no need to get defensive, though if it helps boost your ILX status by all means. next step "sock master" amirite?
if anything i'm just trying to work out why this leaves me cold when I love so much of the stuff it cribs from. I guess you missed the part where I praised the sound design and mentioned that I like the track "Hubble" a lot, while touching on his excellent dj skills?
and if you can't hear Hieroglpyhic Being in something like say "Bubble Buts And Equations" then I don't believe you've heard Hieroglyphic Being
― missingNO, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 06:22 (thirteen years ago) link
havent we already had this convo about james blake, or is this diff somehow
― lyrics is weak ... like clock radio similes (deej), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 06:26 (thirteen years ago) link
^^
― BIG SANTA aka the sleighdriver (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 06:31 (thirteen years ago) link
missing u know yr shit and have good taste but 'I can see how people who haven't heard Steve Poindexter and Musique Records and Hieroglyphic Being might find it groundbreaking' is the sort of pass/agg trainspotter drivel that's not rly conducive to good ilx
u will know i have not heard 'Hieroglyphic Being' cuz he is third in yr list and i 'have heard first two of those '
― Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 06:33 (thirteen years ago) link
idk about james blake, don't rly care/rate/etc him
there's some talk of actress in one of the rolling dance threads btw, moonship digs it iirc
― zvookster, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 06:35 (thirteen years ago) link
no whiney weingarteno on this comment but really feel like most ppl that find this treatment of r&b interesting don't actually dig real r&b
this stuff is still pretty aight tho
― BIG SANTA aka the sleighdriver (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 06:35 (thirteen years ago) link
don't rly care about r&b beyond the big singles yuh
i like music concrete tho
of course it doesn't sound a lot like the former, and the schematic owes little to the latter but yknow it kinda works as shorthand for what he's doing
― Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 06:38 (thirteen years ago) link
not sure i get the (any) connection to musique concrete. it sounds like pleasantly spacey/funky idm to me. connect the dots?
― contenderizer, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 06:44 (thirteen years ago) link
"u will know i have not heard 'Hieroglyphic Being' cuz he is third in yr list and i 'have heard first two of those '"
ok well my point still stands, if you can't hear the influence Steve Poindexter's label, Muzique Records, has had on Actress's album Splazsh then etcetc
sorry if it's "pas/agg trainspotter drivel" to actually know my shit about the subject at hand, but when you say something like "this fuckin BURIES the competition" you shouldn't be surprised that somebody else might say, well actually, there's other stuff out there that already sounds like this and does it better
― missingNO, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:02 (thirteen years ago) link
god yr slow
― Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:15 (thirteen years ago) link
god yr butthurt?
― missingNO, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:16 (thirteen years ago) link
i didn't come here to argue dude, I'll leave your thread be *waves*
― missingNO, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:17 (thirteen years ago) link
tsccchhhh
entrylevs
― Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:21 (thirteen years ago) link
oh ok, Burial reference, excellent. bravo old chap
― missingNO, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:21 (thirteen years ago) link
still, I'm not so slow as to realize that "rnb concrete" is fucking lame
― missingNO, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:23 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah its kinda a lame thread title trinket to get the spesh addled vagrants like yrself thru the door, all counts towards the admission stats tho
― Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:26 (thirteen years ago) link
my sympathies, nakhchivan, for post-launch events itt
― contenderizer, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:28 (thirteen years ago) link
ikr
― Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:30 (thirteen years ago) link
missing no just needs to chill a lil, i don't wanna scare off ppl who know more about techno than me
yeah apols for missing your pun. keep the ad homs coming though, you'll be reposted in zing thread in no time
― missingNO, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 07:31 (thirteen years ago) link
Apparently Actress samples Youtube in his beats, tons of tightly edited low bitrate samples stacked layer upon layer.
It definitely seems like a reasonable comparison to the original Musique Concrete guys.
And I'm a big Hieroglyphic Being fan and don't feel that Actress is at all a bad comparison.
With Jamal its huge amounts material to dig through, with Actress: 2 minute long tracks.
Maybe the argument should be between brevity and long-windedness?
― sistern, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:01 (thirteen years ago) link
hmmm i don't really dig jamal moss very much and i don't think it's a great comparison unless you fixate on certain aspects of actress and the much better end of jamal moss.
the r&b-ish parts ("purple splazsh", "wrong potion") are the bits i like least. love love love the pleasantly spacy/funky IDM parts ("hubble", "bubble butts", "the kettle men"). i loathe the todd edwards influenced parts.
it didn't make my top 10, but it would've made #11 and if i made a list just on amount of time spent listening this would've been in the top 10.
i have hazyville but haven't really given it a listen ... what about his nonplus release? that was sick.
― moonship journey to baja, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:03 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbSd7vgG-JA
^^ sounds more like urban tribe to me than burial or todd e
― moonship journey to baja, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:04 (thirteen years ago) link
srsly off topic but jamal moss is 75% wack
― moonship journey to baja, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:08 (thirteen years ago) link
as is being detroit/chicago nerd, as anyone who witnessed moonship: the early years will certainly attest to
― moonship journey to baja, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:09 (thirteen years ago) link
:)
if i did, i would
― Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:12 (thirteen years ago) link
is this so? have heard this said of other producers, but not of cunningham. which may be to say, "i haven't done the research," but what's (not) done is done. and yeah, if true, that working process does make sense of the phrase/thread title. plus helps explain the pleasant fuzziness of the sound.
― contenderizer, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:13 (thirteen years ago) link
sounds pleasant but it's a little too clever isn't it, calling albums "hazyville" and stuff to bait the hauntology crew?
― moonship journey to baja, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:17 (thirteen years ago) link
i just think he's best when he keeps it light, straightforward and beat oriented
― moonship journey to baja, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:19 (thirteen years ago) link
I need to dig the album out again and give it another listen, shifted so much stuff around in my room I've got no idea where it is.
This is one of the few albums this year I felt compelled to own on vinyl.
― sistern, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:30 (thirteen years ago) link
And yeah, Jamal does have that Sun Ra quality control thing going on. When he's on he's definitely on.
Whereas all the Actress stuff I've heard was at least worth listening to more than once.
Hazyville included, some great shit on there.
― sistern, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 08:32 (thirteen years ago) link
i read the Youtube thing as well and it definitely goes to explain the graininess and warmth of the album -- kinda like an extreme update of the vintage sampler aliasing you hear on classic NY boom bap stuff
the Hieroglyphic Being/Muzique comparisons I only make with reference to Splazsh. it's that slightly unhinged, unpredictable approach to drum programming, wildly unquantized percussion patterns on top of straight 4x4 kicks, crunchy bass drums and hi hats that sizzle, and insanely unfathomable synth lines. he def has a more refined sense of melody and song structure that is his own, overall the album strikes me as an IDM dude's take on the abstract US house sound that's been popular over the past couple of years or so, that just so happens to fit in with the current chillwave/hypnagogic zeitgeist. despite not being crazy on the album, it's at least an interesting direction
basically though, I wanna hear more things like "Hubble" or "Paint, Straw and Bubbles", and less like "Senorita" or "Purple Splazsh"
― missingNO, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 11:57 (thirteen years ago) link
his edit of this on Thriller is cool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xceQvaDAl08
― missingNO, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 12:01 (thirteen years ago) link
the r&b-ish parts ("purple splazsh", "wrong potion") are the bits i like least.
OTM ... if there was $$$ to be made from making techno tributes to Prince then everyone would have been doing it years ago.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Wednesday, 29 December 2010 16:08 (thirteen years ago) link
re: hazyville, i like the hardcore references in "again the addiction"
― moonship journey to baja, Thursday, 30 December 2010 02:16 (thirteen years ago) link
and on "crushed", too!
― moonship journey to baja, Thursday, 30 December 2010 03:17 (thirteen years ago) link
this album is so good & not really r&b at all and i don't think people who don't really like r&b would ever mistake this with r&b. feel like the sounds on it are very tube-ey, i visualize a lot of the lines as orange neon lights, something really linear (yet obviously very contorted) about it. way better than james blake although i didn't get the bfd w/ that thread but i also don't know anything about dance music. i've listened to this album on drugs a lot
― flopson, Thursday, 30 December 2010 03:40 (thirteen years ago) link
moonship what's your top 10
― flopson, Thursday, 30 December 2010 03:44 (thirteen years ago) link
my top 10 favorite albums this year
― moonship journey to baja, Thursday, 30 December 2010 03:53 (thirteen years ago) link
moonship what are your top 10 favourite albums this year
― flopson, Thursday, 30 December 2010 03:57 (thirteen years ago) link
top 10 albums
demdike stare - liberation through hearingmartyn - fabric 50ben klock - berghain 04emeralds - does it look like I'm here?dBridge & instra:mental - fabriclive 50flying lotus - cosmogrammashackleton - fabric 55shed - the travellermadlib - medicine show volume 3anthony shakir - frictionalism
top 10 singles
martyn - is this insanity (remixes)mmm - nous sommes mmmwax - 30003eqd - 04locussolus - gunship
and other than that it was all from 2009: 2562, martyn, peverelist, zomby, the rest of that crew, wax and eqd sides by shed, scion versions, levon vincent, t++, dettmann and klock, function stuff on sandwell, milton bradley, frozen border, etc etc it all sounded as relevant or more this year as it did last year, and generally much more than what i read about in a lot of other dance music year-end lists :-(
― moonship journey to baja, Thursday, 30 December 2010 04:08 (thirteen years ago) link
your top 10 is lookin more like a top 5
― flopson, Thursday, 30 December 2010 04:11 (thirteen years ago) link
& thanks
actually i forgot some off of my top 10 list
2562 - demons2562 - rear windowrustie - sunburstjoker - tron
― moonship journey to baja, Thursday, 30 December 2010 04:12 (thirteen years ago) link
what's your top 10, flopson?
― moonship journey to baja, Thursday, 30 December 2010 04:26 (thirteen years ago) link
no dance stuff or anything, and i have difficulty with albums so ten is kind of a stretch but i pretty much love all these
waka flocka flame - flockavellie-40 - revenue retrievinearl sweatshirt - earlgucci mane - mr zone 6/jewelry selectionnht boyz - power triangle
purling hiss - hissteriapc worship - s/t lp and 7" on shdwplypig - magneticsex church - 6 songs by sex churchdrunkdriver - s/t
― flopson, Thursday, 30 December 2010 04:48 (thirteen years ago) link
this demdike stare is awesome
― flopson, Thursday, 30 December 2010 04:56 (thirteen years ago) link
this didn't leave any impression on me the first couple of times i listened to it. i've been assured that it's a grower, tho not sure i care enough to find this out for myself. it's assuredly better than james blake tho.
― lex diamonds (lex pretend), Thursday, 30 December 2010 09:00 (thirteen years ago) link
missingNO: your mentioning of the "slightly unhinged, unpredictable approach to drum programming [&] wildly unquantized percussion patterns on top of straight 4x4 kicks" brings to mind how psyched I was to have learned about Terrence Dixon back in late '08 through Cunningham himself referring to him (along w/ a bunch of other better-known Detroiters, whose approaches I don't hear quite as strongly in Actress' work) as an influence on the 1-sheet blurb for "Hazyville".
Most of the T. Dixon/Population One stuff released on Metroplex and elsewhere that I've heard (from the mid-'90s to recent) has rhythmically really reminded me of Actress, in terms of the funky misalignments, etc.
(Anybody here into Downliners Sekt? A similar-enough aesthetic to warrant asking...)http://boomkat.com/downloads/317164-downliners-sekt-hello-lonely-hold-the-nationhttp://boomkat.com/downloads/367254-downliners-sekt-we-make-hits-not-the-public
― Don't Make Me A Burrito (Craig D.), Thursday, 30 December 2010 14:50 (thirteen years ago) link
sorry you don't like me
― Give me a Chad Smith-type feel (map), Friday, 6 November 2020 22:54 (three years ago) link
I love the exchange between nakchivan and missingNO that kicks off this thread!
― the article don, Saturday, 7 November 2020 08:33 (three years ago) link
Incredible album, "Save" has been running through my head all day (or some meager echo of it, memory can't really capture it).
― swing out sister: live in new donk city (geoffreyess), Sunday, 27 December 2020 20:20 (three years ago) link
I've been asked to produce the new Lighthouse Family album.— AZD (@ctress_a) October 8, 2021
― brimstead, Friday, 8 October 2021 21:40 (two years ago) link
The thing about Actress is that his music is always mixed almost entirely in mono.
I realise it's an aesthetic, but I find it really hard to listen to.
― raven, Saturday, 9 October 2021 07:13 (two years ago) link
I find his music far more challenging than, say, Autechre
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Saturday, 9 October 2021 08:00 (two years ago) link
Was gonna say that I feel exactly the opposite. I haven’t listened to a lot of Autechre tho, and this thread made me realize I’m only familiar with about half of Actress’ work. I also appreciate the sort of aimless quality of some of his music, which some here seem to regard as a weakness of his style.
― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Saturday, 9 October 2021 09:09 (two years ago) link
wow i got weird on this thread, sorry! i'm still not a huge actress fan but like small doses. generally still think there is more style than substance and i don't find it challenging at all really.
― Linda and Jodie Rocco (map), Saturday, 9 October 2021 12:01 (two years ago) link
lol i was being unreasonably combative myself, i do like you map <3
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Saturday, 9 October 2021 12:14 (two years ago) link
hey, thanks brad! i like you too. :)
― Linda and Jodie Rocco (map), Saturday, 9 October 2021 14:23 (two years ago) link
I love the exchange between nakchivan and missingNO that kicks off this thread!― the article don, Saturday, 7 November 2020 17:33 (eleven months ago) bookmarkflaglink
― the article don, Saturday, 7 November 2020 17:33 (eleven months ago) bookmarkflaglink
i didn't love it at all, it was needlessly hectoring on nakchivan's part (which was apparently their thing despite being a beloved poster so more fool me i guess) and caused several days of psychological torment (yeah, i'm a weak one fr). obv my opinion and the way in which i stated it was shit but idk it did feel a little unsafe there for a minute as a neurodiverse person who has faced a lifetime of bullying (yah i know you don't really gaf about us beyond boilerplate please don't kys platitudes lol but still seems relevant) ... anyway i wish i hadn't stumbled upon this thread in the archives and wish i had never ever posted on this website but what are you gonna do (mods, pls do me a favour and delete/ban my account, ty)
― missingNO, Wednesday, 3 November 2021 15:03 (two years ago) link
probably my favorite musician of the decade. thick smoke always hanging in the air
― brimstead, Wednesday, 3 November 2021 17:30 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACxhOLmLyJI
Actress & Mount Kimbie - 'AZD SURF'
Not really into Mount Kimbie but this is very nice
― paolo, Thursday, 4 August 2022 10:25 (one year ago) link
probably my favorite musician of the decade
After working on my ballots for the 2010s poll I think I agree with you
― paolo, Thursday, 4 August 2022 10:26 (one year ago) link
I didn't totally get Karma & Desire at the time and felt like I was missing something after I read the posts here, but it finally clicked while I listened to it while falling asleep last night. I think now that it has its hooks in me it may eventually replace RIP as my favorite, but time will tell. What a strange and unfriendly record this is. Are the people who compared it to Drukqs just talking about all the piano stuff, or the odd, seemingly random approach to sequencing?
― Paul Ponzi, Friday, 5 August 2022 12:19 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt4Miu5PuZg
― brimstead, Monday, 14 August 2023 15:21 (eight months ago) link
Happy he's back. I like this track, though I remain convinced he'll never again reach the heights of R.I.P.
― Paul Ponzi, Monday, 14 August 2023 18:02 (eight months ago) link
new album... incredible
― ivy., Thursday, 9 November 2023 00:16 (five months ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crlGL-2hObw
hit that spdiff
― ivy., Thursday, 9 November 2023 00:17 (five months ago) link
This is great, listening to it constantly.
― Saxophone Of Futility (Michael B), Thursday, 9 November 2023 00:21 (five months ago) link
His set performing with Autechre in Sydney was a trip - began very disjointed and accumulated atmosphere and complexity, a lot like that track above. Dude was BUSY.
https://i.imgur.com/LQmxUqZ.jpg
― assert (matttkkkk), Thursday, 9 November 2023 01:51 (five months ago) link
yeah, excellent album. kinda glad it's not as emotionally intense as the last one.
― soup of magpies (geoffreyess), Thursday, 9 November 2023 02:54 (five months ago) link
he’s one of the best
― Vapor waif (uptown churl), Thursday, 9 November 2023 03:00 (five months ago) link
the best. sounding great as always. can’t wait to give it a full listen.
― brimstead, Thursday, 9 November 2023 03:41 (five months ago) link
Saw him back at the 2013 Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival at really sick venue that is no more. Was by far the best thing I saw there and was this incredible constantly evolving series of beats and atmosphere that had me thinking he was the closest I'd seen to an Autechre set by someone else.
Them playing together would be amazing! So sad I wasn't in Sydney in time for that show.
― octobeard, Thursday, 9 November 2023 06:52 (five months ago) link
really makes the lo-fi/hi-fi distinction meaningless. neither annoyingly polished nor carelessly murky. also, unlike autechre, there's a distinct emotional core that unifies the music. it's also politicized without being didactic. what im saying is, it rocks
― Vapor waif (uptown churl), Friday, 10 November 2023 17:23 (five months ago) link
can't believe it's been almost 15 years since this thread was started. "r&b concrete" is still an alarmingly concise and accurate description.
― ꙮ (map), Friday, 10 November 2023 17:29 (five months ago) link
How is it politicized?
― Saxophone Of Futility (Michael B), Saturday, 11 November 2023 11:34 (five months ago) link
― brimstead, Wednesday, 3 November 2021 17:30 (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink
one of my faves of the century. new album roolz
― ava (paolo), Friday, 17 November 2023 21:09 (five months ago) link
it totally roolz. and the deluxe LP edition comes with an lp copy of 88!
― brimstead, Friday, 17 November 2023 21:31 (five months ago) link
Funny, this one didn't immediately strike me as much as previous albums, but I went back to it after reading the praise on this thread and it definitely clicked the second time, enough so that I immediately ordered the LP. I think headphones really helped me appreciate this album, and I'm not typically a headphones kind of person
― Paul Ponzi, Friday, 17 November 2023 22:17 (five months ago) link
love this new album and also his recent mix for Mixmag
― boxedjoy, Friday, 17 November 2023 22:30 (five months ago) link
i really love this album but it always leaves me wanting to listen to Motorbass
― j.o.h.n. in evanston (john. a resident of chicago.), Saturday, 25 November 2023 20:13 (four months ago) link