Neon Screams!

IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
version said:
That seems to happen quite often, not necessarily in terms of the reviewer attacking someone or thing, but that a review ends up being something other than a review. You see it on LRB quite a bit.
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That's one thing. And I see Xeno's point above... a review is always about the reviewer anyway ("the only thing we ever collect is ourselves") so why not just admit it and go with it?
But, what we are talking about here is a totally different and much worse thing - I wonder how often a book (record whatever) gets a horrible kicking cos someone tangentially involved in making it - even just putting it out - once knobbed the reviewer's wife. Probably loads that we never find out about.
I always found Private Eye pretty good at pointing out things where, say, someone was going on about how great X restaurant or Y hotel is - and it turns out the thing in question is owned by the journalist's husband or brother. When they did do that occasional column I always found it interesting and it was a real eye-opener.
But I assume that if they could find so many quite easily, then there must be loads that slip by. And yeah, they spot really obvious relationships - such as husband and wife ones - but it would be extremely hard to find a grudge which could go back to a single event years ago.
So I suspect loads and loads of reviews are tainted by this kind of thing. Depressing really. Especially if it's an important review that can make or break the book or record in question... though maybe those don't exist so much these days... and maybe given the above that's not such a bad thing.
 
T

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
luka said:
As a writer in a sense you just want to produce something fun to read you dint want to be a consumer guide
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Certainly as a music writer yes. All aesthetic criticism is by nature polemical, prejudiced, and reductive. That is its strength.

As someone who writes about say, political history though, the more fun it is, the shitter it will likely end up being longterm.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
tbh i feel like muggs embaressed himself so badly i dont even want to go on about it cos its quite humiliating
he knows, we know, everyone knows, its kinder just to sort of leave it isnt it. the review was embaressing but
the tumblr post, the tumblr post was literally in response to one single tweet
which was my tweet
there was no groundswell it was just my tweet
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
bun-u did back it up in response but there was really just my tweet that set him off. he follows me so i know thats what it was
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Had to smile reading "Rap carried an embryonic new music while it gestated, but now it's given birth to a batshit insane bastard child" cos I recognised the authentic playboi barti voice.
 
T

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
luka said:
tbh i feel like muggs embaressed himself so badly i dont even want to go on about it cos its quite humiliating
he knows, we know, everyone knows, its kinder just to sort of leave it isnt it. the review was embaressing but
the tumblr post, the tumblr post was literally in response to one single tweet
which was my tweet
there was no groundswell it was just my tweet
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I mean the problem with Muggs' approach is he's completely unwilling, absolutely unwilling to slag off any music. So in an inverted

hippy positivity way his only outlet for release ends up being other critics. I personally can't gell with that approach, as I am sure he must be aware of by now, even though I think most critics are absolute tossers who know very little about aesthetics outside of liberalism.
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
There's so many great phrases in this – even when I don't understand what he means by them or actively disagree with what he's saying

e.g. "The new future oozes", "an assault course for your sanity"
 
V

version

Well-known member
thirdform said:
What else can be expected from posh music writers.
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Seems to be posh writers in general tbh,

"If you’re new around here, the basic scenario is that we’ve had a years-long moral panic in which elite white tastemakers adopted the political posture of radical Black academics out of purely competitive social impulses, trying on a ready-made political eschatology that blames the worlds ills on whiteness and men and yet somehow leaves space for an army of good white people and good men to cluck their tongue about it all."
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
What makes me smile most consistently is the audacity of it, the unreasonableness of it

I find the alliteration a bit much sometimes but that's part of the charm of it, like much of the music he's writing about it's actively too much
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
luka said:
As a writer in a sense you just want to produce something fun to read you dint want to be a consumer guide
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Are you talking about the writer of the book or the writer of the review of the book?
I mean in general, I would have thought a lot of reviewers are also writers and there has always been a debate as to what extent a review is basically a consumer guide.
What is the basic aim of a short review in a magazine of a new book?

1. Simply to tell me whether I am likely to enjoy it and should buy it.
2. An indepth criticism of and engagement with the text... the next part of an ongoing dialogue if you will
3. A pretext for a reviewer to write a brilliant essay he's been planning for a while and which is just about close enough to the topic of the book that if he sticks on a new intro and sprinkles a few references to the book in question throughout the text, he can claim it's a review
4. At last, a chance for the reviewer to really fucking stick it to that cunt who kept fouling him when they played in a pub 5-a-side league 23 years ago.

Most of the above have their uses. But, and it probably makes me a terrible philistine, if it's a book I've not read and am debating as to whether I should, the rather prosaic number is kinda useful.
But then when I've read it, or, as in this case, I know I'm gonna read it cos of who and what it is... well 1 is of no interest to me suddenly and 2 has risen hugely in importance.
 
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T

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
version said:
Seems to be posh writers in general tbh,

"If you’re new around here, the basic scenario is that we’ve had a years-long moral panic in which elite white tastemakers adopted the political posture of radical Black academics out of purely competitive social impulses, trying on a ready-made political eschatology that blames the worlds ills on whiteness and men and yet somehow leaves space for an army of good white people and good men to cluck their tongue about it all."
Click to expand...

Where is this from?
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
kit got his drill article cancelled by RA becuase he was white. theyd agreed to it, then third scared them by whipping up a fuss abot a gauche jungle article theyd published and they wouldnt publish white writers writing about black music any more. which would maybe be ok if they published black writers writing about black music, bt of course they didnt, they just didnt cover black music
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
so instead of one artcile covering drill in a positive way they had no articles... they didnt acknowledge it existed. this doesnt seem like a win
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I assume a lot of this stuff was hammered (or oozed) out in dissensus threads ("oozey anthem") but I

love this take on mumble rap being about turning synthetic/robotic sound into something organic/slimy/slippery

"Mumble rappers' approach to vocals is all about exploring and accentuating the feel and the internal architecture of their oral cavities"

Again what I really love is that you might easily call bullshit on a lot of these claims but the claims are exciting and enjoyable, whether or not they're "true". Simon's remark about this being a "Fever dream" of a book is OTM.

Plus it's already making me feel slightly geriatric for listening to anything more trad than vybz kartel so it's doing it's job clearly
 
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