could use criticism of the music i've been doing so far?

[luka]

To evoke and map space it's always good to nick ideas from dub like the the german techno did. So there's a sense of the space the sound is issued from (which in your case is imaginary and artifical obviously). So there's a sense of sounds from different distances and directions. Sounds muffled sounds amplified. How birds map space in a forest. How rooms, caves, etc have specific acoustic propeties.

 

[Corpsey]

It's got some beats.

okay, i like the third section of track 1 on this, with the think break sample, it's stayed in my head after, a pleasant echo

i didn't like the second section with the beat that reminded me of trip-hop and all that stuff

 

[luka]

Sound source approaching and sound source moving away. I am like corpse though in that all ambience sounds equally good to me unless it's pure solid genius gold. It's hard to dislike it which makes it hard to assess at all.

 

[Corpsey]

Drone is the last refuge of the scoundrel

 

[luka]

I agree(in the hope droid won't read this thread!)

It's too easy and a lazy way to invoke depth

 

[Corpsey]

I'm sure droid can tell the difference natch

The superlative stuff stands out I'm sure

But I'm suspicious in a way of noise/drone cos I feel like you can hide behind it

That's my inherent bias though and I feel similarly about jazz (which of course the clued up will tell me is the MOST skilful of genres)

 

[yyaldrin]

have skipped thru some of the music and it’s not bad at all but it’s just that for this type of music (internet music? -wave music?) it is almost impossible to stand out. isn’t this genre inherently bland? isn’t it the aesthetic of the genre? a bit like elevator music? a washed down version of commercial soundtracks, computer game intro’s etc. why don’t you try to make something more pounding? something that you can imagine people to dance to or to nod their head to. just as an experiment for yourself?

 

[luka]

Yes. That's the quandary yyaldrin. That's the malaise. That's the swamp other life needs to find a way to wade out of. That's the big job.

Specific enemies also being the kitsch and the cutesy.

I would listen to the trackmasters productions on nas' album it was written I would listen to basic channel . I would listen to the trooper by dj hype I would listen to aphex selected ambient works and I would listen to timblands work with aaliyah to find ways of finding emotional depth, intensities, gravitas. Not by borrowing. By taking on those qualities and integrating them into your own being

 

[luka]

That is to say there needs to be positive active forces at work. Internet music is really founded on reactive forces. But you can't get get anywhere like that. You can't move in any particular direction.

 

[luka]

Again it's a malaise and characteristic of a frictionless medium in which there is nothing to push against. No limits means no motion.

 

[luka]

Another vital question to ask yourself is
Is this place I am evoking describing mapping
a place I discovered by myself or did, for example, aphex take me there and show me the way?

Is this place now a tourist attraction with people everywhere and is the route I took well trodden

 

[luka]

What happens if I take another direction. What might I find.
We always begin in the centre
The place where the radial roads converge and depart from. We can go anywhere.

 

[luka]

I would assume that the uniformity of mood in the music is indicative of a corresponding physical-psychic-emotional-spiritual condition. That condition being in some way characteristic of people of your generation in your situation and will resonate with those people for that reason.

But the real job is to find and teach the way out.

 

[Corpsey]

When I made music the only success I ever had came from purging it of my personality. So much of my music was full of these sappy melancholy melodies, embarrassing to listen back to, like reading an old diary.

I actually would advise imitation. Imitate whatever lights you up in other people's music and if you do it enough the imperfections will become a personal style.

I get the feeling what lights other life up isn't what lights me up so I can only critique his music in a detached and uncertain way

 

[pattycakes_]

That's my inherent bias though and I feel similarly about jazz (which of course the clued up will tell me is the MOST skilful of genres)

When jazz is all about showing your chops off and technical ability it's the worst. Most current jazz fits into that description. Avishai Cohen for eg. To the untrained ear it's like 'ooh that sounds hard to play, this must be high level, I guess I have to like it' always that principle of if you don't understand something then it must be beyond you and therefore good. If it's played by a nice looking bunch of young music school graduates all smiley and presentable, all the better. This is the gentrified form of jazz. And yes, they are hiding behind artifice to avoid having to have anything to say.

 

[Slothrop]

I actually would advise imitation. Imitate whatever lights you up in other people's music and if you do it enough the imperfections will become a personal style.

One of the things that I always found weird about production forums is the absolute obsession that a lot people have with individualism. Any question about "how do I make this sound" or "what's such-and-such doing with the drums here" gets met with a barrage of people who believe, contrary to literally the entire history of music (and probably art in general tbh) that you need to craft every element of everything you do free from outside influence and based only on the pure light of your individual creative spirit or your music will be worthless and derivative.

 

[Corpsey]

For learning purposes imitation is (I'd think) essential.

Makes me think a good online music feature would be getting an established producer to share some of their early, rubbish efforts - it could be called CRAPTRAKZ

(COPYRIGHT CORPSEY IF RESIDENT ADVISOR ARE READING)

 

[pattycakes_]

”Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest.”

- T. S. Elliot

 

[luka]

There's some missing of the point going on here. It's a sophisticated point though so that's understandable

 

[other_life]

transcending dematerialisation is a tall order