http://www.furious.com/perfect/technologytrap.html
i find myself relating to both sides of this guy's argument. in
alot of ways i find the old way of doing things to be superior. i
also find the ability of electronic music to allow a single
composer to also be a performer, arranger, engineer, etc at the
same time to be the most important musical development since jazz.
basically, i agree with his whole argument up to a point. his
theory on the use of vocoders is absolute garbage, even someone
who has heard kraftwerk once can attest to that. i think his
choice of electronic musicians that are good belies his predjudice
in writing this: jimi hendrix and stevie wonder stick out of an
otherwise extremely pretentios group of mostly white artsy
musicians. the man doesnt understand the primal greatness of
techno and house music. most outstandingly annoying to me are his
words of praise for brian eno. i love brian eno, i consider him to
be one of my musical heroes. however, chalking up his success with
nontraditional structure and composition with electronic
instruments to his "theory" alone is missing the whole point of
his music. i know eno cared about the philosophy, this is why he
put explanations of his ambient pieces in the liner notes. the
fact that his music exudes mood and texture is the real reason for
his brilliance.
these are some of the points i liked the most from this article:
"Computers have cracked open a plethora of fresh new noises, but
we scarcely have time to grow accustomed to using one when another
comes along to make its predecessor outdated. Too few know how to
program a drum machine well, too few recognize unpalatable digital
slickness for what it is. "
that really sums up the best parts of his argument. however, i
dont think that most electronic music is guilty of this. if
anything, people have accused some techno and house of stagnation
because of the reliance on the old roland boxes and minimoogs. IDM
wasnt guilty of this initially, they utilized most of the same
gear and sounds. now, it, progressive house, drummy techno, and
drum and bass are the most guilty of pretty much every accusation
this guy has against electronic music. music is reduced to a cool
sound, one that doesnt last long before the new sound comes
along. part of old school techno and house's appeal to me is its
rawness, the bad tape edits, the crap pressings of trax records,
the primitive programming of the generally low end electronic
instruments. see, these instruments dont force people into
this "perfection" that alot of electronic music has boxed itself
into. the mainstream attitude does: liking these ultra-pristine
forms of music is more akin to liking bad pop music. the dirty old
techno house idm and jungle is more like punk rock, its more about
the expression and not the sound.
yeah, lets argue about this for a while.
tom
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