Interstate 808

Henry Miller, The Air-Conditioned Nightmare

Read this passage years ago and it stayed with me. I like that, in 1940, a writer is ranting about how the Walt Disney vision would take over the world. Also the idea of mass media transforming the world with a speed that armies could never manage. Then the “annihilate the whole planet in the wink of an eye” line. A lot of people probably had a similar thought in 1940; a few physicists knew it was only a couple of years away. It’s been a while but I remember this being a pretty good book, written after Miller returned to the U.S. after having spent a number of years in Paris. Also, if I am going to be living in a nightmare, I would prefer it to have air conditioning. 

(via markrichardson)

I was reading through some stuff and came across this great interview with Ikonika from just over two years ago. So much of what she says is more relevant now than ever, like the above quotes. Especially pertinent after two disappointing recent sets from Rustie and Nina Kraviz, where the above logic was mos def not followed.

Also, in relation to that Rustie review (http://bit.ly/HDZI8x) from the other week: 

“I dunno if I should say this, it’s pretty explicit, but from a girl’s point of view, whenever I hear really big wobble sets, I find it offensive. ‘Cause I’m picturing sex, and when these guys are playing big wobble sets it’s like coming on a girl’s face. And you’re reloading it, and you’re doing it again.”

“Feel merchant” John Daly in conversation with Little White Earbuds. It’s a long, meandering interview but there’s some really good stuff in there. Particularly feeling the above comment, all over the 808/303 limitation at the moment. Finding it very inspiring.

John Daly is a bit of a legend and he was deadly last time he was in Dublin. Due back soon I think and I’m really looking forward to that. 

To The New Editor Of NME, whomever it may be. - Neil Kulkarni

Great post about the position of the music journalist these days.

Quoting my own review of Kill For Love which I did for AU. 

This review was very interesting for me personally, in a couple of ways. First of all, to build on an issue raised on Twitter yesterday, reviewing an album when you’re not exactly an expert on the band, their history and their context is a particular challenge. I’m certainly no expert on Chromatics or Italians Do It Better or anything like that but I hope that by taking the album on its considerable merits, there was no real need for expansive background/pseudo-contextual details. Anyone can get that off Wikipedia, I don’t think it needs to be in the review. There’s plenty of other things to talk about when it comes to an album like this.

Secondly, and perhaps more interestingly, is an issue related to an edit that I was asked to make from my first draft. After I wrote the initial review, I sent it in and Chris, the editor at AU, asked if I could include some more about what the record actually sounds like. (Before I go further, I’d like to state that these changes made for a far better review really, which is what makes Chris a damn fine editor.) Anyway, I was kind of shocked because when I read back through it, there wasn’t really any description of the actual sounds on the album. It simply had not occurred to me to describe the way the drums sound or the vocals or whatever. After thinking about this for a while, I came to the conclusion that maybe this was because I expected anyone who read the review to have already heard the album. It leaked last week so anyone who wants to know what it sounds like can easily go find out for themselves. They certainly don’t need me to tell them what it sounds like.

This is an interesting development and it has come up on this blog a few times in various forms, especially in Chris Weingarten’s video from a couple months back. In that video he says, there is no need to describe anymore, we (critics) are just elucidating the opinions that people already have about a given album or song or whatever. Related to that, he levels a criticism at writers who leave out the “why” portion of a review or statement. “This is good because…”. Personally that’s the part I’m interested in with any review, the part where you try and figure out why you like or dislike something, what is the record doing that is interesting? What’s it doing that is frustrating? 

I guess we’re looking for the balance between the two extremes, managing to give a good idea of what the record sounds like, so those who haven’t heard it can decide whether they want to, and heading off into the ether to explore the reasons why a piece of music makes you feel a certain way. Hopefully (with many thanks to Chris) that Chromatics review goes some way towards achieving that.

Philip Sherbourne tackles the growing prevalence of the idea that making dance music is easy.

Obviously, I agree with every word of this.  

Christine Smallwood on Susan Sontag for Book Forum. 

Read the whole thing.