Linear A.
Ancient language, lost to the modern day. Largely undecipherable.
So this got me to thinking . . . what if machines do have a subconscious of their own? What if machines right now are like human babies, which have brains but no way of expressing themselves except screaming (crashing)? What would a machine's subconscious look like? How does it feed off what we give it? If machines could talk to us, what would they say?
- Douglas Coupland, Microserfs
This graph makes no sense whatsoever, but I’m rebloggin’ it for the lulz.
(tomewing / yvynyl / waptronics)
STATISTICS. ahahaha
“Weighing in early on what academics call ‘periodization’ is a dicey proposition.”—Sasha Frere-Jones, “Wrapping Up,” The New Yorker
“Musical collaborations can be a dicey proposition.”—Tim Sendra, “In the Reins” by Iron and Wine & Calexico, All Music Guide
“Tackling the Sinatra songbook seems like a dicey proposition.”—Tim Sendra, “Rawls Sings Sinatra,” All Music Guide
“New remixes of classic material are always a dicey proposition.”—Mark Richardson, “Sometimes in Autumn (Shackleton Remix)” by Harmonia & Eno ‘76, Pitchfork.com
“Building a recording project around sax and percussion, without bass or chords, is a dicey proposition, but these two artists are sufficient unto themselves.”—Ted Gioia, “Dunun Song” by Marilyn Mazur & Jan Garbarek, Jazz.com
“Most reviews of tribute albums start with something about how tributes are a dicey proposition, and how the best tributes capture the spirit of the artist while offering a new spin on the material and blah blah blah blah.”—Jason Damas, “The Stiff Generation,” Popmatters.com
“It’s said that Hooker recorded better than 100 albums, and when you throw in live albums of questionable pedigree, any attempt to anthologize John Lee Hooker’s career would be a dicey proposition, indeed.”—Reverend Keith A. Gordon, “50 Years: The John Lee Hooker Anthology,” About.com
“The U.S. release of a double CD live set by Hakim, a vocalist who a prominent entertainer in his native Egypt but who is relatively unknown in this country, and who does not sing in English, would seem to be a dicey proposition.”—Joe Hartlaub, “The Lion Roars” by Hakim, music-reviewer.com
“Evangelistic fervor, of any strain, is a dicey proposition for a rock band: you risk alienating your fans and generally looking ridiculous.”—Pete Luisi-Mills, “Neon Bible” by The Arcade Fire, Thinking Through Faith
“Beatles covers are a dicey proposition …”—Jason Ankeny, “Glass Onion: Songs of the Beatles,” All Music Guide
“Ever since George Harrison first picked up the sitar on the Beatles classic “Norwegian Wood,” the fusion of Eastern sounds with Western pop music has been an extremely fruitful, if sometimes dicey, proposition.”—Joshua Glazer, “Gathering One” by Hamsa Lila, All Music Guide
“The recent trend of artists revisiting and performing their older, esteemed records in their entirety, chiefly inspired by All Tomorrow’s Parties’ “Don’t Look Back” concert series, can be a dicey proposition …”—Michael Harkin, “Live Show Review: Devo at the Regency Ballroom, San Francisco,” Crawdaddy
“That Toth swung fully the other way was no surprise, but it was always a dicey proposition: Toth is neither an excellent vocal stylist nor a particularly clever wordsmith, and his intrigue has always been based on a mixture of homespun oddity and improvisational excess.”—Andrew Gaerig, “Waiting In Vain” by James Jackson Toth, Pitchfork.com
Writing music reviews in the age of Google can be a dicey proposition.
I have a fantasy that future people will look at “Rhubarb” and think of it as a high watermark of twentieth century classicalAphex Twin - FingerbibThank you, catprism.
I’m confident that R. James will be remembered by future generations as one of the leading composers of this era. Many of his tracks appear to me as classics, especially re. Coetzee’s notion of a classic, i.e. that which will endure via performance and reinterpretation by masters of the art.
Possibly my favorite work of James, and performance, is this minimal, acoustic guitar version of Rhubarb.
I think the interaction between Stockhausen and James as reported in The Wire captures the essense of the divide between the abyss that formal 20th century classical music drove itself into vs. music that people give a flying fuck about.
KS: I heard the piece Aphex Twin of Richard James carefully: I think it would be very helpful if he listens to my work Song Of The Youth, which is electronic music, and a young boy‘s voice singing with himself. Because he would then immediately stop with all these post-African repetitions …
[…]
The response(s) on page 3 are hilarious, e.g.:
RJ: I thought he should listen to couple of tracks of mine: Didgeridoo, then he’d stop making abstract, random patterns you can’t dance to. Do you reckon he can dance?
My take is that we needed Stockhausen, Boulez et al to annihilate classical music, so that new music may grow from its dust — an unfortunate but necessary role.
at the very least, that exchange is a high-water mark of 20th century music journalism.
i like this admonition from stockhausen:
I know that he wants to have a special effect in dancing bars, or wherever it is, on the public who like to dream away with such repetitions, but he should be very careful, because this public will sell him out immediately for something else, if a new kind of musical drug is on the market.
The next night was Philadelphia. Stephin and Claudia were already spooked by Philly, before we’d even got there. They said they’d never had a good gig in Philadelphia, ever. One of my best friends lives in Philly, though, and my sister lived there for a while, and I know that Eraserhead was filmed there, and I know that Philly used to be the speed capital of the northeast. It has the Mummer’s Day Parade. How bad could it be?
Pretty bad, it turned out. First, the club we were playing was enormous. Called the Trocadero, it seemed to hold thousands, in the upper levels, especially near the bar. Why people would want to pay to come to a Magnetic Fields gig and then just go up to the bar and talk is a mystery. But this is what happened.
… By the end of the show, though, everyone was short-tempered. They’d never play in Philadelphia again, it was a hell hole, and so forth.
- Devendra Banhart. Don’t know why but I am WAY INTO IT.
(via godiminbadshaperightnow)
mfs:
John Coltrane, Giant Steps.
This is what John Coltrane’s landmark tune and solo look like when they come to life on paper.
![In the study, cotton-top tamarins grew calmer after they heard music compositions based on their own calm, friendly calls, and became more agitated when exposed to music that contained elements of their own threatening or fearful calls.
“Basically I took those elements and patterned them the way we do normally with music,” he says. “You repeat them, take them up a [musical] third — you know, using the same kind of compositional techniques we use in human music.”
He played the compositions on his cello and then electronically boosted them up three octaves, to a pitch that matched the monkeys’ voices. Monkeys don’t respond at all to music written for humans, but they did respond when they heard this composition.
Snowden says people may not be calmed by this relatively fast tempo of one of the pieces, but the monkeys in his lab certainly were.
Music Written For Monkeys Strikes A Chord : NPR
click through for happy monkey tunes.](http://10.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kpcrglRjpM1qznegko1_400.jpg)
In the study, cotton-top tamarins grew calmer after they heard music compositions based on their own calm, friendly calls, and became more agitated when exposed to music that contained elements of their own threatening or fearful calls.
“Basically I took those elements and patterned them the way we do normally with music,” he says. “You repeat them, take them up a [musical] third — you know, using the same kind of compositional techniques we use in human music.”
He played the compositions on his cello and then electronically boosted them up three octaves, to a pitch that matched the monkeys’ voices. Monkeys don’t respond at all to music written for humans, but they did respond when they heard this composition.
Snowden says people may not be calmed by this relatively fast tempo of one of the pieces, but the monkeys in his lab certainly were.
Music Written For Monkeys Strikes A Chord : NPR
click through for happy monkey tunes.
Why not a Jazz Hero, asks this writer? Hmmm. Are there any music games which reward improvisation over accuracy?
i’ve only played it a few times, but the rock band game occasionally asks you to “solo” ad lib., your playing then judged i believe by the shear number of notes inputted in the allotted time — pretty hilarious as a musical concept.
the problem with jazz hero is we can’t even define good improvisation as humans, let alone describe it in terms a computer could evaluate. the only way to become a jazz hero is still buying a cheap horn from a pawn shop and learning to blow.
…
i want to make an “ambient hero” game, in which the object is to play as few notes as possible. maximum score acheived by turning off the tv and taking a nap in the backyard.
