I always thought this "faceless musicians" thing was a reaction to consumer society as a whole - as a matter of fact, if you look at Drexciya or Mike Banks, they do their best to propose an escape from today's society, whether it is under the sea or on Mars... and usually, the music played by these faceless musicians is in some way faceless too - they use retro, 80's sounds that are faceless too in the sense that everybody can associate them with tons of things, they never sound "new" or "different" straight away - maybe it's even clearer with people like Dopplereffekt or Adult, where the lyrics are always tongue-in-cheek, and many times commentaries aobut our society (I have "dispassionate furniture" in mind). A lot of stars you can see on TV these days are there just to be seen, to continue to exist in the public's mind just by existing in its eyes ; Daft Punk et al seem to achieve the same goal by _not_ being seen - their absence is more visible than their presence would be. As to other references in different realms : the Residents have been mentioned already ; I seem to remember Autechre only authorize photos if they're distorted ? David Bowie is the exact contrary - up to a recent point, he was so lost behind his public identities he could have been wearing a robot mask ; but this "faceless" scheme obviously does not fit very well with rock (where the point, after all, is to be a star and have your face on the walls). Another thing comes to mind : some tribes have a legend saying that taking a photo of someone is stealing that person's soul... Gwendal
> -----Original Message----- > From: Jongsma, K.J. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2001 1:10 PM > To: '313@hyperreal.org' > Subject: RE: [313] faceless techno b******s > > > I have never seen pictures and/or interviews with Mojo. You can't take > pictures anymore from Daft Punk also. The only pictures they > make nowadays > are from those Robot masks. > > There is also a record on eevolute dedicated to this: EEVO > 013 - Faceless > Techno Bastards -- Are a complete hype > > They played a live set just once in Eindhoven wearing really > silly masks. > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > So recently I was mulling over the way UR and Maurizio/Basic > > Channel refuse > > to be photographed and rarely ever give interviews, and how this > > facelessness projects to music consumers and how it adds to > > the general air > > of mystique surrounding the artist. Can anyone point to > other bands or > > musicians who have employed this tactic, whether they be from > > the realms of > > techno and/or dance music or any other genres? And does > > anyone have any > > points to make on the effect of such a policy? > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
