craner

Beast of Burden
Because it didn't quote his LRB post on the same topic apart from a subtextual dig which only Owen detected.
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
I doubt anyone would have a problem if i had said the same thing about Chinese culture: the very early establishment of centralized states both marginalized the cultures of ethnic minorities (which have much more interesting and danceable rhythms than the dominant Han) as well as discouraged communal, clandestine social gatherings. These and other factors such as buddhism, lead to Chinese music developing in ways which emphasized poetic and lyrical qualities, rather than any focus on even-tempo rhythms for ritualistic ecstatic trance.

Yes. 'even tempo' as you are using it is a machine derived concept. Chinese music is not in even tempo, (the string instruments are rhythmic enough to trance out to) neither is Turkish, neither Algerian, neither moroccan marakchi, neither ghanaian funeral drumming. In fact, the great thing about polyrhythms (and why they can't be mixed by djs) is precisely that they are not in even tempo. If you cannot hear the microtemperal variations in time in gnawa where the rhythms speed up and slow down in the matter of milliseconds then you should shattap. By your logic one should not be able to trance out to Kora players either, which is clearly the biggest patent absurdity in the world. By your own hand you have proven that equal temperament is north/west European, because you can only conceptualise music as harmonic counterpoint. totally foolish and idiot. You are too indebted to the phantom of western cordal polyphony to be authoritative. Find an ottoman classical playlist on spotify and listen for 21 hours a day for 21 years to recalibrate your ears to heterophony where each melodic line is at a different pitch. This is not harmonic counterpoint because they are playing the same line, but in different registers.

But then again, if you think a loopmasters sample pack makes a tek hauze choon a bit more african then one really has to question your musicological cognition, because you resort to the exact same orientalist bogeyman you accused your interlocutors of.
 
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thirdform

pass the sick bucket
I love when third replies to a post from eight years ago. can't get anything past him.

nah, I just love demolishing Zhao's berlin shagathon opinions. most of his Berliner mates would disown him if he told them his views on the Israel/Palestinian conflict anyway. And before he goes at me, it's baked into the constitution itself of the federal republic, which by nature has more of an influence on people living in that country, even more than upper class dance spectacles.
 
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