From david turgeon Sent Mon, Oct 18th 1999, 21:25
From david turgeon Sent Mon, Oct 18th 1999, 21:25
> hi david, > this isn't meant to sound like a challenge!! > but i'd be interested in knowing which acts you feel are being obscured by > the larger artists? it's not a matter of who's being obscured & who's not. it's more of a global thing: a select few get lots of press & talk among music enthusiasts while a bunch gets none, no matter how good they are. pointing at actual acts wouldn't help the situation, in fact it wouldn't say anything other than 'i like these guys, but i have the hardest freaking time finding their records in the stores i go because they don't sound _standard_.' the other problem is that while i'd be happy if there was more talk about say, funckarma or while rather than autechre & boards of canada (to only talk of purely idm stuff), this is merely a personal preference. what irks me isn't the fact that people don't talk about my favorite bands, but rather that the same few bands get all the attention over & over & that there is comparatively very little talk (& very little commercial backing) for other acts. this leads to the following absurd situation: autechre could record a 12" of farts on warp while a fledging new band will have the hardest time getting any attention (we're not even beginning to talk of pressing a good 12") unless they start sounding like someone known. you may say that there's nothing you can do about the general situation... but there's something you can do locally, if you find yourself interested in fringe acts: get informed, try new bands, check out new stuff. that said, if autechre (which is the example i'm using mostly because it gets most of the talk on this list, & understandably so) rocks your cradle more than any act in the world ever will, this doesn't apply to you. my problem is with 'habit buying': people shelling out money for skam/mas stuff no matter how they sound, without even the intent of collecting them or anything ~ all they want is new music, but they'll buy only what they know. as may be applicable with everything i say, 'if the hat fits...' ~ david