wonky

[whatever]

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. in fairness though, the piece clearly states it IS just a theory, possibly a myth, and prob even just rumour. its just a shame he took it so far, while knowing it clearly was all those things, even if it is just a think piece.

yeah i think you summarized the reasons for the errors quite nicely

HOWEVER, i would re-emphasize the point that i made above: it is totally ridiculous that this writer feels no compunction in creating and disseminating fantasies and rumor about entire musical styles, communities, and club 'cultures'.

when he says "rumor/gossip is a social fact," what he fails to see is that the "facts" revealed concern those who indulge in them and spread them, NOT the content that's spread

personally, i expected more from someone who's done such good work in the past

 

[hint]

Wonky Manifesto, Dissensus 2005:
http://www.dissensus.com/showpost.php?p=21076&postcount=4

 

[whatever]

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

shameful and sad . . . unbelievable really : just like that, the 'brand' is attached . . . (shakes head in dismay)

 

[Sick Boy]

Was it Blackdown that came up with this wonky term? I remember first hearing him use it on his Rinse show. I've always wondered.

There was that Pinch tune as well.

 

[mos dan]

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

This is why a lot of people don't like music journalists. I'm going to risk being a bit twatty and quote my own article here:

Taxonomy, like taxidermy, should be treated tentatively and with a sense of humour.

 

[mms]

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)

i don't see how that has much relevance to anything to be honest apart from it's some bollox disseminated about music that isn't even formed and everyone denies, this guy's a housie human and is moaning about sr not noticing minimal, which he reckons is the true ketamine scene and has usefully included quotes from punters on the scene and djs saying yes it is and why, he's coming from a scene that apparently doesn't turn it's nose up at ketamine.


this from the guardian a few weeks ago was more irritating tbh cos it's nothing, but then why get irritated about nothing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/feb/22/pop-fusions-rap-kig-music

but who gives a fuck at the end of the day, some of this thread...it's almost 'hiding in the light' bullshit, actually unravel this idea, maybe reverse it, accept some of it, even, instead of just denying it, instead of doing a university sit in and then maybe simon reynolds will stop planting little bombs under your asses.

 

[Rekordah]

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

Spot on.

It's extremely fucking frustrating, to say the least.

 

[Rekordah]

And to all the people in this thread asking "Is there a Wonky Community?" or "Are there Wonky nights?". The answer is no.

There is no such thing as "Wonky", It is quite simply a buzzword used by jaded journalists in order to try and associate themselves with something they are completely removed from and know next to nothing about.

What there is though, is many disparate scenes all over the world that have for years been experimenting with the tradition of beatmaking.

What's happening now is that these disparate scenes are starting to recognise each other, connect, and most importantly, feed off each other's ideas - this is helping to create a massively eclectic, creative and beatmaking movement.

And this sort of "anything goes" aesthetic has crossed over with Dubstep - Honestly, you couldn't get further from crusty K-ulture, there is no connection to the squat party scene in which Ketamine has massive popularity, and most of the music is fairly disconnected from Club culture to boot.

 

[mms]

And to all the people in this thread asking "Is there a Wonky Community?" or "Are there Wonky nights?". The answer is no.

There is no such thing as "Wonky", It is quite simply a buzzword used by jaded journalists in order to try and associate themselves with something they are completely removed from and know next to nothing about.

What there is though, is many disparate scenes all over the world that have for years been experimenting with the tradition of beatmaking.

What's happening now is that these disparate scenes are starting to recognise each other, connect, and most importantly, feed off each other's ideas - this is helping to create a massively eclectic, creative and beatmaking movement.

so there is a wonky community or there isn't?

And this sort of "anything goes" aesthetic has crossed over with Dubstep - Honestly, you couldn't get further from crusty K-ulture, there is no connection to the squat party scene in which Ketamine has massive popularity, and most of the music is fairly disconnected from Club culture to boot.

so its an aesthetic and it's eclectic?

also that ketamine is just about crusties, my experiences of it have been wth crusties but i don't go to minimal parties where, as mr jonty skruff says it's the drug du jour of the minimal cognicenti and all that wasted german youth expensive shirts and shit..he's trying to claim its the true rightful home of ketamine.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

There is no such thing as "Wonky", It is quite simply a buzzword used by jaded journalists in order to try and associate themselves with something they are completely removed from and know next to nothing about.

What there is though, is many disparate scenes all over the world that have for years been experimenting with the tradition of beatmaking.

What's happening now is that these disparate scenes are starting to recognise each other, connect, and most importantly, feed off each other's ideas - this is helping to create a massively eclectic, creative and beatmaking movement.

oh yes those goshdarned jaded journalists & their trendhopping, not at all like these pure of heart eclectic beatmakers scattered "all over the world" (e.g. mainly the U.S./Western Europe/etc.). so there's no "wonky" but there is a "beatmaking movement" which is presumably not called wonky? people have been "experimenting with the tradition of beatmaking" since there was such a thing as beatmaking (also, tradition?). they've also been feeding off each other's ideas for just as long.

not to mention that being eclectic can be as much a weakness as a strength. a boatload of style with no substance, as it were.

I do like the bit where you turn up your nose at those crusty hooligan squat teKno bastards tho.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

...he's trying to claim its the true rightful home of ketamine.

yes I thought this was quite amusing. "no look we're the real ketamine music!" what a great sales pitch - our music is the one that's really associated with the most shit drug ever, come to our nights & hang out with a bunch of K-ed out zombies. (perhaps this is another reason why this silly article pissed everyone off so much - SR couldn't even inaccurately associate them with good drugs)

 

[Rekordah]

oh yes those goshdarned jaded journalists & their trendhopping, not at all like these pure of heart eclectic beatmakers scattered "all over the world" (e.g. mainly the U.S./Western Europe/etc.). so there's no "wonky" but there is a "beatmaking movement" which is presumably not called wonky? people have been "experimenting with the tradition of beatmaking" since there was such a thing as beatmaking (also, tradition?). they've also been feeding off each other's ideas for just as long.

not to mention that being eclectic can be as much a weakness as a strength. a boatload of style with no substance, as it were.

I do like the bit where you turn up your nose at those crusty hooligan squat teKno bastards tho.

It was a release of frustration. I'm not interested in deconstructing it.

But by all means be my guest

 

[mms]

It was a release of frustration. I'm not interested in deconstructing it.

But by all means be my guest

he didn't he just asked you to make it coherent.

 

[mms]

yes I thought this was quite amusing. "no look we're the real ketamine music!" what a great sales pitch - our music is the one that's really associated with the most shit drug ever, come to our nights & hang out with a bunch of K-ed out zombies. (perhaps this is another reason why this silly article pissed everyone off so much - SR couldn't even inaccurately associate them with good drugs)

well someone must enjoy them?
or at least if the phrase isn't enjoy, find it interesting.
i've never taken it personally it's on my list but not in a club and not a little line of it.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

It was a release of frustration. I'm not interested in deconstructing it.

no really I'm interested to hear how this "beatmaking movement" is somehow different from other beatmaking movements, why its eclecticism is in fact a strength & not a weakness.

if you don't want anyone to "deconstruct" what you say then don't post it man.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

well someone must enjoy them?

just the once & never again.

tho I guess I shouldn't talk, it's mostly observation, I quit drugs a few yrs back.

really tho why can't people just stick to honest downers?

 

[tom lea]

also that ketamine is just about crusties, my experiences of it have been wth crusties but i don't go to minimal parties where, as mr jonty skruff says it's the drug du jour of the minimal cognicenti and all that wasted german youth expensive shirts and shit..he's trying to claim its the true rightful home of ketamine.

yeah it's not just a krusties thing by any means - i've known loads of rich pretty people who do it, you get a lot of well-dressed, made-up people asking for it at electro nights and such, etc etc.

no really I'm interested to hear how this "beatmaking movement" is somehow different from other beatmaking movements

i think there's a lot more of a global interaction aspect to this wave of producers - as mms says, the shared space of the internet, flylo's said before he's always on aim and stuff talking shit with a lot of them. jammin on a global scene. maybe that's the difference. it's certainly brought up a lot by artists- mike slott speculated on it when i interviewed him last year:

"The internet is huge thing for everyone, ‘cause as far as I can see, there aren’t really scenes in the places I’ve travelled to… New York, Paris, even Glasgow where I lived for years – L.A. is the closest I’ve seen to like a community or something. Maybe Amsterdam also in fact. All in all, I think it’s an internet scene – it’s easy enough to have a computer and fruity loops, AIM [AOL instant messenger], and myspace are free, etc, etc. All these things that don’t necessarily make the music any better, but there’s more quantity, so naturally I guess the chances of more quality music and semi-similar styles being exposed are increased."

 

[mms]

All these things that don’t necessarily make the music any better, but there’s more quantity, so naturally I guess the chances of more quality music and semi-similar styles being exposed are increased."

semi similar styles is the key here, i don't think it's really about eclecticism, but there are different rhythms and styles being employed, somewhere between techno, dubstep/grime and hip hop, to be honest as well, the same as any other music genre 90% is pretty shit.

 

[mms]

no really I'm interested to hear how this "beatmaking movement" is somehow different from other beatmaking movements, why its eclecticism is in fact a strength & not a weakness.

if you don't want anyone to "deconstruct" what you say then don't post it man.

well this the whole problem here, esp in this thread after the piece in the guardian, alot of whining but not really anyone asking what they're whining about and why its such a big deal, aside from the real point that there isn't any truth in the theory.

 

[whatever]

well this the whole problem here, esp in this thread after the piece in the guardian, alot of whining but not really anyone asking what they're whining about and why its such a big deal, aside from the real point that there isn't any truth in the theory.

'whining' you say? so if someone objects to an account that bears no relation to reality, that invents a connection between a nasty drug and a loosely assoicated bunch of emergent sounds/styles, no one should object ?

everyone else in the world of research, writing, journalism, whatever, has to answer to peer review and the standards of their own profession, why not him ?

i would hate to think that your paternalistic accusations of 'whining' are no more than the old guard circling the wagons to protect SR's mediocrity in this piece .