Less is more with reviews I think. A lot of online ones I see are a bit overly deconstructive and very liberal with their adjectives, need to keep a bit of distance and allow the reader/listener to interpret it for themselves. There’s one online retailer that gets it spot on, can’t remember which right now (not boomkat, although they’re cool too).
“interpret” music. “understand” a record. For me that’s not only complete bullshit, but also really pretentious as you somehow think that you’re the one being able to understand what kind of message/statement/whatever the artist wants to make. I’m not saying club music can’t have a meaning, but tbh i’m pretty sure that most of the tunes don’t have a message. That’s why you hear a lot of producers say that once you put out a tune you have no control over it any more and the listeners have to make up their mind. So your “understanding” of a tune is in fact just your personal perception. I’m not saying you shouldn’t share that, but to me that’s as interesting as people telling me which things they see when looking at clouds. Either i’m feeling a piece of music or not. Other people’s interpretation of it has never changed my opinion.
1 BigUp
Just picking at what I understand you to mean by saying ‘unidimensional’ here.
I’m pretty sure baddis98’s point hinges on the same fact. That is to say that music being multidimensional renders a single person(or entity for that matter)'s opinion irrelevant, as no accurate interpretation can come about from a single perspective. Moreover, because of this it is better that people listen to a piece of music themselves and form their own opinions of it firsthand, rather than adopting the views of a third party.
There’s also something to be said of how a reader develops a relationship of sorts with the producers of the reviews they look into and how the trust from it shapes their “taste” (air quotes because I don’t think you actually have taste if you just like things because other people say they’re cool), which to be fair is its own contentious issue but rarely does massive amounts of good for anyone other than blogs, bloggers, and artists who’re only realistically lucky enough to receive good reviews.
That being said, I’ve been known to post good reviews of my own stuff on social media, so while I don’t personally fuck with reviews too much I do appreciate what they offer lol.
No i think that review & a lot of the other Trusikh ones are generally aiming in the wrong places - nearly always completely gushingly descriptive & rarely with any sort of analytical distance. Its hard i suppose when a blog is so centered on such a niche of the scene that is fairly small that to criticise would potentially burn some bridges (everyone wants interviews/mixes off all the same ppl they are reviewing so noone wants to tread on shoes) the reviews become like extended press releases which is fine they just arent that insightful
I never pretended the reviewer understood the message the artist wanted to make, or that there was a message whatsoever - that’s irrelevant. The fact that reviewer’s understanding of a tune is his own perception is precisely the point - hence I’m saying music is multidimensional: there are infinite ways to perceive one tune or one record, and a review can be a way to show you another way to see it, like “look at this tune this way and you may find this or that”. That doesn’t mean that the reviewer’s opinion is the one and only opinion to have on that record - it’s just another way into it, that can complete your own.
that’s exactly the point - there is no accurate interpretation. the artist writes a tune, then the tune exists in its own sphere, in a way. it is informed by many elements that are involved in the shape of the tune - what the artist wanted to put in his tune, his own musical trajectory, the trajectory of a style, of music in general, available institutions, etc -, which you can choose to take into account or ignore when hearing it. but the listener is free to perceive the tune as he does/will, and there is no accurate or definite interpretation.
that’s another point, and I can agree with that. but it all depends on your own relationship with music I guess - being secure with forming your own tastes or having to have things checked first. that said, no one forces anyone to read reviews BEFORE listening to the tracks. I know that, for instance, reading stuff on UK Funky definitely helped me understand the way it works and properly appreciate it. Sometimes a tune just won’t resonate with you when listening it, and reading on it may help reading the codes that somehow make it work.
definitely. that’s the problem I have with most music criticism - it only perceives itself as a way to state which things are good or bad, which things are cool or not. which is rubbish as, precisely, one’s opinion is irrelevant. I don’t care if someone, somewhere thinks that one tune sounds good or bad? However, if that person is able to show me a piece of music another way, then I’m interested. The problem is music reviewers seeing themselves as trendsetters, which they should not be - it’s not about imposing your own views of what sounds cool.
1 BigUp
"that said, no one forces anyone to read reviews BEFORE listening to the tracks."
I didn’t say or imply this, my point is more generally that doing so is not good because it deprives you of having your own opinion.
"Sometimes a tune just won’t resonate with you when listening it, and reading on it may help reading the codes that somehow make it work."
The only way I can imagine that being good is if I were to accept the idea that I actually ought to like all kinds of music, and all tracks theirin. Can’t you see? You literally robbed yourself of taste. Now you’ve lost part of yourself and replaced it with part of someone else, and I think that’s tragic.
"The problem is music reviewers seeing themselves as trendsetters, which they should not be - it’s not about imposing your own views of what sounds cool."
The problem is that imposing your own views of what “sounds cool” is inseparable from the act of criticism. In fact, look:
crit·i·cism
ˈkridəˌsizəm/
noun
1.
the expression of disapproval of someone or something based on perceived faults or mistakes.
2.
the analysis and judgment of the merits and faults of a literary or artistic work.
Under either definition, it is impossible to produce a critical work without expressing views that are your own, without regard to any truth or merit the work itself may present because, as we’ve already established, it is impossible to objectively evaluate music.
It’s an essentially empty human behaviour.
Ye so the tracks r sik den
I wish the whole forum talked liek dis
no, because you’re not necessarily imposing it. obviously you are exposing your own perception of a work - which is no inherent truth -, but there’s a huge margin between explaining what you perceive and trying to impose it as the only true way to hear the piece of music (and trying to be a trendsetter). the problem is precisely expressing views that are your own as being a definite truth.
I guess it all depends on your own philosophy/aesthetic. personnaly, the way I see it, there is no way to objectively evaluate music (as you’ve just said), meaning there are things that can be found (feelings, etc) in any piece of music. sometimes you’ll find some things in music simply through listening to them, sometimes it’s not that immediate (“growers”, etc). that does not mean I have to like all kinds of music, or that I’ve robbed myself of taste - there is some kind of implicit hierarchy of values that I appreciate more when it comes to music (I’ll tend to like things that are more minimalist and use spacey sounds for instance, when it comes to dubstep). It’s not clearly defined or anything like that, it’s just things that inform my listening habits. A review won’t change that, but can show me that an album that I saw a certain way can also be something else. It’s not rigid or anything though, or a precise method to force you to like any piece of music. And once again it all depends on the way you think music.
I guess we could do another thread with all that though, as it’s an interesting debate, but not necessarily one to be had in this thread haha
1 BigUp
can we make a new thread for this? ive been writing reviews and just had first one put up on a new mag- all of this stuff is very insightful to me to read and very relevant haha
ill reply in depth in another thread with better grammar etc but i dont have my proper keyboard plugged in atm and am a bit busy but ive been lurking the thread
We’ve gone into typical dsf behaviour and now there’s unnecessary tl;dr posts
It’s a reese, ive made sounds very similar to that before by putting very short reverbs with the wet level quite high on quite a warm low reese (sounds like the wet/dry is automated in Crystal Collect)
1 BigUp
That Crystal Collect tune is something else.
Well I’m looking forward to hearing some of these bits at outlook.
Anyone still waiting on the vinyl?
Yup
Swap Gantz for LAS and it could of been better IMO,
Still aight doe
Haven’t even received a shipping notice from Amazon or Unearthed.
Good thing I ordered that second copy from Unearthed though. I’m pretty sure Amazon overstocked so hard.