From jeff salamon Sent Sat, Nov 8th 1997, 19:31
From jeff salamon Sent Sat, Nov 8th 1997, 19:31
> Let me see, I think I really don't give a fuck about > music of the past ! I'd rather listen to something from > the future, but unfortunately I can't. So, I am stuck > here to listen the music from today. But I'm not > complaining, there is so much great stuff that > hits the shops everyday. So even if I'd like to hear > something from the past I really wouldn't have time. > > no hard feelings > respect > Rob > like, i suppose, many idmers, i'm trying to figure out if you're just goofing all of us or if you really believe this. so, a question: can you define the "today" in "the music from today"? which is to say, if you like something that's new today, at what point do you have to stop listening to it because it's become the music of the past? in five years? a year? a month? is it your belief that the music you love now will be of no interest five years from now? that sure doesn't jibe with my experience. i've been buying recorsds for 20 years, and while there are certain artists/genres/records i don't value as much as i once did, there are plenty i do. oliver messiaen's "quartet for the end of time," steve reich's "music for 18 musicians," the second movement of beethoven's seventh symphony, al green's "call me," eno and byrne's "my life in the bush of ghosts," ornette coleman's "this is our music!", cecil taylor's "unit structures," franco&rocherau's "omona wapti," e. koestyara and group gapura's "sangkala," captain beefheart's "bat chain puller," public enemy's "it takes a nation of millions," and yeah, some choice led zap still rock my world 10/15/20 years after i first heard them. (and in many of them -- even zep![at times] -- you can hear close cousins and distant ancestors of idm.) my life would be immeasurably poorer without them, and tho in 1997 i get a real specific buzz from electronic music -- nothing else sounds so much like the sound of RIGHT NOW, and yeah, i dig that frisson -- i'm only rarely struck deaf to the sounds of yesterday that, to my ear/mind, are, inarguably timeless in their appeal. when i read some idm'er trashing everything that came out before aphex twin (or do you draw the line at autechre or mouse on mars? i can't keep up with you kids today) i feel as sorry for him/her as i do for all my old indie-rock or jazzbo buddies who don't hear what's great about oval, seefeel, porter ricks and 4hero. with pity and annoyance (and the grudging respect that everyone on this list earns for refusing the narrow musical confines mainstream culture offers us), jeff