Wednesday, May 19, 2004
I feel I should excuse myself for the ridiculous manner in which I have approached this weblog project… I don’t mean to create any ridiculous scenario here. I have just gotten a little carried away and obsessive with this medium and I’m using it to explore and develop free thinking concept. It was interesting the other week when I decided to change to a white text on back background look… I didn’t think about it at first but realised maybe the reason was to emulate a “chalk & blackboard” concept and thus signify an almost ephemeral nature to the project. The way information can sit in this virtual capacity and possibly be there one day and not the next… but also the free thought approach of just writing stuff because I think about it and can work it out in this space. Not sure… but I have felt some sense of pleasure from this and play with, and expand the various thought-loops that flip around in the virtual space that is my mind… which in an odd way is replicated by the virtual space of the Internet… except in this case you have this weird entry point whereby other people can access portals in the electronic mind. Maybe this is what schizophrenics go through in a reality sense… their actual minds develop portals to act like transmitters receiving information (albeit in an inverse fashion I suppose).
The other reason why I do this is because I seem to prefer typing to handwriting these days and tend to type a lot. It seems like a more fluid way to jot down ideas… and thus what I translate to this weblog thing.
The tutorial the other week developed a discussion around what if the music industry ended tomorrow and if it could be considered that there is enough music available already in one’s possession not to be concerned about this. An interesting premise and could possibly be linked to the idea that everything that can be done with music has already been done and is just being repeated and recycled. Yes it is true styles and ideas get regurgitated… just look at Jet… a text book exercise in the replication of past styles, sounds and even songs. But the past also gets re-contextualised and developed into new forms as well. Of course it is valid to question the point of satisfaction…(“am I satisfied?… clearly not…”). I must be unsatisfied as I constantly crave the new. Have I fallen foul of the manipulations of our commodity culture… the need for the latest in the insatiable quest for everything new? I love the shock of the new… and thus really look for anything new (new to me that is - from the past or now)… but the choice to pursue such an interest requires commitment to finding what this is. It depends on how much time you have… and what position music has in your lifestyle choice… what type of music you identify with… for some people music is just there, on the radio or TV and part of the environment of sound where its meaning is not so specific (although still filled with meaning no doubt, but maybe more in parallel to other aspects of their life). One thing is that music production is exponentially growing and the choices are excessive. In this sense it can get draining pursuing the new and easier to listen to what the gatekeepers choose to playlist on radio and TV. But the development of genre hybrid is continual and evolving and when the connectedness of global influence and the Internet are taken into account it becomes even more exciting.
I find one of the most exciting aspects of music production for me is stylistic hybridity. I enjoy the attempts (and sometimes they just don’t work) to mesh and combine different styles and genres - accidental or conscious - I find them fascinating (even the more faile attempts). There is a sense of resistance to conformity by breaking the rules of the genre (although this also appears as a natural consequence of genre development). BILL LASWELL is been a highly prolific and influential stalwart in genre exploration, experimentation and dissection. Working as a musician (bass player) as well production he has left some significant marks on music. Aside from his production on groundbreaking releases like Herbie Hancock’s “Rock It” he as been involved in incredibly innovative (and some would say self-indulgent) musical artists such as MATERIAL, LAST EXIT, PAINKILLER and PRAXIS, as well his work with BUCKETHEAD. Plus established labels that filter in out like shadows and place music in evolving levels like no other… collaborations and fusions of styles that have encountered much criticism for his fluid like merging of classical and popular music… at times at a break neck pace. Labels such as AXIOM, ENEMY, CELLULOID, SUBHARMONIC, STRATA, BLACK ARC and the lastest project INNERRHYTHMIC.… if you have the urge (and budget or download ability) there is a substantial catalogue of material worth investigating.
What’s new from Bill Laswell?
|
The other reason why I do this is because I seem to prefer typing to handwriting these days and tend to type a lot. It seems like a more fluid way to jot down ideas… and thus what I translate to this weblog thing.
The tutorial the other week developed a discussion around what if the music industry ended tomorrow and if it could be considered that there is enough music available already in one’s possession not to be concerned about this. An interesting premise and could possibly be linked to the idea that everything that can be done with music has already been done and is just being repeated and recycled. Yes it is true styles and ideas get regurgitated… just look at Jet… a text book exercise in the replication of past styles, sounds and even songs. But the past also gets re-contextualised and developed into new forms as well. Of course it is valid to question the point of satisfaction…(“am I satisfied?… clearly not…”). I must be unsatisfied as I constantly crave the new. Have I fallen foul of the manipulations of our commodity culture… the need for the latest in the insatiable quest for everything new? I love the shock of the new… and thus really look for anything new (new to me that is - from the past or now)… but the choice to pursue such an interest requires commitment to finding what this is. It depends on how much time you have… and what position music has in your lifestyle choice… what type of music you identify with… for some people music is just there, on the radio or TV and part of the environment of sound where its meaning is not so specific (although still filled with meaning no doubt, but maybe more in parallel to other aspects of their life). One thing is that music production is exponentially growing and the choices are excessive. In this sense it can get draining pursuing the new and easier to listen to what the gatekeepers choose to playlist on radio and TV. But the development of genre hybrid is continual and evolving and when the connectedness of global influence and the Internet are taken into account it becomes even more exciting.
I find one of the most exciting aspects of music production for me is stylistic hybridity. I enjoy the attempts (and sometimes they just don’t work) to mesh and combine different styles and genres - accidental or conscious - I find them fascinating (even the more faile attempts). There is a sense of resistance to conformity by breaking the rules of the genre (although this also appears as a natural consequence of genre development). BILL LASWELL is been a highly prolific and influential stalwart in genre exploration, experimentation and dissection. Working as a musician (bass player) as well production he has left some significant marks on music. Aside from his production on groundbreaking releases like Herbie Hancock’s “Rock It” he as been involved in incredibly innovative (and some would say self-indulgent) musical artists such as MATERIAL, LAST EXIT, PAINKILLER and PRAXIS, as well his work with BUCKETHEAD. Plus established labels that filter in out like shadows and place music in evolving levels like no other… collaborations and fusions of styles that have encountered much criticism for his fluid like merging of classical and popular music… at times at a break neck pace. Labels such as AXIOM, ENEMY, CELLULOID, SUBHARMONIC, STRATA, BLACK ARC and the lastest project INNERRHYTHMIC.… if you have the urge (and budget or download ability) there is a substantial catalogue of material worth investigating.
What’s new from Bill Laswell?
|
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