The Depths

btw, hopefully not coming across too woolly or cryptic anywhere in this thread

it can veer dangerously close to "everything is everything man", inspirational quotes, etc kind of waffling - that profound/bullshit precipice

When you don't at least try to articulate it you collude with the conspiracy to pretend it doesn't exist. I think it's far better to acknowledge it.

droid said:

when you breach the barrier between thought and action

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this is important

in my first post I mentioned also chasing these moments in physical activity

a large part/the ultimate goal of that is trying to attain action without thought, i.e. "simplicity is the last step of art and the beginning of nature"

in that case you're trying to attain it thru repetition, concentration - a focus so intense you no longer need to focus as it becomes clear (resolution again)

it's less clear with music, or art in general, because art is subjective

whereas with movement there's always a particular biomechanically efficient (i.e. "correct") way to do it

but still - trying to reach a place of intentionality without intention

luka said:

I think it's far better to acknowledge it.

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right but important to also acknowledge the nonsense potential as you're doing it

blissblogger said:

i suppose strictly speaking that would be a sensation of altitude (and transcendence) as opposed to depth

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depth can also be about looking down from high places (altitude) tho

that's what I was trying to get it with my brief, possibly not very good, mountain-valley parable

I guess I see that as part of the fun. That it is all prone to disappear in a puff of smoke.

sure

can't hit homeruns unless you risk striking out

but you still try to have some plate discipline while you're swinging

luka said:

The depths can be understood(and explored) horizontally though. I don't think it necessarily goes hand in glove with transcendence

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this is probably true btw

this thread is kind of about 2 related but not exactly the same things

possibly we should have been clearer

any kind of art that is transcendent will necessarily be deep, and probably vice versa (tho I'm not as sure going that way)

patty mentioned chasing transcendent moments thru deep music, and then I picked it up, is how we originally got onto it

luka said:

Typically the deep is in opposition to sensation, to instinct,to excitement and the rush

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I would distinguish between deep and self-consciously "deep", as dubstep

tbf they could coincide, tho usually self-conscious deepness makes attaining true depth difficult if not impossible

no one is ever going to admit to being tasteful, or however it was you put it a couple pages back, in that way that is anti-life

that kind of self-conscious depth can indeed only be formed in opposition to something else

whereas La Monte Young (or whatever) doesn't need to be opposed to anything - it just is, as it is

droid said:

that drone is the deepest music of all because it has no end. The closer you listen the further you fall, there is no resolution, nowhere to land, just you, falling forever into the void

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and here's droid, deconstructing the drone better than I ever could

@cakes - authenticity + postmodernism is a good shout

it's another that came up in one of the other "there's only one thread" threads - possibly dematerialization but I don't remember

people have always sought what we're calling transcendent moments, in guises as multiple as the human search for meaning

I think there's something in seeking them now as a means of psychic defense, among other things

I need to think about it more

random, possibly unrelated note of interest: authenticity as - ironically, possibly inauthentic - cottage industry, Etsy etc

here's a couple more records I think of as deep

these ones in ways less directly/obviously connected to ego death in a primeval mist-shrouded northern forest

(not that they couldn't soundtrack ego death in said mist-shrouded forest, mind)

the boundless eternal depths of love

this is what I think of when I think "deep house", in the sense of deep house as any record/the type of record Theo Parrish etc would play at 4 am

if you want to see a contrast listen to this Gibbons mix of "My Love Is Free" and then listen to Tom Moulton's mix of same

they're both great tunes but this is the only one I'd refer to as deep

Levan deservedly gets a huge amount of credit for bring depth to dance tracks - thru his use of dub techniques and space in remixes, as well as emotional resonance

but Gibbons deserves equal credit if not more - he was the one who took what DJs were doing with mixing, beat-juggling, etc and made it the template of a dance record

meaning peaks and valleys (depths), addition and removal of individual sonic elements in service of/to propel the groove

and that to me is at least part of the depth here, the feeling of endlessness, that if you open the door and step into it is an entire universe

put it on b2b repeat with the Prelude to Das Rheingold from now until the fucking end of time until every sun in the universe burns itself out of existence

that's deep

you might not feel the same way

but like when D. Boon said "Mr. Narrator this is Bob Dylan to me", that Gibbons mix is Wagner to me

and Love Is the Message

I mean, well

love is the message, is the message of Love Is the Message

it doesn't get any deeper than that, in a simplicity is the last step of art and beginning of nature, kind of way

and then this, which is first off one of the greatest techno records ever made by anyone ever

and to give you all your national due, one of the finest works of art ever produced by an English person

lightning in bottle but what lightning - shot directly from the fingertips of some luminous eldritch god

one of the ultimate limitations impose creativity situations, combined with everything going wrong to produce emergent property magic

like, there are some great techno records - mostly Detroit, or people trying to tastefully echo Detroit

but how many are fucking magical? and mysterious? (Drexciya, OK, some deep, ambiguous cats for sure)

the soundtrack of a spice caravan 1000 years ago but without a shred of Orientalism, and also everyone is on drugs

kiss you're beautiful these are truly the last days but without any of the angst

there's only like 3 things happening but again somehow they evoke a sense of the infinite, a whole universe in a two-bar bassline

you and I will die and our bones will wither to dust, and that echoing 808/909 percussion will go clattering on, perpetual motion machine

next up at some point in the next few days - the depths of crushing weight

someone else should post something they think is deep and talk about it

I mean people put them Friedrich paintings (I love that dude btw) but come on now

just cakes and I carrying yall

this is the only truly deep painting btw

or it makes all others redundant, anyway

stare into it and it most definitely stares back into you

white on white translucent black capes back back on the rack etc

I

The further spiritual/cosmic jazz gets from this source, this fountainhead, the closer it comes to kitsch

padraig (u.s.) said:

next up at some point in the next few days - the depths of crushing weight

someone else should post something they think is deep and talk about it

I mean people put them Friedrich paintings (I love that dude btw) but come on now

just cakes and I carrying yall

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Vim posted the Friedrich partly to poke fun at the pomposity and bathos of the deep and partly to point to its roots in German Sturm und Drang.