fresh good minimal

Lectura de duminica

Un dialog interesant pornit de la articolul lui Philip Sherburne din Pitchfork cu Mark Fisher (Wire),
Owen Hatherley si Simon Reynolds (autor al Energy Flash si Generation Ecstacy) despre minimal, Berlin, vibe-tribalism si creatives.

in ordinea aparitiei:

Philip Sherburne – The Month In: Techno (Pitchfork column, august)

“[…] electronic dance music, which once spun blithely under a yellow smiley face, seems uncommonly sober these days– self-critical, nail-biting, a buzzkill to the extreme. Minimal, of course, was the straw that overflowed the glass of Red Bull. Scapegoat or no, in the last 18 months, the ubiquitous and yet strangely ephemeral genre has become a lightning rod for every conceivable critique. It’s too soulless. It all sounds the same. It’s lost touch with the roots of “real” dance music.”

Mark Fisher – Return to the fairground (Wire blog)

“Minimalism and austerity in dance music work best as counterpoints to more ebullient fare – a short, salty shock to set the scene for the climax to come, or to open up space for you mind to go wandering. But now minimal Techno rarely plays off against anything else; it is the main event.”

Owen Hatherley – Existence Minimal

“I can’t imagine Berlin techno returning to the fairground, but perhaps a possible way out of the inertia is by exacerbating the culture’s own vices (anal precision, decadence, a certain sentimentality, the feeling of living in a city of scars and wastes) until they become virtues.”

Mark Fisher – 12 Hour Party People (Wire blog)

“minimal might be characterised as nomadalgia: a lack of sense of place, a drift through club or salon spaces that, like franchise coffee bars, could be anywhere.”

Simon Reynolds

“[…]the whole explosive tension-release, living-for-the-weekend economy of energy that underpins the more tribal-vibal forms of dance culture is absent in minimal. It is much more about a plateau state of pleasure and pleasantness[…]”

Posted in academia, de-dans on August 30th, 2008 by de-dans | 2 Comments

Techno Manifestos, can it be?

Tipul care in Feiern (documentarul despre scena de muzica electronica din berlin), da printr-o replica subtitlul fimului (“…and don’t forget to go home”), scrie o coloana in Groove despre iminenta inchidere a Bar 25, in care isi retrage cuvintele. Un fel de manifest emotional la care eu ma bag.

“[…]Not long after I moved here, and in pretend shock and amusement at a culture that was so shameless about not knowing when to stop, I made a flippant comment on film that has followed me round ever since. I’m taking it back.

Forget home. Stay out for as long as you can, while you can. Do it, before you can’t do it any more. Before it becomes inappropriate. Before the demands of family or work become too pressing (because, necessarily, they will). And most importantly, before the powers that be decide that you should be doing something quieter and more healthy, preferably where they can see you. Before all the spaces like 25 are bought up, sold off, closed down, removed for ever and this city becomes just like every other.

For it’ll all be gone sooner than you think, and you not so long after.”

Ewan Pearson

Toate articolele din Groove pe blogul lui, ewanpearson.com

Si daca tot suntem la manifeste, ultimul column al lui Philip Sherburne de pe Pitchfork aici

“Dance music has plenty of rules– some of them good, some bad, all of them unwritten– but where are the manifestos?”

Posted in academia, de-dans on July 22nd, 2008 by de-dans | 23 Comments

Neoclasicism

“At the moment, we appear to be in a recapitulative ‘neoclassical phase’ that’s about recovering the elements that made the music ‘timeless’, either through a direct recapture of the old sound (like Prosumer and Murat Tepeli’s Serenity album), or its filtration through contemporary influences. It’s bound to be a tension in a music that is so often about breaking out of the strictures of structure (using little more than stricture and structure), but right now, it seems like so many people are looking back through the archive for inspiration: witness the growing popularity of slo-mo/Beardo disco (encapsulating cosmic, Balearic and Italo) or the slew of decent Neo-Detroit and dub-house records on offer.”

mnml ssgs – we were never mnml

asta asa cat sa nu mai existe nici un gen ferit de cancerul retro. e oficial criza.

Posted in academia, de-dans on March 5th, 2008 by de-dans | 4 Comments

27

“In the past two years, some DJs have realized that it’s necessary to play house in between. Not all the time, but just to get the girls back to the dance floor because so many of them disappeared after so much minimalism. So this is what’s happening at the moment. It’s a mixture between this minimal thing and more house-y tones.”

ricardo villalobos

Posted in academia, de-dans on February 27th, 2008 by de-dans | 5 Comments

jazz

Techno a fost intotdeauna despre libertate. La inceputuri, nu avea reguli, n-a fost niciodata vorba despre granite. Deci, pentru mine nu este nici o diferenta intre ceea ce fac si ceea ce aud in stilul minimal techno german, in discurile electro ale Underground Resistance si in electronica nedansabila. Este toata la fel, toata este muzica techno! Iar pentru mine, cea mai apropiata muzica de techno este jazz-ul.

Laurent Garnier
via freshgoodminimal

hahaa.. stiam

si asta explica multe: track-ul ca “bucata”de set, “piesa”, element constructiv, variatie a unei teme opusa ideei de cantec, melodie stand-alone; setul ca unitate primara, singura care poate avea valoare, singurul care da sens “bucatilor”, trip muzical unitar. nici in jazz nu ai cantece, ai teme, care se leaga intre ele, cu variatii si impovizatii intr-un tot mai mare, in sesiuni de jazz. e aceeasi chestie. piesa, ca improvizatie pe tema impusa rezista numai daca improvizatia aia e geniala dar nu e necesar, important e ca tema sa mearga mai departe. nu are nici o relevanta ca se va intampla cu piesele care iti plac azi, techno merge mai departe, de aici si obsesia pentru nou, pentru piese noi. o improvizatie odata facuta, nu mai are sens a doua oara, a fost geniala odata, de doua ori, acum vrei sa auzi alta.
ideea asta poate parea o blasfemie curata oricarui iubitor clasic de jazz sau oricui are o idee vaga despre jazz si techno. unul care este improvizatia suprema si altul care pare liniaritatea suprema. e o problema de accente, structural sunt amandoua la fel. unul, facuta de om “la mana” accentueaza improvizatia pe o structura liniara mai atenuata dar fara de care improvizatia nu ar avea sens. celalalt, muzica a masinilor, artificiala si mecanicista accentueaza exact ce fac mai bine masinile, repetativitate si exactitate in zona ei primara, functionalista, “de dans” lasand improvizatiile pentru un plan aparent secundar dar care devine principal in momentul in care beat-ul este “incorporat”, absorbit, corporalizat. daca nu intri in trip auzi numai beat-ul principal, nu poti sa treci de el, e prea puternic. cum l-ai acceptat, cum a devenit al tau, nu il mai auzi, el numai exista in tine si atunci iti dai seama de ce e dupa. jazz-ul.

published in Max

Posted in academia, de-dans on February 5th, 2008 by de-dans | 15 Comments