > 'individual take'. This is a good thing.

OK - but it seemed to me like a pretty derogatory statement. Curious how Jandek is a cut-off - I mean, certainly he's not part of normal society, but he's at the heart (sort of) of the kind of music he makes (sometimes).

quoted 8 lines But you have. Oh, the great IDM irony. I've seen the Haters four times now,

> But you have. Oh, the great IDM irony. I've seen the Haters four times now, > and Hekla's been there for three of them. In a particular show, Larsen > 'played' a contact-miked tire w/ an electric sander. While this sounds good > in theory, and does still seem appealing after the first few minutes, it > does not after 90, and the resulting vulcanized air spewing around the > small room makes EVERYONE ill, including those who go to 'test' their > appreciation of experimental musical forms and die-hard fans. I'm all for > art pranks (as is Hekla), but only good ones.

I wouldn't go see the Haters. I object more to the idea that someone could dismiss an entire label based on the fact that they released a Haters record (nevermind that the Haters are only one band on the label), and I think it's just indescribably idiotic to claim that nothing good can come of a mix of certain influences.

quoted 3 lines Hekla (and now I as well, to some extent) is railing against this whole

> Hekla (and now I as well, to some extent) is railing against this whole > idea of 'joke' records; not even pranks but full-on jokes, ones very easy > to see through before even landing the CD in your player. 4 disc CDs? i got

Fine, I'll agree that the disc CDs are a waste of everyone's time/money/effort. But that's no reason to dismiss VC entirely - maybe reason for reproach, maybe even concern, but not for dismissal. --- the humble abbott arthur purvis set his hand hereto