Leo

Well-known member
it all sounds cool but I don't have the bandwidth to get into all this stuff, neither time wise nor mentally. the brain is a repository for musical understanding and appreciation, mine is nearly full up to the brim at this point and the space needed to delve into the neon screams world doesn't exist, or would require displacing some knowledge that I don't want to discard. and I wouldn't want to do a cursory toe dip and not give it a fair shake.

I acknowledge it's an actual thing, but it's not my thing.
 
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IdleRich

IdleRich
it all sounds cool but I don't have the bandwidth to get into all this stuff, neither time wise nor mentally. the brain is a repository for musical understanding and appreciation, but mine is nearly full up to the brim at this point and the space needed to delve into the neon screams world doesn't exist, or would require displacing some knowledge that I don't want to discard. and I wouldn't want to do a cursory toe dip and not give it a fair shake.

I acknowledge it's an actual thing, but it's not my thing.

For me the issue is things like this

Dance music’s done; it’s dead and desecrated with no hope of resurrection

I don't disagree with the claim. I mean, in a sense, it's kinda weird to say that "x" is dead when there are millions of people loving it and going out and experiencing it roughly as it was meant to be done, every weekend, all round the world. But when we say a culture or a cultural movement is dead we do mean something different from that - we are talking about relevance and... well, whatever, even if we (or at least I) can't articulate it we probably do all have a similar understanding of what is meant by such a claim. So, even if it sounds paradoxical to say something is dead when it's really popular, I don't think it necessarily is.
But the issue that I'm going to moan about now is a personal one. Simplistically, let's say rock concerts were replaced by clubs and then - for most of the last thirty something years or so - one type of club tended to be replaced by a new type of club with another type of music. But as stated above, now we're talking about a bigger change, a paradigm change where instead of just having a new type of music to dance to, it's moving totally out of the club. So yeah, it's a real change, a much bigger deal than just "another type of dancing music" - and when talking about change and New stuff, it's obviously more interesting and exciting if the change is a big fat real one like that....
But the personal thing for me... I love clubbing and dancing and getting fucked up with loads of people for days on end.... and of course this doesn't replace that, it's not a new way of doing that, it's something totally other. So the problem for me is that leaves a big hole where there used to be a communal coming together to enjoy music, and that's very sad - and the other side of that coin, really just the same issue looked at from the other side... but as some guy living in Portugal, what am i supposed to do with this music? I can listen to it (or not) and really that's it... so for me the death of dance music as laid out above represents a narrowing of my possible engagements with music.
In fact, reading that back, I'm not talking about or criticising the music in Neon Screams at all, I'm just lamenting the passing of a particular thing, or a particular way of experiencing music... hopefully still just about relevant to the thread cos I am responding to part of the preamble above. I wonder if that means that there is a space left for a new communal way of enjoying music... or do the young just not like that any more?
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I'm sure it does, but that doesn't cut it in terms of a replacement. Nor should it necessarily, it's not what it seeks to do and criticising it on those terms would be missing the point. Also I'm sure there are real life gatherings too but that's not the aim or focus or whatever.... and they are pretty few and far between in Portugal I reckon..
I am just saying that I personally like the communal aspect of music and - with hindsight - that reached a particular kind of peak with "dance music" I guess. And I suppose it was naive of me to assume that all music from then on would value that communal experience as necessary or even important... in fact why might it not view it as a negative thing?
Just thinking out loud here but it seems plausible that a more divided and secluded society of internet addicts trapped in their homes by killer viruses might have the absolute opposite goal for their music.... suppose that you knew you would be always be alone, then you would most likely want to hear music that sounds best when you're alone.
I remember somebody (@version maybe, but others too quite possibly) writing rather well about the youtube comments on vaporwave videos -how people revelled in the idea of driving through empty cities, further separated even from that emptiness by their hermetically sealed, futuristic, neon supercars. Maybe the future will be even more like that.
 

william kent

Well-known member
I remember somebody (@version maybe, but others too quite possibly) writing rather well about the youtube comments on vaporwave videos -how people revelled in the idea of driving through empty cities, further separated even from that emptiness by their hermetically sealed, futuristic, neon supercars. Maybe the future will be even more like that.
That was in the 'youtube forcing japanese music down your throat' thread.
 

woops

is not like other people
Are you acknowledged in Ulysses?
The bankside poets get a mention
For me the issue is things like this



I don't disagree with the claim. I mean, in a sense, it's kinda weird to say that "x" is dead when there are millions of people loving it and going out and experiencing it roughly as it was meant to be done, every weekend, all round the world. But when we say a culture or a cultural movement is dead we do mean something different from that - we are talking about relevance and... well, whatever, even if we (or at least I) can't articulate it we probably do all have a similar understanding of what is meant by such a claim. So, even if it sounds paradoxical to say something is dead when it's really popular, I don't think it necessarily is.
But the issue that I'm going to moan about now is a personal one. Simplistically, let's say rock concerts were replaced by clubs and then - for most of the last thirty something years or so - one type of club tended to be replaced by a new type of club with another type of music. But as stated above, now we're talking about a bigger change, a paradigm change where instead of just having a new type of music to dance to, it's moving totally out of the club. So yeah, it's a real change, a much bigger deal than just "another type of dancing music" - and when talking about change and New stuff, it's obviously more interesting and exciting if the change is a big fat real one like that....
But the personal thing for me... I love clubbing and dancing and getting fucked up with loads of people for days on end.... and of course this doesn't replace that, it's not a new way of doing that, it's something totally other. So the problem for me is that leaves a big hole where there used to be a communal coming together to enjoy music, and that's very sad - and the other side of that coin, really just the same issue looked at from the other side... but as some guy living in Portugal, what am i supposed to do with this music? I can listen to it (or not) and really that's it... so for me the death of dance music as laid out above represents a narrowing of my possible engagements with music.
In fact, reading that back, I'm not talking about or criticising the music in Neon Screams at all, I'm just lamenting the passing of a particular thing, or a particular way of experiencing music... hopefully still just about relevant to the thread cos I am responding to part of the preamble above. I wonder if that means that there is a space left for a new communal way of enjoying music... or do the young just not like that any more?
I was surprised how much I enjoyed the group listening theads during full lockdown
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member

Shimmering amid swelling, celestial strings, an angel sings. Its voice quivers, shivers and then pirouettes before retreating back into a thick mist of reverb. As the track progresses it becomes hard to discern what exactly you’re hearing. Listening to the drums you might say it was UK drill—you can certainly hear some of the genre’s fidgety rhythmic intricacy in there—but it’s not that straightforward. There are these big, clunky claps that aren’t as nimble as the rhythms in UK drill; they’ve almost got a lumbering stadium rock quality to them. You also have those strings that are at once wistful and triumphant. They’re far too expansive—far too Hollywood-scope—for the sombre solipsism of modern British street music. Once you hear the vocals it’s clear this music definitely isn’t British.
They’re American and a little Quavo-esque with all that Auto-Tune and vocal reverb, except the rap’s fractured rhythms are delivered with the frightening, cut-and-paste aesthetic of a ransom letter, it’s just not Quavo’s style—the vocal psychedelia’s too grounded. So, what is the music then?
I know a need a late pass, but I've been really coming round to Pop Smoke recently. I had a proper listen to that woo 2 mixtape after reading this, so good.

Enjoyed this a lot too

 

mvuent

Void Dweller
strongly recommend this mysterious book. (except for the section about road rap, because i didn't read it.) it's a classic.
 

mvuent

Void Dweller
to be fair, he's right that a lot of people have written about the use autotune in 2010s hip hip already, acknowledging its creative misuse. he's also right that it has no mention whatsoever of any specific female artists, or even of acknowledgement of "women" as an abstract concept. so i'm not really surprised that this book provoked muggs' usual frentic, indignant sputtering. reminds me of reading old "simon reynolds" ilm threads were the posters (inevitably other music critics) would work themselves into a frenzy interpreting every sentence he wrote in the least charitable manner possible.

at any rate neon screams is much better than anything muggs has ever written, or will write. i mean, look at the title he gave his own book ffs.
 
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