(idm) Re: Flanger

From Tom Millar
Sent Tue, Jul 6th 1999, 16:48

Well, I tried getting into the Flanger album in the grand old automotive.
Didn't work. In fact, upon closer examination, I've figured out for sure
why I'm disappointed with the release. Couldn't put my finger on it
before, except for a general feeling of sparseness and
homogenous-sounding blap. Now I've got it all figured out.

WHY I DIDN'T LIKE THE DAMN FLANGER RECORD

by Tom Millar
Music Appreciation 562
Prof. Fusion Wank
6/7/99

I just ditched a paragraph and a half about how Atom Heart sucks. Make
up your own. I will now delve into the specifics. There is subtlety
coming out of this album's Digipak ass hole. The problem is that there
is nothing else. Subtlety without some sort of big mess on top to
differentiate it is nothing to me. Essentially, what I'm trying to say
is that subtle factors are relative, not intrinsic to the sounds or
styles themselves, and Atom Heart seems to have forgotten this a while
back. He bares the intellectually-challenging tidbits to the sunlight
for blatant perusal by every listener. If you took all the quarter notes
out of Plastikman's "Sickness" and only left in the filter mods and the
double-time squirts, it would be a horrible record. Atom Heart has done
this w/ Flanger. He and Friedmann put together these time-consuming
rhythm section parts that go on for days without repeating themselves
and then left them alone. They could have thrown down two or three
preset synth patches on top and I would have been happy, but they just
left it organ & drums. No matter how many slick and innovative ways you
put together one and two, you are still only left with one and two. I
got tired of one and two five minutes into the first track and that's
more or less it. Fusion references, dub inflections, whatever. They're
only there for milliseconds at a time and then it's back to incessant,
easily turgeon-ified rhythm tracks.
...bippity click cliiiick clicklick DURMP DADURMP pip ziff ziff click bip...

So, whoops. That'll teach me to look forward to collaborative records
(yeah, right).

Tom