RE: (idm) RE: Simon Reynolds and The New Prog

From martin burbridge
Sent Thu, Feb 11th 1999, 01:05

> Even the big name artists like Ae, Aphex, Black Dog, Mouse on Mars, etc.
> make no qualms of the fact that they record on lo-fi equipment in their
> bedrooms and press a few buttons on a laptop (not that I'm undermining the
> skill behind this) while on-stage.

unfortunately, i only have a laptop in my bedroom and have not been on-stage
in many years, and thanks to the hypnotist i still don't remember much. so i
don't know if i can comment on the equipment used, its fi, or its placing
w/in the house or various showbiz style settings directly, but using a
formula developed during last weeks idm math tutorial >>

equipment/fi != PUNKROCkNESS

which in plain speaking means that it doesn't realy matter what equipment
you use, its what you do w/ it  that counts. tho' generally it has been
shown there is a tendency for PUNKROCkNESS to decrease as fi increases.
PUNKROCkNESS is also inversly proportional to proG.

as in: proG/PUNKROCkNESS = 1

but while boc are obviously as proG as genesis w/ flares billowing,
autechre, more dour and mechanical, still appear to treat music as a
primarily intellectual display of technique, rather than an emotional
response. that is, its not exactly ska is it? black dog ended up about .5
proG until they split, now plaid have value approaching 1 (or .99999). under
the microscope the traces of proG found in mouse on mars turned out to be in
fact krautroK infected w/ traces of common dub. a simple mistake. these days
Aphex is more commonly found bonding w/ MTv. this reaction is usually
accompanied by a whiff of irony.

this is also why labels such as v/vm, diskono, vinyl comm... are as PUNK as
the first 3 fall lps, or KLf's "what year ist it and what fuckin' happened?"
or something. dhr are as pUNk as the damned. this in its own way is all a
part of the good things in life, imo. in weitzman's notation v/vm is shown
to represent minus 20 autechre units squared. which is just another way of
putting it.

the boc lp is nice tho'.

-martin