moves of evasion vs. commitment to a direction

other_life

bioconfused
mapping out another opposition with three examples and a brief comment.

three examples:

with the amen break -
moves of evasion

commitment to a direction

with the sample cut (generalised) -
moves of evasion

commitment to a direction

avec young thug -
moves of evasion

commitment to a direction
 

other_life

bioconfused
how does a producer go about committing to a direction, a line, a fidelity to genre/riddim? how does a producer stop pussyfooting? is 'complexity' a fig leaf for lack of chops?...
 

luka

Well-known member
I think third and Barty did a double act thread on something similar, each identifying with one of the two stances. I just can't remember the terminology they used.
 

other_life

bioconfused
link it here i'll try to get more going with the notion...
this comes from a frustration of mine and maybe a frustration with my peers, as well. i feel stuck in the former stance ('moves of evasion') for most of my discography and like 'the chillwave continuum' (as inverse of the hardcore continuum, maybe its enemy in an almost cosmological sense) in general represents a move of evasion, its engagement with its source material is a move of evasion (ie, rather than just making a mix of pop music you like, you appropriate what resonates with -you individually- and try to mask it away from possible identification, you never stick with an idea to development instead you flip the channel).
and there are moments of clarity where i'll get super into like, genre-specific dance musics or well-produced radio pop/vocal disco and try to model my music on that instead, work within these socially agreed on genre constraints in order to exercise a set of muscles. but again, these are moments of clarity and never a sustained attitude i've been able to adopt.
it's frustrating.
 

other_life

bioconfused
retreating from dance music + its social world into a period where i made drone and wrapped its visual + text accompaniment in a language/set of references only i could really understand was more than a 'move of evasion', it was cowardly altogether.
 

luka

Well-known member
Part of me wants to argue that the music we are doomed to make is virtually dictated by our position in society and if we are castaways marooned on some rock somewhere, then we are always going to be operating outside of genre parameters, at best forming cargo cults from what washes up on the shores, an aeroplane wing, moulded polystyrene, a GI Joe figurine... And while it's natural to envy those operating out of a shared and inherited culture or group solidarity you have to work with what you've got...

im not sure I believe it, but it's what I feel like saying this evening
 

other_life

bioconfused
Other life is Dean blunt modes of evasion?
he has made those moves + maybe perfected a moveset others have copied
but there's a sense in which certain babyfather cuts for example, the more straight on road rap stuff, represent quite the opposite.
maybe dean also cycles between the two?
evasion in dean blunt -
commitment in dean blunt -
 

catalog

Well-known member
Re DB Yeah i agree... He uses this double bluff approach a lot. There's some seriousness underneath all the gags, and it comes out and hits you now and then.

And the way of playing is a way of dealing with how things work within the music industry/patterns of consumption?

Like the arch approach is a protective thing almost.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
retreating from dance music + its social world into a period where i made drone and wrapped its visual + text accompaniment in a language/set of references only i could really understand was more than a 'move of evasion', it was cowardly altogether.

except when you get multiple ear filters on composition selection and cut out the chaff entirely


for me, drones are drugs
 

other_life

bioconfused
being arch is definitely a protective move.
and what i said was not a criticism of drone as such.
you could map this opposition onto two takes from any given genre.
 
anyone who has sat down to make tunes in a DAW will be familiar with falling into a state of endlessly flicking through samples and presets. you can start off with a very clear idea of what you want to do and then its easy to pull in samples and vsts through the arrangement you've built, sometimes with interesting results but more likely you lose track of what you were trying to do. if your tastes are eclectic and you arent strict this will paralyse
 

other_life

bioconfused
i never get that feeling anymore, i let whichever samples and set of synth parameters resonate -as im working- guide the direction of the track. sometimes i will set an arbitrary constraint for myself (usually re:tempo, i've decided i don't want to make anything slower than 140 for a while) or pick a conscious model to work from (last two times it was the 'throw some d's' instrumental and rashad's 'rollin', i posted both tunes in dissensus raw)
but the problem is that the finished product doesn't -function as dance music-. the people i want to reach now are the people i see on transit listening to drill/-related or people that grew up listening to the neptunes. and that hasn't happened yet.
i can't not complicate the set of ideas i'm working with and this comes from coming up on rock-critic approved idm/downtempo, i think, and having that be one of my entry points. and i think i make these complications to cover for a lack of skill.
 

mvuent

Void Dweller
naturally you're all familiar with and enthusiastic about my seminal blog series entitled Burrowing in for the Long Winter, but one of its central ideas is that you basically need a period of involvement in scenius (commitment) if you want to achieve your full potential as an artist. having never experienced scenius and seeing no signs of it on the horizon, my saying this basically amounts to a massive self-own.
 
Top