From Kent Williams Sent Mon, Apr 12th 1999, 20:14
From Kent Williams Sent Mon, Apr 12th 1999, 20:14
On Sun, 11 Apr 1999, Joshua Whitcomb wrote: > Though I cannot speak for everyone or even from experience because I > don't know anything about producing music, Now there's a blanket disclaimer! > I have heard the reason from musicians that the avant-garde / noise > style is very easy to produce; it doesn't take much effort or skill. Any worthwhile music is hard to make. Any worthwhile art is hard to make. When you talk about avant-garde or experimental art part of the difficulty is that you're working in the dark -- you just hope that your decimated-to-4-bits-washing-machine-spin-cycle tracks mean something to someone else, but you have no idea whether they will or not. The whole idea of experimentation points back to how scientists work -- you find one good thing by eliminating a whole shitload of really bad things. That means some of the trial balloons you float will turn out to be lead, but you can't be sure which ones. You have to depend on the merciful amnesia of history to blot out your mistakes. Any musician who disses the work of others by minimizing their skill ought to check the mirror. You have to make an arduous climb through obstacles in order to get to the point where easy, natural gestures mean anything -- in other words, making the connection between the inner soul and vibrations in the air is a neat trick. If that connection is there where people can hear it, I don't give a fuck whether you're Jacqueline Du Pre or some stanky street person banging two rocks together. If you have the courage and character to expose yourself that completely, you deserve some respect even from people who don't appreciate what you're doing. To say that experimental music is 'easy' is like that skit in Monty Python where they show you how you play the flute -- you blow across that bit there and move your fingers over those other bits down there. It looks easy when your comprehension of what's involved is shallow.