Middlebrow - confessions and definitions
- Thread starter Tentative Andy
- Start date
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
sure, anything post-97 or 98 is pretty meh and even some the of stuff on Modus Operandi maybe. you know what I mean though - "Presha III" like you said, Code of Practice, The Truper, The Sentinel stuff on Basement Records, even "Dolphin Tune" & "Drift to the Centre" have deeeep bass and crazy breaks behind all that Looking Good ambient vibe.
anyway I'm sure Mr. Reynolds eventually came around once it became clear that Photek on his worst day was still miles & miles better than a lot of the crap that wast to follow.
the article is shit and his concluding paragraph about 'two models of blackness', either american jazz-lite thru the bronx or ruffneck from JA is pedantry pure and simple - neither accurate nor diagnostic nor insightful.
SR always has a hard-on to talk about 'blackness' but rarely has anything specific to say AT ALL, and virtually nothing he says would last thirty seconds in a seminar say, on black political thought ... it's not musical analysis, it's not informed by the traditions of black thought, it's not anthropologically informed, it's not even based on 'there in the scene' reportage (by 95 he was in nyc, no?). Totally bogus fluff. Tell me I'm wrong, cos i enjoy and read his books.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
bit antagonistic are we?
Yeah sure there's some cringe-worthy stuff about "blackness" in music (not to mention his weirdly aggressive, endless hostility to Detroit techno). Of course as it's music criticism with a bunch of intellectual stuff tossed in and not a dissertation on the Black Atlantic experience I don't think the point is to have it hold up in a "seminar on black political thought". Endless respect to Gilroy/Eshun but it's not the same thing is it. Not an excuse though I'd challenge you to name a white music crit who doesn't have a few embarrassing moments on record about black music.
Anyway I don't see as I was endorsing "two models of blackness" and that. The main point about the separation of jungle from its (multiracial) roots both sonically & vibewise, the aspirations to be proper musos, etc. turned out to be true. And a great deal of jungle did turn into awful jazz-lite cocktail music shortly thereafter, "two models of blackness" or not.
Tentative Andy
I'm in the Meal Deal
Re: Detroit techno - his official line is always that he likes and respects the actual music but dislikes the scene purists and critics who arrived in the 90s and started to talk it up as the only model for 'proper techno' and promote its values in opposition to those of hardcore (and also perhaps ovemphasised its historical importance/influence). However, it does sometimes come across as if he actually isn't very keen on the music itself, finding it too refined and repressed, too conventionally musical and so forth.
Tentative Andy
I'm in the Meal Deal
Also, can't believe I didn't think to mention until now that I like a fair ammount of stuff by REM. 'Brow as fook? 
. Of course, in true grasping-at-music-cred fashion, I prefer the 80s stuff....
. Of course, in true grasping-at-music-cred fashion, I prefer the 80s stuff....
Tentative Andy
I'm in the Meal Deal
And right on queue, here is SR's first blog entry for the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/feb/06/simon-reynolds-animal-collective
Just fancy that!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/feb/06/simon-reynolds-animal-collective
Just fancy that!
well whatever that is, it's not even music criticism or a record review anymore is it? i mean, it's just fluff - completely pointless, vapid, navel-gazing, friend-quoting fluff ... virtually no words about the record, the music, the tracks, anything, just a long fashionista 'discussion' of who likes and doesn't like his beloved animal collective
suggestion: IF YOU CANT TALK ABOUT THE MUSIC MAYBE STOP REVIEWING?
apparently i missed the meeting where it was decided that music discussion is no longer about the record or the band but about 8,000 variations on the response to the band by inane subdivisions of hipster this and hipster that and snark this snark that ... simon reynolds, no longer music critic, just two dead horses: (1) a long and pointless exercise in parsing the internets discussion of the band and (2) the mind-numbing discussion of said record's RELATION TO RAVE YES YES YES MY ONLY TOPIC and so on ... paTHETic piece, but thanks for the link Andy
oh yeah and of course it wouldn't be a simon reynolds piece without an ear-splitting mangling of the english language in the hopes of being cute or cool or relevant or something ... BROMANTICISM, OMG THATS SO CLEVER
ugh that's five minutes of my life i'll never have back ,
NEXT
ugh that's five minutes of my life i'll never have back ,
NEXT
and yeah before anyone spanks me i know it's not a REVIEW it's a BLOG
but still ... aren't we allowed to expect more from these people who are supposedly 'important' and whose views have been putatively marinating for two decades ? that's all they got? variation x-thousand on the who does and the who doesn't like the new animal collective with endless tangents on these imaginary groups of listeners taking "stances" and all of this bullshit fantasizing about a "pop culture" that doesn't exist anymore cos it's already frangmented into a thousand million pieces (unbeknowst to music reviewers running out of ideas, apparently) ? are u kidding me? people get paid to write this drivel?
but still ... aren't we allowed to expect more from these people who are supposedly 'important' and whose views have been putatively marinating for two decades ? that's all they got? variation x-thousand on the who does and the who doesn't like the new animal collective with endless tangents on these imaginary groups of listeners taking "stances" and all of this bullshit fantasizing about a "pop culture" that doesn't exist anymore cos it's already frangmented into a thousand million pieces (unbeknowst to music reviewers running out of ideas, apparently) ? are u kidding me? people get paid to write this drivel?
littlebird
Wild Horses
i have heard the term "bromanticism" about five times in the last two days, in different media venues and passing conversations.
that is enough for a lifetime. truly.
littlebird
Wild Horses
and suddenly i have very disturbing images of members of Duran Duran smoking a bowl together in a shit car while trying to hide from some dealers/cops/other plot foil, still wearing the puffy shirts.
please kill my imagination
mixed_biscuits
_________________________
The neologisms are grating - as if what the world needs is more jargon. Neolojism
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and suddenly i have very disturbing images of members of Duran Duran smoking a bowl together in a shit car while trying to hide from some dealers/cops/other plot foil, still wearing the puffy shirts.
please kill my imagination
lol
Hey remember the So Cal definition of bro? Like not meaning hippies, but those jock dudes from Orange County, Long Beach, or Inland Empire with tribal tattoos and short, bleached hair, blasting Sublime, Limp Bizkit, or RHCP out of their lifted trucks? They seem to have been replaced by Emos, but I still sometimes see them at bars, still bein' total bros. Not bad guys per se, just...
I think they were like the Westcoast version of Guidos.
bu bu bu but BUT , neologisms are practically de rigeur for british music critics ! They can't be "grating" ! You have to use them or you're not in the club ! Don't you know ? !!!Middlebrow, Animal Collective, Pretentiousness - and Dissensus doesn't even get a mention.
The neologisms are grating - as if what the world needs is more jargon.
the reason for these crap crap crap neolo-jisms has, of course, been painfully obvious for a long time: these 'critics' (suppresses giggles) seem to think that inventing a new word somehow substitutes for an actual ARGUMENT or significant discussion ... it's everywhere in british music criticsm, and proof of a thoroughgoing and total banality ... make up some neologism and repeat it a thousand times and hopefully it becomes a BRAND in the CAPITALIST MARKETPLACE and people think that you are 'theoretical' hahahahaha ...
... the best is that half of these dimwits don't even know the words that they are neologizing! K-punk's "nomadalgia" haahahahahaha oh god that's a funny one (he thinks it means "travel sickness")
it' eshun's fault i suppose, "FUTURHYTHM" , lol @ jamming together a latin future participle with a greek word as if somehow that means something (OH BUT IT DOES, IT DOES, "SPEEDTRIBES IS A BRILLIANT IDEA!" cries the blogger hysterically lol ffs...
... history will not be kind to these jokers, but in the end they deserve it ... LONG LIVE THE INTERNETS AND THE MARKETPLACE WHERE REPEATING STUPID WORDS IS THE WHOLE POINT OF THE EXERCISE HOPEFULLY GETTING U ARTICLS AND BOOKZ !!!!
... the best is that half of these dimwits don't even know the words that they are neologizing! K-punk's "nomadalgia" haahahahahaha oh god that's a funny one (he thinks it means "travel sickness")
it' eshun's fault i suppose, "FUTURHYTHM" , lol @ jamming together a latin future participle with a greek word as if somehow that means something (OH BUT IT DOES, IT DOES, "SPEEDTRIBES IS A BRILLIANT IDEA!" cries the blogger hysterically lol ffs...
... history will not be kind to these jokers, but in the end they deserve it ... LONG LIVE THE INTERNETS AND THE MARKETPLACE WHERE REPEATING STUPID WORDS IS THE WHOLE POINT OF THE EXERCISE HOPEFULLY GETTING U ARTICLS AND BOOKZ !!!!