Reynolds on planet-mu

straight said:

exactly, its like that dodgy Kpunk bassline piece's hypothesis of dubstep as the death of serotonin.

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straight said:

exactly, its like that dodgy Kpunk bassline piece's hypothesis of dubstep as the death of serotonin. Some of my most euphoric moments of last year were at dubstep raves, and hearing 'Lose control' 3 times in an hour in 3 seperate arenas at sonar had me chasin the lazers like it was tiesto. Their understanding of how it transmits from the ipod/living room to socially seems to come from chase sequences in skins

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straight said:

i thought this came from the name of a ropey american d+b label? might be wrong though.

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straight said:

exactly, its like that dodgy Kpunk bassline piece's hypothesis of dubstep as the death of serotonin. Some of my most euphoric moments of last year were at dubstep raves, and hearing 'Lose control' 3 times in an hour in 3 seperate arenas at sonar had me chasin the lazers like it was tiesto. Their understanding of how it transmits from the ipod/living room to socially seems to come from chase sequences in skins

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mms said:

it's still dark music doesn't mean you can't get a euphoric moment from being in a club with it, they're not describing your experience of being in a club, but some tracks on a cd and reynolds is right in the respect that it's darkness sounds hackneyed imo.

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Slothrop said:

Which is a bit ironic, given that journalists passing judgement on rave music independently of its context is something that he's very down on in Energy Flash.

But I think that while it's fair to say that most dubstep has a fair degree of seriousness / moodiness and a lot of it gets bogged down in excessive cheesy darkness, saying that dubstep in general has a "remorseless fixation on turgid tempos and sombre moods, an ominousness as unrelieved as it is corny" is pretty wide of the mark and ignores some of the most exciting stuff coming out of the scene at the moment. He's overstating his point, presumably because he isn't paying much attention to dubstep but needs a quick soundbite about it, or because it sounds better to make a nicely phrased generalization than a half-arsed nuance.

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mms said:

well i'm going to see kode 9 martyn and benny ill on friday at fwd probably, so this night should be in contrast to the dubstep in general remark, i think dubstep is turning a page at the moment, even the kids that listen to nothing but dubstep must be getting sick of the stuff reynolds describes

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Slothrop said:

Yeah, quite noticeably - there's at least a thread a week on dubstepforum where people complain about excessive amounts of half step wobblers, not enough swing, not enough fun, not enough DJs taking risks. So there's definitely support for that sort of thing, and I think the tunes and DJs are starting to come through now as well.

FWIW, I'm currently listening to Whistla on SubFM - he tends to go for a really good mix of bassline and dubstep (which is a pairup I can see doing good things) with bits of raveyness (and even, gasp, some breaks) chucked in. Very nice.

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gek-opel said:

And anyway, I'm not in any sense a straight-up Communist. Everyone here must no this by now!?

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noel emits said:

The context in which most people take E these days actually encourages the active resistance of all those 'positive' aspects of the drug. It's frowned upon and the game is to suppress the empathy. In fact I think that was always something of an illusion, what it really offers is a sense of self-acceptance. In a communal setting this gives the impression of PLUR because it's essentially people being ill at ease with themselves that leads to the usual hassles and agro.

But I'm not down on the drug in itself - of course you can find it personally valuable and/or fun but I think we're all agreed here that ultimately it hasn't succeeded in achieving valuable changes in society. Instead what you got was 'Cool Britannia' and your own culture being cynically sold back to you. For a minute that might have felt like something was changing but in reality it was two steps backward.

Edit - In a weird synchronicity that D-REAM song was just used on Radio 4 as I type this. That was an E anthem that was adopted by New Labour for the '97 election. Do you need any more graphic illustration of the values that are really encouraged the Xperience?

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Martin Dust said:

I was passing comment only on the first line (no pun intended), if anything I think E made people even more complacent.

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gek-opel said:

Interestingly of course (and to guide us back on topic somewhat) Reynolds' alludes to a lot of this in "Energy Flash", the sense that Rave at its best (darkside 'ardkore) was a music aware of the limits of its own emancipatory powers, and of its more sinister hegemony-serving aspects.

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thirdform said:

this is what ive been saying to barry yes it sounds like dungeons and dragons but it's real, the buzz never wears off because there isn't a buzz, it's an anti-buzz. but his pop as the only packaged revolution rhetoric is exactly what most youth musics have been anyway. the point is to jolt the listener, to take him out of bliss and shock his system.

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Mr. Tea said:

Haha, yeah, totally. I often find that the more serotonergically loved-up I get, the more hideously abrasive, industrial and inhuman I like the music. I've been known to describe the sort of stuff I like to dance to as "music that sounds like robots are about to come down from outer space and start raping everyone with lasers". Which sounds a bit embarrassing said sober, but is the best way I could think to put it at the time.

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nomadologist said:

I don't know what tool you might posit, but I do think that reason is all too often the friend of the Id rather than a part of a system of checks and balances against it. Even the reality principle, ESP the reality principle, is vulnerable to corrosive forces like capitalism. In fact, I would say it's Reason qua the reality principle that makes capitalism chug along so mechanically unstoppably--were the reality principle not in place to ensure that people make self-preserving and stability-enhancing long term decisions/goals, the pleasure principle would basically have all of us spending all day everyday strung out on dope, or video games, or food, or what have you. This would eventually lead to the individual's hasty demise, or at very least an inability to function well enough to serve as an optimal consumer. It's the reality principle's dictates--balance business with pleasure! have just enough fun on the weekend to make your work week bearable!--that keeps us all plodding along.

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