Great question. My answer is simple. What I look for when I go to the shops
is "Music with a twist". A great bassline is important, yet not essential;
great percussion and beat programing is important, but not essential; and
the arrangement must be good and surprinsing, although I can live without
it. I'll stick to music with a twist I think. You can't get more vague than
that, and that's what it's all about. (I'm tired of trying to define
something which doesn't exist) My idea of this list, and the people on this
list is: bunch of people who like music for it's musicality, not for it's
meaning or context. Trying to find a name is something like trying to create
a movement out of a group of people who have escaped being trapped in a
movement; if that makes sense.
just my two pence...
James.
-----Original Message-----
From: Leslie N. Shill [mailto:icehouse@redshift.com]
Sent: 02 March 2001 02:35
To: Raymond,EL
Cc: acid
Subject: Re: differance
El Raymondo,
it appears that we agree on this topic! The lack of any suitable and easy to
pronounce name is, quite frankly (and Georgely and Gretaly!) a bonus for the
music we all seem to love so much. Of all the genres and sub-genres that I
have come across here things like 2-step, real easy to say but kind of blah
as music in my humble opinion, (nah, not so humble!), but i happen to love
it that so much of what i have come across here does not fall into any easy
descriptive realm except that it's good, or BAAAAAAAD or sumthin like that.
Yeah, please give me great beats, intricate rhythms, sensual moods, unusual
samples, twitchy turntablisms, over the top basslines, enduring
arrangements, sheer danceability, breaks and makes, sweet segues and some
outstanding vocalistics and i am one happy camper, call it whatever you want
to if you feel compelled to go beyond the sobriquet acid-jazz, but i just
want more of it, unclassifiable or not.
so, gang, what are the three elements of any piece of music that you hear
that make you gravitate toward that music? for me they are:
1/. a really good bassline and bottom end (modern music floats on the
bassline for me!)
2/. tight rhythms and beats, either well-played or at least imaginatively
programmed)
3/. interesting arrangements.
how about you, what do you listen for?
leslie/The Power of Sound
----- Original Message -----
From: Raymond,EL <mailto:E.L.Raymond@lse.ac.uk>
To: 'Leslie N. <mailto:icehouse@redshift.com> Shill' ; acid
<mailto:acid-jazz@ucsd.edu>
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2001 4:07 PM
Subject: differance
hey kids!
I've been watching this thread with amusement.. my fave so far is 'ambient
speed core???' Giggle.
But seriously, why are we sitting here thinking up names when meanwhile so
many AJ djs make a point of saying that their music transcends definition?
I'm thinking of one DJ Kicks cover that pontificates on how Kicks, in his
quest to confuse boundaries and overturn expectations, deliberately tries to
make music that cannot be classified. & an old sample on a DJ Shadow song
with a clip of an interviewer pressing shadow to define his music and
finally, he comes up with something preposterously meaningless like
'electronic metal hip-hop experimental countrified funk' or some shit like
that. Or how about the rhetoric surrounding coldcuts new weirdo digitizing
mixing thingamabob.. something about how they are constantly seeking to
transform the nature of authorship and DJ'ing, and this is their latest
venture. Those are the only three specific (though vaguely described)
examples I can think of, but I know theres more.
So, yeah, AJ does have some general characteristics, and some aspects of it
are stable and definable, but fundamentally? I think the spirit of AJ is
permeable, shape-shifting, contradictory, surprising... all things good and
edgy and challenging and flucuating. Trying to define what we listen to is
an excercise in humour.. for listeners sake, I hope it never ends.
; D
- E
----------------------
'Starvation is God's way of punishing those who have too little faith in
capitalism.'
- J. D. Rockefeller, Sr.
-----Original Message-----
From: Leslie N. Shill [mailto:icehouse@redshift.com]
Sent: 01 March 2001 18:48
To: acid
Subject: genre calling
My dear friends and music lovers, the harder we try to name what we love
musically, the further we get from anything real and the closer we get to
institutional tagging (UGGGH and BLECH!) Acid Jazz works pretty well for me
and the information I derive from this list and the various contributors
(you know who you are!) is very valuable to me and it goes well beyond any
wordy definition, people seem to know what they like and, more importantly,
what is GOOD and that makes the difference not the name of it. While not
having a clear tag might make things harder to find in a record store, just
acid jazz is really fine as far as I am concerned! A lot of the best music I
have connected to via this list is beyond specific definition anyway and I
kinda like it that way!
leslie/The Power of Sound
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Mar 02 2001 - 16:12:47 CET