The Depths

[padraig (u.s.)]

the Wagner made me think of two things that feel 'deep' to me, suggestive of unfathomable mystery and immeasurable majesty

yeah that's a great look

there as something I was going to say about the Wada piece that I forgot

about the cthonic nature of those horns - how universal they are to earliest human-made sound

but how I imagine them terrifying later civilized people who've crossed over into a less mysterious world

specifically viz. the terror Roman legionaries might feel listening to droning horns from the depths of misty German forests (as Teutoberg)

(the actual historical reality being as usual more complicated but that's still not entirely inaccurate)

obviously Gas is a much gentler evocation of the mystery of those German forests, but still

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

something else kicking around my head - the increasing difficulty of capturing transcendent moments as one grows older, more experience

you have your mind blown in a certain way - not only is it harder to blow your mind that way again, but its initial power recedes as it fades into merely pleasant memory

a personal version of the way that radical art is gradually subsumed into the general cultural lexicon


this is a record I'd assume most people here are familiar with

patty's initial post mentioned "drifting off" to Spacemen 3, and it made me think of hearing this for the first time

being a teenager, riding around in someone's older brother's car, late night, very high

early 00s - before the Internet was advanced/omnipresent enough for everyone to automatically to know everything

having never heard nor conceived of anything like it - how mindblowing it was

how it sounded literally impossible - like the apocalypse, but also the most beautiful thing ever - all the cliches you might imagine

I cannot conceive of a record, or really any art, that would blow my mind on that level if I heard it for the first time tomorrow

that naivety, to be not just young but unformed, and the outsized formative impact things can have which can never be recaptured

in this context of depth, of transcendence, of how perception shapes depth

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

having not listened to it in years, it does still sound great - incredibly spacious

I'm actually surprised at how otherworldly it sounds, despite now knowing the general history of post-rock, where they copped some of their moves

that emergent property that is lightning in a bottle - as evidenced by their own inability to recapture it

that's a record - the whole LP - I'd call abyssal without being really heavy in any way, at least sonically

the emotions mostly in that contemplative/melancholic wheelhouse, tho also perhaps a large portion of its power is in the way it manages to mix-in emotions - righteous anger, bile, etc - usually outside the more glacial post-rock palette

ofc a million tons of digital ink have already been spilled (it's like a critic's hypnogogic dream given form), just trying to work out how it feels deep to me in some way

where Explosions in the Sky or whatever definitely wouldn't

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

oh yes one last thing on depth - a technique note - tuning as means of creating depth

i.e. Iommi gradually got all the way down to I believe C#

Slayer after their first LP went down a half step to Eb (and then lower in the 90s but that's after their relevant period)

virtually all death metal bands tune down, be it to C, all the way to A# (i.e. Bolt Thrower) or whatever

idk exactly how low modern doom, drone, etc go but presumably low

 

[luka]

Padraig what im getting from you is this sense of the deep as something currently a step on the ziggurat up from our current level of comprehension/functioning.

That and a lot of 'race-memory' stuff. Correct?
Patty, I agree. For me it is textures, dynamics etc rather than depth. Dramatic, serious, but not deep exactly

 

[luka]

Sorry I shouldnt be mixing up my up and down metaphors. The race-memory stuf Padraig keeps referring back to fits in with the archaeological metaphor and also this sense I have of it being about those strata of the self which are no longer individual. Those ancient coal seams and fossil beds.

 

[droid]

Wtf what do you think we're here for? Spit it out!

it's a combination of things I think.

Firstly drone is the ultimate tabula rasa. Obviously the tone and the notes played affect your perception, but generally, the minimalism allows the listener to project their own thoughts. The lack of meaning is what gives it depth. Its an empty vessel waiting to be filled.

Secondly, the mode of listening lends itself to projection, thought and transcendence (of sorts). We've all (I hope) had the experience of going to a rave and dancing beyond the wall, when you breach the barrier between thought and action, physicality and the mind. It's a physiological reaction, well documented through ritual history. Drone does the same thing without dancing, without the physical. If you listen closely enough you, by necessity, become drawn into its flow. You step into a deep time field, conscious and aware of glacial microscopic changes whilst also experiencing the intensity of the gestalt. You become suspended in the amber of a hallucinatory neurological and physiological state. This can become a ritual experience of great significance.

We've spoken here before about the drum and the drone. The first two musics. The yin and yang, alpha and omega. Each has the capability to elevate us, to take us out of ourselves - but only one of them lets you do it while lying down.

 

[droid]

I've been planning an 8 volume history of drone mix series, but dont think I can face it. Too intense.

 

[luka]

Yay thanks droid.

Im deep listening to deep listening now in tribute to your post.

 

[droid]

I was going to post some Radigue or Lucier here, but it seemed to obvious, but it seems to me 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 - and yet also, suspended forever, out of time and space.

 

[Corpsey]

 

[vimothy]

me being deep

 

[pattycakes_]

don't be afraid to post something you think might be too obvious, dudes. there's a chance some of us haven't heard it. and just post more examples in general... would love to hear more deep electronic cuts, hardcore etc.

 

[pattycakes_]

@Padraig - man, totally put GY!BE to the back of my mind. lift your skinny fists was my intro, loved it at 16. need to revisit. keep up the good work!

 

[blissblogger]

View attachment 767
me being deep

that is the very image that flashed into my head the first time I heard the Gas / Konigsforst track 5

i didn't know who the painter was, just knew it from one of the Penguin editions of Nietzsche

 

[luka]

It is more a romantic mode than a classical mode isn't it. Classicism having a concern with lucidity and proportion. Something atavistic about the notion of the depths (at least in the way we've chosen to frame it.) Something you could potentially get lost in (like Padraigs teutonic primeval forest)

 

[blissblogger]

another example of that phenomena, and the only thing i remember about the movie Clouds of Sils Maria





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

depth is more than just spectacular or humbling

it's numinous and unfathomable

goes deep into you, as much as you go deep into it

 

[luka]

Must admit im more inclined towards this stuff in winter. London looked great dissolving into mist today. Its a whole different world

 

[vimothy]

"deep" => understanding of the sublime
"deep" => understanding of the chthonic
"deep" => understanding of the human condition

 

[droid]

This is the the deep Frederich tho.