i don't understand why all the new-school electro-pop gets so much criticism but so much new-school jazz/house/breaks, broken-beat-type stuff passes the "quality" test. i know it all comes down to individual tastes, but it just leaves me thinking. are we really so ashamed of electronic music's history that we can't perceive that early'-80s past as worth revisiting? are we so enamored of traditional "musicality" that the same reheated funk, soul and jazz textures can be palatable again and again, with just a light digital sheen added to each new round?
i think that, as with the as one/2000 black/etc. nu-jazz school, a lot of great songs have come out of the latest round of electro-inspired pop. just because it's catchy and just because the face decides to jump on the bandwagon doesn't mean the music itself sucks. yes, yes, the whole fact that new york is getting all the attention when electro never really died in detroit leaves a bit of a bad taste in our collective mouth. but this whole concept that the past can never be revisited in a new way, or that only certain strains of music from the past are quality enough to revisit, is just rubbish. i had a lot more fun at the le tigre/chicks on speed show last weekend in san francisco than i've had at a straigh-up DJ event in quite a while. fun is not the enemy! the felix da housecat record is about as straight-up retro as you can get - he lifts whole riffs and hooks from bobby o and vanity 6! but it's as personal and quirky as any of his album projects, full of analogue melancholy and killer beats. is it somehowe more palatable just because he's from chicago and he's paid his purist house (maddkatt courtship, etc.) and techno (aphrohead) dues? brian --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
