I admire this more than I like it

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (145 of them)

i rly enjoyed the experience of it but i never go out of my way to listen to it now - i sometimes think of it with great fondness though

no shade m8, i like your recommendations and i'm striving to become a better listener idk

I remember you was vote-splitted (imago), Wednesday, 27 January 2016 21:21 (eight years ago) link

there is nothing wrong with not liking ferneyhough

you seemed to have a very visceral, jam oriented relation to that piece though

i don't have a lot of interest in 'new complexity' aka notated proncke though it is admirable in its way

smoothy doles it (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 27 January 2016 21:24 (eight years ago) link

I think for a long time I did this all the time, admired things I didn't like. could always be counted on to say something was 'interesting', which peculiarly seems to really be a euphemism for 'not that interesting'. I only really feel this way now abut people I have loved or love who create something that I don't, and will not love.

I felt this way when I first heard the song "Blackstar" - didn't enjoy it all that much but evinced merit in it due to the reverence I have for Bowie.

Cornelius Pardew (jim in glasgow), Wednesday, 27 January 2016 21:26 (eight years ago) link

radiohead is like an extreme inversion of this proposition lol

how so?

frogbs, Wednesday, 27 January 2016 21:28 (eight years ago) link

xp. used evinced wrong there :/

Cornelius Pardew (jim in glasgow), Wednesday, 27 January 2016 21:28 (eight years ago) link

radiohead is like an extreme inversion of this proposition lol
how so?

― frogbs, Wednesday, January 27, 2016 9:28 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

invert the proposition, add an intensifier, that is how imago feels about radiohead

jaggered little poll (wins), Wednesday, 27 January 2016 21:30 (eight years ago) link

Hendrix. I admire what a guitar pioneer he was, have very little desire to listen to him.

Retro novelty punk (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 27 January 2016 21:34 (eight years ago) link

Probably early Sad Lovers And Giants.

Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 27 January 2016 21:38 (eight years ago) link

gustav mahler, when i'm sober

diana krallice (rushomancy), Wednesday, 27 January 2016 22:03 (eight years ago) link

invert the proposition, add an intensifier, that is how imago feels about radiohead

― jaggered little poll (wins), Wednesday, January 27, 2016 3:30 PM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ah. oh. got it

frogbs, Wednesday, 27 January 2016 22:07 (eight years ago) link

Portishead's Third (I admire the utter bleakness, but can't stand it). Unsuk Chin's compositions (super dramatic and abstract, but often chin-scratching).

Tuomas, Wednesday, 27 January 2016 22:21 (eight years ago) link

how about Zappa then? dude was obviously just on a whole different level and had some crazy chops, I just never find myself wanting to listen to one of his albums front-to-back. just like...maybe Hot Rats

frogbs, Wednesday, 27 January 2016 22:33 (eight years ago) link

yeah i can think of way more things that i like but don't admire than things that i admire but don't like

een, Wednesday, 27 January 2016 22:44 (eight years ago) link

If I had a record I felt the most this way in 2015, it was definitely Matana Roberts' Coin Coin Chapter 3: Run River Thee. Clearly brilliant but very hard to listen to.

The Reverend, Wednesday, 27 January 2016 22:53 (eight years ago) link

Yeah I'll own up to not listening to CCC3 half as much as the previous installments.

conditional random jepsen (seandalai), Wednesday, 27 January 2016 22:55 (eight years ago) link

this thread

• (sleepingbag), Wednesday, 27 January 2016 23:13 (eight years ago) link

Magma

Gavin, Leeds, Wednesday, 27 January 2016 23:17 (eight years ago) link

japanese psych/improv/loud guitar stuff

rip van wanko, Wednesday, 27 January 2016 23:44 (eight years ago) link

Aphex Twin excluding SAW2
Mickey Newbury
Mission of Burma

probably tons more

Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Thursday, 28 January 2016 01:42 (eight years ago) link

punk music

I like the idea behind it but I can't stand listening to actual punk bands

moans and feedback (Dinsdale), Thursday, 28 January 2016 08:25 (eight years ago) link

death metal

lute bro (brimstead), Thursday, 28 January 2016 10:08 (eight years ago) link

there is loads of music i admire more than like. 'great work', and i can tell the artist put a lot of thought and time into their creation but for me as a listener, i rarely have the stamina or compulsion to listen for extended periods of time.

canoon fooder (dog latin), Thursday, 28 January 2016 10:14 (eight years ago) link

Lots of shouts in here that I agree with pretty much. Scott Walker is definitely in here. Ornette Coleman. John Coltrane. Elvis Costello too. Beach Boys. Kraftwerk. Bob Dylan is in a similar category, something like "I do not get this at all but so many other people do so there must be something to it". There are lots of records I own out of a sense of duty or history - this is important, this is significant - but that I don't have a personal connection to. Looking at the list, it often seems like stuff from 'before' my time as an active listener that I've gone back to due to it being acclaimed, rather than stuff I've 'organically' (whatever the fuck that means) come into contact with.

Bowie was broadly in this category until he died, but has been moving much more into genuine like since then. Radiohead moved into this category from one labelled "I resent the success and acclaim this gets over other things I like more", and have now wheedled their way into my genuine affections; sometimes you need an event or binge or something else with an artist to change your mind/heart about them. PJ Harvey similarly crossed over a few years ago. SFA too.

Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 28 January 2016 10:54 (eight years ago) link

I think with some artists I often forget how much I like them in between binges of listening to them; like, I might go a few years without really listening to whoever, and in that fallow period if asked I might say I admired them but didn't love them, but then I'll binge and they'll be my favourite thing.

Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 28 January 2016 10:55 (eight years ago) link

for me its Mark Stewart (solo + mafia).
i love the on-u sound groove, and so, over the years i have picked up every MS album, but it's very rare i feel like listening to his stuff as opposed to other parts of the on-u archive.
i admire the mans stance, and he should be top of my list.
i even went to see him live with the mafia a few years ago and loved it,
but still, other than his dub release, exorcism of envy,i have yet to really love one of his albums.

mark e, Thursday, 28 January 2016 11:08 (eight years ago) link

Jute Gyte.

the joke should be over once the kid is eaten. (chap), Thursday, 28 January 2016 12:11 (eight years ago) link

most jazz

most things nakhers recommends

― I remember you was vote-splitted (imago), Wednesday, January 27, 2016 4:01 PM (Yesterday)

just curious, what jazz artists (if any) do you listen to for enjoyment?

small doug yule carnival club (unregistered), Thursday, 28 January 2016 13:23 (eight years ago) link

Think the thing with Beefheart is that people dive straight into Trout Mask Replica when they would be much better off with, say, Mirror Man Sessions.

Camaraderie at Arms Length, Thursday, 28 January 2016 14:42 (eight years ago) link

just curious, what jazz artists (if any) do you listen to for enjoyment?

― small doug yule carnival club (unregistered), Thursday, January 28, 2016 1:23 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

practically nothing

pharaoh sanders i guess, also idk if soft machine's fusion period counts at all

i know i have a way to go here

ZESTY O'PRIDE (imago), Thursday, 28 January 2016 14:44 (eight years ago) link

Think the thing with Beefheart is that people dive straight into Trout Mask Replica when they would be much better off with, say, Mirror Man Sessions.

― Camaraderie at Arms Length

Safe As Milk was my gateway drug.

the joke should be over once the kid is eaten. (chap), Thursday, 28 January 2016 14:49 (eight years ago) link

Pere Ubu

kornrulez6969, Thursday, 28 January 2016 14:50 (eight years ago) link

I've been pretty good about pruning most of these out of my collection, but I have accumulated a lot of Xenakis considering I've never had anything like a transcendant moment listening.

Neu: Unbelievably influential on artists (hell, entire genres) I like, but the albums never drew me in on their own merits.

Lurkers of the world, unite! (Sanpaku), Thursday, 28 January 2016 15:09 (eight years ago) link

Louis, if you want to get into jazz, I wouldn't recommend starting with Sanders, he can be of acquired taste... Try some of these, they're still in the avant-side that I think you prefer, but you might find them more palatable:

https://play.spotify.com/album/5xserqdbmc3DiD0PIgpcyj

https://play.spotify.com/album/0AFwXU8Y6geV2rxREgKp6a

https://play.spotify.com/album/14qDLRNo3R2MsddIfWXpcB

https://play.spotify.com/album/2XtydLjClSxUt6uMA9Zhpb

https://play.spotify.com/album/3yDpL3EYEJhTiIHz9NhcCy

Tuomas, Thursday, 28 January 2016 15:17 (eight years ago) link

shamefully I've never really got late-period Scott Walker, even Tilt leaves me cold

― conditional random jepsen (seandalai)

absolutely nothing shameful about this

the 'major tom guy' (sleeve), Thursday, 28 January 2016 15:25 (eight years ago) link

This kind of dogshit thread has been posted on ILM about 50 times.

Alex in manhattan I thought you'd struggle with every piece of recorded music ever apart from MBV's last album.

xyzzzz__, Thursday, 28 January 2016 15:30 (eight years ago) link

i was looking for this kind of thread but couldn't find it, sorry.

actually i am not very convinced about many answers in this thread. as i said in the beginning i can hardly think of artists/albums belonging into this category. why the hell for example should i admire scott walker? i think he makes boring, unlistenable music and he cannot sing. what is there to admire about him?

bob dylan actually may belong into this category for me though i quite like him but don't listen to his music very often. his lyrics are outstanding, some of his tunes are quite magical, he is a genius. john coltrane actually may belong here though i like his music quite a lot but not "a love supreme". the intensity and freedom of his late stuff like "ascension" or "meditations" i really admire though i hardly ever listen to it. roland kirk belongs here, another genius obsessed by music. but when you listen to him playing three saxes somehow his virtuosity does not translate into music i love.

btw it is not manhattan, it is mainhattan, xyzzzz. also known as bankfurt or even frankfurt...

it's the distortion, stupid! (alex in mainhattan), Thursday, 28 January 2016 19:49 (eight years ago) link

oh shit you're actually in germany then? *updates worst_posters.xls*

bicyclescope (mattresslessness), Thursday, 28 January 2016 19:51 (eight years ago) link

are we supposed to be finding artists that YOU admire more than YOU actually like, because otherwise your previous post is nonsensical

its subtle brume (DJP), Thursday, 28 January 2016 19:52 (eight years ago) link

no. you should name artists YOU admire more than YOU like. but it would be nice if there was a reasoning behind. it is a serious question. what exactly is there to admire about scott walker?

it's the distortion, stupid! (alex in mainhattan), Thursday, 28 January 2016 19:59 (eight years ago) link

he is handsome

smoothy doles it (nakhchivan), Thursday, 28 January 2016 20:00 (eight years ago) link

polite to journalists

smoothy doles it (nakhchivan), Thursday, 28 January 2016 20:00 (eight years ago) link

he's alive

Chikan wa akan de. Zettai akan de. (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 28 January 2016 20:00 (eight years ago) link

top bloke

bicyclescope (mattresslessness), Thursday, 28 January 2016 20:01 (eight years ago) link

nice ballcaps

bicyclescope (mattresslessness), Thursday, 28 January 2016 20:02 (eight years ago) link

better than a hitler

sarahell, Thursday, 28 January 2016 20:02 (eight years ago) link

does not fornicate with household pets

sarahell, Thursday, 28 January 2016 20:02 (eight years ago) link

loves his pasolini

smoothy doles it (nakhchivan), Thursday, 28 January 2016 20:03 (eight years ago) link

stood up for Obama against Giuliani

Chikan wa akan de. Zettai akan de. (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 28 January 2016 20:03 (eight years ago) link

loyal green bay packers fan

nomar, Thursday, 28 January 2016 20:03 (eight years ago) link

Tilt is troubadoursmetal haha, of zoiets. meesterlijke plaat, ik heb meteen zin om hem op te zetten. maar dat kan natuurlijk niet grr
― rizzx (rizzx), Friday, January 20, 2006 10:18 AM (10 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

jaggered little poll (wins), Thursday, 28 January 2016 20:04 (eight years ago) link

i would still jump at the chance to see her dj.

bicyclescope (mattresslessness), Friday, 29 January 2016 00:11 (eight years ago) link

A Love Supreme seems like a token name-drop album for people who've never really listened to any other John Coltrane albums.
You seem like a guy who makes a lot of assumptions

― reggae mike love (polyphonic)

fair enough. how do you rate ALS in comparison to other Coltrane-led albums?

braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Friday, 29 January 2016 01:51 (eight years ago) link

Pussy Riot

like Uber, but for underpants (James Morrison), Friday, 29 January 2016 02:51 (eight years ago) link

good one

bicyclescope (mattresslessness), Friday, 29 January 2016 04:45 (eight years ago) link

agree on dj sprinkles

the late great, Friday, 29 January 2016 04:49 (eight years ago) link

Can

Pentenema Karten, Friday, 29 January 2016 04:59 (eight years ago) link

sonic youth

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 29 January 2016 05:05 (eight years ago) link

cosign sonic youth and punk in general too

the late great, Friday, 29 January 2016 05:07 (eight years ago) link

mattresslessness nothing you say about DJ Sprinkles is wrong but Midtown 120 Blues is still one of the albums I find myself going back to most consistently over the past almost a decade now.

The Reverend, Friday, 29 January 2016 08:43 (eight years ago) link

weirdly enough kind of blue took me a long time when i was 18 while mingus was just like *pow*

― bicyclescope (mattresslessness), Thursday, 28 January 2016 23:55 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yep! I'd always recommend Mingus Ah,Um or The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady over either of these for someone who is interested in getting into jazz. So much more fun. I love Kind of Blue but I had to listen to a few other things first before it really clicked.

canoon fooder (dog latin), Friday, 29 January 2016 09:22 (eight years ago) link

co-sign Can and Sonic Youth. Both are bands I like the idea of, and hope to one day become some sort of fan but every time I put them on I just lose patience

canoon fooder (dog latin), Friday, 29 January 2016 09:25 (eight years ago) link

Co-sign on DJ Sprinkles and most definitely on Scott Walker. More recently: Suzanne Sundfor (and the song she did with M83 >> anything on her solo album).

NoTimeBeforeTime, Friday, 29 January 2016 10:57 (eight years ago) link

To me the "admire more than like" applies to Terre Thaemlitz' ambient/experimental/conceptual records released under that name, but not to the material she's done as DJ Sprinkles, which is fairly typical minimal house music, albeit with a political edge. TBH, I'm surprised people would find it difficult or unfunky.

Tuomas, Friday, 29 January 2016 11:04 (eight years ago) link

some of the sprinkles records are great, some aren't, this is good. The problem comes from putting all an artists records in one box and then putting a label on that box, this artist is X. when the artist is charismatic or important the playing of the record becomes subconsciously more of a duty, of emotional labour. The good records should be able to cast off this overcoat and skip freely but some become ground down with this weight of importance until silence is prefereable (which it so often is)

saer, Friday, 29 January 2016 11:21 (eight years ago) link

Pet Sounds. Obviously influential and I appreciate the harmonies, baroque counterpoints and whatnot, but I mostly hear it as limp Christmas music.

dinnerboat, Friday, 29 January 2016 15:23 (eight years ago) link

R.E.M.

Nick Cave

Jim O' Rourke

Serge Gainsbourg

Esquivel

✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 29 January 2016 18:55 (eight years ago) link

I hate the framing of this thread because posting personal examples would seem like an admission of defeat.. "i can only admire this artist, i will never like them". that's just me, though.

van dyke parks

lute bro (brimstead), Friday, 29 January 2016 23:01 (eight years ago) link

oh guys i mean my opinion of ms sprinkles changes often depending on what i'm listening to lol

bicyclescope (mattresslessness), Friday, 29 January 2016 23:04 (eight years ago) link

all of the things you mention in the "admire" half of your post are reason enough to love her but I love the music too, esp the ambient stuff. However I agree with "probably the correct configuration" cause I doubt thaemlitz gives a shit about being loved

jaggered little poll (wins), Friday, 29 January 2016 23:12 (eight years ago) link

i feel like there are a lot of awkward things colliding in her rhythms on occasion and the sustained ecosystem of funkiness i am always after is not achieved but i also think she's interested in doing different things than that sonically, and she consistently achieves those things, and sometimes i really feel them, esp. on midtown 120 blues which is still a favorite. n.b. ballroom crashes don't do much for me either so ymmv. and tuomas, i would be surprised if you could pass a basic reading comprehension test, as i never said i found it difficult and neither did anyone else.

bicyclescope (mattresslessness), Friday, 29 January 2016 23:15 (eight years ago) link

what do you think of her remix of the adultnapper track?

saer, Friday, 29 January 2016 23:17 (eight years ago) link

it's very hardcore homo deep house thug which is a good thing imo. like i picture just the baddest bitches in the world grooving to it on an underlit dancefloor. i'd probably lose it a little if i heard it in a club, i'm sure the bass would sound divine. but i'm not totally sure about the build-up of layers and how they match, it's a little too messy and busy for me somehow like it feels less than the sum of its parts. but some of those parts sure are fantastic...

bicyclescope (mattresslessness), Friday, 29 January 2016 23:51 (eight years ago) link

too much going on in the hi-hat / snare range i think. it's not articulated in a way that hits me directly, which i mean could be a reason to admire it too. lots of mid-treble. there's something anemic and busy about it at the same time.

bicyclescope (mattresslessness), Friday, 29 January 2016 23:58 (eight years ago) link

fair enough. how do you rate ALS in comparison to other Coltrane-led albums?

I mean... certainly in the top half, wouldn't you say? I can't say I've ever thought about which Coltrane albums are "the best" or "my favorite" but I go back to Love Supreme a lot and my opinion of it hasn't diminished at all.

reggae mike love (polyphonic), Saturday, 30 January 2016 00:32 (eight years ago) link

a love supreme is a magnificent record and even if you've listened to every goddman coltrane recording you would be a fool not to rate it among his best work, the fuck do i care if jazz dabblers only pick up that one and no others

marcos, Saturday, 30 January 2016 00:39 (eight years ago) link

(sorry polyphonic that was not directed at you at all even though the posting sequence looks like, i don't meant to call you a fool!)

marcos, Saturday, 30 January 2016 00:40 (eight years ago) link

i'd probably lose it a little if i heard it in a club, i'm sure the bass would sound divine.

Fabric soundsystem:)

saer, Saturday, 30 January 2016 00:48 (eight years ago) link

The question of aspiration and its relationship to taste is really interesting. There was a period in my late teens/early twenties where most of what I listened to was jazz and classical, but then I turned back to rock and pop music. I bought a number of complete opera sets that I haven't played in several years, and now I have practically no desire to listen to them at all (I started to have the perception that the culture that values that form is moribund, though you could read it more favorably as carrying on a tradition, or talk about vital if obscure new works).

I do think there's something fundamentally valuable about being a "good listener," but the real desire to engage with music that is radically difficult (especially in the improvisational vein) left me at some point in my twenties. By contrast, it seems there's a common trajectory is for people to start taking up, say, jazz around that time, maybe because they no longer identify with the fantasies (or realities) inscribed in pop music, and seek after something that engages them on a more overtly intellectual level. Despite having worked through a fair amount of Adorno at this point, though, I'm comfortable admitting that I still turn to music largely for affective reasons (though I also like to relate the feelings to a sense of history — my own and that of the music, the culture that produced it, etc.). This could still change, though!

eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Saturday, 30 January 2016 00:51 (eight years ago) link

I mean... certainly in the top half, wouldn't you say? I can't say I've ever thought about which Coltrane albums are "the best" or "my favorite" but I go back to Love Supreme a lot and my opinion of it hasn't diminished at all.

yeah, it's impossible to rank the music.. my mistake for implying that. it was my entry point, and it sort of put me off of his music until i got older, heard "India" and a live recording of "My Favorite Things", etc. i'm still a n00b. it's that most every conversation i've been a part of (on the topic of Coltrane jazz) invariably leads to somebody proclaiming it the end-all be-all of John Coltrane music, or all jazz music (as well as the conversation), which is disappointing.

braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Saturday, 30 January 2016 01:58 (eight years ago) link


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.