contemplation on suicide and techno
In part to stem my impulse to buy more records than I can listen to and part a desire to put my critical think-cap on I once decided to write a brief review of every record I purchased. A review that'd be required before venturing to the record store again. I'd be forced to actually listen to all the records I buy and form a thought-out opinion on each, hopefully becoming a better music listener with more records that I'd something to actually say about than just bulk records to flesh out my record collection. and well...it hasn't happened yet, but that doesn't mean I can't still try.
Yesterday I bought Suicide's first lp. I found it used for $6 and was happy to pick it up. I've owned the cd for awhile, but along with Trans Europe Express it's a record that I've owned on cd and wanted to own on lp, because now when I DJ (god forbid that ever happens again) I'll be able to break it out on thew wheels of steel. Nick Hornby, in his book about music or maybe it just collected his music crit., sort of panned Suicide. His point being that maybe Suicide was provocative, forward-thinking and all but he wanted something more life affirming for his rock dollar. Not that I listen to "Frankie Teardrop" every time I wake up to get me ready for the fight in the urban jungle, but me and Nick just don't listen to music the same way and Suicide ain't all doom and gloom. More than anything it rocks. It's music that moves forward and through. The eternal rock equation of repition repition pushing on and on and on. Hornby quips "I don't want to be terrified by music anymore" and though I wasn't at ground zero punk rock, but has punk rock really ever scared anyone in the last 20 years? Least of all people, like Hornby and me, who are hip that punk rock isn't the ahistorical id it purpots to be? Maybe GG Allin was scary, but I've never been to a GG Allin concert and most of the time punk rock performance always has the requisite distance that makes it performance/representation/etc w/o ever being "real" violence or scary. The distance is even greater when put on record. I can't be freaked out by a record because it's obviously an art construct. Something someone put a lot of time and thought into being as it is. It's not reportage of frontline violence. That said I'm not proposing that music aspire to the real violence of war but the opposite, that it embrace the fact that it is performance and construction. A commodity in the marketplace and all. Another tool for the man to keep you DOWN. I think Suicide appreciates this fact too ... or should.
I've also been tracking down some mid-90's Berlin Techno from Basic Channel. So far that includes two of the nine total 12"'s released by the label. The "i love music" board recommended a few so I picked up Octagon/Octadre and Phylps Trak. And there good, don't know if I'm ready to go full bore into techno, but this is a good start. Although I don't have a strong opinion or deep reasoning why I find them interesting, they're intringuing enough to continue persuing dance music though the well might end up dry before too long. In general that's how it seems to work out when exploring a new genre. I'll buy a couple "seminal" releases on whispers in the air or recommendations of people who'd know and either think their great or not-so-great but keep buying them until the curiousity runs out or I'm the next BIG techno fan in the world. For example: I own around 15 disco records and right now I don't have any desire to buy anymore but for a while I was tracking down obscure disco and every piece of a scent of a good record I could get my hands on. Though I might return to disco at some later point, right now I'm not tracking'em down, because you know, a lot of disco is boring and I already own too many boring disco records that I don't listen to. Probably the biggest thing that happens to prevent me from persuing a genre is when I later listen to something I was over-excited about to be underwhelmed. Was "Push in the Bush" always this so-so, did "Get on the Funk Train" sometimes lack the moving sound? Whatever, it happens, maybe techno is doomed to the same fate.
Yesterday I bought Suicide's first lp. I found it used for $6 and was happy to pick it up. I've owned the cd for awhile, but along with Trans Europe Express it's a record that I've owned on cd and wanted to own on lp, because now when I DJ (god forbid that ever happens again) I'll be able to break it out on thew wheels of steel. Nick Hornby, in his book about music or maybe it just collected his music crit., sort of panned Suicide. His point being that maybe Suicide was provocative, forward-thinking and all but he wanted something more life affirming for his rock dollar. Not that I listen to "Frankie Teardrop" every time I wake up to get me ready for the fight in the urban jungle, but me and Nick just don't listen to music the same way and Suicide ain't all doom and gloom. More than anything it rocks. It's music that moves forward and through. The eternal rock equation of repition repition pushing on and on and on. Hornby quips "I don't want to be terrified by music anymore" and though I wasn't at ground zero punk rock, but has punk rock really ever scared anyone in the last 20 years? Least of all people, like Hornby and me, who are hip that punk rock isn't the ahistorical id it purpots to be? Maybe GG Allin was scary, but I've never been to a GG Allin concert and most of the time punk rock performance always has the requisite distance that makes it performance/representation/etc w/o ever being "real" violence or scary. The distance is even greater when put on record. I can't be freaked out by a record because it's obviously an art construct. Something someone put a lot of time and thought into being as it is. It's not reportage of frontline violence. That said I'm not proposing that music aspire to the real violence of war but the opposite, that it embrace the fact that it is performance and construction. A commodity in the marketplace and all. Another tool for the man to keep you DOWN. I think Suicide appreciates this fact too ... or should.
I've also been tracking down some mid-90's Berlin Techno from Basic Channel. So far that includes two of the nine total 12"'s released by the label. The "i love music" board recommended a few so I picked up Octagon/Octadre and Phylps Trak. And there good, don't know if I'm ready to go full bore into techno, but this is a good start. Although I don't have a strong opinion or deep reasoning why I find them interesting, they're intringuing enough to continue persuing dance music though the well might end up dry before too long. In general that's how it seems to work out when exploring a new genre. I'll buy a couple "seminal" releases on whispers in the air or recommendations of people who'd know and either think their great or not-so-great but keep buying them until the curiousity runs out or I'm the next BIG techno fan in the world. For example: I own around 15 disco records and right now I don't have any desire to buy anymore but for a while I was tracking down obscure disco and every piece of a scent of a good record I could get my hands on. Though I might return to disco at some later point, right now I'm not tracking'em down, because you know, a lot of disco is boring and I already own too many boring disco records that I don't listen to. Probably the biggest thing that happens to prevent me from persuing a genre is when I later listen to something I was over-excited about to be underwhelmed. Was "Push in the Bush" always this so-so, did "Get on the Funk Train" sometimes lack the moving sound? Whatever, it happens, maybe techno is doomed to the same fate.
posted by furtanic at 2:23 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home