mms

sometimes
i don't really get 'dark' as his persona, i get this kinda emotionally open northern guy really.
 

nomos

Administrator
yeah skull disco's whole dig up your kin and get down* concept is a rarer thing - more about cthonic abandon, shattering encounters, wandering strange environs. plus a sense of humour in the art/titles. always seemed really fitting music from a pair known for brukking out alone at PP with no concern for what anyone else was doing.

shackleton said:
via Blackdown: Now my idea of a party is one where people let themselves go and are bang into the music, and I was reading this book at the time about a tribe from Cameroon who dug up their ancestors remains so as they could enjoy watching the festivities while the living members of the tribe played music, danced and got pissed. I thought 'that's the spirit!' So I decided to call the label Skull Disco.

agreed on the niceness complaint, in general (as with sport and movie stars), but i think people here are just expressing a genuine (and from my experience, quite common) response after spending time with him.
 

minikomi

pu1.pu2.wav.noi
Met him in japan and we had a chat about teaching ( I used to be a kindy teacher, he a primary school teacher)

Nicest guy imaginable and absolutely blew me away sonically ... Small dark room w one laser and heavy heavy subs, percussion for days. Wonderful.
 

rivet90210

Well-known member
thanks to those for the perlon link.


To chime in to the discussion: I did this mix a while back, shackleton throughout the first half and a bunch of other stuff. Threw his records in amongst some of what he reminded me of...

SIDE ONE
1080 6IX - ? (?)
Esplendor Geométrico - Transmisión (1988)
Shackleton - Massacre (2006)
Esplendor Geométrico - Mekano-Turbo (1988)
Shackleton - New Dawn (2006)
Shackleton - You Bring Me Down (2007)
Shackleton - Death Is Not Final (T++ Remix) (2008)
Esplendor Geométrico - Medición Eléctrica (Versión) (1998)
Christoph De Babalon - Fearing (1998)
Esplendor Geométrico - Transmetal (1998)
Shackleton - Hypno Angel (2006)
Esplendor Geométrico - P.I.E. (1981)

SIDE TWO
T++ - Worn Down (2007)
? - Human Resources (2008)
System UCS - Memory Trace (1998)
Burial - Exit Woundz (2007)
T++ - 100 Bar (2007)
Christoph De Babalon - Nostep (1997)
? - Pretty Boys Don't Survive Up North (2008)
Major Mackerel - Labba Mouth (1994)
Max Romeo - She's But A Little Girl (1968)
NHK - Persedes (2008)
T++ - Storm (2006)
NHK - 07414_0833 (2008)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Z78LJ6PO
 

Dr Awesome

Techsteppin'
I think there's a difference between "dark" in the bleak sense that shackleton's music sometimes encompasses, and the "dark" of gashy dnb producers say 05~07 for example.
There's no horror movie samples, chromatic scales and overtly aggressive soundscapes....*


*Actually don't look for them, there might well be, but you get my point.
 

Aww Nein

Wild Palms
I like Shackleton, but he's a bit like that kid at school who was into wargames and who watched Red Dwarf and who thought he was weird and dark. I'd prefer him if he actually got dark rather than intimated it, or just shut up about it altogether.

man, nothing darker then red dwarf and warhammer 40,000, we wouldnt last a second in either of those worlds...

but seriously theres a lot of range for "darkness" in music, i mean compare black metal and whitehouse, completly opposing world views (complete fantasy and bleak mundane realism) and both really dark, but arguably really silly if your not into that sort of thing (i am btw). i guess shackletons the same, hes got this aesthetic of a sort of alien view of the middle east, a lot of the lyrics of the mc seem to be aiming for that transcendent point where bleakness/fear evaporates into a sort of religious moment...
 

daddek

Well-known member
getting increasingly flummoxed by the new trend in focusing on how 'nice' a musician is
"I don't care what he's like as a person, I care about his public persona and his music"

The quote is wholly agreeable, but no one's saying his music is better or worse for it, it's just an incidental fact. you getting flumoxed over someone being praised for their personality virtues is your own problem. why waste your energy.
 
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mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
I dunno, I guess I thought that if one started off one's last MAH mix with a litany of 'no more, no mores' and then carry on into samples about the eschaton having always been imminent then that kind of meant one may have been invoking and expressing some form of darkness within one's music, am I listening to the same Shackleton? It's not exactly be bop a lula.

Maybe he was just having a bad day.
 

grizzleb

Well-known member
I dunno, I guess I thought that if one started off one's last MAH mix with a litany of 'no more, no mores' and then carry on into samples about the eschaton having always been imminent then that kind of meant one may have been invoking and expressing some form of darkness within one's music, am I listening to the same Shackleton? It's not exactly be bop a lula.

Maybe he was just having a bad day.
Pretty dark you reckon?
 

Ory

warp drive
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bleak as hell. esp towards the second half of the tune.
 

Diggedy Derek

Stray Dog
Re: the darkness.

He views it as more akin to a satori zen thing than a black hole swallowing you up. Hence the void isn't something to be scared of.

It's also worth noting that the lyrics in his tracks are generally by Vengeance Tenfold, who isn't simply a mouthpiece for Shackleton.

There's definitely something odd, something uncanny, slightly disturbing there, but it's more directed towards some form of meditative experience than simply 'here comes the darkness'.

He discusses a bunch of this stuff in the Wire cover story this month.
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Re: the darkness.

He views it as more akin to a satori zen thing than a black hole swallowing you up. Hence the void isn't something to be scared of.

It's also worth noting that the lyrics in his tracks are generally by Vengeance Tenfold, who isn't simply a mouthpiece for Shackleton.

There's definitely something odd, something uncanny, slightly disturbing there, but it's more directed towards some form of meditative experience than simply 'here comes the darkness'.

He discusses a bunch of this stuff in the Wire cover story this month.

Thanks Derek that explains it more, I wasn't getting the zen thing but that makes more sense I guess. His stuff reminds me of Total's work.
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Pretty dark you reckon?

In intention if not in actuality yeah. I'd prefer it without the samples/voiceovers myself, I find it too literal hence starting to talk about it, it just makes me go 'oh shut up'. I get enough of that stuff at home lol.
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
what - one statement mentions this lol

nah, i meant in general. in online discussion and some music journalism. i think the mark ronson thread had a bit about it.

The quote is wholly agreeable, but no one's saying his music is better or worse for it, it's just an incidental fact. you getting flumoxed over someone being praised for their personality virtues is your own problem. why waste your energy.

i agree that it doesn't change the music. i'm not getting flummoxed by individual people getting praised, it doesn't really matter to me. i just find it to be a bit of a curious little trend. maybe flummoxed wasn't the right word. i was going for something light hearted. i guess it's tied in to this thing i've been thinking about lately, how back in the day a lot of big names were really eccentric or downright nasty... there doesn't seem to be much space for that kind of behaviour any more. like could miles or zappa make a career now without being booed out of the industry? i dunno, should probably stop derailing...

no takers on the pre-shackleton question? really seems like he came out of nowhere.
 

daddek

Well-known member
like could miles or zappa make a career now without being booed out of the industry? i dunno, should probably stop derailing...

so it sounds like you're concerned that it's becoming a pre-requisite for an artist to be "nice", and if he/she isn't, appreciation for their work is diminished. that i totally sympathise with.. as if not's enough for simply artists to make good art?
I sense its a result of a lot of modern developments, mainly internet driven, but i wont attempt an analysis.
it's worth bearing in mind that those examples were pre web; there were no public forums for people to exchange notes on their opinions or encounters with said personalities.

Also it's worth bearing in mind that music artists receive a lot of personality-orientated press, and the nature of their work is very self-orientated.. and they tend to suffer narcissism. So it's genuinely pleasant to encounter ones whose personalities seem un-affected by all that.

no takers on the pre-shackleton question? really seems like he came out of nowhere.

afaik he started creating electronic music shortly before the skull disco records. i dont know if he had a band or something beforehand. One of the the reasons my enjoyment of his music increases is because you can hear him getting better at the execution of his ideas, also the fact he's driven by content rather than technicality is why i value him
 
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