From Graham H Freeman Sent Tue, Jun 15th 1999, 14:51
From Graham H Freeman Sent Tue, Jun 15th 1999, 14:51
OK, since the little controversy of Ae's kiss-off note to IDM-l a couple of days back, which consisted the regurgiation of some pagefuls of hotwords and finishing off thus: " we tried to work out what we'd have to become to feel comfortable on this list. we decided not to go there. " I've decided to do a little analysis on the circumstances surrounding their departure. The penultimate posting from our pals lambasted some unwitting <xxxx@xxxxxxx.xxxxx.xx.xx> personage analysing their recent EP7 release and speculating on the future of Autechre, concluding " Like I said, I've no specific problem with 'ep7', but it does highlight a possible danger that Autechre could swiftly disappear up their own arse if they're not careful. " Obviously Ae weren't impressed by some punter forecasting their fate. " trying to predict the future is as pointless as this posting. relax and enjoy the present while you still can. sean. " Other <xxxx@xxxx.xxxxx.xx.xx> postings (mainly from a s., presumably Sean) included the following: June 12 in response to the computer geekery and idm thread: " it would be interesting to find out how idm members use their computers. s. " June 7 on gamelan music: " check out all basf "world sound" cassette releases. they have relased shitloads of otherwise unheard gamelan stuff internationally and its really cheap. also contact universitas warmadewa in denpasar. much stuff there. s. " June 7 in response to <xxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xxx> spilging thus: " anyway, back to ae. same fucking sounds as the last album with the exact (well, pretty damn close at least..) digital signal processing. i think they must have, let's say 20-30 songs total, and have remixed, re-hacked, and re-released the same damn thing over the past five years. " , Mr. S replied " i was wondering which sounds were the same? can you be more specific? s. " I think Sean and Rob have a point. From their postings, it's quite apparent that they thought the IDM list was about music and sound. They made a couple of tentative attempts to enter the fray with seemingly appropriate responses about music making with computers and gamelans. It didn't take them long to realise that IDM was not in fact the list they thought it was, but rather the sort of list where members engage in endless cant and twaddle about record collection dicksizing, how very strongly---!!! some cats feel about Tom Jenkinson------, infinity and typing monkeys and how they relate to the inherent musicality of using samples, in particular the ubiquitous "Amen, Brother!" break, the sexual proclivities of Richard Dogbert James (that Salbutamol kid), how the name of track 2 on the Windowlicker single is a Weitzman expression referring to the track, whether Funkst=F6rung are ripping off Fatboy Slim or not, the role of script kiddie unions in the dissemination of Japanese gabber, 'chiqs in IDM', whether mp3's represent good value for money, the relative merits of competing nightclubs in Perth, Scotland, killer apps for 8- tracks, Farmers Manual remixing Britney Spears, whether anyone gives a goats bollocks about demo/tracker groups that have sold out and gone mp3 only, the value of Lego Feet, the tDR issue of Emigr=E9 magazine, and Pamela Anderson's used breast implants as collectors items, whether The Orb were inspired by klezmer music, places to shop for IDM records in Austin, TX, whether or not to go to th@ Burning Man thing, whether the Wire is pure wank, the brand of the clock that Flavor Flav wears about his neck, whether having an introduced species of ruminant selectively grazing a patch of ground and then eating the ruminant is better than clearfelling that ground and growing introduced crops, the ethics of taping shortwave broadcasts of American fundamentalist Christian rant engines, whether Christina Ricci is thE sex avatar of the cosmos, whether Lemmy of Mot=F6rhead should grow his beard back, whether Bill Laswell makes shite dub or not, whether Jean-Michel Jarre is a brilliant artist and a credit to the French people, fascinating skin diseases used as names for IDM labels, how the apparent userfriendliness of Roland's groove gear soon turns to frustration as one realises how bloody difficult it is to produce something with a MC505 that doesn't sound like hackneyed acid house, where the coolest place in the universe is: Detroit or Sheffield, whether artists got paid for having their music used in Beetle commercials, "Cute" John Peel vs Richard "Kuddly" Kingsmill DJ showdowns, postmodernism applied to the role of disk jockey as interpreter of our hopes and dreams, potential soundtracks for a movie adaptation of "Neuromancer", "The Illuminatus Trilogy", or "The Little Engine That Could", if kicking a tin can down a gravel lane automatically constitutes a live performance of IDM, whether wearing adidas brings good karma, and of course, whether Jimi Hendrix be writing ambient music if he was alive, and if he was would he sound like Yanni or the Future Sound of Podunk, and of course the burning question we've all asked ourselves at one stage or another: what are they building in there? Sean and Rob know, and they're not telling us. Best to wait until they see fit to unveil the work. Which brings me back to the first statement I quoted. " we tried to work out what we'd have to become to feel comfortable on this list. we decided not to go there. " Let's face it, if they became active participants on this list, they would have to face the continual analysis and speculation on their lifes work. They might be willing to put up with the occasional exegesis of their product in magazine articles, where they would be able to explain their craft to the reporter in a more broadband manner. Even then, there would be some heartburn as the journalist wrote the story in his words, which would probably be further edited before publication. The meaning they tried to convey would be lost. Sure, they might've found this mailing list a suitable medium to explain themselves, being able to clear up misconceptions and bring up a different angle on their work, that of the creator. But I doubt it. Their initial missives were lost in the noise, being too minimal in their engagement of this audience. And if they chose to make their pronouncements more amplified, they would end up distorting the message, and consequently distort the reception to their music. In the pressure cooker environment of a public forum, one might imagine that they might be tempted into spending more time justifying how they sequence the "bleep"'s and "bloop"'s and "zzzzt-krkl"'s they have released, than they would spend in their ultrasecret laboratory cooking up strange and frightening new sounds like "bing". They would run the risk of turning into DJ Spooky. And as they became public figures, they would slowly find their soul being sucked away by the omnivorous intentions of the typical genredropping IDM geek. They would become stressed. They would start taking Prozac. They would start doing concept albums about the heady days of the Summer of Love. They would make lots of money. They would forget about the music. They would start trying to fly balloons to the Moon. They would asphyxiate and die. We would have killed them. It would be our fault. Autechre would become the Princess Diana of the music world. It is quite clear now why they pulled out. If the cost of their participation in this list was to corrupt the impact of their music on us, then it was better that they stay out of the fray and to just transmit, and to let us receive. Better to avoid the demystification of their unique form of expression. Better to not grow fat and entertain delusions of grandeur. Such are the hazards of audient/artiste interaction. We should be eternally grateful to them that they pissed off out of here, so we can listen to their music without prejudice. -- Graham H Freeman np: Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band: The Mountain. -- Graham Hubert Freeman. Graham the Happy Scum. WWGD. Your computer has been Alstoned. http://www.mpx.com.au/~gths mailto:xxxx@xxxx-xxxxx.xxx ... you will never know, how much i love you...