Underwater Dancehall

Gavin

booty bass intellectual
Hang on how do I get lambasted (rightly) for using "organic"... but Zhao gets away with endless pontificating on "humanity" in music... and fetishisation of ethnic "other" music as so earthy and natural and human and blah de blah blah... which is equally bullshit if not more so and for identical reasons- its not the sound of sounds which is the problem, but the delivery system, the social and economic context etc. If you attempt to find some raw unmediated dance music of sex and earthy passion, all you can find is the image of such a thing, which just like the image of inhuman dance music is just that AN IMAGE. If there is any "outside" left (and I reckon there isn't) then it would be at the level of unrecorded immediate music between you and others as musicians (maybe again).

If anything I sense a way out of the impasse through the embracing of entirely post-human, the building of a subject which is suitable for the media-capital environment. Human-as-becoming, not as falsely naturalised end-point. In an anti-Marxist sense perhaps alienation and an environment of technocratic affect is the very point of the human... digressing here into bollocks...

For me the entire point of music is finding new ways of hearing, new methods of comprehension.

Yeah, I was thinking about this on the bus ride home... Zhao's humanist stance seems borne out of a particular kind of crowd response, but breaks down when you get to the level of sonic signifiers which are inherently unstable -- siginifiers of "organicity" or "humanness" are contingently ascribed, and *surprise surprise* subject to well worn Western binaries. Mind/body; rational/emotional; male/female; white/Other --> thus not that surprising really that international booty bass gets that humanist/sexual/emotional response that Zhao's looking for from German crowds ;)

Thing is, even Zhao's humanist club situation is still working on that level of people plugged into a technological grid: human beings interfacing with technology (turntables, mass-produced vinyl, amplification, synthesized sounds) to produce particular responses, practices, networks, etc. Which of course is what techno is all about -- the music produced not from ideal self-contained humanist subjects but that comes from the intersection of humans with machine creativity (repetition, mass production, rational order, etc.). Perhaps ultimately that machines in some sense use human beings to produce music out of an immense but finite amount of choices, calibrations, settings, etc -- the music that was already there, just waiting to be activated. And that's why there's such a strong element of formalism, exploring sonic possibilities bereft of any particular human response, in electronic music.

As far as post-humanity.... weeeellll... I sort of like the idea of music acclimating people to new social/cultural orders, but it gets the little Adorno sitting on my shoulder all riled up.
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
Perhaps ultimately that machines in some sense use human beings to produce music out of an immense but finite amount of choices, calibrations, settings, etc -- the music that was already there, just waiting to be activated. And that's why there's such a strong element of formalism, exploring sonic possibilities bereft of any particular human response, in electronic music.

Yeah a literal post-human agenda is one where the human is de-privileged. language, capital and technology as viral forms existing upon humanity-as-habitat, as landscape...
 

Gavin

booty bass intellectual
I'm listening to the Pinch album now, and I kinda like it... I think I can do without the vox though, should probably check out the instrumental version.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
Re: Gek and Gav:

it's not that complicated. Gav is closer to what I was on about. very, very simple:

the party last saturday where i was spinning "international booty bass":

through out the night people exhibited participatory playfulness. in the form of synchronized dancing and coming up with some pretty impressive routines; in the form of a circle of dancers in the middle of which people of several ethnicities exhibited their funkiness with no inhibitions. there was much grinding of female backsides into male pelvises. and so much laughter, so many smiles... do you know how sweet it is to look up from THE MACHINES to see a pretty face happy as can be, looking right at you and not removing her gaze when it meets yours, giving the best compliment possible with just a big smile and sparks in her eyes?

one dissensian was there and can attest to the above. (where you at?)

the dubstep "parties" that I've been to:

99% white people, with roughly 25% of them dancing alone facing the dj booth, with expressionless faces, and the rest standing around. and that about covers it.
 
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Slothrop

Tight but Polite
I think you should elaborate on this.
A lot of people are making general statements about dubstep - essentially that it's all plodding, serious drudge-step that noone dances to - which even with my knowledge of dubstep (which is nothing compared to some of the heads on here) are demonstrably untrue. I've seen people dancing fairly excitedly to dubstep. I'm aware of all sorts of upbeat, even sexy, dubstep - Benga and Mala's respective takes on housiness, all sorts of 2-step revivals, older stuff like Horsepower or El-B. Christ, even the wobbler du jour, Cockney Thug, comes with a swingy 4x4 beat and a latin brass riff to offset the wub-wub-wub. So I'm kind of forced to conclude that some people are forming their opinions of dubstep based on listening to a couple of N-Type radio mixes rather than actually having any in depth experience of the music.
 
N

nomadologist

Guest
Re: Gek and Gav:

it's not that complicated. Gav is closer to what I was on about. very, very simple:

the party last saturday where i was spinning "international booty bass":

through out the night people exhibited participatory playfulness. in the form of synchronized dancing and coming up with some pretty impressive routines; in the form of a circle of dancers in the middle of which people of several ethnicities exhibited their funkiness with no inhibitions. there was much grinding of female backsides into male pelvises. and so much laughter, so many smiles... do you know how sweet it is to look up from THE MACHINES to see a pretty face happy as can be, looking right at you and not removing her gaze when it meets yours, giving the best compliment possible with just a big smile and sparks in her eyes?

one dissensian was there and can attest to the above. (where you at?)

the dubstep "parties" that I've been to:

99% white people, with roughly 25% of them dancing alone facing the dj booth, with expressionless faces, and the rest standing around. and that about covers it.

you're really on that NY tip, then. your idea of a good party sounds like drop the lime's at savalas. all booty bass all the time, pretty fun, i went after ripley said i'd like it. didn't stay long because i'm not supposed to go near South 1st but you would totally dig this guy's vibe.
 
N

nomadologist

Guest
I'm pretty sure he's NY-based but originally from Trinidad, which I think is why his patois sounds unusual.

Huh, interesting. One of my doctors is Egyptian and he sees mostly French-speaking Africans/Islanders besides me. This vocalist doesn't sound Trinidadian to me at all.
 

continuum

smugpolice
I just listened to Underwater Dancehall for the first time. Totally against my expectations I actually thought it was pretty good. The vocals did work with the music but, like most dubstep, it felt like background music - almost chill-out
 

dubble-u-c

Dorkus Maximus
Huh, interesting. One of my doctors is Egyptian and he sees mostly French-speaking Africans besides me. This vocalist doesn't sound Trinidadian to me at all.

He was born in Trinidad & Tobago.

Perhaps what you are hearing is an american inflected patois that sounds fake to you. I can assure it is not fake.
 
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