Leo

Well-known member
what you're hearing and feeling melancholy about is faith in a future enabled by technology

and a sincere and failed attempt at articulation of this utopia, the extension of human emotion and desire through technology. and 'the reach' is important. the feeling that there is some strain, something that isnt full expressed and the reason it isnt fully expressed is due to limits in technology to render these feelings. there is a tension between the desire to articulate a vision and the tools available

but then post 90s, with internet, we are somewhat subsumed by the technology, the options, the canon, and the algorithmic precision, what we hear after this threshold is crossed is the human not only contained and codified but also untethered and confused, overwhelmed, lost and only existing spectrally or in parody within technology

interesting. regardless of whether or not they like Burial, I'd be interested to know what All the Young Dudes think on the topic. @constant escape? @suspendedreason? @Linebaugh?
 
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All I was saying is bedroom techno is naff in a way hardcore isn't.

because bedroom techno takes itself quite seriously as futuristic music for serious heads getting stoned and pensive after a night out. not that hardcore didnt have those futuristic elements, loads of that in fact, but that was balanced against childishness, absurdity. naive beauty
 

Leo

Well-known member
I get the sense their "faith in a future enabled by technology" might be different from others here.
 
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Leo

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Lemme do my homework this week and get back—I only know self-titled + Rival Dealers and the Tunes 2011-2019 but not super well. Wanna give Untrue some spins.

actually more interested in shiels' point about technology than burial's music.
 

Leo

Well-known member
As in, a progressivism based on technical advancement? Or even a progressive mythos?

it's all right here: "faith in a future enabled by technology".

what you're hearing and feeling melancholy about is faith in a future enabled by technology

and a sincere and failed attempt at articulation of this utopia, the extension of human emotion and desire through technology. and 'the reach' is important. the feeling that there is some strain, something that isnt full expressed and the reason it isnt fully expressed is due to limits in technology to render these feelings. there is a tension between the desire to articulate a vision and the tools available

but then post 90s, with internet, we are somewhat subsumed by the technology, the options, the canon, and the algorithmic precision, what we hear after this threshold is crossed is the human not only contained and codified but also untethered and confused, overwhelmed, lost and only existing spectrally or in parody within technology
 

sus

Well-known member
I feel like the "Where's my jetpack?" line of pessimism (see Reynolds' Retromania, David Graeber, Peter Thiel) lines up with cyberpunk ideology pretty well, if you're talking failed dreams and disenchantment. The immediate fallout of technological disruption is always darker than promoted—transition, adaptation, legislation is hard.
 

linebaugh

Well-known member
interesting. regardless of whether or not they like Burial, I'd be interested to know what All the Young Dudes think on the topic. @constant escape? @suspendedreason? @Linebaugh?
having been inundated early on by the internet I never had a sense of lost technological futures. When I first heard Burial it registered just as sad bleeps and bloops. The only time I ever felt wrapped up in some great technological evolution was when hand held tech (cell phones, MP3 players, the PSP even) became standard fare, which was middle school in the mid to late aughts. But I never had some belief about the liberating powers of technology as that always seemed to be some relatively stable part of Society or Humanity at large. So losing hope at the future as I aged wasn't really tech directed.
 

linebaugh

Well-known member
And the tech advances since then don't touch ground with the civilian in the same way. What we've got since is tools for social influence operating levels above immediate access and comprehension, and thats inherently cynical I think. Theres an allure and excitement to seeing electric car charging ports pop up in town but other than that I cant really think of The Future manifesting for me in any way. I imagine its more exciting if your into coding and etc.
 
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linebaugh

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Also always been a bit of a luddite as most of my early memories with tech involve dealing with computer freezes, inexplicable phone glitches, the asinine interface of Microsoft Word, the 'red ring of death' on my Xbox and etc. Makes me irrationally angry. Why make all of this so neccessary if the interface is shit and only works without hiccup 70% of the time? why did Zoom become some crucial part of post covid infrastructure when its shit buggy software? Thats not unique to any other period, but I imagine in the past there was always the satisfaction of opening up the hood and banging shit around (which might even be washed out of the future of cars, if Teslas business model is to become the standard)
 

mvuent

Void Dweller
having been inundated early on by the internet I never had a sense of lost technological futures. When I first heard Burial it registered just as sad bleeps and bloops. The only time I ever felt wrapped up in some great technological evolution was when hand held tech (cell phones, MP3 players, the PSP even) became standard fare, which was middle school in the mid to late aughts. But I never had some belief about the liberating powers of technology as that always seemed to be some relatively stable part of Society or Humanity at large. So losing hope at the future as I aged wasn't really tech directed.
i can definitely remember when the internet, at least, seemed like an exciting, limitless utopia and was depicted as such by the media. cyberchase and scooby doo and the cyber chase (dunno why they have almost the same name) come to mind. the talking computer virus who's the villain in the latter seemed insanely futuristic and cool to me at the time lol.

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Leo

Well-known member
I think burial is in his early 40s, which I guess is just old enough to have been a little more idealistic about the "future enabled by technology" than the Dudes. he was in probably one of the last age demos to have that perspective.

god, I feel old. in my first journalism job out of college, we had typewriters and would send manuscripts to the printer to have them set into type.
 
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linebaugh

Well-known member
Maybe I was late to the internet but I feel like I arrived when it was almost fully realized- youtube, wikepedia, social media, chat rooms- my use today isn't all that different from then. Coming from the actual experience of using the web, things like scooby doo and the cyber chase didn't feel connected at all. It was like watching fantasy or horror, just another disconnected fiction.
 
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