Conceptronica

[luka]

What Simon Reynolds calls a scab class of grant vultures.

https://pitchfork.com/features/article/2010s-rise-of-conceptronica-electronic-music/

 

[Corpsey]

This is what we were talking about re that hyperdub press release.

 

[chava]

Good summation of why I really really dislike a lot of this stuff.

 

[luka]

Music has become so marginal and moribund it's getting subsumed into the art world.

 

[version]

This seems like the crux of the issue...

They can present projects in terms that translate smoothly into proposals and funding applications. Which is handy, because what sustains these artists is not revenue from record releases but performances on an ever-growing international circuit of experimental music festivals, along with subsidized concerts at museums and universities.

You make nothing from sales these days so your only options are the festival circuit or soundtrack work.

 

[sadmanbarty]

otherlife's 'could use criticism of the music i've been doing so far?' thread, 30-01-2019, 04:24 PM:

two most important things in life are self-aggrandisement and marketing.

if their are millions of people out there all making this type of music then you're only going to stand out by marketing it better than them.

cause controversy. invent new taxonomy for yourself. craft a narrative for. turn yourself into an interesting article for the wire.

that comment got a like by none other than blissblogger.

i assume my check's in the mail.

 

[version]

I'm sure I've said something similar before too, probably something along the lines of producing a bunch of average house tunes then referring to them as 'studies' and slapping some cool artwork on the front.

 

[luka]

Version wants a slice of that cheque too

 

[version]

 

[sadmanbarty]

i'll by him a water filter and a thin malteser.

 

[version]

Cheers, pal.

 

[yyaldrin]

otherlife's 'could use criticism of the music i've been doing so far?' thread, 30-01-2019, 04:24 PM:



that comment got a like by none other than blissblogger.

i assume my check's in the mail.

is this why you got bored of the crap avant-garde bandcamp stuff?

 

[sadmanbarty]

"the initials idm used to stand for 'intelligent dance music' but in this age of social media and world wide distribution the same initials have taken on a new meaning; internet dance music".

i liked that bit.

 

[version]

I Dislike Music.

 

[yyaldrin]

everybody on twitter is talking about the article

 

[version]

everybody on twitter is talking about the article

interested in several thoughts in here – the trend for "world building" among a generation brought up on CGI and dystopian fiction/games, and SR's final thought on high-concept electronic music lacking the release/abandon of early rave or contemporary trap

and def important to recognise the "discrepancy between anti-elitist left politics and the material realities of conceptronica as both a cultural economy and a demographic—the fact that it is so entwined with and dependent on higher education and arts institutions"

There's little impetus to craft mindbending never-before-heard rave product when producers are bottom rung in terms of self-sufficient artistry... better to toss off a jargon-heavy onesheet, start working on your grant-supported live AV show and hope that Atonal will call

Lots of other reasons for this shift of course, not least the shift from actual rave culture (inc, if you think of 2010-ish, dubplates and radio rips, waiting for big new tunes, hearing them in the club) to screen culture + a younger gen who are not going out as much

The 2020s could be defined by a more total collapse in funding as govts divert all remaining arts spending and a generation of non-drinkers expose the entire industry as fundamentally dependent on booze sales

 

[sadmanbarty]

Brighton producer Jake Monroe (who goes by the alias Shellz) released the album Streaming in 2017. With it's oceanic album artwork and track titles such as "Surf" the album explored the immersive, maritime nature of online life.

"It was about connecting the world I inhabited on the computer with the world I could see out of my window" he explained to me- fittingly- over a Skyped interview.

He sells sea shells by the sea shore

 

[version]

A decent chunk of the discussion on Twitter just seems to be pithy comments about the term 'conceptronica'. Very lazy.

 

[sadmanbarty]

Kranium's 'dEiNDUSTRIALIZATION EP, released in the wake of the Conservatives Party's win in the UK's 2015 general election sought to make comparisons between the closing of coal mines in South Wales under Margaret Thatcher's government in the 1980's with the current David Cameron's proposed public spending cuts. Contorting samples of 80's icons such as Brian Ferry, the album was an experiment in revealing "the grotesque face of Capitalism" that hides under the "glitz and glam" of the music industry and show business at large.

.

 

[sadmanbarty]

everybody on twitter is talking about the article

si's midas touch.