n.n (nnine@yahoo.com)
Mon, 19 Jul 1999 10:20:58 -0400 (EDT)
christopher said:
===========================================
the only thing i don't like about them (well
dandb/triphop more) is the
pretension often involved. i think house capture smore
of the spirit of
the earlier genres and is more about loving life and
having a good
time,
as does hardstep and hiphop. i think the idea of drum
and bass being
more
experimental is extremely exaggerated - it is not put
together any
differently than other genres and i don't think
sounding futuristic
makes
it so, if that makes any sense at all.
==========================================
I agree with this, and i don't. In dnb I have really
had enough of this "janky 2-step laziness" as a frend
of mine puts it, all this very thinly-stratused
pseudo-minimal, stupid "futurism", like people trying
to be the best of dom and roland or optical (sublime
stuuf, that) and just falling totally flat. Thus, I
could spit upon 90% of the new jungle records i hear.
It puts a hurt on my soul to listen to that crap,
*because* jungle has stirred so much passion in me for
so long.
But OH MY GOSH there is some incredible stuff coming
out, if you're patient enough to dig!! I'm talking
about super jazzed out aggressive shit, the new stuff
Dillinja is doing with crazy out-of-place jazz drums,
and that sound that captures not the smooth of jazz,
like that "classic sound", but the anger and
motivation of jazz. I have been waiting for this for
years!!!
I'm finding what I like on labels like Mo Wax and
Ninja Tune, as well as some of the standard jungle
labels. Calyx on Audio Couture is doing some crazy
shit. Actually, Audio Couture in general is all over
the place doing really interesting stuff. I'm grabbing
up all the Amon Tobin/Cujo type stuff I can find,
digging into experimental stuff like Animals on
Wheels, and one can't forget the Breakbeat Era stilo,
with that half-sleezy song-oriented kinda feel.
And goddamm, all you crazy acid-jazzsters are feeding
my brain with suggestions like Up Bustle and Out, K&D,
Innerzone Orchestra, Friend...Ehh!!! (I have been so
lazy about posting reviews...I have to do something
about that!)
How can I make my point further? Hmmm..well, ok. I
guess a lot of stuff that would qualify as straight up
"acid jazz", or what I'm interpretting as 'that
classic sound' really doesn't float my boat so well.
I personally make a clear distinction between "jazzy,"
which strikes me as sort of smooth and nice, and what
I've been calling "jazzed out". To me, jazzy is a
rather lazy adjective, which is so often applied to
music which I find disconcertingly comfortable.
Jungle grabs me because of its jarring intensity, the
level of juxtaposition and discomfort. Thus jazzed out
has some relation to stressed out, and that's not
necessarily bad. I don't like to be comfy, I want to
be challenged, and a lot of jazzy smooth stuff with
those pleasant little riffs is absolutely lovely, but
just too complacent for me somehow. But I've delved
into this mailing list and similar realms because spun
off of that stuff is so much utterly ingenius
re-invention, plus a totally different style of mixing
from what I'm used to. Put that shit in a blender,
dump it out, play hopscotch on it, and see what
happens!!!
I'm really getting into dangerous, controversial
territory here...but, eh, I'll take a chance. I have
to agree with Elson's point that there's only so far
you can go when you're riffing on a sound that was
born 30 years ago. Why continuously sample the best
bits of old tracks when you could be inventing new
melodies and beats and moods, informed by the last 3
decades of history that we, as almost-citizens of the
21st century, have the privilege of having in our
musical vernacular?
I get really ansy about the tendency to just sample
the hottest bit of melody from your coolest
garage-sale records and out a phat beat under it. What
happens when you want to write your own melodies? Do
you have the mastery to do it effectively? As
effectively as the sound you love? Why try to recreate
that moment in time when the one we're living in is so
brimming with genius? why use those blunt tools of the
past when the present has so many exquisite scalpels?
Ok, what the hell is my point? I don't know. But I
will say that TECHSTEP CAN BITE ME. Amon Tobin can
marry me. =)
juxtaposed on a monday,
stephanie99
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Mon Jul 19 1999 - 16:33:59 MET DST