| #552 |
|
2001 |
Perilous 552 Do you ever get the feeling that most electronic music is just a series of ‘tracks’? That it is functional in that ‘move your body’ way and/or technically amazing, but often lacking much in the way of depth? And once out of the club environment and away from the able hands of a DJ they quickly lose their sheen? This problem is apparent not only in the cheesier realms of dance music but spreads across a lot of the more fringe sounds too. Exacerbating this is the proliferation of music as a whole. I’m not sure but in the past this problem was hidden behind the feeling of ‘newness’, the novelty, and the sense of having found something new. Now that dance music, even its more extreme forms are common knowledge, it is out in the open. Does it worry you that 95% of most DJs music collections are filler tracks – tracks that either were, for a short time, new and interesting but now are relegated to the back of the crate, or tracks that are simply used to bridge from one to another? It should. A lot of sounds that have been reaching my ears are technically exciting. This ranges from cut up tracks and ‘glitch’ music to drum & bass. The ‘glitch’ music is interesting because it explores various conceptual questions – digital detritus, sound as physics and mathematics – but more often than not the connection between listener and sound ends there. Others are aural jokes – samples spliced together to rearrange the meanings of sounds or words. All but a few drum & bass tracks over the last two years have been purely functional. As drum & bass has become predictable producers have moved into exploring certain sound production techniques – a deeper bottom end, a punchier kick, a rolling bassline, half and double speed beats. But its not just these styles, it is across the board from cheesy disco house which has to keep re-inventing itself as new and plugging the same filter presets, through to so-called intelligent dance music or IDM and the sweeping quadraphonic prog rubbish of Sasha et al. Technique, production and functionality rule over depth. Concept over honesty. Sheen over substance. Some people get around this situation by chasing oldies. Indeed it would seem that we are caught in the middle of a retro resurgence. Maybe people are realising the shallowness of so much of what is released today? Or maybe it has been this way for a long time and retro is the easy way out. Do old tracks sound more ‘authentic’ and ‘honest’ because they are old or because of something they contain within them? If its because of their essence then what is that essence? I’m not sure. But I AM sure that I have quite a lot of ‘tracks’ that aren’t really very interesting once you get beyond the conceptual trickery, the aural jokes, and the ‘mad production’. I’m sure you do have quite a few too. So, why do you listen to music? Yellow Peril  Goto
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