Re: dj spooky & freedom of music, was: (idm) Graffiti and mass art (long)

From david turgeon
Sent Mon, May 10th 1999, 16:08

> Well, his ideas aren't really fresh.  it seem to me that they're garbled
> appropriations and quotes from a variety of much smarter people, and
> that they're just rehashing the same themes of authorship, etc that
> theorists and philosophers have been dealing with for years.  One listen
> to his new album bears me out, as he mumbles about "making music with
> fragments of memory" and has some idiotic authorship debate with another
> dj.  he's well-read, and that's all one can say for his ideas--they
> bastardize the best.

i don't know; i tend to think that bastardization is what really
contributes to solidity (of the ideas, or species, or whatnot--think of
all the inbred dogs born with countless genetic defects which would have
been more easily avoided through cross-breeding) & as such, wouldn't
necessarily shrug it off as an evil.  obviously we're talking of ideas,
not dogs, but you're the one who said the word bastardize.  :)

that said, his writings did seem obscure at best, incomprehensible at
worse.  but the mere intellectual stance i thought was welcome in my
book; perhaps it contributed to an acceptation of intellectualization in
otherwise-unintellectualized musical areas?  or perhaps i use variations
of the word intellectual way too liberally in this paragraph.

as for making music with fragments of memory--some look for the groove;
some do it searching for the underlying mathematical equation; some look
into music as a spiritual outlet; some see it as a catharsis; some see
it as pure research; some make music with fragments of memory.  whatever
rocks your boat, i guess is good.  it's not like you'd be doing any
harm, so essentially isn't it merely a matter of whether others will
like it or not?  & that is another story altogether anyway.  :)

-- 
david turgeon at http://www.notype.com