faceless techno bollocks
Anyway, re: electro - this Mad Mike interview is good -
https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/interviews/mike-banks-interview
I don't go in front of the music. I believe that if you put your ego in front of the music, and place it in front of the speaker, then the people trying to listen to the music can't hear your music, they just listen to your ego. So I really ask the people who do have pictures of me to be honourable and just leave me out of it, man. There's been time when I've made music like 'Hi- Tech Jazz'. Man, when I made that track I can't remember anything, it was a two week blur. The spirit was moving through me, and when I got through, it was 'Hi-Tech Jazz'. Many, many times as a musician, if you're really in tune, like you're playing in church... As a keyboard player, or guitar player, or bass player, I'm decent at what I do, but there's times when people in church get into it, and the feeling comes, and the spirit comes, and you can play way beyond your ability. In fact, you know the bass pedal on the organ? I always have trouble with it. I have to look down and play the bass, it's difficult but when the spirit comes you don't have to look down, your foot be moving, so at the point you realise that I ain't really playing this organ. So it's the same with a track. If the spirit come when you make a track, the question then becomes 'Is it really you making the track?' So again, it's difficult to take credit for some of this stuff, some of the time.
As a human being, you've got faults, but your work, or your art, or whatever passes through you, your contribution, it lasts way longer than the human does. To me, Beethoven and Bach, their music has outlived their physical being, so they would have been a fool to put their self in front of it, because as a man you're frail, but your work can stay in humanity forever, like the Egyptians. That shit is so deep, it's still there, people are still putting their hands on work that was done who knows how long ago. There's a number of reasons for the masks, but that was one of the bigger reasons.
i was just reading up on the Mekons for something work-related and had forgotten that in their very first interview, for NME, they wanted there to be no photographs and i think also no individual names mentioned, no attribution of quotes to specific people - it was all to be presented to the public collectively and facelessly.
but the photographer from NME sneaked a pic anyway and then before you know it they are signed to Virgin and there's actually a publicity photo of them sent out with the album.
But their initial stance was very idealistic and UR-like.
although not with the mystique and remoteness of UR - the opposite in fact, their ideal was to be absolutely approachable by their audience, absolutely demystified in every aspect
they even had some kind of band charter or internal manifesto of principles, which were things like no distance between band and audience, we are not special people in any way etc
there is a line you can trace running through rock/etc history that is all around this thing of facelessness versus face-fullness (embracing stardom, image, glamour, presentation)
it plays out in everything from stage presentation (how bright the lights, wearing stage clothes versus everyday clothes) to record packaging (prog groups and post-psychedelic Underground groups tended to not appear on their covers, but have abstract/surreal images or landscapes or whatever, whereas the more pop / showbiz things get, the more emphasis there is on having a face on the front cover
another aspect to this collectivity - the pop industry doesn't like bands and is always scheming to break up bands and spawn off solo stars, because that's more marketable