Algierstwin
Well-known member
there are the remains of a 500 limited 7 inch run floating about now. . EGLO Records.
& a whole lot more coming !
he's right dan this is a big overreaction. i haven't really heard quite the declamatory rage you're chatting about, there have been caveats in the piece too, also twitter obv isn't the place to expand on any reasoning, so rightly, fuck that shit.gotta take apart why it's something that's pissed off so many people, if this is the case, is it inaccurate reporting, in which case the caveats are there anyway, is it because it actually points out something about ketamine or the people who are into this music as opposed to what dubstep has become, at the very least it's a return to talking about the sort of allignment of chemicals and musical mechanics ie how the music feels and how that could be chemically recreated, rather than what the music supposedly 'signifies', which is a far more ideological standpoint.
Gotta say my social experiences of ketamine have all been pretty awful, seeing people rolling around in their own shit in bolognia, then watching ket ppl coming across hackney wick, walking into cars etc like a scene from dawn of the dead, really pretty awful, alot of these kids wore the kind of black uniform of italian anarchists in london.
Then the other side is just plain miserable, people sitting zoned out unable to communicate at parties, people getting suicidal, getting into k-holes and getting jacked, a group of guys i know got massivley into k and let the dealers into their lives, ended up getting their house emptied while they just sat there, robbers pointing guns in their faces, unable to do anything, cos they were k'ed out and these guys emptied their house.
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hint
party record with a siren
I think it's because that piece is so visible. People read things like that and it gets taken as gospel.
Here's some fallout I just stumbled upon:
http://www.electrical.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=42408
Ignoring the obvious taste issue (you wouldn't expect the music to be well received on such a forum), the phrase "Ketamine-addled Dubstep", written on March 5th, is clearly inspired directly by the article.
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mos dan
fact music
just not enough of them imho. if you want to write speculative quasi-fiction ("speculative soniconcepts", as kode9 described them) that's cool, and as usual with simon there are some nice phrases and interesting thought processes there, but... if yr gonna do that there need to be bigger, clearer caveats. people were angry with the piece, i'm just passing that on. i'm not angry, i don't care enough to be angry, i'm just disappointed.
yeah otherwise i wouldn't have said anything or cared, but that's my problem with it. someone on this thread asked 'are there wonky raves now then?' or something to that effect, which is a fair assumption to draw from the article. it's not about "taking down a (non) scene", don't be silly - it goes without saying that musicians will carry on what they were doing before.
Grievous Angel
Beast of Burden
I love and respect Simon's stuff but even as a piece of speculation, this was clangingly divorced from reality.
what i would bet is pissing the producers involved in this off is the imposition of reductive theory to their art, by critics. and i doubt this is limited to Simon Reynolds, but indeed anyone who is keen to draw a box around things (although whether this is a reason to dismiss the ideas or not is another question, its more just important in putting perspective on things)
http://blissout.blogspot.com/2009/02/put-wonk-on-it-and-i-suppose-my.html#links
the reason he is so far off is cos he is making a critique of a critique - not of the music. this is especially problematic when the thrust of his dismissal is on the basis of the absense of tangible infrastructure, the relationships between the producers / crews / djs - he dismisses the music on the basis that its not a genre, that it lacks a unified presence / geographical location / tangible 'massive' - no shit, its a buzz word and trend identified and given currency by journalists and critics. each of these crews have their own stories, as part of distinct infrastructures or memes, exactly such as those that are so revered in the critique
so producers hear their music dismissed on the basis of a theory and 'genre' that none of them chose or even agreed with - pretty irritating i imagine. the ketamine thing just pushes it further towards reduction, in a national and highly visible outlet
http://blissout.blogspot.com/2009/02/put-wonk-on-it-and-i-suppose-my.html#links
the reason he is so far off is cos he is making a critique of a critique - not of the music. this is especially problematic when the thrust of his dismissal is on the basis of the absense of tangible infrastructure, the relationships between the producers / crews / djs - he dismisses the music on the basis that its not a genre, that it lacks a unified presence / geographical location / tangible 'massive' - no shit, its a buzz word and trend identified and given currency by journalists and critics. each of these crews have their own stories, as part of distinct infrastructures or memes, exactly such as those that are so revered in the critique
so producers hear their music dismissed on the basis of a theory and 'genre' that none of them chose or even agreed with - pretty irritating i imagine. the ketamine thing just pushes it further towards reduction, in a national and highly visible outlet
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an important thing to remember:
without this thread, or a familiarity with the scene, no person having read Reynolds' article (in a highly visible outlet as elgato says) would be in a position to know that wonky is not a ketamine-addled new genre . . .
which is the ridiculousness of it, really, that this respected dance music expert has attached a drug to a new genre, has started with his typical connections between sonics and drugs, between club praxis and chemical use and production styles blah blah without any basis whatsoever. . .and as a result your average music fan/casual reader who is not an insider will walk away thinking, 'oh, this new thing wonky, it's a ketamine thing, i see. . .'
seems like the guy has lost the plot in a big, big way
without this thread, or a familiarity with the scene, no person having read Reynolds' article (in a highly visible outlet as elgato says) would be in a position to know that wonky is not a ketamine-addled new genre . . .
which is the ridiculousness of it, really, that this respected dance music expert has attached a drug to a new genre, has started with his typical connections between sonics and drugs, between club praxis and chemical use and production styles blah blah without any basis whatsoever. . .and as a result your average music fan/casual reader who is not an insider will walk away thinking, 'oh, this new thing wonky, it's a ketamine thing, i see. . .'
seems like the guy has lost the plot in a big, big way
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yeah wonky has lots of different sub-pools of its own but if theyre not linked by sound, they are linked by scene and a kinda collective cap-doffing between artists - ie kode 9 and flylo, etc etc. there is a certain connection between the artists going on there, even if they sound nothing alike.
thanks for the journalistically bankrupt point of view . . .I'll be sure to keep that in mind, "hey, it's okay to say anything about anyone/any art/any community, as long as it creates interest"
for the ten thousandth time, it is not about bashing Reynolds, it is about holding someone to the very bare minimum of journalistic standards . . . if a 20-something indie rock journo wrote this in a UK paper this board would excoriate him or her, but since it's from a guy who used to be relevant, the apologists still offer excuses. . .the real question is why he writes such pap, one would expect more from someone so well established.
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i mean, doesn't Reynolds have friends or editors who would put the brakes on something so strange as a public account of how 'ketamine is driving the wonky club scene' ? the whole episode is bizarre ...
Alos: for those who mention the caveats/speculative nature of the article, how bout this: journos labelling communities with drug use maybe ought to do their 'speculation' and 'sonic fictionalizing' in private, with other experts, with some thought to accuracy, before publishing such things? i mean, everyone else must follow such stanards (rightfully so), why not this guy?
Alos: for those who mention the caveats/speculative nature of the article, how bout this: journos labelling communities with drug use maybe ought to do their 'speculation' and 'sonic fictionalizing' in private, with other experts, with some thought to accuracy, before publishing such things? i mean, everyone else must follow such stanards (rightfully so), why not this guy?
im not excusing it. its poorly researched (seems like he basically came up with the theory after a skim through a couple of internet msg boards, was looking for something to write about w/r/t to a few lightbulbs that went off in his head, knew they actually had no basis in reality, but tried to forge some sort of connection for theorys sake). but its not THAT damning, its just regrettably misinformed and as your last post notes, the piece clearly states it IS just a theory, possibly a myth, and prob even just rumour. i dont know how this will really have a damning affect on any 'community' (theres a wonky community?) though - its not like grime, where theres more at stake due to the demographic of those involved. nor do i imagine this will affect the fans and their reputation, simply cos wonky doesnt really have any nights to get shut down and the small number of ppl that are into it obviously know this article is mostly crap. its poor theorising but thats why the guardian has blogs - so people can argue and oppose other bloggers think pieces (and it is a think piece, just an ill thought out one). im sure someone is writing a response as i type.
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Tentative Andy
I'm in the Meal Deal
Where are these rumours coming from in the first place, though? Had anyone here heard them before they encountered the Reynolds article?
Grievous Angel
Beast of Burden
It is already being recycled, with wonky being identified as ketamine music.
That's it. "Wonky" is now bagged, tagged and sent for processing.
http://www.harderfaster.net/?section=news&action=shownews&newsid=1177598230
Next Big Thing King Hails Wonky K House
Reported by News Editor / Submitted 07-03-09 12:03.05
Top music journo Simon Reynolds honed in on dubstep micro-niche ‘wonky’ this week and suggested rumours linking its growth to ketamine’s increasing fashionability mean the genre could soon take off.
“It's been a long time since there was a drug/music synergy of real consequence in UK post-rave culture, one where a particular chemical actually seemed to be driving the direction of a style of music and shaping the vibe on the dancefloor,” Reynolds wrote in the Guardian.
“The drug ketamine has long skulked around dance music's fringes, but has it found its synergy with wonky's disembodied beats?” he proposed.
Despite being seemingly obsessed with spotting trends (and killing them) Reynolds failed to mention the much-publicised previous link between ketamine and minimal techno.
Secretsundaze James Priestley chatted to Skrufff about the connection in 2006, declaring ‘a lot of minimal’s increasingly high profile has developed hand in hand with the rise of people doing ketamine’
“I think that’s been quite a big factor in its increasing popularity,” he added, a point endorsed by German deep house producer Kristian Beyer from Ame.
‘I don’t know why minimal is so popular- we think it’s because it’s the best music to accompany the drugs people do these days,” Kristian told Skrufff in the same year.
“I’ve played at lots of minimal parties and maybe I’ve played some Luciano tracks because I like Luciano more than what Ricardo does, but I never play more than two so-called minimal tracks at these parties and it works,” Kristian continued.
“I stayed at a party once with Villalobos for four or five hours once and nothing happened. But people were still dancing. In Germany we call it ketamine music,” he added.
http://tinyurl.com/c7bn8f (Wikipedia on ‘wonky techno’: ‘The origins of the term 'wonky techno' are under some dispute, with no exact first usage established. Most commonly, the term is thought to originate from Jerome Hill, who collected tunes of this type in a section marked 'Wonky', whilst managing a (now closed) record shop in London called Dragondisks.’)
Jonty Skrufff (Skrufff.com)
That's it. "Wonky" is now bagged, tagged and sent for processing.
http://www.harderfaster.net/?section=news&action=shownews&newsid=1177598230
Next Big Thing King Hails Wonky K House
Reported by News Editor / Submitted 07-03-09 12:03.05
Top music journo Simon Reynolds honed in on dubstep micro-niche ‘wonky’ this week and suggested rumours linking its growth to ketamine’s increasing fashionability mean the genre could soon take off.
“It's been a long time since there was a drug/music synergy of real consequence in UK post-rave culture, one where a particular chemical actually seemed to be driving the direction of a style of music and shaping the vibe on the dancefloor,” Reynolds wrote in the Guardian.
“The drug ketamine has long skulked around dance music's fringes, but has it found its synergy with wonky's disembodied beats?” he proposed.
Despite being seemingly obsessed with spotting trends (and killing them) Reynolds failed to mention the much-publicised previous link between ketamine and minimal techno.
Secretsundaze James Priestley chatted to Skrufff about the connection in 2006, declaring ‘a lot of minimal’s increasingly high profile has developed hand in hand with the rise of people doing ketamine’
“I think that’s been quite a big factor in its increasing popularity,” he added, a point endorsed by German deep house producer Kristian Beyer from Ame.
‘I don’t know why minimal is so popular- we think it’s because it’s the best music to accompany the drugs people do these days,” Kristian told Skrufff in the same year.
“I’ve played at lots of minimal parties and maybe I’ve played some Luciano tracks because I like Luciano more than what Ricardo does, but I never play more than two so-called minimal tracks at these parties and it works,” Kristian continued.
“I stayed at a party once with Villalobos for four or five hours once and nothing happened. But people were still dancing. In Germany we call it ketamine music,” he added.
http://tinyurl.com/c7bn8f (Wikipedia on ‘wonky techno’: ‘The origins of the term 'wonky techno' are under some dispute, with no exact first usage established. Most commonly, the term is thought to originate from Jerome Hill, who collected tunes of this type in a section marked 'Wonky', whilst managing a (now closed) record shop in London called Dragondisks.’)
Jonty Skrufff (Skrufff.com)
Grievous Angel
Beast of Burden
IIRC there is a single long thread on DSF about ketamine, mostly but not entirely critical of its use.