w*nky isn't a genre, there is no such thing as a w*nky night, the music in question barely even exists in clubs (zomby always cancels his bookings, joker plays dubstep at dubstep nights), simon suggests he hasn't taken ketamine, and he hasn't asked the people who he claims make w*nky whether they take ketamine. great journalism.
this is the crux for me. i think sometimes the 'you don't go to clubs so you don't know what yr talking about' thing can be overstated, and as mms says, people have wrote accurately about club culture from the outside (and often i think you
need both perspectives), but simon has got so little evidence here that it's startling. he hasn't asked a single artist about it. he hasn't tried it himself. surely you try to put a new theory into practise before you put it in print?
then there's the fact he uses the dubstep against ketamine vibe (which does exist, at least on a very minor level) to justify a theory he applies to a blanket of musicians that, in many cases don't have anything to do with dubstep. i think this is what's really fucking me off about the w-word - people are using it to group everything from actress, to lukid, to bullion, to hud mo, to rustie, to zomby, to joker, to floating points together, and i don't think it works that way anymore.
late 07/early 08 the word started getting used (and i
did hesitantly use it, as one of the first ppl writing about a lot of these artists in magazines, albeit with the requisite 'i'm aware it's a stupid name, but if i say it you'll know what i'm talking about' vibe) to describe a few mavericks on the fringes of dubstep really - ikonika, zomby, darkstar, rustie, quarta, a few others. and there was definitely something to connect them, even if it was just the hyperdub core. but when you look at the loose spectrum of it now, it's clear that the luckyme/lazersword/flylo thing is something pretty seperate. and so's the bullion/white/flpts thing. and that's different to the joker/gemmy/guido thing. zomby's in his own zone. i don't think you can
still try connect this massively disparate pool of artists and labels with a buzzword that was never meant to stick around in the first place.
and if you
do try to, you can't do it as sloppily and nonchalantly as simon has in this article.
either way, my disappointment is nothing compared to how fucked off many of the label owners, djs, club-goers and producers in question are, from what i've seen on twitter and email in the last couple of days. "i don't even know where to start" is one of the more polite responses i've read. part of me thinks this thread should be locked or at least renamed.
ppl like hud mo have eloquently and understandably explained why they don't like the term. he's far from the only one. like you say, twitter yesterday was on fire with artists, fans, writers and label owners expressing how stupid they find both the name and reynolds' piece.
i'm glad starring out the o is catching on when you
do have to use the word tho, even if it's just you me and bk bk.
--
anyway, on a cheerier point, whoever brought up floatingpoints -
yes. he is killing it. trying to get him to do a future FACT mix.
edit: oh, and roll call for darkstar at fwd?
