So I went out to see Stelfox & Ripley last night -- had the wrong night! -- it's next week -- (errrr, may have to miss the show cause my mother's coming to town despite my attempts to discourage her from visiting w/ utmost tact and diplomacy) . . . . the dj playing at the Bunker was Dan Bell, and detroit microhouse isn't my idea of a good time, so i went to my old stand-by the Lotus Lounge at Clinton/Stanton, to hear Josey rock the JA dancehall music . . . . then ended up going to this Irma Records party
not sure what to make of Irma Records . . . . I remember Irma Records as this Italian label in the very early 90s that imitated the (tedious) jazz sophistications of ny house (Don Carlos, Joey Negro), and then the label just stayed and stayed and stayed around, producing the same tedium in perpetuity . . . . but the stuff that the Irma dj was playing last night was more polyrhythmic than I expected, a perceptible brazilian bossa influence -- not baile funk, but trad bossa influence
and on a certain level the music is rather good . . . . it's as if the italians have appropriated the music of 1970s NYC and Rio de Janeiro AND made it totally their own -- very sunny, very mediterranean -- but also very pointless ----- it's as if the italians, this old and decadent and long since post-historical civilization, have no concept of history . . . .
there's no master/slave dialectic in what they do, no struggle against the precursor -- and at the same times there's no irony in what they do (which is part of its charm) -- absolutely no self-consciousness ----- and you can't help but suspect they're rather daft
or perhaps they think we're fools for wanting meaning (i.e., psychedelic agenda) & historical purpose (i.e., "new" sounds) with our dance music pleasure
and then these young italian men who were disco dancing like 1975 -- for all of them i felt nothing but contempt! -- though not at all sure why i felt this way (perhaps i'm xenophobic, or at least hostile to a certain type of european w/ financial means slumming it in ny courtesy of the weak dollar)
perhaps i simply don't like modern italian culture? its sunny superficiality, its lack of commitment to anything other than earthly pleasure (cf. americans who like easy & artificial pleasure, but work fucking long hours to get it and then develop weird compulsions and guilt symptoms and then pay for therapy) ------ yeah i'm trading in stereotypes, but i'm 1/2 italian & identify ethnically as an italian-american (ummmm, not really -- pretty deracinated actually -- as are all "white" people in america after a generation or two), so i can get away with saying such things
and yes, i realize that italians make all kinds of dance music -- but it seems to me that irma records is the epitome of an italian label
and also, i did kinda enjoy the music on a certain level -- so perhaps i'm simply projecting???
not sure what to make of Irma Records . . . . I remember Irma Records as this Italian label in the very early 90s that imitated the (tedious) jazz sophistications of ny house (Don Carlos, Joey Negro), and then the label just stayed and stayed and stayed around, producing the same tedium in perpetuity . . . . but the stuff that the Irma dj was playing last night was more polyrhythmic than I expected, a perceptible brazilian bossa influence -- not baile funk, but trad bossa influence
and on a certain level the music is rather good . . . . it's as if the italians have appropriated the music of 1970s NYC and Rio de Janeiro AND made it totally their own -- very sunny, very mediterranean -- but also very pointless ----- it's as if the italians, this old and decadent and long since post-historical civilization, have no concept of history . . . .
there's no master/slave dialectic in what they do, no struggle against the precursor -- and at the same times there's no irony in what they do (which is part of its charm) -- absolutely no self-consciousness ----- and you can't help but suspect they're rather daft
or perhaps they think we're fools for wanting meaning (i.e., psychedelic agenda) & historical purpose (i.e., "new" sounds) with our dance music pleasure
and then these young italian men who were disco dancing like 1975 -- for all of them i felt nothing but contempt! -- though not at all sure why i felt this way (perhaps i'm xenophobic, or at least hostile to a certain type of european w/ financial means slumming it in ny courtesy of the weak dollar)
perhaps i simply don't like modern italian culture? its sunny superficiality, its lack of commitment to anything other than earthly pleasure (cf. americans who like easy & artificial pleasure, but work fucking long hours to get it and then develop weird compulsions and guilt symptoms and then pay for therapy) ------ yeah i'm trading in stereotypes, but i'm 1/2 italian & identify ethnically as an italian-american (ummmm, not really -- pretty deracinated actually -- as are all "white" people in america after a generation or two), so i can get away with saying such things
and yes, i realize that italians make all kinds of dance music -- but it seems to me that irma records is the epitome of an italian label
and also, i did kinda enjoy the music on a certain level -- so perhaps i'm simply projecting???
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