Worst "genre" created by a journalist part 4534547668686 : 'Hypnagogic Pop' by David Keenan.

Every genre is 'questionable'.

Have to say that I do quite enjoy the Hello-ish full page photos of mopey-looking musicians in their scuzzy domiciles.

Hello?

Not enough avant-gardists glowering at manky old teapots.

The Wire would be vastly improved if they printed more letters to the editor.

That's a good point I think.

They should def print Tom D's letters :-)

I don't write any anymore!

Because I don't buy it often enough to get annoyed enough to write a letter!

um so can someone pls point me towards the poppier end of this stuff?

Ariel Pink I spose?

I saw them play about a week ago and they had a song that sounded like Def Leppard, I could get with it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2foFbDYkBY

dude who uploaded this needs to play the tape through maybe 20 more times then stick it back up, and Ariel Pink never needs to write a song again

I think there is something in this. I've been listening to a lot of Gary War, Emeralds, Rangers, Oneohtrix recently and I can see some relation, although no justification for a "scene" to be created - a lot of the stuff on the Olde English Spelling Bee label sounds similar. As an Englishman of a certain age it is evocative of ET era Spielberg films, of an America I'm not sure ever existed but created by a weird juxtaposition of watching Happy Days in northern England in the 1980s. A lot of these bands also seem to be trying to recreate Loveless as cheaply as possible.

Liking Forest Swords too - this guy seems to be from near where I grew up, near Liverpool, and is adding Burial to the mix. Good stuff.

Creating a such-and-such that seemed to exist but never did is always a good plan to me. I applaud unmusics, &c.

I am fighting off an infection and hope I don't get gangrene or something equally amputate-able.

I love the comments btw
http://crystalvibrations.blogspot.com/2011/02/hypnogogic-sound-vibration-tape.html

RIP Volcanic Tongue

Picked up David Keenan's novel 'This Is Memorial Device' in a charity shop the other day and was surprised to find what I am convinced is myself mentioned in it very very briefly in passing early on in the book. My fleeting appearance is rather negative, but it's not an unfair description and has amused me greatly. Other than that, the book seems pretty promising from the first few chapters.

haha wow, that's amazing (as in the superlative, not as in surprising, obviously, given how often you and keenan will have rubbed shoulders). subject matter is v much up my street despite my reservations on mr keenan as a writer

I got super confused when I saw this yesterday:

https://images.roughtrade.com/product/images/files/000/185/505/hero/open-uri20191205-9868-1gwqcsx?1575557819

Amazed that I never posted on this thread

I've never felt any ire toward neologisms like "hypnagogic pop" because widely-regarded genre tags seem to take forever to stick, and sticking them to a particular scene has always been folly unless you're a purist. Grouping a bunch of contemporary sounds under a tag, regardless of some variation, is more of a shorthand way of saying "if you like this band, you may also like these others" and retroactively throwing prior work in there seems like an extension of the same.

Now we have data science analyzing listening habits and the likes of Spotify giving us monikers like "Escape Room" that qualify groups of artists that listeners seem to seek in parallel

"Escape Room"?!?

https://festivalpeak.com/what-is-escape-room-and-why-is-it-one-of-my-top-genres-on-spotify-a886372f003f

shit's getting weird

'Hypnagogic pop' doesn't strike me as sillier than 'impressionism' or 'cubism'.

never forget
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microhouse

'Microhouse' is fine. 'Buftech', on the other hand…

buftech probably makes a lot more sense in its origin language

Isn't that what they call beefsteak in New Zealand?

"conceptronica"

"Escape Room"?!?

https://festivalpeak.com/what-is-escape-room-and-why-is-it-one-of-my-top-genres-on-spotify-a886372f003f

shit's getting weird

― The Squalls Of Hate (sleeve), Friday, January 10, 2020 6:46 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Hm, not bad stuff. Would I be able to hear this on night out at the escape club?

every bar becomes an escape room scenario at some point in the night

"UK Funky" is one of those genre names that riles me up just looking at it. (I have no idea what it sounds like, I'm sure I would totally like it.)

should have called it BritFunk

Level 42 and others already did that in the late 70s/early 80s

Now we have data science analyzing listening habits and the likes of Spotify giving us monikers like "Escape Room" that qualify groups of artists that listeners seem to seek in parallel

Blame Glenn McDonald.

wank sock

had a hypnogogic moment where i got confused by the fact he has the name same as someone i know

This is striving hard to reach Bobby Gillespie levels of bullshit

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/david-keenan-i-ve-been-quite-close-to-madness-writing-these-books-1.4401052

it's not a good combo when the writer of the piece is just as full of shit as their interviewee!

I could envisage David becoming a character in the ongoing Chronicles of Boaby on ILX, I'm not sure how to depict an Airdrie accent though because I don't believe such a thing exists. Possibilities are there for a Four Yorkshiremen type sketch, could do with maybe one more West of Scotland windbag though.

(xp) Not exactly uncommon though!

"shroomadelica" c2000 had to be the most barrel-scrapey of the lot

For Keenan, logic is secondary to logos. He uses language as an instrument of spell-casting, of grammar as grimoire, distrusting the literary algorithms of plot mechanics, objective realism.

Fuck off with your plotless grimoire you talentless fuck. I saw his free jazz trio once, he's not exactly Albert Ayler put it that way.

I don't really have a problem with the guy, he's a bit of a hustler and a bullshitter, always was, but he's done well for himself. Plus he had to grow up in Airdrie, so he has my sympathy

I've not read any of his books so shouldn't laugh too much either I suppose. Anyone else?

I read his first novel and it was just OK. I actually wanted a more 'realistic' treatment - I live quite near to Airdrie now, and would like to have learnt more about its history, and more about the Scottish alternative music scene prior to the 1990s. But that might be more appropriate for non-fiction rather than fiction.

England's Hidden Reverse is p essential, and Volcanic Tongue was a great source of out sounds. In person have always found DK to be pretty genial and certainly not averse to having a chat, or an argument, with anyone. He's an enthusiast as much as he is a bullshitter and a hustler, and I can forgive him a lot for that. The Subcurrent Festivals he put on in Glasgow were fantastic.

Yes, I think he's been involved in some good things. Some not so good, mind you.

Wikipedia article on Keenan:

In an August 2009 piece for The Wire, Keenan coined "hypnagogic pop" to describe a group of musicians whose work resembled "pop music refracted through the memory of a memory". His article incited a slew of hate mail that derided hypnagogic pop as the "worst genre created by a journalist".[2]

Citation:

The article in The Wire magazine that defined the term "hypnagogic pop" garnered a slew of semi-hate mail, describing it as the "worst genre created by a journalist".

England's Hidden Reverse is peculiar and obsessive and unsettling. Even if you're not into the music he uses as a framing device (Coil, Current 93 etc) it's well worth a read.

he never answers my calls - tough guy to get a hold of

I got England's Hidden Reverse out of the library thinking I would just read the few pages about Psychic TV. Despite not having heard any records by Current 93, Coil or NWW, I found the whole book gripping and read it all. It has a lot of interview input from the artists, and insightful observations of the role of the occult in music and culture.