oh because of the whole dumb killing a pig thing or whatever it was
― Ópen W. (Ówen P.), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 14:58 (twelve years ago) link
― lex pretend, Wednesday, August 31
oh! I just googled and saw that. Didn't know about that. Don't really understand things like that (but then I don't even like records to have cover art so...)
― post, Wednesday, 31 August 2011 14:59 (twelve years ago) link
actress seems to be one of those ppl destined to be resented forever by ppl who somehow feel obliged to take an interest
― diouf est le papa du foot galsen merde lè haters (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:01 (twelve years ago) link
last time i spoke to someone IRL he started telling me about how to listen to actress as well - he even started talking about deleuze & fkn guattari as part of this stupid guide, at which point i tuned him out and may have actually wandered off mid-conversation. can't be doing with stupid people.― lex pretend, Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:54 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:54 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark
God forbid anyone try to explain why they like a record...?
― Sonny Chevrotain (dog latin), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:01 (twelve years ago) link
rustie is great....the anti-actress
oh god, all the time with acts i love in the first place - is it worse when it doesn't pay off, and you feel like you've wasted all that time, or when it kind of pays off but, you suspect, only cuz you gave it those 940339 chances that you wouldn't have given to anyone else
The second scenario is worse, because at least with the first you can decisively say "NOPE" and move on. The second leads to this vortex of indecision combined with the dead dullness of a weak response to something you really want to like, which leads to overthinking your feelings about a record, which further damages your ability to truly respond to it... I've gotten better over the past year or so with differentiating between the "meh" of indecision and the "hmm" of indecision; the "meh" rarely results in me coming around to a record (so I'm less inclined to spend lots of time with it), but the "hmm" often means something will eventually click.
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:03 (twelve years ago) link
that is like academic or beard-stroking intellectual analysis
fwiw I like splazsh and to a lesser extent the first actress record and my greatest enjoyment of them comes from the times I think as little as possible and crank up the volume
― unwarranted display names of ilx (mh), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:04 (twelve years ago) link
― Sonny Chevrotain (dog latin), Wednesday, August 31
i dunno i think if anyone tried to explain to me how to listen to a record i would think this record perhaps isn't for the likes of me
― post, Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:05 (twelve years ago) link
Might be different if i had asked them for their opinion though
― post, Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:06 (twelve years ago) link
I wonder what happened to the UNTOLD album.
― sam500, Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:06 (twelve years ago) link
i don't think i've ever heard anyone talk about actress in irl and would never presume to tell anyone how to listen to it, i just love his sound. it's very...tactile.
― hardcore oatmeal (Jordan), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:07 (twelve years ago) link
if you have to mention deleuze & guattari to explain why, god should indeed forbid it
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:07 (twelve years ago) link
sub in any critical theorists really
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:08 (twelve years ago) link
^^ I am a philosophy/D&G stan and I think music fails a little, unless it's a conceptual art music, if you can't explain why you like it without delving into such talk
― unwarranted display names of ilx (mh), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:09 (twelve years ago) link
thread for random crit theory bloggers discussing pop music
― diouf est le papa du foot galsen merde lè haters (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:11 (twelve years ago) link
fwiw I think most of the tracks on splazsh could go on for at least ten minutes but they're all so short
still kicking myself for missing a live actress set at a festival last year where I assume this happened
― unwarranted display names of ilx (mh), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:13 (twelve years ago) link
I've still never heard Actress! Will remedy shortly. I'm excited for the Oneohtrix record for sure, ditto Theo Parrish. Don't know a good pile of stuff on that list. I feel like I'm over The Weeknd already; the American Apparel cover art and font put me over the edge finally. It's just too obvious.
I don't think there's anything wrong with crit theory engaging with pop music, and I enjoy reading some crit theory sometimes and really digging into things, but anyone who lets crit theory override their own intuitive aesthetic responses is pretty misguided, I'd say, and I feel sorry for them and their vast chasm of intellectualized distance between themselves and their music.
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:18 (twelve years ago) link
Not to say that the intellectualization of a piece of music can't be a huge part of its appeal and enjoyment, nor to say that there's really any such things as "unmediated pure aesthetic experience" or whatever, but you can tell when someone's really reaching.
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:20 (twelve years ago) link
btw, going back to the top of the thread:BURIAL vs MASSIVE ATTACK - TBA [HELIGOLAND REMIXED]
still worth lols
― unwarranted display names of ilx (mh), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:21 (twelve years ago) link
Crit Theory just makes me go "okay... wha?" - is that the idea? It may as well be in Russian for all I can understand it.
― Sonny Chevrotain (dog latin), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:27 (twelve years ago) link
i'm still looking forward to the next forest swords record
― hardcore oatmeal (Jordan), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:28 (twelve years ago) link
So do you guys have a problem with people saying "this album's best heard on big speakers" or "this is dark-room headphone music"? Just asking. I agree if someone started using crit-theory to deconstruct an album, they'd need extremely good grounds to pass the bullshitometer.
― Sonny Chevrotain (dog latin), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:29 (twelve years ago) link
no, those are perfectly acceptable
― unwarranted display names of ilx (mh), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:30 (twelve years ago) link
I don't resent Actress any more than I resent a sit-up fwiw
― Ópen W. (Ówen P.), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:31 (twelve years ago) link
So do you guys have a problem with people saying "this album's best heard on big speakers" or "this is dark-room headphone music"?
I'd hope anyone would have some idea of how to talk to me about something, and can tell difference between talking to me and talking at me.
ie
f someone started using crit-theory to deconstruct an album, they'd need extremely good grounds to pass the bullshitometer.
it doesnt matter how good or bad their grounds are - if someone started down this track when talking to me about a record, then they're talking at me not to me
― post, Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:33 (twelve years ago) link
I think it's mostly "know your audience." Some of the best speakers/conversationalists I know are great at packing in information by giving a quick summary of salient points to the point where even if you're familiar, it's not annoying to hear again.
If you're immediately referencing a philosophical concept I may or may not know and are attempting to engage with me about an album on that standpoint, it's kind of a failure of communication, or you're a dick for implying I need to know these concepts to enjoy music.
― unwarranted display names of ilx (mh), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:37 (twelve years ago) link
ahh well no, you seem quite understanding xxp
― diouf est le papa du foot galsen merde lè haters (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:39 (twelve years ago) link
thing is I picked up the Actress album less as a result of nakh's thread (although it was interesting), or anything else I read, but on the merch table after seeing him play live
which was just one unsmiley dude w/ his hood up doing raw semi-generative on-the-fly techno on a small table of kit - the more I think about that the more bringing crit theory on board seems like abject madness
― Amazing pic of the universe! - VERY NSFW (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:43 (twelve years ago) link
this is where I reiterate for the 50th time that I want kodwo eshun to write more on music
― unwarranted display names of ilx (mh), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:45 (twelve years ago) link
Am I wrong in thinking that it misses the entire thrust and point of critical theory to employ it in the service of explaining *why* one enjoys a piece of art?
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:46 (twelve years ago) link
haha yeah, it seems like you are more explaining why you like critical theory than why you like music
― beemer douchebag (DJP), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:46 (twelve years ago) link
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 31 August 2011 16:46 (1 minute ago)
sure
actress is just particularly amenable to that post-grime theory blog tendency
― diouf est le papa du foot galsen merde lè haters (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 15:49 (twelve years ago) link
'wack'
― am/sand (Lamp), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 17:05 (twelve years ago) link
this rustie clip is pretty exciting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8C1RmVJ1xE
― hardcore oatmeal (Jordan), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 17:09 (twelve years ago) link