| Posted 12/13/2005 - 12:14:00 PM by GALKIN: | |
| Incredible review. This definitely helped us to reevaluate the duo and I assure you, they have been dropped now from DFA Records. Luckily we have an "On Second Thought" clause in our contracts and believe me, we pulled that trigger quicker than you can say Rebecca DeMornay! Seriously, what is lazier, this record or being a music journalist and referencing the soundtrack of Risky Business and Tangerine Dream in relation to this album? Yawn. You win. Your last comment for them to "enjoy eating ramen etc if this is the best you got" might be the most insulting thing I have ever read on Stylus.....actually anywhere. Here are a few other facts: Rise IS the album opener, Delia and Gavin make a great living both off of their music for DFA and fine art I assure you, and there is no "dollar bin" at Tower. You will find that out soon enough, as with the tens of hundreds of dollars a year Stylus must pay you to write this nonsense, you might soon need to be applying there for employment. Make sure you mention that "dollar bin" idea! | |
| Posted 12/13/2005 - 12:27:26 PM by hometapes: | |
| 1. anytime a writer has to reiterate three times or more that they like something..."no really i promise"...it starts to sound false. 2. Waiting for the beats to come in was probably your first mistake. 3. Rise does have a pay off...9:50 in, when they actually play a short lead phrase...it's a solid coda that then fades back into the arpeggiated finish...it subtle, but that's what all of this stuff is about...subtle changes. 4. Lots of techno and repetitive music does exactly what you complained about....things arpeggiate and grow and build and have slight tweaks added here and there. That's it and that's good. 5. As for the songs being the same except for "slightly different keys and with slightly different background noodling..." If repetition alone is what makes you think this, then ok. It's all the same song...but the synth tones are very very different on each track, and although using repetitive beatless phrasing, the songs are quite different. The polyrhytmic bouncing around uses very different rhythms on each track. 13 Moons has some of the same pulsing and throbbing and repetition of a piano phrase that structurally is similar to something on Kranky like Windy and Carl or Stars of the Lid, and is very different from the other 3 tracks. Relevee carries much of an early minimal Kraftwerk vibe through the first half while eventually adding many more dramatic layers on top by the end. Black Spring definitely has a cinematic Risky Business feel to it...and it's fucking spectactular. Try to get dressed in an empty modern house on a dark Friday night with this song blaring without feeling like your life is about to become a movie...it's impossible. 6. I don't know what kind of payoff you are looking for, but in LOTS of the music you mentioned there isn't any. Part of the magic of Steve Reich, Tangerine Dream, early Kraftwerk, Philip Glass, Neu, Terry Riley, Harmonia, and a pile of other lesser knowns from the same group is the way they completely ignore the idea of a pay off...the whole "journey is the destination" thing. Sure, it skates the line alongside of jam bands, but when it works, it works. It feels as if you aren't giving them the same liberties you would give the other stuff you and they are name dropping. | |
| Posted 12/13/2005 - 12:37:54 PM by hutlock: | |
| I suppose I was looking for more from them because those other records have already been done, hometapes. I was looking for them to take those ideas and do something new with them, and I didn't feel that they did. Hence the "lazy" part. As for you, Galkin -- Sorry I can't love every single record you put out, brother. I have shown your label some pretty massive support over the years and if one bad review is gonna get you to come after me personally like that, I'm pretty disappointed. (For the rest of you who don't know, Galkin is part of the DFA administration.) | |
| Posted 12/13/2005 - 02:01:51 PM by pabanks46: | |
| They make a great living?! Phew, another pretentious hype-tick can eat another day. By the looks of it, thugh, one is stealing all the food. The one that looks like Prof. Frink needs to get some scraps too, dance-punk Family Guy-lookin' DFA dude.
Thanks, the plebes not making a fine living | |
| Posted 12/13/2005 - 02:25:22 PM by ps1000: | |
| Galkin's an asshole. Hutlock's an ignorant asshole (love how he tried to take the high road after that ramen noodle crack). And Gonzalez and Russom make pleasant, derivative music. | |
| Posted 12/13/2005 - 02:45:22 PM by hutlock: | |
| Ignorant? Please explain. | |
| Posted 12/13/2005 - 02:50:28 PM by ps1000: | |
| That wasn't fair. Sorry 'bout that. | |
| Posted 12/13/2005 - 05:15:12 PM by dipdip: | |
| derivative music like CALCULUS. great album always has been. | |
| Posted 12/13/2005 - 06:16:28 PM by hometapes: | |
| i just disagree with the idea that every record has been done...and therefore entire styles shouldn't be dabbled with again...what's that whole thing about there are only 5 basic stories in the whole world, grand myth fun times thing?...we still read and watch movies, etc. etc......i don't think it's directly ripping off riffs or anything; it's not like i have heard this exact record before...it has it's own mood and it's own sonic palette......it could be argued that anyone making hazy beatless music is wasting their time, or any 4 person 2 guitar 1 bass 1 drummer bands....it's a cheap argument and can be applied to just about everything.... my biggest issue is with holding new music to impossible standards...you wanted something from the record before it started and when it wasn't there you didn't like the record....what if you went into it open-minded? what if you thought about the cultural relevance of reviving the ghosts of tangerine dream in a day were disco is in? the relevance of beatless music being on a beat-filled label (sans black dice, of course)? ...also: if all tracks were totally different, would you not be complaining about how there is nothing between the tracks to tie them all together? | |
| Posted 12/14/2005 - 04:19:13 PM by PeterIa: | |
| I actually really really enjoyed the album. I hadn't listened to many of its influences when I heard it, and I was able to discover them via it, but even then, I just really really like what the album does for me when I play it. I think it's a cool experience and I really hope that Stylus gives it some love at the end of the year awards.. | |
| Posted 12/14/2005 - 06:46:54 PM by PeterIa: | |
| Also, this is remarkably unhip of me, but can anyone please for my sake name some Detroit techno artists or albums or songs? It'd be really really nice.. | |
| Posted 12/14/2005 - 07:54:13 PM by Giantandre: | |
| Juan Atkins,Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson would be the originators of Detroit Techno some other artists/DJ's: Eddie Fowlkes,Richie Hawtin, Jeff Mills, Carl Craig, John Acquaviva, Stacey Pullen... | |
| Posted 12/14/2005 - 08:14:33 PM by hutlock: | |
| Stylus will actually be running a Bluffer's Guide to Detroit Techno in late January/early February. Stay tuned! | |
| Posted 12/14/2005 - 08:15:48 PM by hutlock: | |
| Oh, and not to be picky... but Hawtin and Acquaviva are both from Windsor, not Detroit (though they certainly are part of that scene... it used to be a semi-touchy thing up there for a little while, that's the only reason I point it out.) | |
| Posted 12/15/2005 - 04:17:05 PM by Giantandre: | |
| Thats why I try not to get involved in indie(as well as Electronic) music genre debates .... | |