Re: [microsound] folk-music instrument

[jeff gburek <tsazmaniac@xxxxxxxxx>]

i can't expand on roberth's pithy dismissal but i see
the cassette and the reel to reel as fairly equal in
terms of this discussion of a "people's medium". my
family owned a small reel to reel and it served to
make (admittedly rather random) documents of family
events. but i think the arbitrariness of these memory
triggers makes them interesting. like polaroids.
anytime the machine is turned on it captures something
of that historical moment. this is much different of
course than making isolated ambient tunes or playing
slide guitar in the dustbowl. folk discourse can
encompass any of these kinds of autonomous
narratologies, whether it is harmonica songs or 8mm
film or the kind of cut-up compositions i made when i
was 8 years old using sound effects records and a
handheld cassette deck. i want to say that it has more
to do with the medium bypassing or going under the
radar of the mainstream and it has something to do
with the commonality/accesibility of implements used
and also an end in mind that does not focus on the
"rules of the trade" (standardization of the medium).
but it occurs to me that the music we came to call
"folk music" (harry smith paradigm) didn't have a
technological memory apparatus at first. but the idea
of song as cultural memory is old as the hills, so
this any kind of popular medium can function as
perhaps, a "micro-historical machine" ---?
jeff gburek 

--- "mat.the.w" <craque@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Want to expand on that notion?
> 
> The reel-to-reel is certainly much more accessible
> in terms of detailed
> editing and cut-up-ability than cassettes are.
> 
> On 2/13/06 6:54 AM, "scott allison"
> <lipistal3@xxxxxxxxxxx> scribed:
> 
> > the cassette is a folk music instrument.
> > the reel to reel never was
> > r
> > 
> > ----------------------------------------
> > 
> > Hahahahahaha, totally good point, right on man. So
> does that make Howie S. a
> > folk artist by default?
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >
>
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> 
> 
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