[microsound] Mutek Moments [2] - RASTER-NOTON SOUND-SYSTEM : SAMPLING THE SAMPLERS

["tobias c. van Veen" <tobias@xxxxxxxxx>]

RASTER-NOTON SOUND-SYSTEM : SAMPLING THE SAMPLERS

How many times have you gone out to a ?show¹ only to find it¹s a masochistic
bow-down to the ancient gods of sonus? Roll that again, ?cause we¹re trying
to find words for what passed last night with Byetone, Frank Bretschneider
and Carsten Nicolai on a sound-system. A sound-system: a black skycraper, a
speaker grilled to the target of immolation. Where sound becomes physical
input to genetic remixing (move the body in impossible formats). When the
hairs on your arms stand on end, when the sound destroys all that remains of
your head, your heart, your body. When the muscles flutter involuntarily.
When sine waves coarse direct the techno conduit opens the bodymind.

Unfortunately, it¹s too bad most of the crowd could only view it as a
spectacle, mouths agape, arms crossed. As the saying goes, stunned like
sheep, knee-deep. But there were a few getting freaky. Moving arms and legs
to the static, the bleep, the bass drop. Those cold Germans... what is it
that unravelled the sharp ice that cuts from silence to submission....

It¹s hot here now. The heat is out in the sun. Crammed into the SAT
yesterday, for the Thinkbox Collective from Windsor/Detroit, unwinding to
the melodic loops of techno in the breaking afternoon. From thunder to sun.
Ah, techno. Forget pop?all that pop has to offer is exciting only insofar as
its horizon is clear. The direction of pop offers all the possibilities we
can imagine within the sphere of pop. And pop will and can mutate. But pop¹s
strain is a horizon that says: here I am, singing that same ol¹ song.

³It¹s that what people in the Civil Rights movement died for.. to dance
around in malls..?² ­ Herbert on Fat Boy Slim¹s sampling of a Civil Rights
song, with the accompanying ³humourous² video from Spike Jonze, @ MUTEK¹s
packed sampling panel.

³The Bush administration will go down as the worst in history.² ­Rob
Theakston, powerpoint-style visual presentation during his ThinkBox
performance, SAT

Ah the debates are stirring here on the sampling panel. John Oswald, of
Plunderphonics, throwing down the history and correcting Tomas Palermo¹s
narrative of sampling (Palermo?Editor of XLR8R). Jason Forrest, aka Donna
Summer, with the straight-up take-no-prisoners aesthetic, but moving through
the perspective of semiotics?the symbol of sound, the sampling of the
emotive force in a personal context. Herbert, arguing for the
sampling-of-the-world, with a political edge that slices into sampling the
works of others?why sample other music when we can sample anything? Mark
Quail, sound lawyer, instructing all on how it works (and offering the free
advice?laying down the law, and isn¹t it good to know that there is a
sympathetic ear on this side of the fence). Stefan Betke (aka Pole), with
the European mood: let the artist do what the artist does?and let the
industry and the world worry about the rest.

And really, the question is: are aesthetics and ethics inseparable? (Jason
Forrest thinks the two can be distinct?Herbert doesn¹t). It¹s all about, as
one member of the audience asserts, the marginalization of the few in favour
of the name of the one.

³Jesus was basically telling these old stories, and putting a nasty twist on
the end of it... he was punished a little more than we are now² ­ a certain
member of the Canadian Music Centre, on the historically infinite of
³sampling²

³The records are made to be used in a context... some people don¹t get their
piece along the way... those who fight for it are going to be able to get
paid² ­ Mark Quail

But what about those who can¹t afford it? [paraphrase]

³But there are lawyers who work for free...² ­ Mark [a lawyer who probably
is better than most, pro bono]

³...we wouldn¹t be having this discussion if we didn¹t have people pushing
the envelope...² ­ Tomas Palermo, XLR8R

³tobias c. van Veen²



tobias c. van Veen -----------
http://www.quadrantcrossing.org
http://www.thisistheonlyart.com
---McGill Communications------
ICQ: 18766209 | AIM: thesaibot


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