Albums are a valueless medium. They always have been

[Murphy]

Define valueless

How can anyone actualise or recreate living in previous decades when lp’s, for better or worse, defined 40 years of the 20th century and the listening experience of millions? Valueless as art? Tough crowd, i don't agree. Valueless as £? Corporately created for markets? Overrated? All hold as both true and false, a paradox

I‘ve far more 45rpm singles, 12”s and ep’s than lp’s, yet the foundations rest on a range of lp’s from immediately obvious to obscure. Woops has made 4 ffs, why would you commit to the format if it didn’t hold value as a physical archive, sequenced for moods, pacing, transitions, or if i didn't work cohesively? And therein lies the Achilles heel of any lp - botox filler. Compilation lp's count?

We all distill lp’s (or take picks that others picked up on), or even tangentially via prehistoric pre-release 12”s to give you a heads up of an impending opportunity. I half miss sharing lp’s with mates who aided fiendish fervour but they do seem an archaic format in terms of physically placing a slab on a platter and immersing, rather than distracting, your being. Add riding bikes, in the car, at work. Incongruities too, like playing Lil Louis on an island in a Scottish loch at 7am on a Sunday morning tripping my mind inside out

Not a lot of time is my own and being subsumed in sound is my favourite art form of all - lp’s play their part in a broader mosaic and the fact is you have to actually listen to them to dislike them in the 1st place

 

[luka]

i think it was just a conversation starter on a slow night tbh

 

[Murphy]

look at it now

 

[mvuent]

A lot of terrible opinions in this thread

tell us which ones!

 

[Corpsey]

It was fun on here when people would advance 'terrible'/provocative opinions just to see what happened next

The opposite of my approach, which is to apologise for everything I've said and not said so nobody can possibly nail me down/to a cross (thirdform)

 

[vershy versh]

I feel like I used to be able to name loads, but someone recently asked me to recommend an album and I couldn't think of any. My mind just goes to individual tunes now.

 

[0bleak]

oi i acknowledge that surf rock and not psychedelia was the real innovation of the 60s.

surf rock is cool, but I'm surprised you would pick that over funk considering it's primary the source of jungle breakbeats
When I told my aunt that I was getting pretty good at drums, she said the test back then in her day was whether or not you could play Wipeout.
I was like, Aunty, please - it's a very white rhythm - all of the accents fell on the right hand as opposed to the full coordination needed between all of your limbs to play a lot of funk.

 

[0bleak]

This is my favourite from LP5.

When they have killer hooks or - gasp - tunes they are at their best. I thought they were twats when they dismissed Amber as "cheesy"...

I asked them about that, why they felt the need to dismiss it, on a chat they were having on IRC some time in the late 90s, and they told me it was a dumb question and that people better start asking better questions or they will leave.
fckn pricks
I'm not sure if that affected my appreciation for their music, but I was never as much into them post-2000.

 

[0bleak]

the ae lads never dismissed Amber. in fact if you're really embarrassing you know that they were actually PLAYING tracks from Amber in dj sets around when they supposedly trashed it.

They did.
There was at least a point in time in the 90s when they had dismissed it.
I remember reading some kind of dismissive comments along the lines of how that was the Warp ambient sound at the time.

 

[mvuent]

They did.
There was at least a point in time in the 90s when they had dismissed it.
I remember reading some kind of dismissive comments along the lines of how that was the Warp ambient sound at the time.

i remember them saying it was a deliberate attempt to make another album with the artificial intelligence series aesthetic. but if they used that to dismiss it at any point i'd be interested to see it.

the context of my comment was that craner always references this one 2008 interview where robtechre called amber "cheesy" as evidence they lost their souls after lp5, and i always try to chase him down with contradictory info in the hopes that it'll open his mind to the later stuff. (including a later interview where rob outright says no, i didn't mean it was bad when i said that.) but ofc craner has consistently ignored me with his trademark icy patrician contempt for the little people (e.g. you and me). this has been going on for like five years.

 

[kid charlemagne]

i bought some albums today

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

i still buy albums/LPs. mainly just cos its better value for money. but the idea of sitting through an album which is not actually that great, which is most albums really, even the supposedly great ones, is more of a chore than one great single, where you dont have to take in a load of surrounding material that does that one/handful of great songs no favours.

there was prob more patience in a more time-generous age, so people were more forgiving, or were just more likely/willing to consider an album as a complete work, but after years of data-dumps-as-albums and playlist curating, im less inclined to bother with so-so tracks on albums. most albums arent 'complete works', theyre just groups of songs the artist made at that time and had to fit into the format. and maybe thats fine, but also just a lot of filler a lot of the time. a lot of genres i like, the compilations are those artists best albums. more artists should do EP-length releases. short films should be more valued and canonised too. all that said, i still have time for albums that do the format justice, and i admit i still judge a release on whether it actually makes use of all that that space an album offers, i.e. things like flying lotus' los angeles, migos' culture, charli xcx's how im feeling now, the first jessy lanza album (dont think she made another album nearly as good), the first kuedo, jlin's debut, dean blunts black metal, hype williams black is beautiful, tirzah's last one.

 

[0bleak]

i bought some albums today

Binders of 78s?
That's some dedication.
I can't even play 78s.

 

[0bleak]

i remember them saying it was a deliberate attempt to make another album with the warp/artificial intelligence series aesthetic. but if they used that to dismiss it at some point i'd be interested to see it.

I mean, I had definitely read something somewhere which was the whole reason I asked them about it on the IRC chat, and their response that "people better start asking better questions or they will leave." left me with more questions than anything (besides leaving me thinking that they were fucking pricks).

 

[mvuent]

I mean, I had definitely read something somewhere which was the whole reason I asked them about it on the IRC chat, and their response that "people better start asking better questions or they will leave." left me with more questions than anything (besides leaving me thinking that they were fucking pricks).

lol that is rude, guess they'd mellowed out a bit by the time they did the amas i've seen (this and this). tbh i wonder if the source you read being a misquote/characterization had something to do with them lashing out at your question? this is the rob autechre quote i mentioned btw:

yeah that was me, i said it in a way that was easily misinterpreted. a classic case of assuming someone knows what your on about and them not at all.

it was in relation to incunabula i guess. lol no shame at all, i still rate these releases, i mean they're the first stuff to fully come out.
it meant a lot to us to actually have an album on a brilliant label. i think what i meant was (in the context of the original interview, as the journo was commenting on the striking differences between old and ((then)) newer work) i think i was trying to say how they were perhaps more simple, but not in a shit way.

 

[0bleak]

lol that is rude, guess they'd mellowed out a bit by the time they did the amas i've seen (this and this). tbh i wonder if the source you read being a misquote/characterization had something to do with them lashing out at your question? this is the quote i mentioned btw:

Possibly. I just wish they had said that it was a misunderstanding instead of basically insulting me (a big fan) and threatening to throw their toys out the pram.
It certainly shut me up real quick and made me too uncomfortable to ask anything else.

 

[mvuent]

if i ever get to see them live i'll try to punch sean in the face. might be difficult considering they hold their shows in complete darkness, but i'll try.

 

[vershy versh]

if i ever get to see them live i'll try to punch sean in the face. might be difficult considering they hold their shows in complete darkness, but i'll try.

Careful you don't punch Rob by mistake.

 

[mvuent]

true, wouldn't want to do that

 

[william_kent]

true, wouldn't want to do that

DO IT!