In a message dated 6/15/00 7:30:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< If Bukem namedrops old 313 records, is he just 'trying to prove he was
down'? I think he _was_ down, played those tunes when they were released,
then
went on to create his own style. Tunes like 'Demon's Them' and 'Horizons'
are
serious landmarks in deep dance music. To dismiss them in terms of gear
is like slagging Red Planet tunes for always using old Roland kit. Can you
blame the originator of a powerful cliche for their clones?
Even some tunes that I like - Maas' "Juan is the Teacher" f'rinstance,
or Ian O'Brian's "Mad Mike Disease" - leave me wondering if they're helping
or
hurting the music with their fetishistic recreation of the sounds of Detroit
c.a. 1989 or 1992. Anthony Rother is fun, but do we really need another
person
rehashing a blueprint that was drawn almost 20 years ago?
So respect to those pushing the music forward. 99% of us on this list
aren't from Detroit. Respect to the legacy of the past and the integrity of
the present. After all, Juan Atkins didn't decide to make Motown remakes.
That moment was long gone. >>
This post is good, but I want to just cement the ideas
expounded: the bottom line is that whatever the time,
whatever the scene, there are always a couple producers
who are simply much, much better than everyone else.
Great producers are generally not satisfied with living in
the shadow of others. Bukem (whose early stuff is too good
to be associated with almost every other jungle record, save perhaps
the Chameleon 12") is on point making that assessment. It's
one thing for early material to show huge signs of influence
before a producer discovers their valid individual ideas, it's
another to show no signs of innovation or elevation and just
make "Strings" Lite. Seems to me the producers working today
who will look in five years as Nuron, B12 and Global Communication
look compared to even BDP or As One today are Isolee, Brinkmann,
Theo Parrish and KDJ, all of whom are (forgive this awful expression)
adding an exciting new voice to techno's continuing discussion.
Detroit, BTW, is not "long gone" (I think we can all agree on that).
I'd rather listen to Red Planet or "Innovator" than almost anything
else made in the electronic genre, up to and including today, because
it still sounds fresh and energetic, not to mention tremendously deep.
Heck, "Autobahn" is 26 years old, and that's still one of the best discs.
Good art keeps working long after the scene is over and its mediocre
practitioners have long since been forgotten or relegated to footnotes.
A question for everyone, since we're speaking of Bukem. Looking at
all his CD's, there are always phenomenal Bukem tracks that are
surrounded by the work of his imitators. I hear people complain about
the non-Bukem tracks on "Logical Progression" et al.
I realize Bukem was supporting the scene and his friends, but is
supporting your imitators worse than criticizing others for doing it,
or is it justified on the grounds of trying to start a scene, a label, and
getting your friends involved in an underground music alliance?
Regardless, I think we'd all love a nice CD compiling Bukem's ten or
so best tracks with no one else's material on it: that would be excellent.
Matt
