redcrescent
Well-known member
That's great news, thanks!blissblogger said:
the wire
- Thread starter mms
- Start date
dubbed to death
i'll weigh in with the fact that i think the 'dub' section isn't entirely adventurous or modern enough. This has been said before i know but i feel the magazine is stuck in a bit of an ideological rut at the moment, from which it seriously needs to depart.
There is room for dub in the Wire but I would much prefer to see an 'urban' section instead. I think Steve Barker writes well but his reviews don't make me want to go and listen to the records and i love dub. Too much of the Wire seems like it is laboriously and begrudgingly chronicling music out of some unfathomable duty.
Wire readers are sensitive to the meaning of music and its context and I just feel it would be more progressive of them to further their adventure in modern music by making their remit slightly more dynamic as well as wide reaching. That said, Simon's Grime primer seems to me like a step in the right direction. What i would like to know is whether this submission was actively encouraged or was it down to you Simon and a select bunch of pestering others?
i'll weigh in with the fact that i think the 'dub' section isn't entirely adventurous or modern enough. This has been said before i know but i feel the magazine is stuck in a bit of an ideological rut at the moment, from which it seriously needs to depart.
There is room for dub in the Wire but I would much prefer to see an 'urban' section instead. I think Steve Barker writes well but his reviews don't make me want to go and listen to the records and i love dub. Too much of the Wire seems like it is laboriously and begrudgingly chronicling music out of some unfathomable duty.
Wire readers are sensitive to the meaning of music and its context and I just feel it would be more progressive of them to further their adventure in modern music by making their remit slightly more dynamic as well as wide reaching. That said, Simon's Grime primer seems to me like a step in the right direction. What i would like to know is whether this submission was actively encouraged or was it down to you Simon and a select bunch of pestering others?
Barker Dub page is my favorite on The Wire recently,actually really now i'm in a huge love for dub and all of reggae history so it's good to know what is out. I wish it would be more than one page ghetto, anyway:
first, some recent reissues seems to me more important than 99% of the things reviewed in large in the "normal" review section, so why have so little space for them?
Second i would love to have more reviews about contemporary release, ragga & dancehall.
Also: i can't understang a fucking phrase of Thompkins reviews, and i like Rap and Isidore Isou.
first, some recent reissues seems to me more important than 99% of the things reviewed in large in the "normal" review section, so why have so little space for them?
Second i would love to have more reviews about contemporary release, ragga & dancehall.
Also: i can't understang a fucking phrase of Thompkins reviews, and i like Rap and Isidore Isou.
blissblogger
Well-known member
griimy
i pitched it to them
i don't know if this actually persuaded them, but more whimsically than anything i pointed out the similarities between grime's modes of distribution, small-runs of vinyl, specialist records stores, etc etc and scenes like jap-noise, dead-c stuff, wolf eyes, etc. an 'engaged culture' a la chris cutler's idea of Eurorock/ReR-type bands, where the audience has a high propotion of performers and scene activists. difference being i spose that grime has ambitions to be mainstream, and possibly still has a chance of that happening, at least in the Uk.
but then wolf eyes have a record on SubPop which may be similar to dizzee gonig through XL but still doing stuff in small-runs, straight to the record stores
i pitched it to them
i don't know if this actually persuaded them, but more whimsically than anything i pointed out the similarities between grime's modes of distribution, small-runs of vinyl, specialist records stores, etc etc and scenes like jap-noise, dead-c stuff, wolf eyes, etc. an 'engaged culture' a la chris cutler's idea of Eurorock/ReR-type bands, where the audience has a high propotion of performers and scene activists. difference being i spose that grime has ambitions to be mainstream, and possibly still has a chance of that happening, at least in the Uk.
but then wolf eyes have a record on SubPop which may be similar to dizzee gonig through XL but still doing stuff in small-runs, straight to the record stores
you have to twist your pitch to the publication in all cases but do you think that this is especially true of the wire? i mean, by being engaged with the whimisical comparisons you made to something they know and embrace isn't entirely an attitude of arms wide open towards something new and exciting? more of a perverse curiousity? i dunno.
i really do hope that this primer starts something here Simon. ragga, dancehall, reggaeton and grime are incredibly important genres which need to be represented to those with open ears. it's just a shame that editors don't think this to be the case without biased persuasion.
i really do hope that this primer starts something here Simon. ragga, dancehall, reggaeton and grime are incredibly important genres which need to be represented to those with open ears. it's just a shame that editors don't think this to be the case without biased persuasion.
its interesting how many people on this thread sound like they want to like the magazine more than they actually do,or buy it without knowing a lot of the music that they cover...
i want to like the wire,i'm in favour of a magazine that's based on the idea of covering music you don't hear elsewhere,but it does all seem a little sterile...
i was never a regular reader,i flick through it and buy the odd issue which is what i've always done,but it does seem more and more to be stuck in a rut...
if you think of the list of writers they've had over the years, simon reynolds,mark sinker,ian penman,david toop,these are all people brimming with enthusiasm for music,people who would make you want to run out and find a way to hear something,that doesnt really seem to happen much any more...
i want to like the wire,i'm in favour of a magazine that's based on the idea of covering music you don't hear elsewhere,but it does all seem a little sterile...
i was never a regular reader,i flick through it and buy the odd issue which is what i've always done,but it does seem more and more to be stuck in a rut...
if you think of the list of writers they've had over the years, simon reynolds,mark sinker,ian penman,david toop,these are all people brimming with enthusiasm for music,people who would make you want to run out and find a way to hear something,that doesnt really seem to happen much any more...
Rachel Verinder
Well-known member
The next The Wire will have Gwen Stefani naked on the cover with article and interview by Marcello Carlin
Well as long as I don't have to be naked on the cover as well, I'd be up for that. But would The Wire?
Well as long as I don't have to be naked on the cover as well, I'd be up for that. But would The Wire?
Ness Rowlah
Norwegian Wood
I like Gwen Stefani's new album ... It's just good pop music.
It's fine taking the piss out of her or any big name act.
But the single is very good. Quoting Abba, Boomtown
Rats and Lene Lovich - all from around 1978 ...
Silverdollar apologised for liking "These Words" on his blog. No need.
Again - just pop music (and almost the same theme as "What You Wating For?")
Which does not mean I don't enjoy listening to say Future Pilot AKA or Noxagt, but that sometimes
you just have to take things for what they are (even if they are not mentioned in The Wire).
It's fine taking the piss out of her or any big name act.
But the single is very good. Quoting Abba, Boomtown
Rats and Lene Lovich - all from around 1978 ...
Silverdollar apologised for liking "These Words" on his blog. No need.
Again - just pop music (and almost the same theme as "What You Wating For?")
Which does not mean I don't enjoy listening to say Future Pilot AKA or Noxagt, but that sometimes
you just have to take things for what they are (even if they are not mentioned in The Wire).
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Ness Rowlah
Norwegian Wood
> over the head repeatedly with a baseball bat
hehe. sometimes I like that (at least in the musical sense) or maybe I am just
fascinated by the quoting. I think not - WYWF is
similar to Lene Lovich's "Lucky Number", which I still like...
The album might not be the new "Jesus of Cool" and WYWF is no "(I Love the Sound of) Breaking Glass"
but I reserve the right to like it ...
"The Real Thing" is almost pure Claudia Brucken, Propaganda ...
I compare it to watching The Simpsons or Toy Story - something for all
(well - clearly not).
hehe. sometimes I like that (at least in the musical sense) or maybe I am just
fascinated by the quoting. I think not - WYWF is
similar to Lene Lovich's "Lucky Number", which I still like...
The album might not be the new "Jesus of Cool" and WYWF is no "(I Love the Sound of) Breaking Glass"
but I reserve the right to like it ...
"The Real Thing" is almost pure Claudia Brucken, Propaganda ...
I compare it to watching The Simpsons or Toy Story - something for all
(well - clearly not).
I haven't read the Wire for ages. I haven't seen it stocked on the shelves at all, either (used to be able to buy it in WH Smiths, Virgin Megastore, my local high street news agent, etc). What's happened to their distribution? Can't be bothered to subscribe - I prefer to have a flick through first and see if there's anything worth reading, cos sometimes it's a pile of poo.
Reynolds Grime Primer? Fuck, yeah!!
Reynolds Grime Primer? Fuck, yeah!!
Raw Patrick
Well-known member
The biggest surprise in The Wire these days is guessing which out of Nick Cave or Einsturzende Neubauten Biba Kopf is going to mention in his editorial. Sometimes he'll mention both to keep everyone on their toes.
second the stuff about it ahving no sense of fun
because of this i have never once bought it. and I love reading about music. it feels very sterile unfunky masculine. i would like to read stuff like smash hits in the eighties.
it is available in whsmith still, at least in charing x.
oh no hold on i did buy it once..........
i don't really want to go with the flow here but the grime primer might be my second ever wire purchase
re. gwen stefani - maximum respect for her performance energy - the 'don't speak' video a case in point, but agreed the wywf chorus is real by numbers 'repeat it so often they have no choice but to remember it' stuff.
'these words' by numbers just the same - urgh - urgh bleueeeeuuuurgh - hack*hack - professional humourless writer/producer syndrome. no soul! i find n bedders v unsympathetic.
d bedders is one crazee pooch but at least his music was heartfelt. well it was on the first album.
i am waiting for the next heartfelt genuine pop phenomenon. last one that springs to mind was 'move your feet'.
scissor sisters almost there, but not quite.
tangent ahoy!!!!!!
because of this i have never once bought it. and I love reading about music. it feels very sterile unfunky masculine. i would like to read stuff like smash hits in the eighties.
it is available in whsmith still, at least in charing x.
oh no hold on i did buy it once..........
i don't really want to go with the flow here but the grime primer might be my second ever wire purchase
re. gwen stefani - maximum respect for her performance energy - the 'don't speak' video a case in point, but agreed the wywf chorus is real by numbers 'repeat it so often they have no choice but to remember it' stuff.
'these words' by numbers just the same - urgh - urgh bleueeeeuuuurgh - hack*hack - professional humourless writer/producer syndrome. no soul! i find n bedders v unsympathetic.
d bedders is one crazee pooch but at least his music was heartfelt. well it was on the first album.
i am waiting for the next heartfelt genuine pop phenomenon. last one that springs to mind was 'move your feet'.
scissor sisters almost there, but not quite.
tangent ahoy!!!!!!
egg said:
To take the tangent even further into total irrelavancy, did you know that Scissor Sister's current session keyboard player is the son of ex-Goodie Graham Garden?
I love crap facts like that....
'tis a shame to see that the Wire is now home to Mark Fisher's resentment-tantrums in the form of a blog
reading his thoughts on how Portishead were just too darned stylish the first time around, I found myself thinking, 'could i possibly care less what this fellow thinks about portishead's first record?' (answer: no)
it never ceases to amaze me how lacking in musical and intellectual content his criticisms are
"Gibbons's gloom always struck me as being more like illegible grumbling than the oblique bleakness it wanted to be."
yep, that's genuine critical intelligence, to foment 'suspicion' about musicians' commitments and then tell us what their art 'wanted to be' lol ... nothing like endless psychologizing hypotheses in place of, say, actual discussion of the music
it's hardly surprising that the fellow who so frequently uses the term 'smugonaut' is the one who exemplifies it better than anyone else in music writing on the net
(nice to see Blanning's mention of Todd Haynes tho, with whom I spent the afternoon not long ago discussing theory, gay cinema, criticism, music, and of course the dylan film -- a perfect example of someone who knows theory inside-out and is making art out of it, not hacklike drive-by blogposts lol)
reading his thoughts on how Portishead were just too darned stylish the first time around, I found myself thinking, 'could i possibly care less what this fellow thinks about portishead's first record?' (answer: no)
it never ceases to amaze me how lacking in musical and intellectual content his criticisms are
"Gibbons's gloom always struck me as being more like illegible grumbling than the oblique bleakness it wanted to be."
yep, that's genuine critical intelligence, to foment 'suspicion' about musicians' commitments and then tell us what their art 'wanted to be' lol ... nothing like endless psychologizing hypotheses in place of, say, actual discussion of the music
it's hardly surprising that the fellow who so frequently uses the term 'smugonaut' is the one who exemplifies it better than anyone else in music writing on the net
(nice to see Blanning's mention of Todd Haynes tho, with whom I spent the afternoon not long ago discussing theory, gay cinema, criticism, music, and of course the dylan film -- a perfect example of someone who knows theory inside-out and is making art out of it, not hacklike drive-by blogposts lol)
Ivan Conte
Wild Horses
Well, I do find the Wire's blog interesting, and Mark Fisher's ever-growing prominence in the magazine is actually invigorating the mag.
Furthermore, I agree with most of what he says regarding the new Portishead album, which to me is too dull to be liked in any way, and it goes one step behind Scott Walker and... erm... Radiohead (it's surprising in this sense how many young Radiohead fans are liking "Third"). Nevertheless, I agree with you in that the criticism aimed at Gibbons is unfair. Even though they were made to wave the flag of coffe-table music for much of the 90s, making it a bit difficult for some to like their music, Gibbons' voice, and indeed the sound the whole band managed to articulate, succeed in creating an atmosphere and a mood throughout their music which was undoubtedly their own, and a great one IMO.
By the way, since this thread is devoted to The Wire, I have just read one of the top Spanish critics saying that The Wire has become less interesting in the last months. It's funny because I personally think that the magazine is actually getting more interesting...
Furthermore, I agree with most of what he says regarding the new Portishead album, which to me is too dull to be liked in any way, and it goes one step behind Scott Walker and... erm... Radiohead (it's surprising in this sense how many young Radiohead fans are liking "Third"). Nevertheless, I agree with you in that the criticism aimed at Gibbons is unfair. Even though they were made to wave the flag of coffe-table music for much of the 90s, making it a bit difficult for some to like their music, Gibbons' voice, and indeed the sound the whole band managed to articulate, succeed in creating an atmosphere and a mood throughout their music which was undoubtedly their own, and a great one IMO.
By the way, since this thread is devoted to The Wire, I have just read one of the top Spanish critics saying that The Wire has become less interesting in the last months. It's funny because I personally think that the magazine is actually getting more interesting...