Re: [microsound] Re: 4/4's for neanderthals

[Ian Andrews <i.andrews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>In a message dated 10/22/2002 1:00:11 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>dt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
>
>> there needs to be a
>> modicum of conflict in a beat, be it in 4/4 time.
>
>This is what I was going to say.  There's nothing good or bad about 4/4
>time, it's just how you articulate the subdivisions of the beats.  Techno
>(disco) really nails those quarter notes with the kick.  I really "got"
>techno when I listened more carefully to all the other syncopated
>fragments coming in and out, which, without the kick, there would have
>been no frame of reference.
>
Yes the I've always thought of it like this.  The architect/urbanist Rem
Koolhaus once said that the reason he liked New York City so much was
because its stong grid structure allowed so much chaos to happen in and
around it.

But also there is the subversion of 4/4 techno that happens particularly in
the Cologne scene of the mid 90s.  I'm thinking mainly of Profan, Mike Inc,
and Brinkman.  Here the subversion of 4/4 is particularly subtle.  Its like
the music is laughing at 4/4, poking fun at its inherent dumbness. But then
again many of these ideas came from Detroit, and before that came to
Detroit via Kraftwerk.

I really think that the cross fertilisation between dance musics and the
avant garde/experimental music  has been a very productive one.  What is
really unproductive is when strict boundaries are drawn up and a particular
scene closes itself off, interiorises itself and gets somewhat elitist
ideas about itself.  That is when it dies.