Re: [microsound] the clueless leading the blind

[Bill Jarboe <billjarboe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

on 6/10/02 8:24 AM, anechoic at kim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

>> called Matthew Herbert makes dance music entirely out of the sound of a
>> McDonald's meal being unwrapped and consumed. They are both part of a
>> trend
>> sometimes known as "glitch," which is music made without any
>> instruments,
>> entirely of found sounds, which are then arranged into musical patterns.
>> 
>> Glitch is primarily about what fun can be had with samplers and
>> computer-editing programs, but it is also about bridging the gap between
>> pop
>> music and conceptual art.
> 
> 
> I have listened to both Herbert's and Matmos' material and what is really
> funny is that all this "new sampler hijinks" was being done when the
> technology first became available back in the 80's...I cannot tell you how
> many demo tapes I got back then that were done with all sorts of "wacky"
> sound sources...
> this opens a discussion that I have been trying to let germinate for the
> past couple of years concerning this style (Matmos/Herbert) of music and
> it's inherent "novelty quotient" which always makes for "interesting copy"
> for newbie journalists who think they have "discovered something"...
> (quotes are meant to be "finger flexions" i.e., denoted sarcasm)
> also, lumping these artists into the glitch movement (whatever that is) is
> perplexing...what makes their music "glitch"?
> 
> any thoughts from some of our more media critical members?
>
 
  At the (profound) risk of appearing foolish I have a few things to say on
the subject:

  The main difference I see between the above mentioned (and fairly recent)
projects and what I was subjected to in my early formative years around
"'82" is that is that advances in consumer audio products have made the
pieces of music somewhat more credible from a 'sound as survival '
standpoint.

  I'm thinking of the original emulator demo record , pop albums by the
likes of kate bush , clan of xymox , annabelle lamb , laibach , that used
the sampling technology in a sort of theatrical way. There was something
noirish or limited about the sound. I think standardization has made the
sound exploration of a product on a consumer level more  interesting and
open. 

 Since I'm talking of the timeframe; I recall playing old crumar
synthesizers at the music store and marvelling at the sounds  programmed in
them . You were responsible for some of those , am I right?


    
                                Bill