Music is so subjective, especially electronic music. Everything is based on personal preferences, which changes with ones personality through-out time. To me whether a song is more appealing or not has nothing to do with the level of standards an artist has.It has more to do with my personal level of standards as an listener. And that can vary from time to time.
What's compositionally pleasing to you, could be complete childs play to a Julliard graduate. Remember we're dealing with Art! Ja'Maul Redmond PERKINS & WILL 1130 East Third Street, Suite 200 Charlotte, North Carolina 28204 (704) 343-9900 (704) 343-4935 ext.202(direct) (704) 343-9999 (fax) jamaul.redmond <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>@perkinswill.com http://www.perkinswill.com/ -----Original Message----- From: Andrew [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 11:04 AM To: 313@hyperreal.org Subject: Re: (313) t-1000 interview (techno rant) "I'm talking about the techno genre whether it be Swedish techno or Brighton techno, I'm not talking about other forms of electronic music that you would find more soulful like Moodyman or Broken Beat." And neither am I - I'm talking about techno. Not Moodymann or whatever. Maybe you just mentioned the wrong records. It's just that me and my mates feel quite strongly about this, that there's too much sh*t around, because people don't have high enough standards. That's why we're sitting around trying to make decent tunes, it very fu*king hard. I love some loops techno, obviously Jeff and Rob, and yes even some stuff by the 'usual suspects' is off the hook. I just think that there are still massive lessons to be learnt from e.g. the early Rhythim Is Rhythim Transmat releases (programming?) and I'm not talking about some naive concept of 'soul'. It's more than that, I've paid my dues being into hard music, and I've mellowed with age. But so much stuff lacks something indefinable, and I call it 'soul', though of course we are in a very subjective area. I just know what I like! Maybe, spw, you need to listen a little bit harder and longer, and the differences between the musics you quoted will become apparent. I'm not trying to patronise, I really believe there's a whole world of difference. I didn't buy a Juan Atkins record from 93 the other day out of nostalgia - it still points towards a sound that is very rarely attained, and certainly not by banging out a 2/4 loop for 5 minutes while you tweak an eq/compressor/sound. I mean, why is it always 2/4? Not even a full bar, for fu*k's sake.... I think a big difference is about phrasing, and the composition of melodic and/or rhythmic phrases in order to hook you as a listener. The loops scene often passes me by because I have to have a little more melodic or rhythmic sophistication in order to really 'groove', and it so happens that a lot of this kind of sh*t comes out of the D! My favourite records often have something approaching a normal pop/rock song structure, with verses, choruses, etc. even though they are instrumentals. I think that by taking this template and extending it more emotion is squeezed into the track, although I've certainly listened to an amazing loop for an hour and gone into a trance....not for a while though! Oh, I could write all day on this topic....
