RE: [microsound] clicks & cuts, lots of gratuitous namechecking

[lamm <lamm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

	oh god! I thing I might get crucified on this list if I say this... but:
well, Broadcast achieved something tremendous, I think, with that "Noise
made by People" Lp. It's music of great beauty... Trish Keenan uses her
voice in a beautiful and -yes- very subtle way, the melodies are
astoundingly beautiful and -yes again- original and again, subtle, and the
production and sound treatments are nothing you'd exepect from another
Portishead or even worsely another pop band (just listen the ambiant guitar
(plyaed with an archet) on the first track, and tell me, or the feedback on
the ninth trak.....). Broadcast make a music of great beauty (and god
youshould hear them live - like a mix between White noise (the band),Can and
the United States of America) and really have one of the most original voice
in current Pop Music. Because that's what they do: pop music. But
interesting, courageous, pop music, just as the Velvet Underground or White
Noise did in their time - and sold so few records at that time... anyway...
(and their music have NOTHING to do with Stereolab or Pram; who I also
happen to love). The thing is- I expected people to be a little more
imaginative when building comparisons! Mentioning Warp- well, you can't
blame a label for being so regularly interesting and intelligent (unlike
Rephlex or Skam, for instance) - they released a double 12" by Phoenicia,
goddamit! I think they clearly deserve their supremacy,even if they're
sometimes a bit too "obvious" (the next big thing is Tortoise's new Lp....)
and if they are above all interetsed in Pop music (and seriously, you can't
blame them for that either). And respect to them for putting out anything by
autechre (and I think they'd have released Gescom's MD if Booth & Brown had
wanted it to be so) , including their latest Ep 7. Not bad, for a pop label,
I think.
P.S: Has anyone heard that Teleform Lp on Domizil ?

-----Message d'origine-----
De : david turgeon [mailto:david.t@xxxxxxxx]
Envoyé : vendredi 19 mai 2000 20:28
À : microsound
Objet : Re: [microsound] clicks & cuts, lots of gratuitous namechecking


> > oh, & a general word of advice to those inclined to buy pop music when
> > it 'looks interesting': avoid broadcast.
> now that is interesting because i was thinking about pop music the other
day
> and i almost bought a broadcast album (having not actually heard them)...
so
> are they a bit stinky? Ive been pretty underwhelmed with everything on
Warp
> for the past couple of years... (although i am still a sucka for Aphex)

not a microsound-friendly thread, but...

the thing with broadcast is that i don't have anything against catchy
music & i can even enjoy some of their tunes.  but in the end, they are
derivative, bland & absolutely tame.  given the label lineage, i was
expecting something _at least_ as exploratory as stereolab, who aren't
even that crazy to begin with.

broadcast's vocalist is in fact probably one of their weakest points;
not so much because her voice is naturally boring (you can't help that,
can you; most people's voice is naturally 'boring') but because she does
nothing with it & just lets go to every annoying tendancy; some of these
songs rub me the wrong way all right, mostly because of the way they are
sung; it sounds like she wants to be both laetitia sadier & beth gibbons
at once, while boasting a limited vocal range that doesn't let her be
either.  as for the instrumentation, it's potent at best but usually
tame, easy, & disposable.

as geeks-with-female-vocalist bands go, i find myself much more
satisfied with  say pram, who put their energies into putting together
weird sounds without really caring that the overall song structure is
not spotless.  their vocalist (rosie), for all the 'flaws' in her
delivery, is also much more interesting; 'omnichord' (from _north pole
radio station_) is one lovely song.  don't be fooled by the outrageous
use of times new roman on all their covers.  these guys are worth a listen.

& obviously, you can always go the whole nine yards & get the original
pop/electronic/psychedelic crossover that broadcast promised to be,
white noise's seminal _an electric storm_ (1968!) which is always a
recommendation.

sorry for the off-topic post.  actually, let's get back on topic: what's
a good pop/microsound crossover nowadays?  _that's_ what i'm looking for
to begin with.

~ david

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: microsound-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
For additional commands, e-mail: microsound-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
website: http://www.microsound.org