I have a bootleg of a set of her live in Berlin and it is pretty good stuff and diverse, selection and mixing, however, I also have a mix of hers that was an import release and it was boring. She has a few tracks and remixes that are really strong. Just my .02.
----- Original Message ---- From: kent williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: list 313 <313@hyperreal.org> Sent: Friday, April 4, 2008 9:40:37 AM Subject: Re: (313) Ellen Allien's New Mix: Opinions? The one mix I have by Ellen Allien is Fabric 34 and I listen to it a lot -- both straight through and when individual tracks come up on shuffle. I think it's high time that we stop using minimal as a dirty word. Minimalism in its broadest sense has been a revolution in music, not so much because it has been revolutionary in content, but because it has demanded a new relationship between the music and the listener. The best minimal techno is every bit as dramatic and emotional as any other sort of dance music. The worst is just boring. Worse than that, it's a sort of music that appeals and encourages an audience of people completely off their faces on drugs. Give me something with a little soul and variety anyday! It's also to separate the music from the scene, and to realize that slagging on a music/scene when it blows up is as much a hipster transgression as following that trend. I was amused last summer walking around Brooklyn 'hipster' neighborhood last summer; it seemed like people who, in my shallow evaluation were, in fact, the dreaded hipsters, were modulating their fashion sense and coiffure to avoid the dreaded hipster signifiers. Being hip is too exhausting for me. You'll always be trying to stay ahead of curve, and nothing but eternal vigilance will keep you from staying with something formerly cutting edge, now declasse'. It's like surfing -- you want to be in the curl without the wave crashing over you. I'm content to like what I like and let someone else sort it out. But I digress. Ellen Allien is usually pretty ace in my estimation. If one of her mixes sounded a little flat at first, I'd give it a few listens to sink in before dismissing it.
