Neon Screams!
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Corpsey
bandz ahoy
I suppose autotune is still huge but my latest cursory examinations of rap playlists suggest that the drakeo flow (i.e. Half bored sounding talking flow) is also huge
When the production is mad but the rapper sounds unbothered in the centre, is that a new form of transhumanism?
When the production is mad but the rapper sounds unbothered in the centre, is that a new form of transhumanism?
wektor
Well-known member
i used to see him around the fat walrus pub every now and then, but had moved out of the area more than a year ago now, not sure what he's up to
luka
Well-known member
He's still at his mums he hasn't moved out
For some reason, I read this whole thread last night.
First, I want to say that I get the impression that the writer is somehow either from this board, and that this written under a pseudonym, or there is something else about the writer that somehow, in some way, kind of makes them part of this board in some way.
Secondly, I should state that I haven't read the book, so keep that in mind with what I have to say because I'm basing what I'm going to say from having read this thread.
Sincere congrats on getting published, but, my apologies, I feel like this is very much a case of the emperor having no clothes
#1 The fact that so much of the premise rests on the idea of music having vocals is a big negative. It's basically like saying the instrumental music has nothing to offer.
#2 I haven't listened to every track, but the few tracks that I listened to, they weren't NEAR as wild and extraordinary, psychedelic and otherworldly as claimed.
#3 How is autotune superior to other techniques of altering vocals? How is it so much so otherworldly than other methods of affecting vocals?
I'm just an amateur tinkerer that has only really been properly investigating what I can do for just a few months, but I don't hear what is so "far out" than what I've done with just a bit of messing around:
vocoder:
or cut-ups:
or with a chain of affects applied to a sample to actually produce something that really does sound psychedelic and otherworldly:
#4 Every example I've heard still just sounds just like vocals through autotune, and it's a rather trite sound at that at this time in popular music, while the author tries to earlier claim that "Techy timbres are trite." - is this a pre-emptive excuse for the rest of the music being discussed having such "stock" cliched sounds? Is autotune really all that most of this music has going for it as far as sounds?
#5 With so much focus on vocals, I get the impression that the rest of the music is allowed to be uninteresting when it comes to timbre and texture to the degree that, I guess what was supposed to be provocative statements like "Synthesisers and samplers have been sucked dry and now they’re completely depleted, they have nothing left to give you." just seem really funny since all of his hype about autotune has, to my ears, significantly failed to deliver on its promise and also make up for the use of "stock" sounds elsewhere in the music.
luka
Well-known member
i llike weird shit too but i also like music. what dissensus likes is music that functions as music while also being objectively weird. hardcore and jungle being our paradigmatic examples but also lots of early house etc. neon screams argues that migos and dancehall fit into that cateory. not everyone was convinced, like, it was controversial, but that was the poisition the book took. it wasnt saying this is the most abstract soundworld conceivable
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
The stuff you posted sounds like it could come from the 90s or even earlier
It's funny how autechre say can do the most out there stuff with clicks ans farts and it basically sounds like everything they've ever done but it has absolutely no power to shock or surprise even
I'm sure their super fans will tell me that's the point but
The only times I feel shocked(too strong a word probably) or thrilled to hear these extreme uses of synths and filters etc is when they're smuggled into more generic/utilitarian music forms
That said, auto tune rap seems to have become old hat within only a few years (not that nobody's making it, but it seems to have lost its freshness)
The last shocking thing I heard was the Bronx drill with the super aggressive beats and rapping
It's funny how autechre say can do the most out there stuff with clicks ans farts and it basically sounds like everything they've ever done but it has absolutely no power to shock or surprise even
I'm sure their super fans will tell me that's the point but
The only times I feel shocked(too strong a word probably) or thrilled to hear these extreme uses of synths and filters etc is when they're smuggled into more generic/utilitarian music forms
That said, auto tune rap seems to have become old hat within only a few years (not that nobody's making it, but it seems to have lost its freshness)
The last shocking thing I heard was the Bronx drill with the super aggressive beats and rapping
luka
Well-known member
yeah i wa about to say the issue with what obleak has done (and hes done it really well obv) is that the ear immediately files it as weird shit and it does exactly the same things for the same reasons as the weird shit of the '50s and '60s. that is one of the things that makes it weird shit. its ahistorical, its outside the timeline, its an experiment with nothing riding on the outcome. it never evolves it never develops it is never in conversation with anything else its the ultimate dead end.
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
Also I feel like that music is somehow a product of tiktok etc.
Extremity tightly, claustraphobically packed into a 4 second loop
I'm not even talking about just "weird shit" either.
Almost everything I listen to is a form of some kind of dance music, or very influenced by dance music, it just happens to generally use more different sounds. The stuff I like generally listen to really isn't that abstract. It's generally still tied to conventional music forms. I just ask for more interesting sounds, timbres and textures within those forms.
Like, why does so much of the music discussed in Neon Screams have to have those same kind of 808 subs, those same trap style snares, and those same lawn sprinkler hi-hats.
and never mind bringing Autechre into it - That is setting up an opposition that I didn't even set up. It's a bit of a straw man.
When I posted a list of favorites from the last three years, you could say that hardly any of it sounded like Autechre:
¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U - Bedouin Voyager
33EMYBW - Symbiosis Codes/Mandala
3phaz - DrumTraTrax
Christos Chondropoulos - Relics
D.K. - Gate Of Enlightenment
DJ Smiley Bobby - Dhol Tasha Drum Exercises from Maharashtra
Emptyset - Ash
Gabber Modus Operandi - PUXXXIMAXXX
Grim - Therianthropy
Alex Zhang Hungtai - Young Gods Run Free
Makossiri - Juicy Juicy
Ninos du Brasil - Antro Pop
NKISI - The Altar
Nze Nze - Adzi Akal
Raja Kirik - Rampokan
Safa - Ibtihalat
Senyawa - Alkisah/Once Upon A Time In Avon
Saint Abdullah & Eomac - Chasing Stateless
Slikback - Slikbackl
Takkak Takkak - Takkak Takkak
UKAEA - Birds Catching Fire in the Sky
Use Knife - Peace Carnival
Zaliva-D - 孽儿谣 aka Misbegotten Ballads
ZULI - Komy
pattycakes_
Can turn naughty
Autotune rap sucked from the get go. Dissensus hasn't gotten over the death of grime. Autotune rap (and drill etc) was a non entity filling the void
It's funny you say that though since so much of the music in Neon Screams is based on sounds from 80s drum machines.
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
You seem to be really into sound design which is understandable cos you're a producer and also fair enough
It's not the be all and end all, though
Like you thought footwork sounded too conventional cos it used 808 drums, to me footwork sounds a lot crazier than a lot of that stuff on your best of list e.g.
I mean I'm not hostile to your position entirely, the trap drums are played out for sure
I hear a lot of music that uses interesting sounds but doesn't use them in an interesting way, it just ends up sounding like IDM
It's not the be all and end all, though
Like you thought footwork sounded too conventional cos it used 808 drums, to me footwork sounds a lot crazier than a lot of that stuff on your best of list e.g.
I mean I'm not hostile to your position entirely, the trap drums are played out for sure
I hear a lot of music that uses interesting sounds but doesn't use them in an interesting way, it just ends up sounding like IDM