From Arthur B. Purvis Sent Sun, Dec 28th 1997, 00:17
From Arthur B. Purvis Sent Sun, Dec 28th 1997, 00:17
> I have to 'defend' The Wire, as I think it's one of very few magazines who actually
> has something interesting to say about music (and I really couldn't care less if
> street-cred boys think it's "arty" or whatever else is the hip ugly word of the
I have had this argument enough times to acknowledge that the wire is not
a total evil at all, because the fact remains that it is a glossy magazine
with a large circulation with Steven Stapleton on the cover (it only took
them 15 years to notice him, too! - this is the basis of my
dissatisfaction).
I'll say this: all your arguments are good, and they all apply to the
arguments I made. However, the arguments I made are not my _main_ problem
with the wire. My main problem with them is this: they claim to be the
last bastion of experimental/avant-garde music, while they refuse to
actually go out and look for new music. They wait for the music to "come
to them" as it were. They never write about a band that's just started up
with no commercial or "credible" backing. They just sit on their asses.
See the NWW point: NWW has been around _forever_. As has Current 93,
Death in June, etc. It's great that the Wire has recently done a cover
story on Stapleton and a feature on Tibet. But why didn't they notice in
the early 80s? Answer: because they were a bunch of crazed crowleyites
making a lot of noise, and no one "important" was backing them - they
created their own scene while everyone else paid no attention,
_especially_ the "new music" rags.
Why does the Wire, to this day, ignore Aube and only write about Merzbow,
Violent Onsen Geisha, and a few others, when Aube is infinitely more
interesting than all of them?
> decides to slag off all No U Turn releases in his first issue. Fine. But don't think
> you can avoid the hype, because you are yourself creating it ("I hate Purvis'
> magazine because he doesn't think No U Turn is 'arty' enough. And he thinks Panacea
> came before No U Turn, and doesn't pay enough respect to the real innovators."). The
> hype is the unavoidable consequence of the media world (and the fact that there
To clarify: When I say "arty" I mean the kind of people who will de facto
think anything "musique concrete" or "electroacoustic" or "free jazz" is
the bee's fucking knees, and will laugh contemptuously at bands called
"skinny puppy," "Nirvana," etc. etc. I have no inherent problems with
"artiness."
And while I admit that the first time I heard Input I was infuriated about
such blatant Panacea ripoffs, I have since first begun to question that
and now have had it confirmed (in public, with my ignorance on view for
all to see. Always the best kind of learning experience).
> whatever). And it certainly doesn't mean I agree with everything they say.
But the problem is that a _LOT_ of people do. Even worse, they think they
know everything about experimental music when in fact they know jack shit.
> To the issue of The Wire being too arty: What the hell does word "arty" mean anyway?
> It's being dropped everywhere, but would you care to explain why *you* think The Wire
> chose Oval instead of Skinny Puppy to generate the CD-skipping hype (BTW, I like Oval
> quite a bit)? Your claim has a sort of semi-paranoid ring to it (although I'm sure
> you didn't mean for it to sound paranoid), and I'm curious as to what you might think
> the The Wire's motives are/were. Perhaps Skinny Puppys version of CD-skipping just
> wasn't to be liked (I haven't heard the track(s) you're refering to -- sorry), and
> Oval are simply doing it 'better' (whatever that means)?
The Oval and Skinny Puppy approaches to the sound are WORLDS apart. I
love both, pretty much equally. The point is that the wire an co. made a
big deal of it as if it were something totally new, when SP did it years
ago.
The Wire didn't have any motives, they just totally ignored Sp (because of
their name and genre alone, pretty much) and thus were unaware of SP,
despite their claims to knowledge. It's not like SP is particularly
obscure; they sold > 50,000 copies or so of their final album.
> Second, what I really like (and hate when it's about something I like ;) about The
> Wire is that although they might put Artist X on the cover one month, or make a
> two-page feature on Artist Y the next, you can never rest assured that this artist
> might not be dogged in the next couple of issues. The reviewers/writers sometimes
True enough - Simon Reynolds vs. Squarepusher is a good example. And John
Everall runs totally against everything else in the magazine, and he has
my infinite respect for actually finding new music for the rest of them
(and putting it out! see the recent thread on Sentrax records).
> Besides, your opinions on The Wire are just as stereotyped as the stereotypes you
> claim The Wire are presenting, if you know what I mean. Come on...Alec Empire "arty"?
> Plaid "arty"? Mouse On Mars "arty"? Patrick Pulsinger "arty"!?? No way. Art, perhaps,
> but not arty.
See above, but you honestly can't find anything artsy about MoM or Alec
Empire? What about artistic goofiness and "rebellion?" These are equally
as artistically valid as pretension.
> I whole-heartedly agree. Any kind of ignoration (is that a word?) based on something
> as totalitarian as a concept (Adorno (he-he)) is use- and worthless. Forget about
> "Techno" and "Rock". What does it sound like? Any good? Are they using guitars!? Oh
> my God...but...what the...it rules! (this could be the reaction of a person fixated
> on Techno upon hearing My Bloody Valentine for the first time).
"Loveless" is better than anything ever called IDM or techno. "To Here
Knows When" is quite possibly the greatest 4 1/2 minutes of music in the
history of the art form. That is all I will say.
I had little use for free jazz, but I knew there had to be _something_
great in there, and eventually, I found Cecil Taylor and earlier Ornette
Coleman, and my digging through tons of shit was rewarded. Just keep
looking... Same goes for country, folk, qawwali, African musics, etc.
There is great music hidden in so many places.