"When I dance I like regular music. With syncopation naturally."He just doesn't get participatory musics
I think when it comes to electronic music and atonal music, Stockhausen's the best. He was the first person to make electronic music before synthesizers were even invented.
KS: Mmm, yes. When I dance I like regular music. With syncopation naturally. It shouldn't always be like a machine. But when I compose, I use periodic rhythms very rarely, and only at an intermediary stage, because I think there is an evolution in the language of music in Europe which leads from very simple periodic rhythms to more and more irregular rhythms. So I am careful with music which emphasises this kind of minimalistic periodicity because that brings out the most basic feelings and most basic impulses in every person. When I say 'basic', that means the physical. But we are not only a body who walks, who runs, who makes sexual movements, who has a heartbeat which is, more or less, in a healthy body, 71 beats per minute, or who has certain brain pulses, so we are a whole system of periodic rhythm. But already within the body there are many periodicities superimposed, from very fast to very slow ones. Breathing is, in a quiet situation, about every six or seven seconds. There's periodicity. And all of these together build a very polymeric music in the body, but when I make the art music I am part of that whole evolution, and I am always looking for more and more differentiation. In form as well.
"When I dance I like regular music. With syncopation naturally."
harmonic cordal counterpoint. monophony and homophony
these words are literally meaningless
i bent your mum over the dinner table just this afternoon
yeah no i've said stuff to the same effect of what you're saying about dance music vs european classical before on this very forum. i just think that quote shows that he understood why people liked dance music, that's all! as far as i know it's not like stock was playing his music in clubs and then getting all confused as to why people weren't cheering, etc.That language is that of harmonic cordal counterpoint. monophony and homophony allow for rhythms to be concretely grounded as a biological lifeform.
yeah no i've said stuff to the same effect of what you're saying about dance music vs european classical before on this very forum. i just think that quote shows that he understood why people liked dance music, that's all! as far as i know it's not like stock was playing his music in clubs and then getting all confused as to why people weren't cheering, etc.
I wish those musicians would not allow themselves any repetitions, and would go faster in developing their ideas or their findings, because I don't appreciate at all this permanent repetitive language. It is like someone who is stuttering all the time, and can't get words out of his mouth. I think musicians should have very concise figures and not rely on this fashionable psychology. I don't like psychology whatsoever: using music like a drug is stupid. One shouldn't do that : music is the product of the highest human intelligence, and of the best senses, the listening senses and of imagination and intuition. And as soon as it becomes just a means for ambiance, as we say, environment, or for being used for certain purposes, then music becomes a whore, and one should not allow that really; one should not serve any existing demands or in particular not commercial values. That would be terrible: that is selling out the music.
Aphex Twin on Song Of The Youth
Mental! I've heard that song before; I like it. I didn't agree with him. I thought he should listen to a couple of tracks of mine: "Didgeridoo", then he'd stop making abstract, random patterns you can't dance to. Do you reckon he can dance? You could dance to Song of the Youth, but it hasn't got a groove in it, there's no bassline. I know it was probably made in the 50s, but I've got plenty of wicked percussion records made in the 50s that are awesome to dance to. And they've got basslines. I could remix it: I don't know about making it better; I wouldn't want to make it into a dance version, but I could probably make it a bit more anally technical. But I'm sure he could these days, because tape is really slow. I used to do things like that with tape, but it does take forever, and I'd never do anything like that again with tape. Once you've got your computer sorted out, it pisses all over stuff like that, you can do stuff so fast. It has a different sound, but a bit more anal.
I haven't heard anything new by him; the last thing was a vocal record, Stimmung, and I didn't really like that. Would I take his comments to heart? The ideal thing would be to meet him in a room and have a wicked discussion. For all I know, he could be taking the piss. It's a bit hard to have a discussion with someone via other people. I don't think I care about what he thinks. It is interesting, but it's disappointing, because you'd imagine he'd say that anyway. It wasn't anything surprising. I don't know anything about the guy, but I expected him to have that sort of attitude. Loops are good to dance to... He should hang out with me and my mates: that would be a laugh. I'd be quite into having him around.
yeah i've read that quote many times and knew that's what you had in mind. i just think that the other interview gives a better picture of the nuance behind his position. in the wire interview he's sort of in hot take mode because he's trying to push young composers outside their comfort zones to try new things.