Blackest Ever Black
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- mes in shoulder pads
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
@zhao - this is also an answer to "doesn't it count for something" (in short, no, but read on)
look bro I see you're sincere + I really don't want to be a jerk but just, no. buying vinyl or wavs on beatport isn't emancipating nothing. neither is necking some pills and dancing with strangers in a warehouse or a field or wherever. “dancefloor unity”, to the extent such a thing even exists at all, will never be anything close to strong enough to compete with the forces of social atomization. it doesn't pay rent or feed anyone (except those who profit off it) or care for the sick etc ad infinitum. not that it should have to. ultimately music is just another product tho. let's not pretend otherwise.
"all music is political" is, I'm sorry, vague, meaningless bullshit.
fela, victor jara, iww union songs, the zapatista hymn, PE + roots reggae are all overtly political music (tho so is horst wessel lied). obviously pop/politics can + do collide but you can't really compare woody guthrie to club music. different aims. actively political music has its own problems anyway. I won't bore everyone by talking about recuperation.
as far as setting yourself up for failure w.impossible expectations, absolutely. being young + naive don't help. in a sense tho you have to demand the impossible.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
I went + listened to the BEB stuff. I dunno, I like some of it but mostly I’d rather just listen to coil or 23 skidoo or cab volt. some of it reminds me of joy division if every song was atmosphere. totally caught off guard by that bit in the interview about jungle tho. can kind of hear it if I'm listening for it I guess. it's eerie how close raime's views on jungle mirror mine (if either of you check dissensus, bro we are kindred spirits). the mixtapes look cool. if only cos anything with amebix in it got my cosign.
chomsky.. tweets?
SecondLine
Well-known member
can't argue with you really...though it does seem like an unnecessary step to go from 'music is insufficiently emancipatory' to 'music is just another product'. I mean, surely a lot of what's been going on in the last decade (digitisation/piracy) is to do with the square peg round hole situation when you try to subject music to market forces. Sure there's an overlap between the two but the fact that it's by no means a perfect fit suggests that there are different priorities/motivations/whatever at work?
Besides which given your strongly held political orientation how can you justify the amount of time you spend thinking about/discussing/enjoying music (you're on here so I assume that's a lot) if it's just engaging with a product like any other?
thanks for reminder to keep reading Attali's Noise.
Padraig, do you think ANY creative endeavor can be potentially insurrectionary, or carry messages which spreads or reinforces insurrectionary consciousness? visual arts? performance art? performing arts? film? television (the Wire)? literature? poetry?
or is all of it exactly the same as selling cars? (just a bunch of useless, pretty cars)
Padraig, do you think ANY creative endeavor can be potentially insurrectionary, or carry messages which spreads or reinforces insurrectionary consciousness? visual arts? performance art? performing arts? film? television (the Wire)? literature? poetry?
or is all of it exactly the same as selling cars? (just a bunch of useless, pretty cars)
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padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
you're misunderstanding me. I don't justify nothing. I ain't been rah-rah into politics in a hot minute. won't bore you with details but basically my beliefs haven't changed so much as I came to be painfully aware of their utter futility. like a preacher who completely loses his faith. when I was a kid tho hell yeah there was much anguished handwringing over not profiting off music. the whole thing is a delusion but at least internally consistent so long as you got that belief. I actually have friends who toured by freight train (in the part of the punk scene I was in a lot of us ride them. illegally if that isn't clear) with acoustic instruments playing only free shows. which is pure as you can get, removing $, off the grid, but 1) very few people have the means to do that (even squatting, + dumpster diving/stealing all your needs) + 2) you're still existing on the sufferance. free parties + teknivals is the same thing just on a slightly bigger scale. also look how quickly the early 90s spiral tribe etc free party collapsed at the first touch of government pressure.
just cos you're not paying $ for something doesn't mean it's not a product. there is a cost to everything, readily apparent or otherwise.
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padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
sorry to everyone to keep going so far o/t from blackest ever black.
one band I was in had a song (written by the singer, an older punk guy from mexico city, so in spanish. I wrote songs about squatting + anarchopunk not being dead + shit. I was so freaking serious. it's on YT I could link it if anyone wants) about the very situ idea that capitalism - or wot do u call it to mean the same - has so thoroughly colonized your mind on such a deep level that it's nearly impossible to be free of it.
one band I was in had a song (written by the singer, an older punk guy from mexico city, so in spanish. I wrote songs about squatting + anarchopunk not being dead + shit. I was so freaking serious. it's on YT I could link it if anyone wants) about the very situ idea that capitalism - or wot do u call it to mean the same - has so thoroughly colonized your mind on such a deep level that it's nearly impossible to be free of it.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
insurrectionary, no. see above comment about inevitability of recuperation. that's not to say making revolutionary art is worthless.
it's not exactly like selling cars but ultimately yes it is at core a commercial transaction.
slowtrain
Well-known member
Yes but I don't know what my personal taste.
I need something to help define my personal taste.
i believe in the transformative powers of art.
change perceptions, expand perspectives - change the world.
by the way just listened to the mix of label output and i like it! moody and percussive is a nice combination.
with each passing year i care less and less about how i look...
hardly even remember the days of lusting after Iseey Miyake jackets or whatever
these days i just wear whatever is lying around. sometimes the same thing for 2 weeks lol
mistersloane
heavy heavy monster sound
Been in Berin too long m8
troof
Raime feature in the Guardian's 'Harangue the DJ' column - http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/aug/13/raime-q-and-a?INTCMP=SRCH
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It is pretty awesome to be fair
It is pretty awesome to be fair
benjybars
village elder.
so i went to the BEB night at Corsica yesterday.. pretty strange experience
the last thing i went to at Corsica was a Swamp81 night where the crowd was on average about 15 years' younger.. although thinking about it i guess today's Swamp81 crowd will be going to whatever the equivalent of BEB is in 15 years' time..
i only stayed for about 3 hours cos i was so shattered from friday but heard plenty of quality weird music.. very beardy audience.. actually saw one guy scribbling notes in his Molseskine notebook when he was sitting on the subs at the back of room 2. probably a Wire journalist
£4.25 for a can of Red Stripe tho.. fuck sake.
the last thing i went to at Corsica was a Swamp81 night where the crowd was on average about 15 years' younger.. although thinking about it i guess today's Swamp81 crowd will be going to whatever the equivalent of BEB is in 15 years' time..
i only stayed for about 3 hours cos i was so shattered from friday but heard plenty of quality weird music.. very beardy audience.. actually saw one guy scribbling notes in his Molseskine notebook when he was sitting on the subs at the back of room 2. probably a Wire journalist
£4.25 for a can of Red Stripe tho.. fuck sake.