Re: [microsound] worship the decibel...

[mail@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

I maybe a computer musician but I have been a metal (death, grind, black,
everything) fan since the eighties, I know pretty well what volume is
about.

Yet, I know there's a huge difference between dynamic loud volume and
constant loud volume. The second is a lot more painful and unbearable.

I once attended to a show that includeded noise artist Zibgniew Karkowski.
I couldnt stand it for five minutes. The layers and layers of noise at
what seemed near to 100 dB SPL. Some people tried laying on the floor. I
directly got out of the room. Also, I saw that al he was doing was mixing
some pre recorded CDs so the preformance itself was not so interesting.

Hernan

www.cooptrol.com





>
>
> "but mine goes to eleven man, you know, just for the extra kick and
> all, know what I'm sayin?"   Nigel Tufnel Spinal Tap.
>
>
> aLEKs
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>
>
>
> On Jul 12, 2006, at 2:04 PM, Graham Miller wrote:
>
>> volume is intrinsic to musical aesthetics.
>>
>> see: rise of industrialization, electricity, urbanization, machine
>> power, automation, highways and helicopters, Italian Futurism. see:
>> the impact of microphone amplification on the aesthetics of pop
>> singing, crooning and the construction of intimacy and aura.  see:
>> nothing less than the entire history of rock n' roll music and the
>> relationship between authenticity and rebellion.  also see: entire
>> history of jamaican sound system music, dub and the politics of bass.
>> and while we are at it: disco and house - genres named after the
>> venues in which the music is played.  also: the impact of the walkman,
>> Reaganism, and the sequestering and isolating of consumers into
>> private sound spaces.  conversely: the rise of a ghetto blasters as
>> fashion/political statement (public enemy, rap music, spike lee's 'do
>> the right thing,' that bus scene in 'star trek IV,' colourful
>> metaphors, vulcan nerve pinches and middle fingers to the man). also
>> see: everything that is good and great about technological music,
>> brilliant sound systems, the human imagination, dancing, aural
>> immersion and epiphanic sensory experiences. and let's not forget the
>> dark side: the power of anger, hate, pain, self-loathing, disdain and
>> all the other kinds of emotions artists both feel and willingly
>> inflict on their audience, transformed into sound; safety pins, pogo
>> dancing and punk music, sadomasochism, goth culture, nine inch nails,
>> tattoos and body modification, cyberpunk, sound weapons, sonar, and
>> fucked up dolphins, and other forms of aquatic casualties due to the
>> american military industrial complex.  see also: being generally
>> speaking pissed off at yourself and the entire world and the pleasure
>> derived from the involuntary invasion of private space.
>>
>> these genres do not operate at low volume.  their meaning is tied into
>> the the physical power of amplification and bass.
>>
>> wear earplugs. and if you still don't like it then the music and the
>> musicians are probably achieving what they set out to do.
>>
>> go home and complain on microsound and try and find solace in the
>> other squares here who don't 'get it' either.
>>
>> g.
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> So again: I ask why?  If you play your music at physically damaging
>>> volumes, why?  What do you hope to get out of it?  And what are you
>>> expecting of your audience?
>>>
>>> I'll also say that I'm 26, I hate being this curmudgeonly, but I want
>>> to be able to hear in the future.
>>>
>>> nick
>>
>



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