josh blog

Ordinary language is all right.

One could divide humanity into two classes:
those who master a metaphor, and those who hold by a formula.
Those with a bent for both are too few, they do not comprise a class.

newest | archives | search | about | wishlist | flickr | email | rss

18 Apr '03 06:45:15 AM

"in some ways transparent" - for example say like a house beat. And yet there are different house beats, infinitely many. (This is a remarkable fact.)

18 Apr '03 06:40:22 AM

MRI now, "Blue" (their "Try Again" mirroring Aaliyah tribute) and "Nightclubbing at Home". Something special about music that's synthetic, but carefully so, so that it sounds close to something made with "normal" instruments that "normal" music is made on ("normal" rather than "natural" as opposed to "synthetic", because artificially enhanced sounds like those of guitars and recorded voices and percussion and wind instruments, as well as synthesized instruments intended to resemble unsynthesized counterparts, have become naturalized so that they are in some ways transparent, the song or the figure or the structure or the rhythm brought to the foreground) - and yes, the genre and form (dubby house) helps distinguish it in that regard too - compare to say free jazz or Cageian noise, where in some sense sound qua sound is supposed to be foregrounded, but because of either too strong a reminder of the sound sources' typical homes (structured improvisation with a historical connection to song and human singing), or too faint a connection (skronk skronk buzzzzzz drift wshhhhh), there's something nagging, a tension, that requires of me more zenlike mindful mindfullessness than when I listen to MRI or say Luomo where it's easy like a slump out of tension to start hearing sound sound sound sound sound sound sound.

18 Apr '03 04:51:58 AM

But really the main problem with every tape I've ever made has been: not enough hiphop.

18 Apr '03 04:25:22 AM

Why leave off the Neubauten just because it's long? Because the track becomes a world unto itself, click whirr whirrrrr scrape blixa. When shorter the other songs make it easier, inside each song, to be aware of the song's relation to other songs on the tape, which is partly like the entire fucking idea on the tapes I usually make. Long tracks breed forgetfulness.

Which is why some of my choices for the tape-in-planning below are dangerous. The James Brown and Miles Davis are very long, and the Digable Planets track might be pretty long compared to some others. I also have in mind to put either "Love's in Need of Love Today" on, or "I Love Every Little Thing About You", and the former is pretty worldlike.

Judicious use of symmetry may help.

18 Apr '03 04:18:22 AM

Also, I would also leave off the Dylan and Betas.

Also.

18 Apr '03 04:16:43 AM

Hm, it seems I never posted a tracklist for this tape that I enjoy a lot. At least, I can't find it anywhere.

(I think I should have left the Neubaten off, it's too long here.)

Also, proof: I only make tapes from the same 10 CDs.

Also, I am still stuck on the same tasteful aesthetic. Mitch, I own you. Hello. Welcome to our planet, Rocketman. Please do not eat us.

Also, I think maybe this is a copy of a tape I made for F. And I bit the Specials from Ethan. And the Juno and Nirvana tracks are covers. Of DJ Shadow and Devo. And there is a skit. It is hiding.

James Brown - "I Got You (I Feel Good)"
Sonic Youth - "Purr"
Missy Elliott f. Ludacris - "Gossip Folks"
Einsturzende Neubauten - "NNNAAAMMM"
Juno - "High Noon"
Sleater-Kinney - "Milkshake 'n' Honey"
Naughty by Nature - "Naughty by Nature"
Massive Attack - "Be Thankful For What You've Got (Perfecto Mix)"
Foo Fighters - "Everlong"

Bob Dylan - "Highway 61 Revisited"
The Beta Band - "She's The One For Me"
Cee-Lo - "Closet Freak"
The Specials - "Nite Klub"
Burning Airlines - "Wheaton Calling"
Stevie Wonder - "I Wish"
LL Cool J f. Kandice Love - "Amazin'"
The Magnetic Fields - "It's A Crime"
Green Day - "Going to Pasalacqua"
Neutral Milk Hotel - "Holland, 1945"
Nirvana - "Turnaround"
Basement Jaxx - "All I Know"

18 Apr '03 02:32:06 AM

A quote I stole from oblivio's revolving header:

"I am like those children who take a clock apart to find out what time it is." - Roland Barthes

17 Apr '03 06:31:02 AM

A reason for being disappointed, that I failed to anticipate: "Calypso Frelimo" starts fast, and with a big squall, and the more leisurely pretty parts don't come until some point later which I didn't have the patience to wait for.

17 Apr '03 06:21:16 AM

Now I'm pretty certain I want to listen to "Calypso Frelimo" but I expect: 1) the sound won't be as impressively shifting and colored as I remember it, 2) the enormous length will lead me to either a) quit early and feel bad because I didn't give a serious listen to the whole thing, or b) listen to the whole thing and get irritated because it's so long and I don't have the patience for it right now. All I really want is that strange, er, thing. With bendy chord tonal wobbly cheesy pastel uneasy bliss.