Monday, April 30, 2012
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Sunday, April 29, 2012
Reactionary Intolerance
Maybe I'm overstating my case with the title of this post, but it's always got on my tits. The sneering and sometimes downright snobbery of certain writers and critics. Can you be a critic without having standards? No. Do these standards have to constantly resort to the uneccesary
I read with interest the interview with everyone's favourite whipping boy, David Guetta, in last month's Observer magazine. He does move in other circles to most and, like the British Royal Family, he's not really one of us. So, without trying in anyway to justify any bollocks he might spew forth, one quote stood out for me, which was lucky because it was headlined and, like a review grading system, negated the necessity to read the whole interview, even though I did:
"I don't do this for the money, I don't really care about that, I just want to make beats."
Bollocks David. Anyway, let's move on, because what troubled me even more was this quote, substantiated by writer Luke Bainbridge:
"Listen, some people take themselves very, very seriously," Guetta says. "I'm not a politician, you know what I mean? You remember in the old days you had people like Underground Resistance?" [a late 80s militant dance collective from Detroit]. He pauses and smiles. "I never took myself so seriously."
Live and let live, but no. I can't let that go can I? I certainly don't want to turn into an argumentative chap with a penchant for pedantry who lies out-nerding and is the quintessential blog equivalent of Comic Book Guy. Having said that, that crown's already been won a thousand times over. The tip of the iceberg as far as that is concerned has been reached by the writers behind two very well-known electronic music blogs. I shan't go into any detail as it's different strokes for different folks territory. The blogs are very popular and those who helm them have done an excellent job of popularising them, also the journalism is of a very high standard. Far more care, attention and time has been lavished on them than mine, which is at best a random, impressionistic, stream-of-consciousness rant/ramble.
In any case, let's not kid ourselves. "The US dance giant" as it is referred to in the Observer article, hasn't reawakened, it never really existed. Resolotuely underground, black in the inner cities, white in the suburbs and countryside, (sweeping generalisations I know), it's roots have never been truly acknowledged in the country of it's birth. As the article again makes clear, what is happening now is a world away from the counter culture. It's all about money, bling and who can sell the most tickets. What is singularly annoying though, is why lice like Snoop Dogg and Lil' Wayne are happy to be seen within it's confines. I thought these chaps liked "keeping it real"?
Has anyone asked UR for a reaction?
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Friday, April 27, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Is Your Mother Home? - BMG & Derek Plaslaiko (Interdimensional Transmissions)
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Manuel Tur Interview
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Monday, April 23, 2012
Tracks Of The Day
Five very randomly selected tunes for today. These were the first few to pop into my head. Nothing that isn't at least ten years old here, but that doesn't mean the good times aren't still with us.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Tunes Of The Day
A new feature which will start off with all the best intentions, but will just as likely go off the rails by Wednesday. Five tunes that are doing the round in my mind at the moment.
Skillz That Pay The Billz
Not another digital vs vinyl debate please. Well, no, just some random thoughts that have done the rounds of my mind in the past couple of days. You see, I'm constantly thinking of stuff like this but rarely have the time to commit anything to posterity. Record Store Day yesterday got me thinking. Firstly about how ironic it was that someone like John Lydon was one of its most ardent figureheads. Also, while lying in the bath yesterday morning and listening to Radio 4, I heard that vinyl sales have increased for the first time in years, during the last twelve months. How much of that was down to EDM/IDM and not to rock, pop and independent self-congratulatory obscurity, etc?
Record Store Day isn't just about reviving vinyl of course, it's just as much about the camaraderie to be found in record shops and the discoveries to be made there. However, to regard all vinyl emporiums as oases of calm, disgression and tolerance would be to completely miss the point. In many respects they are as punishing as the playground, but this time the geeks and nerds are in control. I've never had any problem in any such situations, but I've witnessed countless episodes where customers have been made to look and feel stupid. The case of my brother, when buying 'White Man In Hammersmith Palais' from Probe in Liverpool. He had the misfortune to be buying it just as it had been cued up and started to blast out in the shop. "Don't you recognise Joe Strummer's voice . . ." shrieked Norman, a righteous, spekky bowl-haired dwarf so that the whole shop could hear him. No big deal, but I've known weaker personalities that could have become agoraphobic after such an observation. Norman was ok though, as was everyone else who worked at Probe, probably the best shop I have ever been in, or am likely to. Pete Burns and his black contact lenses used to put the fear of god into scales of all sizes. Paul Rutherford used to work there. I remember going in one weekday morning and he was chairing a debate into the merits of a particularly cheesy B-Movie which had been on telly the night before called 'The Car'.
Which, in a very roundabout way, leads me on to ponder why everyone is so in love with vinyl? The first thing to be straight about is that everyone isn't in love with it. It'll never recover it's former position as most consumed sound format on the planet, that's gone forever. MP3s and their bastard offspring will see to that for the foreseeable future. It's an ironic position, but vinyl, kept alive by house, techno, and all other club-related forms is now being re-appropriated by the rockiest masses. Vinyl's debt to independent dance music (IDM) or electronic dance music (EDM), is almost incalculable. Simultaneously though, the associated genres have done more than most others to bury it. No group of types lend themselves so easily to technological changes and advances in recording, formatting, broadcasting etc . . . but I supposed I shouldn't be too surprised. Techno paradoxically goes forward by constantly looking back.
Record Store Day makes me think of these places:
Phoenix Records The Shopping Hall Liscard, Bargain Box, Rox, Vernon's Vinyl Vault, Reaction Records New Brighton, Probe, Penny Lane, Daddy Kool, Dub Vendor, Skeleton Records Birkenhead, Rounder Records Brighton, Black Market, Rough Trade Paris, Salinas Paris, Rough Trade Ladbroke Grove, Phonica, Planet X New Brunswick NJ USA and many more the names of which are lost in the ether.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
When The Night Has Come EP - Unholded (Vierzehnnullvier)
Monday, April 16, 2012
It's You EP - The White Lamp (Futureboogie Recordings)
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